PKIMITIVE MAN 



II. NEOLITHIC MAN. 279 



ground flour were amongst the articles of food used by the 

 lake dwellers. Flax was cultivated and spun into thread or 

 twine, out of which coarse tissues were woven, which may 

 have been used for clothing, but it is probable that the 

 principal articles of dress were still made from the skins of 

 animals. 



Stone Implements. 



To refer once more to the stone implements of this age, 

 ma.ny of these were carefully ground and polished, admir- 

 able axes having been thus made, which as well as other 

 stone tools and weapons, were fitted into handles made 

 from antlers of deer, and also of wood. The stone axes or 

 celts, as they are often called, were amongst the most com- 

 mon implements in use during the Stone age, and are found" 

 of different sizes, ranging from one or two inches in length 

 up to as much as twelve or more. The stone axe Avas in 

 fact, as Sir John Lubbock has well said, " pre-eminently tJie 

 implement of antiquity, it was used in war and in the chase, 

 as well as for domestic purposes." It is not therefore sur- 

 prising that great numbers should have been found, not 

 only in connection with the lake dAvellings, but Avherever 

 man, not having metal at his command, was present, and it 

 is a noteworthy fact, that such axes, almost identical in form, 

 have been met with in almost every part of the world, not 

 only in the so-called old v/orld, but also in America, as well 

 as amongst the inhabitants of the Oceanic Islands. Various 

 kinds of stone, as I have said previously, were made use of 

 for the manufacture of weapons and tools, but flint was that 

 most commonly employed, wherever it could be got, and 

 great pains were taken to secure a sufficient supply of this 

 material. In various places, where beds containing flints 

 were found, regular workings were sometimes undertaken, 

 pits of considerable depth sunk, and levels driven through 

 the chalk rock, whilst important manufactories of the imple- 

 ments were established round these mines. Amongst the 

 best known of the Neolithic implement factories are those of 

 Mur-de-Barrez (Aveyron) in France, that of Spiennes, near 

 Mons, in Belgium, and others in this country, at Cisbury, and 

 near Grays Thurrock in Essex, also at Grimes Graves near 

 Brandon ; in these old workings and around them, not only 

 have flint implements in every stage of manufacture been 

 found, but also the picks made from the antlers of stags, as 

 well as massive celts and wedges, which had been evidently 



