Coffi<:y AM) riiAicGEiL — T/ic Aiifriiii lldi.scd Beach. 187 



Island Magee, in Co. Down, and in the Bann valley) have been 

 brought to an edge at the lower end by flaking. In tliese, as also in 

 some of the partly ground specimens, the somewhat curved sides 

 recall the Larne pieces, and it is evident they must have passed 

 through the stage represented by the rougher types of the gravels. 



The Larne celts would thus seem to be the roughed-out stage 

 or blanks for this class of implement. jMany of them would require 

 little more than the striking-oif of two facets from one of the ends, 

 one from each face, to convert them into serviceable chisels of the 

 kitchen-midden class, the intersection of the facets producing the 

 cutting edge, while the grinding down of one of the ends would 

 produce an edge of the second class. The edge would not, of course, 

 be put on at the quarry site, and we should not expect to find finished 

 specimens in the gravels. Moreover, the best pieces would have been 

 carried away, so that the greater number of those found in the gravels 

 are likely to have been rejects. The process of roughing-out the 

 blanks was evidently rapid, and pieces which developed defects in the 

 workiug, a hump on one of the faces, or an irregular section, would 

 be thrown aside. 



The Kitchen-midden Axe. 



Tlie kitchen-midden axe, or chisel, is typologically tlie beginning 

 of the celt series. Speaking of the chipped or rough-hewn celts 

 generally, Sir John Evans says : — " It seems almost demonstrable 

 that some at least of these unpolished celts must be among the earliest 

 of the Neolithic implements of this country" [Britain]. The art 

 of chipping stone into shape must, he continues, " in all probability 

 have preceded that of grinding or polishing its edges." But he is 

 careful to add, We have as yet, in Britain, no means for assigning 

 with certainty any of these roughly chipped forms to an antiquity 

 more remote than that of the carefully finished celts with their edges 

 sharpened by grinding, though in all probability some of them must 

 date back to a far remoter period."^ 



Whether the kitchen-midden forms can be referred in Britain and 

 Ireland to as early a period as the Danish kjokken-moddings, there is 

 not evidence to say ; but there is some evidence that the kitchen- 

 midden type belongs to an early stage of the IS'eolithic period in 

 Ireland. About 1886 the removal of sand from the south side of the 

 street called Spring-hill, at Portrush, County Antrim, to make room 



1 Op. cit., p. 85. 



