174 W. B. Wright Sf A.M. Peach — Neolithic Man in Colonsay. 



they were struck from the core, a very few pointed implements were 

 found. Only one obvious arrow-head (Fig. 6) has come to light, but 

 this, if we take into consideration the intractable nature of the flint, 

 shows a very fair amount of skill in the manufacture. Both sides of 

 the flakes have been worked so as to produce it symmetrical edge, and 

 the chipping is in places quite regular. One very perfect barb has 

 been produced, but the other appears to have broken off in the making, 

 a fact which probably accounts for the arrow-head having being left 

 in the factory. A distinct tang had, however, been roughed out before 

 the flake was abandoned. 



6. Among the conical core-like flints referred to above are a few 

 which are so low that the flakes struck from them cannot have been 

 more than a quarter, or in some cases an eighth, of an inch in length. 

 Such minute flakes ma5* of course have been used for tipping arrows, 

 but on the other hand they may merely have been removed with the 

 object of fashioning the core itself into a bevel-edged scraper. There 



Fig. 5. Flake from core modified into Fig. 6. Flint arrow-head from Neo- 

 chisel-shaped scraper by secondary lithic floor in the Sand-hills at 



working at the bulb end. Neolithic Balnahard, Colonsay. Nat. size, 



floor in Sand-hills, Balnahard, 

 Colonsay. Nat. size. 



-are also in the collection several small more or less circular lenticular 

 flakes with obvious secondary working, to which it is difficult to assign 

 any other use than that of scrapers. 



VI. Conclusions. 



Unfortunately none of the flint implements described above are of 

 sufficiently well-defined character to be referred with confidence to 

 a definite phase of Neolithic culture. It is impossible even to say 

 whether they are early or late Neolithic. Their roughness may be in 

 part due to want of skill, but on the other hand it certainly is to some 

 extent the result of the inferior nature of the material employed. 

 Taking into account this latter factor the single arrow-head which 

 has come to light cannot be regarded as ill-formed, though, of course, 

 it will not bear comparison with the beautiful implements of Yorkshire 

 and other districts where better material was obtainable. 



The axe-heads found in various parts of Colonsay are more obviously 

 of a late Neolithic type, but as regards their geological date we have 

 not even such slight evidence as is forthcoming in the case of the flint 

 implements. The other prehistoric remains of the islands have very 

 little chronological value. Hoernes l draws a comparison between 



1 Moriz Hoernes, Der Diluviale Mensch in Exiropa ; Brunswick, 1903. 



