Knowles — Prehistoric Stone tmptements. 207 



angular ridge bounding the edge facet has been ground and smoothed. The 

 corresponding ridge on the side not shown is similarly treated. This specimen 

 is 4f inches long and 1|- inch broad at the cutting edge. 



Although the Danish kitchen-midden axes are not ground, yet the people 

 who used them must have been acquainted with the art of grinding, as portions 

 of ground or polished flint have been found in the middens. The Irish axes 

 of this kind generally do not show any trace of grinding, yet there is the 

 specimen shown in No. 67, showing grinding and smoothing near the 

 edge ; and I have another specimen, apparently an axe of this kind, the edge 

 of which has been greatly injured by use, and has been undergoing repair by 

 chipping and grinding. It could not be said that the users of kitchen-midden 

 axes along the Bann were unacquainted with grinding ; but I think a fracture 

 edge as in the kitchen-midden axes must have been considered more lasting than 

 one formed by grinding. In the axe factory near Cushendall many axes of 

 kitchen-midden type have been found, and some intended to be ground even 

 show a narrow line of the natural crust where the edge is to be made. I think 

 the belief was that if the edge just reached that natural line and was not cut 

 into by grinding it would be a better and more lasting edge. As I have 

 here mentioned, this type of axe is not confined to the Bann. I have examples 

 from many parts of Antrim; but it is plentiful everywhere in the Bann 

 valley, and is a typical axe of that region. As regards the way in which the 

 kitchen-midden axes were made, some authors have the idea that the facets 

 forming the edge were struck off after the axe was otherwise completed. I 

 do not believe that this was the way the edge of such implements was formed. 

 I rather suspect that the edge was first observed on a broad spall or flake, 

 which was then chipped down into the shape of an axe to suit the edge. On 

 some specimens in my collection I have observed the bulb of percussion in the 

 middle of one of the sides. In other examples the place the bulb formerly 

 occupied on the side of an axe is easily observable by the extra amount of 

 chipping that has taken place in order to smooth the bulb down. I have 

 mentioned this theory to some antiquaries, who expressed themselves con- 

 vinced of its truth. In some instances so much chipping may have taken 

 place over the faces of the' axe that traces of a bulb cannot be seen ; but in 

 such cases, and indeed in cases in general, the two facets forming the edge 

 furnish evidence that the edge was the first to be formed, as the side chipping 

 always cuts into one or both of the edge facets, but the latter never into the 

 side chipping. In the case of two axes in my collection one of the facets is 

 formed by the outer crust of the nodule from which the axe was formed. The 

 smaller implements we call knives are formed somewhat similarly. Good 

 edges are there, in the first instance, on a flake, and one is chipped off to form 



