8 Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain. 



polished. The material used in Europe was, moreover, as far as at 

 present known, almost exclusively flint. 



"2. That in the Reindeer or Cavern Period of Central France, 

 though grinding was not practised, except for bone instruments, yet 

 greater skill in flaking flint and in working up flakes into serviceable 

 tools was exhibited. In some places, as at Laugerie-haute, surface- 

 chipping is found on the "flint arrow-heads. Cup-shaped recesses 

 have been worked on other hard stones than flint, though no other 

 stones have been used for cutting purposes. 



"8. That in the Neolithic or Surface-Stone Period of Western 

 Europe other materials besides flint were largely used for the 

 manufacture of hatchets ; grinding at the edge and on the surface 

 was generally practised ; and the art of working flint by pressure 

 from the edge was probably known. The stone axes, at least in 

 Britain, were rarely perforated. 



" 4. That in the Bronze Period such stone implements, with the 

 exception of mere flakes and scrapers, as remained in use, were, as 

 a rule, highly finished, many of the axes being perforated and of 

 graceful form, and some of the flint arrow-heads evincing the 

 highest degree of manual skill," (p. 49.) 



By the kindness of the author, we are enabled to reproduce here 

 types of ten different forms of stone implements, exhibiting various 

 degrees of progress, from the Eiver Drift Period, represented by 

 Figs. 1, 2, and 3, from Hoxne and Icklingham ; to the polished 

 celts of the Neolithic period (Figs. 6 and 10), of hornblende and 

 honestone, from Suffolk and Northumberland, and the highly 

 finished broad arrow-head, javelin-head, and flint knife or lance- 

 head (Figs. 5, 1, 8) of the Bronze Period, from Yorkshire, Wiltshire, 

 and Essex. 



It is interesting to observe, in the long series ^ of specimens figured 

 by Mr. Evans, the adherence to a certain very limited number of pat- 

 terns,^ partly, we think, arising from suitability of form, but more from 

 that determined disinclination to change, which all aborigines dis- 

 play. "What our father and grandfather did, that do we,"— and 

 it is in vain to attempt to argue the point, or to try to prove any 

 other plan superior. The materials, it is true, in the lapse of ages, 

 changed from rough flint to polished greenstone, or to bronze, but 

 even then, the later stone celts were used as the models on which 

 to mould the earlier bronze axes. (See PI. II. Fig. 4.) 



Fergusson has pointed out the same thing in early Indian archi- 

 tecture, where the passage from wood to stone buildings is marked 

 by the servile imitation of the wooden beams of door-post and lintel 

 without any attempt at higher art. The same gradual and progres- 

 sive development is observable in early Greek architecture (see the 

 tomb of a Satrap of Lycia, named Paiafa, resembling a wooden 

 coffer or roofed house, with beams projecting from the sides, carved 

 in stone ; preserved in the British Museum) . 



The whole history of the human race is one slow but continued 

 progress. From the condition of the simple Tasmanian or Andaman 

 1 Nearly five hundred. ^ _^^(j tj^ggg patterns were cosmopolitan. 



