Armstrong — Associated Finds of Irish Neolithic Celts. 93 



The Neolithic culture of Scandinavia has beeu divided into four periods, 

 the first three having a characteristic type of stone celt. 1 In the earliest 

 period the celts are made of flint, and are pointed-oval in section. Some are 

 polished. In the second period the celts have squared sides and a thin 

 butt ; while in the third and fourth periods the sides of the celt are squared 

 and the butt is broad. 



Some attempts have been made in other countries to determine the com- 

 parative age of the different types; and describing, in 1912, five triangular 

 stone celts, with pointed butts, found together at Bussleben, Thuringen, 

 II. Motefindt 3 wrote that the question of the attribution of individual forms 

 of stone celts to certain divisions of the Neolithic Period claims our interest 

 in increasing measure. 



The solution of the matter seems to centre upon the position occupied by 

 the triangular-shaped celt with a pointed butt. 



Schuchhardt 3 considers that in France the celt with a pointed butt 

 was evolved from the form in use in the last stage of the Palaeolithic Period, 

 as shown by the chipped, unpolished implements of the culture of La Madeleine 

 and that of Campigny. Schumacher 1 agrees with this view. He considers 

 such celts to have originated in Western Europe, especially in France. 

 Although Dechelette 5 distinguished three French types of celts, which he 

 described as triangular-, rectangular, and cylindrical, he did not place them in 

 a progressive series, but appeared to consider that the varieties of form and 

 shape were due either to the use for which the celts were designed, or to the 

 natural form of the original stone from which the object was fashioned. 



It must be borne in mind, as Schumacher 6 pointed out, that there is a 

 connexion between the various shapes of the butts of stone celts and the 

 manner in which they were hafted. The method of doing this varied in 

 different countries ; in Switzerland, the basin of the Saone, the basin of the 

 Rhone, and the south of France, the most usual method was to fix the butt 

 of the celt into either a kneed shaft, or a tenon of deer's horn fixed into the 

 wooden shaft ; occasionally the head of the tenon was pierced and the wooden 

 shaft passed through it. In a few cases at Pobenhausen the stone celt was 

 fixed directly into a club-shaped shaft. In England, north-west France, and 



1 British Museum Stone Age Guide, 1911, p. 99 ; also lVchi-h'tto, up. <it., i, p. :;::i ; 

 unci Hoernes, Natur und Urgeschichte des Mensrlu n, ii, pp. 183-185. 



2 Praehistorische Zeitschrift, iv, p. 231. 



3 Sitzungsberichte dcr Koniglich Pnussischi ,i Abidemie dcr ll'isscn.ichaften, L913 (2nd 

 half year), p. 746. 



4 Praehistorische Zeitschrift, vi, p. 43. 

 6 Op. cit., i, pp. olT>, 515. 



Op. cit., pp. 44-4ii. 



