Dwelling Places of Prehistoric Man 35 



This layer of charcoal, burned bones and iron fragments, 

 mixed with pottery, suggested at the time no solution of the reason 

 for its being present. It extended over the whole of the upper end of 

 the floor of the chamber marked "A." I may mention that I was 

 only able to work at Knock Dhu at irregular intervals. Shortly after 

 we had got well into the work, some local investigators, hearing 

 that somebody from Belfast had come down looking for "a pot of 

 gold in the cove," had dug out a lot of the charcoal layer looking 

 for nothing but treasure. Thus I fear a great deal of the pottery 

 fragments, and possibly other remains, were lost beyond recovery. 

 I preserved all that I could find, even going through the excavated 

 soil thrown out by ourselves and the local investigators. The soil, 

 however, was so stiff and glutinous that a thorough investigation was 

 impossible ; when exposed to the sun, instead of becoming pos- 

 sible to riddle, it dried into a mass almost like brick. The remains 

 recovered in Knock Dhu floor are displayed in section I. of the 

 articles on exhibition. It will be seen that the pottery fragments 

 consist of the remains of a great number of pots. The greatest 

 care has been taken to try and piece these together, without much 

 success. I shall defer detailed remarks upon these charcoal, 

 bone, pottery, iron ore and iron remains for the present, as it was 

 only after a later investigation at Ballykennedy that their signifi 

 cance became evident. In Knock Dhu souterrain and in Bally- 

 kennedy we also found a number of round sea or river-worn stones, 

 averaging about a pound in weight. A specimen is included 

 among the Knock Dhu remains. These are evidently examples 

 of the "Lapides Pugillares" or hand-stones mentioned by Geraldus 

 Cambrensis, when he states that the native Irish " in war wear no 

 defensive armour ; they use a short spear, a pair of javelins (a 

 head of one of which we found in Knock Dhu), and a large 

 battle axe, well wrought and tempered, which they borrowed from 



the Ostm.en Hand-stones, when other weapons fail, 



they hurl more dexterously than any other nation, so as to inflict 

 great loss on the enemy."* 



•See 'Ireland under the Normans," vol. i., p. 133 — 135, by Goddart 

 Orpen, with his relative references to O'Curry's Manners and Customs, vol. 

 ij., pp. 263 et seq. 



