Knowi.ks — Prehistoric Stone Implements. 2l.S 



for sharpening his razor. ] t is supposed that some substance has dissolved 

 and oozed out of the stone since the implements were made. No. 90 

 was found at Culbane, and is 6| inches long by 7| inches in circumference 

 in the thickest part. While some pick-like objects have also been made of 

 the clay-slate, the most numerous implements made from this rock are axes 

 and chisels. The largest of the axes in my own collection is 18^ inches 

 long, and the smallest is ly\- inches long by \ inch broad near the cutting 

 edge. This small implement is well made and finished after the manner of a 

 larger axe. Eev. James O'Laverty, in the " Ulster Journal of Archaeology," 

 old series, vol. v, p. 122, mentions the finding of three stone clubs during the 

 deepening of the Bann by the Board of Works ; and he gives an outline of one 

 at page 12*7 of same volume, grasped by a hand to show how it was probably 

 used. I had the opportunity of seeing these so-called clubs at the sale of 

 Monsignor O'Laverty's collection of antiquities in Belfast, in June, 1906 ; 

 I believed that I had purchased the specimen in question with some other 

 axes, and had removed them, and they were some days in my possession ; but 

 as another gentleman claimed the lot that I supposed I had purchased, 1 gave 

 them up. While these articles were in my possession, I had a drawing 

 made of the so-called club, which 1 now reproduce in fig. 113. Anyone 

 having a knowledge of antiquities will see that the implement is an axe, 

 and not a club. One of the other implements, described as a club, had 

 a very broad edge, prepared for cutting, and was also undoubtedly an axe. 

 Broad-edged axes, made from the clay-slate, were not uncommon. I show a 

 specimen from my own collection in fig. 121. It was found near the watershed 

 between the Bann and the Maine; but it is made of the clay-slate, and belongs to 

 the Bann series of implements. 1 1 has not the usual shape of stone axes, and 

 its handle-like butt-end might sxiggest to some persons that it was used as a 

 club ; but as it has an edge at the lower broad end, like other axes, I would 

 call it, like fig. 113, an axe. I show in figs. 117, 124, and 125 three axes made of 

 clay-slate. No. 117 is the longest axe from the Bann valley that has come into 

 my possession. It is 181 inches long, and has been longer, as the original edge 

 has been broken off, and a new one ground in its place. It is 3| inches broad 

 and 1| inches thick, and weighs 3|lb. It was found atOalbane while digging 

 up the diatomaceous clay for making into brick — an extensive industry at this 

 place. No. 124 is a flat, thin axe, 15| inches long, of inches broad, and five- 

 eighths of an inch thick. It is in appearance like the large axe from the 

 Blackwater, described by Sir William Wilde, and which he suggests may have 

 been the coulter of a plough, though he says it bears no evidence of having 

 been so employed. The arras on my specimen is intact, and it has the same 

 thickness throughout. It was broken by a clean fracture near the centre ; 



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