Bronze Implement found near Currie, Mid-Lothian. 101 



these lake dwellings, are known to have been in use at the period 

 of their occupation by man. The short projecting horns of the 

 crescents, would assist in giving a more fixed, or firmer hold to the 

 hands, while using them in the act of trituration or grinding. 1 



However this may have been, there seems to me at least, little 

 doubt, that the bronze crescent, from its great resemblance in cha- 

 racter to the implement found at Kinleith, and also those found in 

 Ireland, might have had a practical use, and may be simply a 

 variety in the pattern of this ancient form of bronze knife or razor. 

 The hollow between the horns of this Swiss crescent, where the 

 metal appears to be thicker, and not thinned down to a fine edge, 

 as it is on its outer margins, might, by the finger being occasionally 

 hooked over it, also assist in steadying the blade, held by its pro- 

 jecting handle between the other fingers ; and in this way it would 

 somewhat correspond to the one found near Currie. 



Before concluding, I shall make a few remarks on the supposed 

 Age of this instrument of bronze. — Shortly after its discovery, various 

 antiquarian and geological friends, Mr John Stuart, Dr M'Bain, Mr 

 Alexander Bryson, Mr William Turner, and others, went with me, 

 at different times, and made careful examinations of the excavation, 

 as the process of digging went on, and especial attention was paid 

 to the beds cut through above the gravel ; there was not the 

 slightest appearance of any pit or digging of any kind having ever 

 been previously made, the beds of sand being quite undisturbed 

 since their first deposition. My friends all agreed with me in 

 thinking there was also no indication of any of the depth of these 

 beds of sand being due to a landslip from the distant sloping banks 

 at the sides of the valley, or any sudden occurrence of that kind. 

 The upper beds being uniform in character, and comparatively 

 free from stones, and so different from the rough gravel below; 

 they were suggestive simply of a gradual deposit of silt from a 

 nearly still pool or lake. 



The geologic history of the site being, apparently, that the bed 

 of rough, clean, and large gravel at the bottom, proved the previous 

 existence of the stream of a rapid river, over which man may have 



1 In a letter with which I have since been favoured by Mr Albert Way, he 

 states, that from his own examination of the Swiss crescents of clay and stone, 

 he does not consider them adapted for any purpose of trituration, as suggested 

 by me, and he agrees with Dr Keller in the conjecture of their having borne 

 some relation to the religion, or worship, in these old lake homesteads; Mr 

 Way does not believe, however, in there being any connection between them 

 and the crescent-shaped implement of bronze. 



