Coffp:y — Craigyivarren Crannog, 



113 



small wooden pail, but the hole at the centre (f ) shows that its use 

 was different. 



A thick circular piece, with a hole in the centre. It is now greatly 

 shrunk, but was circular when found, of inches in diameter, and 

 1 inch thick, size of hole f inch diameter. 



A wooden collar-piece of oak (Plate VII., fig. 10), outer diameter 

 6 inches, inner diameter 3|- inches. 



The fragments of a long shaft, or handle, 23 inches by 1 inch 

 in diameter. The end was reduced, and bore a leather collar or 

 washer. 



Flint. — Chips, flakes, and worked pieces of flint were found in 

 considerable numbers throughout the crannog. In all, fifty flakes 

 and worked pieces were collected ; but many chips and worthless 

 fragments were passed over. They include three scrapers, a well- 

 formed concave scraper or saw, a fragment of another, a large, flat, 

 rude piece with a concave scraping edge at one side, a kite-shaped 

 arrow-head, and several flakes showing secondary work and battering 

 in places. 



The largest of the scrapers was found in the south-eastern 

 quadrant. The three polishing stones mentioned in the next section 

 were found at intervals within a range of a few yards from this 

 scraper. The concave scraper was found at the hearth-site ; it 

 has not suffered from fire. The arrow-head lay immediately on the 

 plank B. Here the ground had been distui'bed by tillage, which 

 came up to the margin of the site at this side. ISo cores were found, 

 nor any evidence, in the shape of an accumulation of flakes, that the 

 flint had been worked on the crannog. Antrim is the chief flint 

 county of Ireland. In the fields round Ballymena, broken flints 

 and flakes may be picked up anywhere, and worked flints, especially 

 scrapers, are numerous. It is possible that the scrapers found in the 

 crannog were used by its inhabitants, and the pieces with battered 

 edges suggest that these latter may have been used for striking flre ; 

 but the small number of characteristic scrapers which were found 

 (3), and absence of hammer-stones (only one good example was found) 

 and other stone implements, indicate that the examples found cannot 

 be regarded as a survival of the Stone Age. Some, if not all, may 

 have been brought into the crannog with the clay and stones used for 

 flooring the site. It has been desirable to go into this question in a 

 little detail, as the presence of worked flints and stone implements in 

 crannogs has been sometimes advanced as evidence of the antiquity 

 of such crannogs, or as an argument against the antiquity of stone 



