78 
XII.—WNote on a weapon of Stone found in a stone barrow at 
Pelynt.—By Joun Evans, F.R.S., F.S.A. 
Read at the Spring Meeting, May 23, 1871. 
(eae instrument, remarkably convex on one face and slightly 
concave on the other, rounded in both directions at the ~ 
broader end, and brought to a blunt rounded point at the narrower, 
appears to occupy an intermediate position between a battle-axe 
and a mace or fighting-hammer. It differs materially from the 
more ordinary forms of stone battle-axes found in Britain, and 
indeed from those found in other countries of Western Europe, 
in presenting this pointed shape at one end instead of the usual 
axe-like edge. It is true that in most cases this edge is not sharp 
but rounded over, but it is still an edge rather than a point. 
This blunting of the edge, and, in this instance, of the point, has 
evidently been purposely effected, probably with a view of pre- 
venting accidental injury to the warrior who carried the weapon, 
while its deadly effect on an enemy would not be diminished by 
the edge being of a crushing rather than of a cutting character. 
The instruments most nearly approaching in form to this 
Cornish specimen are, I think, some of those from Scandinavia, of 
shorter proportions than Worsaae’s, Fig. 103, which are occasion- 
ally ornamented with chevron lines on the convex face, and appear 
to belong to the Bronze Period. They have, however, a narrow 
edge at the pointed end. 
The inner or concave face of the Pelynt axe so closely resem- 
bles that of the stone battle-axes, convex on both faces and rather 
expanding at the cutting end, such as have been frequently found 
in barrows in Yorkshire and other parts of Britain, that when 
this face only is seen the weapon might be mistaken for one of 
this form. It is therefore, barely possible that originally it may 
have been of this character, but that having in some manner been 
