758 REPORT— 1902. 



lump could not be removed by the hammer-stone, or a thick edge could not be 

 made finer, it appears to me that the specimens showing such defects were not 

 regarded as failures, but that all was set right by patient grinding. 



The axes are of various sizes. One fine specimen is 14J inches long and 

 weighs 8| lb. ; some weigh 5 lb., others 4 to 3 lb. The average specimen would 

 weigh about 1 lb., and some small chisel-like objects only 1 oz. or 2 oz. 



Looking over a collection of polished stone axes, I find various types, some of 

 which might be considered of a newer pattern than others, either introduced or 

 developed from an older type ; but we find here most types among the rudely 

 made specimens — edges showing various forms of curve, expanding edges, 

 squared sides, swages, and even kitchen-midden types — all made in these forms 

 at the first, and apparently contemporaneous. 



4. The Manufacture of Arrow- and Spear-heads. By W. J. Knowles. 



The majority of Irish flint arrow- and spear-heads are made from flint flakes. 

 Many specimens, even when highly finished, show traces of the bulb of percussion 

 or of the ridge on the back of the flake. In some the plain undressed ridge of the 

 flake still remains, the edges only being slightly dressed. There are examples 

 showing a stem or barbs at the base with the natural point of the flake to act as 

 the point of the arrow. Sometimes in such objects there is a slight trimming at 

 the extreme point. We sometimes see specimens with barbs, but blunt and 

 unfinished points. At same time we find nicely dressed points with undressed 

 butts. There are arrow-heads well finished at both butt and point, but so crooked 

 that one cannot see how they could be made serviceable. In many cases we can 

 see that great efforts have been to neutralise by work the curve of the flake. In 

 a large series where both good and poor specimens have been collected, the 

 various stages of workmansldp can be seen, from the first beginnings up to those 

 very fine and perfectly chipped specimens which are so thin that they are almost 

 transparent. 



All collectors of flint implements must have specimens such as are mentioned 

 above, and have no doubt observed the various stages in the process of manu- 

 facture of arrow- and spear-heads ; but there is another kind of rude flint objects, 

 of a leaf shape, found occasionally on manufacturing sites, which has not been 

 observed, or at least noted, as far as I know, by collectors. These are ovate 

 or oval objects, varying from 4 to 2 inches in length, the flaking on which, 

 being coarse and irregular, must have been produced by blows from a hammer- 

 stone. Some specimens have evidently been made from small boulders, some from 

 half-boulders, and others from coarse flakes. They are so rude, some being 

 without points, that they could not be used in their present condition as imple- 

 ments, but, I believe, were blocked-out spear- and arrow-heads, which were 

 intended to be worked into useful implements by means of a flaking tool. No 

 hoard of such objects, so far as I know, has been found in Ireland ; but, having 

 long put articles having similar peculiarities together, I find, on counting up 

 after thirty years, that I have accumulated over 200 specimens of these rude 

 objects. They come from various well-known sites — Whitepark Bay, Portstewart, 

 Glenhead, Glenleslie, Threetowns, and Forked Bridge in the Braid district, 

 Culbane, Co. Derry, &c. 



In America, round Washington, Mr, W. H. Holmes has found workshops 

 where American tribes had chipped down rounded boulders into leaf-shaped 

 blades, not for use in that condition, but in order that they might more easily be 

 carried to other sites to be manufactured into arrow- and spear-heads. Sir John 

 Evans, ' Ancient Stone Implements,' 2nd edit., p. 35, mentions a find of thirty-four 

 such objects as I have described from Old Deer, Aberdeenshire. Dr. Munro, 

 * Prehistoric Scotland,' p. 357, mentions a similar hoard of ' thirty-four flints worked 

 roughly to a leaf shape,' and another is described by Dr. Joseph Anderson, as 

 ' A deposit of flints worked to a leaf shape found at Bulwark, Old Deer, Aberdeen- 

 shire.' These finds seem to be one and the same, and from the figures shown in 



