Coffey and Praeger — The Ant rim Raised Beach. 191 



wrought arrow-lieads and concave scrapers, or hollow saws, as they 

 are thought to have been by some authorities, are numerous, besides 

 other forms of implements of an advanced Stone Age industry. At all 

 the sites mentioned, polished axes of fully developed form have 

 been found. At Whitepark Bay veiy few arrow-heads have been 

 found, and concave scrapers are exceptionally rare. The ordinary 

 scraper in its various forms is, however, common, and has been 

 collected by hundreds. The pottery is often decorated, and is in this 

 respect as advanced as at the other sites. It is probable that some of 

 it is Bronze Age. The sandhill sites were occupied, whether con- 

 tinuously or occasionally, from ISTeolithic times, thi'ough the Bronze 

 Age, and into the Iron and Christian periods.^ 



Occurrence of ^'Larne " Types, 



But while the industry in the sandhills is consistent, the finds at 

 Portrush being exceptional and possibly older, we find outside the 

 sandhills along the pebbly parts of the beach at Whitepark Bay, and 

 along the pebbly beach between the Bann sandhills and the town of 

 Portstewart, where we may see the raised beach underlying the newer 

 accumulation of the sandhills, occasional flint flakes, which class 

 themselves by aspect rather with the Larne flakes than the sandhill 

 flakes. They are often much rolled, and it requires an expert eye 

 to recognise the original flake character of the piece. Mr. Knowles 

 has noticed the difference in character of these flakes, and he also 

 regards them as older than the sandhill flakes, classing them with 

 the flakes of the raised beach, as distinguished from the sandhill 

 industry. Further, he lays stress on the fact that re-worked cores 

 have been found in the sandhills, the earlier working belonging, he 

 believes, to the older series. Speaking of AVhitepark Bay, he says : — 

 " Flakes and cores of an older series are found lying along the shore 

 of the bay. These are greatly weathered, and are easily known bv 

 their reddish-brown crust. That they were old and crusted when 

 the Neolithic flint-workers occupied the sandhills is evidenced by 

 the numbers which have been re-worked by these people. In many 

 flakes we will find the old weathered surface of the older core on 

 one side, and the fresh fracture made by the later people on the other 

 side."- 



1 Moulds for bronze weapons have been found at one of the hut sites at White- 

 park Bay (now in the collection of Rev. W. Adams, Antrim). 

 ' Proc. R.I. A., 3rd Ser., vol. i., p. 176. 



R.I. A. PKOC, VOL. XXV., SEC. c] [17] 



