22U Proceedings of the Koyul Irish Academy. 



Archaeology" to describe and figure au axe-hammer from the Bauu in vol. iii, 

 p. 234, of that journal. We learn both from him and Father O'Laverty's 

 paper in vol. v, that this axe-hammer was found in the bed of the Bann. 

 At the sale of the late Mousignor 'O'Laverty's -collection of antiquities in 

 Belfast a few years ago I purchased the axe-hammer referred to above. I 

 also pm-chased a hamper of miscellaneous stones mostly perforated, and found 

 in it one other complete axe-hammer, and another shaped but only partly 

 bored. The boring does not seem to have Ijeen done by rotary motion, but 

 by pimehing. It is possible that these axe-hammers and other perforated 

 stones may belong to a time when there were metal punches to bore them ; 

 but while that may have been the case, and if we found the pimches it would 

 help to prove it, yet I am of opinion that the small pick-like flint objects, 

 three of which I have shown in N'os. 79, 82, and 84, and which are very 

 abundant in all parts of the Bann valley, could usefully have been employed 

 in boring holes in other stones. ' If held between the finger and thumb in one 

 hand and struck repeatedly with a hammer-stone lield in the other after th& 

 manner in wliich quarrymen use their steel-pointed jumpers when boring 

 holes for blasting purposes in the present day, the boring of an axe-hammer 

 could easily have been accomplished. One flint borer employed in this way 

 might soon be used up, but what would it signifj- if a dozen or a score of 

 these eoai'sely, and e\idently hastily, made articles were required for boring- 

 a single hole ? The partly bored axe-hammer I ha^e mentioned is bored to a 

 depth of 5 an inch on one side and | of an inch on the other. 



The axe-hammer in my possession, which is described in the " Ulster 

 Joiunal of Ai'chaeology,"' is 6^ inches long and 4 inches broad at the widest 

 part, and weighs two pounds. I show two views of it in fig. 127. Sir John 

 Evans in his " Stone Implements and Ornaments ''- refers to an implement of 

 this kind : " This Irish axehead is formed of pale green horn-stone, and is now 

 in the British Museum." On a late occasion, when in London, I called to see 

 the axe-hammer which Sii' John Evans said was in the British Museum, and 

 I was shown one which is very like my specimen in make and finish, but 

 smaller and lighter in colour than its dark and bigger brother in my collection. 

 The specimen in the Museirm is labelled, " Pierced Axe-hammer, Eiver Bann, 

 Ireland, Ulster Jom-nal of Archaeology', iii, 234. Given by Eev. G. Wilson, 

 1883.'' This s]jecimen may have been bought from the pedlar above referred 

 to. From the finish, shape, and likeness of the ornamentation, I should say 

 that both implements were made by the same artist. They were probably 

 foimd in the Bann at the same time. 



• Vol, iii, p. 231. - 2Dd edition, p. 19S. 



