26 



Recent Excavations at Stonehenge. 



have been roughly chipped, or present natural inequalities there, 

 so as to allow of their being secured by bands of twisted osier or 

 hazel twigs or by strips of hide in order that they might be used 

 by two or more men. It may be that they were fitted with handles 

 for directing the blow and ropes for lifting them as is the practice 

 in Japan for the heavy wooden mauls (Fig. 11) employed there for 

 beating down the foundation stones of houses. 



As regards the uses to which they were applied, it will be evident, 

 from what will be advanced later, that they were employed not 

 only for roughly breaking the rude blocks into regular forms but 

 also for working down their faces to a level or slightly curved 

 surface. 



The boulders of which they consist were apparently derived from 

 a stratum of the quartzite variety of sarsen, about 7 — 9 inches in 

 thickness, which occurred in the sandstone beds that once overlaid 

 the chalk of the district. 



The weights of these large stone mauls range from 43 pounds 

 6 ounces to 64 pounds 3 ounces, with one exception which only 

 weighs 36 pounds 2 ounces. 



Similar mauls have been found in the ancient copper mines at 

 Llandudno and near Lake Superior, but none of these exceded 40 

 pounds in weight. 



The whole of the implements discovered must unquestionably 

 be regarded as the discarded tools of the prehistoric builders of 

 Stonehenge. Kude as they are they are nevertheless most efficient 

 work tools, and with them the megalithic blocks of the structure 

 were undoubtedly shaped and trimmed. 



Perhaps the most striking features of the flint implements is 

 their extreme rudeness, and that there is not a single ground or 

 polished specimen among them. This, at first sight and without 

 due consideration, might be taken to indicate an extremely remote 

 age. But in this connection it must be borne in mind that in the 

 building of such a stupendous structure as Stonehenge the tools 

 required must have been numbered by thousands. The work, too, 

 was of the roughest character, and for such only rude tools were 

 required. The highly finished and polished implements which we 



