g . [Proc. B.N.F.C, 



"conjectures regarding recent sand dune finds 

 at dundrum." 



Mr. May, in the course of his remarks, said in the spring of 

 last year, when searching through one of the sand dunes, he 

 observed about fifteen flint pebbles in a group. He thought at 

 first that some person recently might have gathered and left them 

 there, but as in the immediate surroundings the usual objects of 

 interest in Neolithic times were in evidence he thought it worth 

 while to follow it up. He examined other portions of the site, and 

 followed up the search in a number of the other sand dunes, 

 accompanied by a fellow-member, Mr. R. Bell, and found quite a 

 number of similar pebbles, though more scattered. About the 

 same number generally could be counted within a radius of three 

 feet, and invariably surrounded with pot-boilers, broken pottery, 

 and flint spalls. He came to the conclusion that these pebbles 

 were used in some game during Neolithic times. It is easy to 

 conceive that the men who displayed artistic insight in forming 

 true artistic lines on their arrow-heads and scrapers could invent a 

 game that they could play while resting after more arduous sport. 

 He thought it important to bring this conjecture before the 

 Section to induce other members to make careful observations 

 during the coming summer on the Prehistoric sites in Counties 

 Antrim and Down, so that his conjecture might be either 

 verified or rejected. His other conjecture regarding the same site 

 on which he found these pebbles was in reference to a large 

 number of flint chips or implements simply hammered off the ends 

 of sea-rounded flint nodules, which are so plentiful in all the sand 

 dunes. They are knocked off with one blow, showing the 

 conchoidal fracture and bulb of percussion, the rotundity of the 

 nodule giving the same outline as the more delicately-worked 

 scraper without any secondary work. This ingenious time-saving 

 device has evidently been largely availed of for scrapers not 

 requiring a stronger edge. 



