THANSACTIONS OK SECTION H. 863 



9. Perforated Stone Hammers and Axes. By W. J. Knowles 

 Sir John Evans divides axes into four divisions — 



1. DouLle axes. 



2. Adzes or implements with the edges at right angles to the shaft-hole. 



3. Axes with the edge at one end only. 



4. Axe hammers, sharp at one end and more or less hammer-like at the 



other. 



Perforated hammers he considers to he closely allied to the axe hammers. 



All these divisions are vrell represented in Ireland, and I have examples of all 

 the classes. 



I have one fine specimen of the thiid division of axes, hollowed at the sides, 

 with a raised moulding round the hollows. It is six inches long, and was found 

 in the river Bann while deepening the river over fifty years ago. A description 

 of it is given by Robert McAdam in the ' Ulster Journal of Archseology,' vol. iii., 

 and it is shown in two views, full size, facing p. 234. Eeference is made to it 

 in ' Ancient Stone Implements,' 2nd edition, p. 198. The author says it is now 

 in the British Museum. Sir John Evans must have been misled in making this 

 statement, as the specimen is in my possession. 



There was found at the same time in the Bann an unfinished specimen with 

 the hole partially bored on each side. The hole, so far as formed, would seem to 

 have been made with a pick or punch. The numerous flint picks found in 

 the bed of the Bann and along its banks would have been suitable for making 

 such borings by hammering the pointed end of the pick into the hole. Quarrymen 

 use 'jumpers ' of iron pointed with steel for boring holes for blasting at the 

 present day. The implement now used for boring is different, but the method is 

 the same. 



The holes in many of the axes and hammers are wide at the surface of the 

 implement and narrow in the centre. There have been many conjectures as to 

 the method of shafting implements with such holes. Sir John Evans discusses 

 many of them, but I do not see that he mentions the plan adopted by the natives 

 of New Britain, who use a shaft the size of the narrowest part of the hole and 

 fill the wider parts wich gum, in whicli they stick cowrie shells. 



The perforated axes have mostly blunted and polished edges. They and most 

 hammers must have been used as mace heads. 



