EARLY MAN 



flanges by the side. It is an excellent specimen, now in the museum at 

 Warrington. 



A second special form is in the museum at St. Helens, where it was found 

 about 1 2 ft. from the surface near the corner of Corporation Street and Hall 

 Street in 1879. It is about 9 in. long, with a depth increasing from 2 J in. 

 at the hole to 3J in. at the edge and 2j in. at the head. Its special features 

 are the lateral flanges on opposite sides of the hole, which increase its breadth 

 from 3 in. to 3I in. over all. The photograph of Plate III. No. 5 shows this 

 feature, which is not common. 



A hammer of similar form seems to have been found at Throstle Nest, 

 near Manchester, having a length of 12 in., but there is some obscurity 

 about the record : ^ the description indicates a large double hammer, with 

 side flanges as before. 



Another very unusual form shown in fig. 10 is described as found near 

 Lancaster.' It is of massive ap- 

 pearance, 9 in. long and 3 in. wide, 

 with a depth of 3 in. at the cutting 

 edge and 2| in. at the butt. It 

 seems to have one side almost flat, 

 while the other inclines suddenly 

 just beyond the hole towards the 

 edge, giving the appearance of an 

 angle in the side and a general lack 

 of symmetry. The edge is chipped, 

 and the head curved and somewhat 

 rounded. 



Two excellent examples of 

 the small smooth stone axe- hammers 

 of the Bronze Age are recorded, 

 the one from Winwick, now in 

 the museum at Warrington, the 

 other from Claughton, where it re- 

 mains in the Hall, The former 

 was found in an urn which lay ' in 



some soft black stuff inside a tumulus ' at Middleton, Winwick. With it 

 was associated a bronze dagger, described on page 235 (Plate IV. No. 7). 

 In length it measures 4| in. by i ^ in width. Its depth varies from i in. to 

 2 in. over the outcurved edge, and 1 1 in. across the flanges of the head, 

 which are shown in the photograph of Plate II. No. 5. The hammer face 

 itself is about | in. across, and the weight of the implement about 9 oz."* 



The second example, from near Claughton Hall, is said to have been 

 found in 'cutting through a tumulus in 1882, in a wooden cist, together with 

 an iron axe, spear-head, sword, and hammer. There must, however, be an 

 error in this account, and as an urn containing burnt bones was found in the 

 same tumulus with this Saxon and Danish interment, it seems probable that 

 the objects belonging to different burials, primary and secondary in the barrow, 

 became mixed during the 27 years that elapsed between their discovery and 





Fig. 10. — Axe-hammer found near Lancaster. 1:3. 



1 See a sketch hung in the Salford Museum. 

 8 Arch. Journ. i860, xvi. 295, plate 25. 



225 



2 Weld MSS. 



29 



