CHAPTER XII.FLINT FLAKES, CORES, ETC.

The different forms of implements and weapons which have been treated of in the preceding pages have, for the most part, been fashioned from larger or smaller blocks of stone, reduced into shape by chipping; the chips having apparently been mere waste products, while the block from which they were struck was eventually converted into the tool or weapon required. With the majority, though by no means all, of the Neolithic forms which we still have to pass in review, the reverse holds good; for the raw materials, if I may so term them, from which the bulk of them were made, were flakes or splinters of flint struck off from larger blocks, in such a manner that it was the splinters that were utilized. The block from which they were struck, instead of being the object of the manufacture, became, when all the available flakes had been removed from it, mere refuse, to be thrown away as useless.

Before considering any of the various tools and weapons into which these flakes or splinters were converted by subsequent or secondary working, it will be well to say a few words about the simpler forms of flakes, and the cores ornucleifrom which they were struck.

I have already, in speaking of the manufacture of stone implements, described the manner in which flakes or spalls are, at the present day, struck off by successive blows from the parent block or core, and have suggested the probable methods employed in ancient times for producing similar results. Remarks on the method of production of flint flakes have also been made by Sir W. Wilde,[1158]Sir John Lubbock,[1159]Mr. S. J. Mackie,[1160]Prof. T. McK. Hughes,[1161]and others. I need not, therefore, re-open the subject,{273}though it will be well again to call attention to some of the distinctive marks by which artificially formed flakes may be distinguished from mere splinters of natural origin. The formation of these latter is usually due either to the flint, while still embedded in the chalk, having received some violent shock from disturbance of the stratum; or to unequal expansion, which sometimes causes flints to split up into rudely prismatic forms, much like those assumed by starch in drying, and sometimes causes cracks on the surface, which enable water and frost to complete the work of splitting them. Occasionally, nearly flat planes of fissure are caused by the expansion of some small included particle of a different mineralogical character from the surrounding flint. In such cases a series of concentric and more or less circular rings may usually be traced on the surface surrounding the central particle, which apparently mark the intervals of repose, when its expansion had ceased for a time to exert sufficient force to continue the fissure. This kind of fracture is most prevalent in flints upon or near the surface of the ground, such as those in drift-deposits.

In hardly any instances of natural fracture does the surface of the splinter show any trace of its having been produced by a blow, though the violent impact of one stone upon another, by means of a fall from a cliff, or of other natural causes, might produce a splinter of the same form as if it had been struck off by a hammer. There would, however, be the mark of the blow on one face only of such a splinter, whereas in a perfectly artificial flake the traces of the blow by which each facet was produced would be discernible. On the sea-shore, natural splinters of flint, resulting from the blow of one wave-borne pebble on another, may occasionally be found, some of them having a kind of secondary working at the edges, the result of attrition among the pebbles on the shore.

If a blow from a spherical-ended hammer be delivered at right angles on a large flat surface of flint, the part struck is only a minute portion of the surface, which may be represented by a circle of very small diameter. If flint were malleable, instead of being slightly elastic, a dent would be produced at the spot; but, being elastic, this small circle is driven slightly inwards into the body of the flint, and the result is that a circular fissure is produced between that part of the flint which is condensed for the moment by the blow, and that part which is left untouched. As each particle in the small circle on which the hammer impinges may be considered to rest on more than one other particle, it is{274}evident that the circular fissure, as it descends into the body of the flint, will have a tendency to enlarge in diameter, so that the piece of flint it includes will be of conical form, the small circle struck by the hammer forming the slightly truncated apex. That this is not mere theory will be seen from the annexed woodcut, Fig. 188, showing a cone of flint produced by a single blow of a hammer.[1162]

Fig. 188.—Artificial Cone of Flint.

Sometimes, as has been shown by Prof. T. McK. Hughes, F.R.S., the sides of the cone are in steps, the inclination varying from 30° to 110°. This is probably to some extent due to the character of the blow, and the form of the hammer.

If the blow be administered near the edge, instead of in the middle of the surface of the block, a somewhat similar effect will be produced, but the cone in that case will be imperfect, as a splinter of flint will be struck off, the fissure probably running along the line of least resistance; though, owing to the suddenness of the blow, the conical character of fracture is at first produced at the point of impact. This fracture will vary to some extent in accordance with the angle at which the blow is given, and the character of the hammer; but in all cases where a splinter of flint is struck off by a blow, there will be a bulb or projection, of a more or less conical form, at the end where the blow was administered, and a corresponding hollow in the block from which it was dislodged. This projection is usually known as the “bulb of percussion,” a term, I believe, first applied to it by the late Dr. Hugh Falconer, F.R.S.; and on every flake, all the facets of which are purely artificial, this bulb will be found at the butt-end of the larger flat face, and the hollow depressions, or portions of depressions, on all the other facets. If on a splinter of flint such a bulb occurs, it proves that it must have resulted from a blow, in all probability, but not of necessity, given by human agency; but where the bulb is on the principal face, and analogous depressions, or portions of them, are visible on the several other faces, and at the same end of a flake, all of them presenting the same character,{275}and in a definite arrangement, it is in the highest degree probable that such a combination of blows must be the result of design, and the features presented are almost as good a warrant for the human origin of the flake as would be the maker’s name upon it. When, however, several of such flakes are found together, each bearing these marks of being the result of several successive blows, all conducing to form a symmetrical knife-like flake,[1163]it becomes a certainty that they have been the work of intelligent beings.

In size and proportions flakes vary considerably, the longest English specimens that I have seen being as much as 8 or 9 inches long, while some, which still appear to have been made use of as tools, are not more than an inch in length. Their proportional breadth is almost as variable.

With regard to the classification and nomenclature of these objects, I would suggest that the name of flake should be limited to such artificial splinters of flint as, either in their section or outline, or in both, present a certain amount of symmetry, and appearance of design; and that the ruder forms, such as would result from chipping some large object into shape, without any regard to the form of the parts removed, should be called chips or spalls.[1164]Such as show no bulb of percussion may be termed splinters. The Scottish name for flakes is “skelbs.”

The inner, or flat face of a flake, is that produced by the blow which dislodged it from the parent block, core, or nucleus. The outer, ridged or convex face comprises the other facets, or, in some instances, the natural surface of the flint. The base, or butt-end of a flake, is that at which the blows to form it were administered; the other end is the point.

Flakes may be subdivided into—

1. External, or those which have been struck off by a single blow from the outer surface of a nodule of flint. Many of these are as symmetrical as those resulting from a more complicated process of manufacture, and they have frequently been utilized, especially for scrapers.

2. Ridged flakes, or those presenting a triangular section. One face of these sometimes presents the external crust of the flint, as in Fig. 190. In others, the ridge has been formed by transverse{276}chipping, as is the case with the long flakes from Pressigny (Fig. 6), but this method appears to have been almost unknown in Britain.

3. Flat, where the external face is nearly parallel to the internal, and the two edges are formed by narrow facets, as in Fig. 200.

4. Polygonal, where the external face consists of many facets, as in Fig. 192.

These several varieties may be long or short, broad or narrow, straight or curved, thick or thin, pointed or obtuse. The character of the base may also vary, being rounded or flat, thick or thin, broad or narrow.

The cores from which flakes have been struck are, of course, of various forms, some having had only one or two flakes removed from them, and others several. In the latter case they are often more or less regularly polygonal, though only few of the facets will be of the full breadth of the flakes, as the external face of every successive flake carries off some part of the traces of those previously struck off. Not unfrequently some of the facets are arrested at a little distance from the end where the blows were struck, in consequence of the flake having broken short off, instead of the fissure continuing to the end of the block. Occasionally, and more especially on the Yorkshire Wolds, the nuclei are very small, and much resemble in character those found, with numerous flakes, in India, in the neighbourhood of Jubbulpore.[1165]

It has been suggested[1166]that cores were occasionally made on purpose for use as tools; but this appears very doubtful. Of course, if a core were at hand, and seemed capable of serving some special purpose, it would be utilized.

Fig. 189.—Weaverthorpe.1⁄1The core here engraved of the full size in Fig. 189 was found by myself at Weaverthorpe, Yorkshire. I have already suggested that in striking off such small flakes as those removed from this core, some sort of punch may have been used, instead of the blows being administered directly by a hammer. We have no conclusive evidence as to the purpose to which such minute flakes were applied, but they may have been fashioned into drills or scraping or boring tools, of very diminutive size. Such small objects are so liable to escape observation, that though they may exist in considerable numbers, they are but rarely found on the{277}surface of the ground. Numerous flakes, however, quite as minute, with their edges showing evident signs of wear, are present among the refuse left by the cave-dwellers of the Reindeer Period of the South of France. As will subsequently be seen, these minute flakes have been also found in Egypt and in Asia, as well as in Britain. See Fig. 232Ato 232F. There is a class of ancient Scandinavian harpoon-heads, the stems of which are formed of bone with small flint flakes cemented into a groove on either side so as to form barbs. Knives of the same kind are subsequently mentioned.Among the Australians[1167]we find very minute splinters of flint and quartz secured to wooden handles by “black-boy” gum, and forming the teeth of rude saws and the barbs of javelins. Some remarkably small flakes have also been found in the diamond-diggings of South Africa in company with fragments of ostrich-egg shell, such as with the aid of the flakes might have been converted into the small perforated discs still worn as ornaments by the Bushmen.There are but few published notices of the discovery of English cores of flint, though they are to be found in numbers over a considerable tract of country, especially where flint abounds.I have recorded their finding at Redhill,[1168]near Reigate, and at Little Solsbury Hill,[1169]near Bath. I also possess numerous specimens from Herts, Gloucestershire, Sussex, Bedfordshire, Suffolk, and Yorkshire. In several instances two series of flakes have been struck off, the one set at right angles to the other. More rarely the flakes have been obtained from both ends of the block.A core from the Fens[1170]is in the Museum of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, and several were found, with other worked flints, in the chambered Long Barrow at West Kennet, Wiltshire.Numerous specimens from Peter’s Finger, near Salisbury, and elsewhere, are in the Blackmore Museum; and a number were found by General Pitt Rivers in his researches at Cissbury, Sussex, and by Canon Greenwell at Grime’s Graves.[1171]Mr. Joseph Stevens has described specimens from St. Mary Bourne,[1172]Hants. They are recorded also as found with flakes at Port St. Mary,[1173]Isle of Man.A long bludgeon-shaped nodule of flint, from one end of which a succession of flakes had been struck, was found in a grave, with a contracted skeleton, in a barrow near Winterbourn Stoke,[1174]Wilts.Illustrations of cores, and of the manner in which flakes have been struck from them, have been given by various authors.[1175]The existence of flakes involves the necessity of there having been cores from which they were struck; and as silicious flakes occur in almost all known countries, so also do cores. A series of Frenchnucleiis{278}figured by Mortillet,[1176]and a fine example from Olonetz,[1177]Russia, by Worsaae. They have also been found in the Arabian desert.[1178]Those of large size and of regular polygonal form are rare in Britain and Ireland, and, indeed, generally in Europe. Some of the largest and most regular occur in Scandinavia. I have also some good examples from Belgium. Many of the cores from Spiennes, near Mons, were subsequently utilized as celts; and the same was the case to some extent at Pressigny, the large cores from which have already been described. The Mexican[1179]and East Indian[1180]forms, in obsidian and cherty flint, have also been mentioned. They are unsurpassed for symmetry and for the skill exhibited in removing flakes from them.Fig. 190.—Newhaven.1⁄2Fig. 191.—Redhill. Reigate.1⁄2Fig. 192.—Icklingham.1⁄2Fig. 193.—Seaford.1⁄2It is worthy of remark that cores and flakes of obsidian, almost identical in character with those from Mexico, but generally of small size, have been found in Greece, principally in the island of Melos.[1181]Specimens are in the Christy Collection, and I possess several. Obsidian nuclei are also found in Hungary.Simple flakes and splinters of flint have been found in considerable numbers over almost the whole of Britain. Of the four here shown, Fig. 190 was found near Newhaven, Sussex; Fig. 191 near Reigate, Surrey; Fig. 192 near Icklingham, Suffolk; and Fig. 193 at Seaford, Sussex. At each of these places they occur in great numbers on the surface, and near Reigate some thousands were collected nearly forty years ago by Mr. Shelley,[1182]of whose discoveries I have given an account elsewhere. The counties in which they principally abound are perhaps{279}Cornwall,[1183]Devonshire,[1184]Dorsetshire, Wilts, Hants,[1185]Surrey,[1186]Oxfordshire,[1187]Sussex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Derbyshire, Lancashire,[1188]and Yorkshire; but they may be said to be ubiquitous. In some parts of Devonshire, and especially near Croyde, they occur in great numbers, so great, indeed, as to have led Mr. Whitley[1189]to suppose them to have been formed by natural causes rather than by human agency. Far more rational accounts of them have been given by Mr. Townshend M. Hall,[1190]Mr. H. S. Ellis,[1191]and Mr. C. Spence Bate.[1192]Flakes and splinters of flint frequently occur in and around ancient encampments and settlements, as well as in association with interments both by cremation and inhumation. Many of the immense number of “spear-heads” collected by Mr. Bateman in his investigations were of the simple flake form, and others were flakes with but slight secondary working at the edges, such as will hereafter be noticed. Many other instruments which he discovered were merely flakes, such as the thick-backed cutting instrument of flint three inches long, with a bronze dagger and two small balls of stone, in a barrow containing a skeleton near Pickering,[1193]which would appear to have been of this character. They occurred with burnt bones in cinerary urns at Broughton,[1194]Lincolnshire, in one case with a flat bronze arrow-head; at Summer Hill,[1195]near Canterbury; with a flint arrow-head at Sittingbourne;[1196]with burnt bones and bronze daggers in a barrow at Teddington,[1197]Middlesex; at Penhow,[1198]Monmouth; and in the Gristhorpe Barrow,[1199]near Scarborough; with burnt bones in a circle of stones near Llanaber,[1200]Merionethshire, where no flint occurs naturally; with burnt bones in an urn beneath a tumulus at Brynbugeilen,[1201]Llangollen; in a barrow near Blackbury Castle,[1202]Devon; and in one on Dartmoor;[1203]and at Hollingsclough and Upper Edge,[1204]Derbyshire. Flakes, not of flint, but of a hard silicious grit, occurred in a cist with burnt bones near Harlech;[1205]and of some other hard stone in a cist in Merionethshire.[1206]Other instances have been cited by General Pitt Rivers,[1207]who found several rough flakes and splinters of grit and felspathic ash in cairns near Bangor, North Wales. Some of these showed signs of rubbing and use on their edges; in some cases they had the appearance of having been scraped by metal. Whether they were the weapons and tools of the people buried in the cairns, or{280}merely votive offerings, appeared to be somewhat doubtful. The urns associated with them were such as might well belong to the Bronze Period.Flint flakes are described as found in graves with contracted interments at Amble,[1208]Northumberland; Driffield,[1209]Yorkshire; Ballidon Moor,[1210]Derbyshire; Littleton Drew,[1211]and Winterbourn Stoke,[1212]Wilts. Canon Greenwell[1213]has also found them in great numbers with interments of different characters. They occurred with extended burials at Oakley Park,[1214]near Cirencester. In some of the long barrows they are especially numerous, upwards of three hundred having been found by Dr. Thurnam at West Kennet,[1215]while there were three only in that of Rodmarton,[1216]and two were found at the base of the cairn in the chambered tumulus at Uley,[1217]Gloucestershire. Another accompanied a skeleton in a long barrow near Littleton Drew.[1218]Sir Richard Colt Hoare speaks of a great quantity of chipped flints, prepared for arrows or lances, as having been found in barrows on Long Street Down,[1219]and at Brigmilston, Wilts;[1220]but, as a rule, he seems not to have taken much notice of such simple forms. Others have been discovered with ashes at Helmingham,[1221]Suffolk.It is, however, needless, to cite more instances of their occurrence with interments belonging to the Stone and Bronze Ages, as the presence of flakes and chippings of flint is in such cases the rule rather than the exception.In Scotland, where flint is a scarcer natural product, they are also found. As instances, I may cite one found in an urn within a cist at Tillicoultry,[1222]Clackmannanshire; and in a cist in Arran.[1223]In some parts of Aberdeenshire[1224]and Banffshire they are numerous, and in the Buchan district are associated with shell mounds, or kjökken-möddings. They occur also in Lanarkshire and Elgin.[1225]In Orkney[1226]they abound: as also at the Bin of Cullen,[1227]where a manufactory of arrow-heads seems to have existed. In cists in Roxburghshire[1228]were sepulchral urns and numerous flint flakes; and in Argyllshire[1229]there were in a cist with a skeleton flint flakes in such numbers as to form a heap from eighteen inches to two feet in height. Some of white quartz have been found associated with arrow-heads in Banffshire.[1230]Little heaps[1231]of six or eight were found in each corner of a grave at Clashfarquhar, Aberdeen. They abound on the sand-hills near Glenluce and on the Culbin Sands.Of ancient encampments or settlements where flint flakes occur in{281}numbers, I may mention Maiden Bower, near Dunstable; Pulpit Wood, near Prince’s Risborough; Cissbury,[1232]Beltout Castle, and other encampments in Sussex; Little Solsbury Hill, near Bath; Castle Ring,[1233]Cannock Chase; Avebury,[1234]Wilts; and Callow Hill,[1235]Oxfordshire. They have been found in wonderful abundance on the surface in the counties already mentioned, and their occurrence has been noticed near Bradford Abbas;[1236]near Folkestone;[1237]at Possingworth Manor,[1238]Uckfield; near Hastings;[1239]at Stonham[1240]and Icklingham, Suffolk; near Grime’s Graves, Norfolk;[1241]at St. Mary Bourne,[1242]Hants; and in a turbary at Heneglwys,[1243]Anglesea, an island in which no flint occurs naturally. Two from Carno, Montgomeryshire, are engraved in theArchæologia Cambrensis.[1244]They have also been found under a submerged forest on the coast of West Somerset.[1245]I have seen a few flakes made from Lower Tertiary conglomerate.In districts where flint was an imported luxury, other stones, usually containing a large proportion of silica, and when broken presenting a conchoidal fracture, served, so far as the material allowed, the same purposes as flint. Of this a few instances have already been given. In some cases even laminated sandstones, shales, and slates seem to have been utilized. Numerous relics of this kind, some so rude that their purposes may appear doubtful, were found by the late Mr. S. Laing,[1246]in Caithness. Large oval flakes, made from sandstone pebbles, occurred in very great numbers in and around the ancient dwelling at Skaill, Orkney. In form, however, these approximate more nearly to the Pict’s knives, of which hereafter, than to ordinary flakes. The method of their manufacture has been described by Mr. Laing.[1247]A curious stone knife or dagger, found beside a stone cist in Perthshire,[1248]is described as a natural formation of mica-schist, the peculiar shape of which has suggested its adaptation as a rude but efficient implement.Some rude spear-heads of flint and greenstone are said to have been found near Pytchley,[1249]Northamptonshire; and some of Kentish rag at Maidstone.[1250]I have also seen them made of Oolitic flint.Flakes of quartzite have been found, together with some of flint and quartz and with polished celts, in some of the caverns inhabited during the Neolithic Period in the Pyrenees of the Ariège,[1251]and also in the Lake Settlement of Greug.[1252]

Fig. 189.—Weaverthorpe.1⁄1

The core here engraved of the full size in Fig. 189 was found by myself at Weaverthorpe, Yorkshire. I have already suggested that in striking off such small flakes as those removed from this core, some sort of punch may have been used, instead of the blows being administered directly by a hammer. We have no conclusive evidence as to the purpose to which such minute flakes were applied, but they may have been fashioned into drills or scraping or boring tools, of very diminutive size. Such small objects are so liable to escape observation, that though they may exist in considerable numbers, they are but rarely found on the{277}surface of the ground. Numerous flakes, however, quite as minute, with their edges showing evident signs of wear, are present among the refuse left by the cave-dwellers of the Reindeer Period of the South of France. As will subsequently be seen, these minute flakes have been also found in Egypt and in Asia, as well as in Britain. See Fig. 232Ato 232F. There is a class of ancient Scandinavian harpoon-heads, the stems of which are formed of bone with small flint flakes cemented into a groove on either side so as to form barbs. Knives of the same kind are subsequently mentioned.

Among the Australians[1167]we find very minute splinters of flint and quartz secured to wooden handles by “black-boy” gum, and forming the teeth of rude saws and the barbs of javelins. Some remarkably small flakes have also been found in the diamond-diggings of South Africa in company with fragments of ostrich-egg shell, such as with the aid of the flakes might have been converted into the small perforated discs still worn as ornaments by the Bushmen.

There are but few published notices of the discovery of English cores of flint, though they are to be found in numbers over a considerable tract of country, especially where flint abounds.

I have recorded their finding at Redhill,[1168]near Reigate, and at Little Solsbury Hill,[1169]near Bath. I also possess numerous specimens from Herts, Gloucestershire, Sussex, Bedfordshire, Suffolk, and Yorkshire. In several instances two series of flakes have been struck off, the one set at right angles to the other. More rarely the flakes have been obtained from both ends of the block.

A core from the Fens[1170]is in the Museum of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, and several were found, with other worked flints, in the chambered Long Barrow at West Kennet, Wiltshire.

Numerous specimens from Peter’s Finger, near Salisbury, and elsewhere, are in the Blackmore Museum; and a number were found by General Pitt Rivers in his researches at Cissbury, Sussex, and by Canon Greenwell at Grime’s Graves.[1171]Mr. Joseph Stevens has described specimens from St. Mary Bourne,[1172]Hants. They are recorded also as found with flakes at Port St. Mary,[1173]Isle of Man.

A long bludgeon-shaped nodule of flint, from one end of which a succession of flakes had been struck, was found in a grave, with a contracted skeleton, in a barrow near Winterbourn Stoke,[1174]Wilts.

Illustrations of cores, and of the manner in which flakes have been struck from them, have been given by various authors.[1175]

The existence of flakes involves the necessity of there having been cores from which they were struck; and as silicious flakes occur in almost all known countries, so also do cores. A series of Frenchnucleiis{278}figured by Mortillet,[1176]and a fine example from Olonetz,[1177]Russia, by Worsaae. They have also been found in the Arabian desert.[1178]Those of large size and of regular polygonal form are rare in Britain and Ireland, and, indeed, generally in Europe. Some of the largest and most regular occur in Scandinavia. I have also some good examples from Belgium. Many of the cores from Spiennes, near Mons, were subsequently utilized as celts; and the same was the case to some extent at Pressigny, the large cores from which have already been described. The Mexican[1179]and East Indian[1180]forms, in obsidian and cherty flint, have also been mentioned. They are unsurpassed for symmetry and for the skill exhibited in removing flakes from them.

Fig. 190.—Newhaven.1⁄2Fig. 191.—Redhill. Reigate.1⁄2Fig. 192.—Icklingham.1⁄2Fig. 193.—Seaford.1⁄2

Fig. 190.—Newhaven.1⁄2

Fig. 191.—Redhill. Reigate.1⁄2

Fig. 192.—Icklingham.1⁄2

Fig. 193.—Seaford.1⁄2

It is worthy of remark that cores and flakes of obsidian, almost identical in character with those from Mexico, but generally of small size, have been found in Greece, principally in the island of Melos.[1181]Specimens are in the Christy Collection, and I possess several. Obsidian nuclei are also found in Hungary.

Simple flakes and splinters of flint have been found in considerable numbers over almost the whole of Britain. Of the four here shown, Fig. 190 was found near Newhaven, Sussex; Fig. 191 near Reigate, Surrey; Fig. 192 near Icklingham, Suffolk; and Fig. 193 at Seaford, Sussex. At each of these places they occur in great numbers on the surface, and near Reigate some thousands were collected nearly forty years ago by Mr. Shelley,[1182]of whose discoveries I have given an account elsewhere. The counties in which they principally abound are perhaps{279}Cornwall,[1183]Devonshire,[1184]Dorsetshire, Wilts, Hants,[1185]Surrey,[1186]Oxfordshire,[1187]Sussex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Derbyshire, Lancashire,[1188]and Yorkshire; but they may be said to be ubiquitous. In some parts of Devonshire, and especially near Croyde, they occur in great numbers, so great, indeed, as to have led Mr. Whitley[1189]to suppose them to have been formed by natural causes rather than by human agency. Far more rational accounts of them have been given by Mr. Townshend M. Hall,[1190]Mr. H. S. Ellis,[1191]and Mr. C. Spence Bate.[1192]

Flakes and splinters of flint frequently occur in and around ancient encampments and settlements, as well as in association with interments both by cremation and inhumation. Many of the immense number of “spear-heads” collected by Mr. Bateman in his investigations were of the simple flake form, and others were flakes with but slight secondary working at the edges, such as will hereafter be noticed. Many other instruments which he discovered were merely flakes, such as the thick-backed cutting instrument of flint three inches long, with a bronze dagger and two small balls of stone, in a barrow containing a skeleton near Pickering,[1193]which would appear to have been of this character. They occurred with burnt bones in cinerary urns at Broughton,[1194]Lincolnshire, in one case with a flat bronze arrow-head; at Summer Hill,[1195]near Canterbury; with a flint arrow-head at Sittingbourne;[1196]with burnt bones and bronze daggers in a barrow at Teddington,[1197]Middlesex; at Penhow,[1198]Monmouth; and in the Gristhorpe Barrow,[1199]near Scarborough; with burnt bones in a circle of stones near Llanaber,[1200]Merionethshire, where no flint occurs naturally; with burnt bones in an urn beneath a tumulus at Brynbugeilen,[1201]Llangollen; in a barrow near Blackbury Castle,[1202]Devon; and in one on Dartmoor;[1203]and at Hollingsclough and Upper Edge,[1204]Derbyshire. Flakes, not of flint, but of a hard silicious grit, occurred in a cist with burnt bones near Harlech;[1205]and of some other hard stone in a cist in Merionethshire.[1206]Other instances have been cited by General Pitt Rivers,[1207]who found several rough flakes and splinters of grit and felspathic ash in cairns near Bangor, North Wales. Some of these showed signs of rubbing and use on their edges; in some cases they had the appearance of having been scraped by metal. Whether they were the weapons and tools of the people buried in the cairns, or{280}merely votive offerings, appeared to be somewhat doubtful. The urns associated with them were such as might well belong to the Bronze Period.

Flint flakes are described as found in graves with contracted interments at Amble,[1208]Northumberland; Driffield,[1209]Yorkshire; Ballidon Moor,[1210]Derbyshire; Littleton Drew,[1211]and Winterbourn Stoke,[1212]Wilts. Canon Greenwell[1213]has also found them in great numbers with interments of different characters. They occurred with extended burials at Oakley Park,[1214]near Cirencester. In some of the long barrows they are especially numerous, upwards of three hundred having been found by Dr. Thurnam at West Kennet,[1215]while there were three only in that of Rodmarton,[1216]and two were found at the base of the cairn in the chambered tumulus at Uley,[1217]Gloucestershire. Another accompanied a skeleton in a long barrow near Littleton Drew.[1218]Sir Richard Colt Hoare speaks of a great quantity of chipped flints, prepared for arrows or lances, as having been found in barrows on Long Street Down,[1219]and at Brigmilston, Wilts;[1220]but, as a rule, he seems not to have taken much notice of such simple forms. Others have been discovered with ashes at Helmingham,[1221]Suffolk.

It is, however, needless, to cite more instances of their occurrence with interments belonging to the Stone and Bronze Ages, as the presence of flakes and chippings of flint is in such cases the rule rather than the exception.

In Scotland, where flint is a scarcer natural product, they are also found. As instances, I may cite one found in an urn within a cist at Tillicoultry,[1222]Clackmannanshire; and in a cist in Arran.[1223]In some parts of Aberdeenshire[1224]and Banffshire they are numerous, and in the Buchan district are associated with shell mounds, or kjökken-möddings. They occur also in Lanarkshire and Elgin.[1225]In Orkney[1226]they abound: as also at the Bin of Cullen,[1227]where a manufactory of arrow-heads seems to have existed. In cists in Roxburghshire[1228]were sepulchral urns and numerous flint flakes; and in Argyllshire[1229]there were in a cist with a skeleton flint flakes in such numbers as to form a heap from eighteen inches to two feet in height. Some of white quartz have been found associated with arrow-heads in Banffshire.[1230]Little heaps[1231]of six or eight were found in each corner of a grave at Clashfarquhar, Aberdeen. They abound on the sand-hills near Glenluce and on the Culbin Sands.

Of ancient encampments or settlements where flint flakes occur in{281}numbers, I may mention Maiden Bower, near Dunstable; Pulpit Wood, near Prince’s Risborough; Cissbury,[1232]Beltout Castle, and other encampments in Sussex; Little Solsbury Hill, near Bath; Castle Ring,[1233]Cannock Chase; Avebury,[1234]Wilts; and Callow Hill,[1235]Oxfordshire. They have been found in wonderful abundance on the surface in the counties already mentioned, and their occurrence has been noticed near Bradford Abbas;[1236]near Folkestone;[1237]at Possingworth Manor,[1238]Uckfield; near Hastings;[1239]at Stonham[1240]and Icklingham, Suffolk; near Grime’s Graves, Norfolk;[1241]at St. Mary Bourne,[1242]Hants; and in a turbary at Heneglwys,[1243]Anglesea, an island in which no flint occurs naturally. Two from Carno, Montgomeryshire, are engraved in theArchæologia Cambrensis.[1244]They have also been found under a submerged forest on the coast of West Somerset.[1245]I have seen a few flakes made from Lower Tertiary conglomerate.

In districts where flint was an imported luxury, other stones, usually containing a large proportion of silica, and when broken presenting a conchoidal fracture, served, so far as the material allowed, the same purposes as flint. Of this a few instances have already been given. In some cases even laminated sandstones, shales, and slates seem to have been utilized. Numerous relics of this kind, some so rude that their purposes may appear doubtful, were found by the late Mr. S. Laing,[1246]in Caithness. Large oval flakes, made from sandstone pebbles, occurred in very great numbers in and around the ancient dwelling at Skaill, Orkney. In form, however, these approximate more nearly to the Pict’s knives, of which hereafter, than to ordinary flakes. The method of their manufacture has been described by Mr. Laing.[1247]

A curious stone knife or dagger, found beside a stone cist in Perthshire,[1248]is described as a natural formation of mica-schist, the peculiar shape of which has suggested its adaptation as a rude but efficient implement.

Some rude spear-heads of flint and greenstone are said to have been found near Pytchley,[1249]Northamptonshire; and some of Kentish rag at Maidstone.[1250]I have also seen them made of Oolitic flint.

Flakes of quartzite have been found, together with some of flint and quartz and with polished celts, in some of the caverns inhabited during the Neolithic Period in the Pyrenees of the Ariège,[1251]and also in the Lake Settlement of Greug.[1252]

When we consider how well adapted for cutting purposes were{282}these simple flakes of flint, and how they constituted, as it were, the raw material for so many of the more finished forms, such as arrow-heads, of which the consumption in ancient times must have been enormous; and when, moreover, we take into account that in producing a well-formed flake many waste flakes and mere splinters must probably have been struck off, and that in forming the large implements of flint almost innumerable chips or spalls must have been made, their abundance on the sites of ancient dwelling-places is by no means surprising, especially as the material of which they are formed is almost indestructible.

Such fragments of flint must have been among the daily necessities of ancient savage life, and we can well understand the feeling which led the survivors of the departed hunter to place in his grave not only the finished weapons of the chase, but the material from which to form them, as a provision for him in “the happy hunting grounds,” the only entrance to which was through the gate of Death.

The occurrence of flint chips and potsherds in the soil of which barrows are composed, may in some cases be merely the result of their being made up of earth gathered from the surface of the ground, which from previous occupation by man was bestrewn with such remains. It is, however, often otherwise, especially when the flakes are in immediate association with the interment. The practice of throwing a stone on a cairn is no doubt a relic of an ancient custom.[1253]The “shards, flint, and pebbles” which Ophelia should have had thrown on her in her grave may, as has been suggested by Canon Greenwell,[1254]point to a sacred Pagan custom remembered in Christian times, but then deemed irreligious and unholy.

The presence of flint flakes in ancient graves is not, however, limited to those of the so-called Stone and Bronze Periods, but they occur with even more recent interments. For it seems probable that the flint was in some cases buried as a fire-producing agent, and not as the material for tools or weapons. In a cist at Lesmurdie,[1255]Banffshire, apparently of early date, were some chips of flint which appeared to the discoverer to have been originally accompanied by a steel or piece of iron and tinder. The oxide of iron may, however, have been merely the result of{283}the decomposition of a piece of iron pyrites. At Worle Hill,[1256]Somersetshire, “flint flakes, prepared for arrow-heads,” were found with iron spear-heads and other objects, though it is very doubtful whether they were in true association. In Saxon graves,[1257]however, small nests of chipped flints are not unfrequent, and the same is the case with Merovingian and Frankish interments, sometimes accompanied by the steels orbriquets,[1258]at other times without them. I have a wrought flint of this class, curiously like a modern gun-flint, from an early German grave near Wiesbaden. Occasionally flakes of other materials than flint occur. Their presence in graves is regarded by M. Baudot as due to a reminiscence of some ancient rite of sepulchre. In the Anglo-Saxon burial-ground at Harnham Hill,[1259]near Salisbury, and at Ozengal, steels were also found. Canon Greenwell found a steel, in form much like those of modern date, in a Saxon grave at Uncleby in the East Riding of Yorkshire. As has been pointed out by Mr. Akerman, Scheffer[1260]informs us that so late as the seventeenth century, the Lapps were buried with their axe, bow, and arrows, and a flint and steel, to be used both in a life to come and in finding their way to the scene of their future existence.

Flakes and rudely chipped pieces of flint are also of very common occurrence on the sites of Roman occupation, as, for instance, at Hardham,[1261]Sussex, where Prof. Boyd Dawkins found them associated with Roman pottery. At Moel Fenlli,[1262]also, in the vale of Clwyd, there occurred with Roman pottery some flint flakes which have been figured as arrow-heads, and with them what is termed a stone knife, but which is, however, more probably a whetstone used to sharpen those of steel. I have myself noticed flint flakes at Regulbium (Reculver), Verulamium (St. Alban’s), and on other Roman sites. Many of them were no doubt used for producing fire, but the more finished flakes may possibly have served as carpenters’ tools for scraping, in the same way as fragments of glass are in use at the present day.

There is, however, another cause why rude splinters of flint{284}should accompany Roman remains, especially in the case of villas in country districts, for thetribulum, or threshing implement employed both by the Romans and other ancient civilized nations, was a “sharp threshing instrument having teeth,”[1263]in most cases of flint. Varro[1264]thus describes thetribulum:—“Id fit e tabulâ lapidibus aut ferro exasperatâ, quæ imposito auriga aut pondere grandi trahitur jumentis junctis ut discutiat e spicâ grana.” Another form of the instrument was calledtrahaortrahea. In the East, in Northern Africa, Spain, Portugal, Madeira, Teneriffe, and probably other parts of the world, threshing implements, which no doubt closely resemble the originaltribula, are still in use. The name is still preserved in the Italiantrebbiatrice, the Spanishtrilla, and the Portuguesetrilho, but survives, metaphorically alone, in our Englishtribulation. In Egypt their name isnureg, and in Greece ἁλωνίιστρα, from ἁλωνία, a threshing-floor. Drawings of varioustribulahave been given by various travellers,[1265]and the implements themselves from different countries may be seen in the Christy Collection and in the Blackmore Museum. They are flat sledges of wood, five to six feet in length, and two or three in breadth, the under side pitted with a number of square or lozenge-shaped holes, mortised a little distance into the wood, and having in each hole a flake or splinter of stone. I have seen them in Spain mounted with simple pebbles. In those from Madeira the stone is a volcanic rock, but in that from Aleppo—preserved in the Christy Collection,[1266]and shown in Fig. 194—each flake is of cherty flint and has been artificially shaped. Occasionally there are a few projecting ribs or runners of iron along part of the machine, but in most instances the whole of the armature is of stone. As eachtrilhois provided with some hundreds of chipped stones, we can readily understand what a number of rough flakes might be left in the soil at places where they were long in use, in addition to the flakes and splinters which for centuries have been used for striking a light.

Fig. 194.—Tribulum from Aleppo.

Flakes and splinters of silicious stone, whether flint, jasper, chert, iron-stone, quartzite, or obsidian, are to be found in almost all known countries, and belong to all ages. They are in fact{285}the most catholic of all stone implements, and have been in use “semper, ubique, et ab omnibus.” Whether we look in our old River-gravels of the age of the mammoth, in our old cave-deposits, our ancient encampments, or our modern gun-flint manufactories,{286}there is the inevitable flake. And it is almost universally the same in other countries—in Greenland or South Africa, on the field of Marathon or in the backwoods of Australia, among the sands of Arabia[1267]or on the plains of America,—wherever such flakes and splinters are sought for, they are almost sure to be found, either in use among the savage occupants of the country at the present day, or among civilized nations, left in the soil as memorials of their more or less remote barbarian ancestors.

Flint flakes are found in great abundance in Ireland, especially in Ulster, where the raw material occurs in the chalk. At Toome Bridge, on the shores of Lough Neagh, many thousands have been found, and they occur in abundance in the valley of the Bann,[1268]and in slightly raised beaches along the shores of Belfast Lough. They are rarely more than 4 or 5 inches in length; and symmetrical, flat, parallel flakes are extremely rare. Many pointed flakes have been slightly trimmed[1269]at the butt-end, and converted into a sort of lance-head without further preparation. Such flakes may have pointed fishing-spears. They are occasionally formed of Lydian stone.In Scandinavia, the art of flaking flint attained to great perfection, and flat or ridged symmetrical flakes, as much as 6 inches long, and not more than3⁄4-inchwide, are by no means uncommon. Occasionally they are no less than 13 inches long.[1270]Two in the Museum at Copenhagen[1271](9 inches) fit the one on the other. The ridge is sometimes formed by cross-chipping. The bulk of the flakes from the kjökken-möddings are of a rude character, though very many show traces of use.In Germany, long flakes of flint are rare, but one about61⁄2inches long, found in Rhenish-Hesse, is engraved by Lindenschmit.[1272]In some parts of France they are extremely plentiful, especially on and around the sites of ancient flintateliers. Some flakes, like those produced at Pressigny, were of great length. One not less than131⁄4inches long, and not more than11⁄2inches broad at the butt, found at Pauilhac, in the Valley of the Gers, has been figured in theRevue de Gascogne.[1273]A flake from Gergovia, 9 inches long, is in the Museum at Clermont Ferrand.One83⁄4inches long was found in the Camp de Catenoy[1274](Oise).Long flakes found in France have been engraved by numerous authors,[1275]and some from Belgium by Le Hon.[1276]Obsidian cores and flakes have been found in Lorraine,[1277]the material having been brought from Auvergne.{287}Flakes occur, but not so abundantly, in Spain and Portugal. A fragment of a ridged flake of jasper, found in the cave of Albuñol in Spain,[1278]is11⁄2inches long. In one of the Genista Caves[1279]at Gibraltar there was found one of the long flakes, but of which a part had been broken off. Another was61⁄2inches long and5⁄8inch wide. In Algarve,[1280]Portugal, they have been found up to 15 inches in length; some of them are beautifully serrated at the edges.In Italy they are by no means uncommon, sometimes of great length. One, 7 inches long, is figured by Nicolucci.[1281]Among the Swiss Lake-dwellers considerable use was made of flint flakes, not only as the material for arrow-heads, but for cutting tools. So great was the abundance of flint left on the site of some of their habitations, as at Nussdorf,[1282]that in after ages the spot was resorted to for generations, in order to procure flints for use with steel. It was by their being thus known as flint-producing spots that some of the Lake-dwellings were discovered. A flake nearly 7 inches long, from peat, in the Canton de Vaud, has been engraved by De Bonstetten.[1283]A flake 9 inches long from Transcaucasia[1284]has been figured.In Egypt[1285]flakes of flint have been found in considerable numbers in certain localities, some of them associated with polished stone hatchets; others are possibly of no extreme antiquity, though undoubtedly of artificial origin, and not of merely natural formation, as has been suggested by Lepsius.[1286]That distinguished antiquary has, however, found a number of well-formed ridged and polygonal flakes in Egypt, some of them in a grave which he has reason to assign to about 2500B.C.A vast number of discoveries of flint flakes and other forms of worked flints has, of late years, been made in Egypt. It will probably be sufficient to indicate in a note[1287]some of the principal memoirs relating to the subject. They are found also in the Libyan[1288]desert. The discoveries at Helouan will be subsequently mentioned.The presence of numerous flakes, scrapers and other forms of flint instruments, has also been noticed in Algeria.[1289]They are for the most part rude and small.Flint flakes and tools are found on Mount Lebanon,[1290]and on the Nablus[1291]road from Jerusalem there are mounds entirely composed of flint chippings.{288}Fig. 195.—Admiralty Islands.In Southern Africa,[1292]near Capetown and Grahamstown, flakes abound on the surface of the ground, sometimes of chert or flint, but often of basaltic rock. I have one from Grahamstown 8 inches in length.Their occurrence in India has already been noticed. The flakes from Jubbulpore[1293]are for the most part of small size, but some of those removed from the cores found in the river Indus must have been at least 5 or 6 inches long.In America, flint, or rather horn-stone flakes, are not uncommon, though not so often noticed as the more finished forms. Some found in the mounds of Ohio are of considerable length, one engraved by Squier and Davis[1294]being51⁄2inches long. Some of the Mexican flakes of obsidian are fully 6 inches in length.

In Scandinavia, the art of flaking flint attained to great perfection, and flat or ridged symmetrical flakes, as much as 6 inches long, and not more than3⁄4-inchwide, are by no means uncommon. Occasionally they are no less than 13 inches long.[1270]Two in the Museum at Copenhagen[1271](9 inches) fit the one on the other. The ridge is sometimes formed by cross-chipping. The bulk of the flakes from the kjökken-möddings are of a rude character, though very many show traces of use.

In Germany, long flakes of flint are rare, but one about61⁄2inches long, found in Rhenish-Hesse, is engraved by Lindenschmit.[1272]

In some parts of France they are extremely plentiful, especially on and around the sites of ancient flintateliers. Some flakes, like those produced at Pressigny, were of great length. One not less than131⁄4inches long, and not more than11⁄2inches broad at the butt, found at Pauilhac, in the Valley of the Gers, has been figured in theRevue de Gascogne.[1273]A flake from Gergovia, 9 inches long, is in the Museum at Clermont Ferrand.

One83⁄4inches long was found in the Camp de Catenoy[1274](Oise).

Long flakes found in France have been engraved by numerous authors,[1275]and some from Belgium by Le Hon.[1276]

Obsidian cores and flakes have been found in Lorraine,[1277]the material having been brought from Auvergne.{287}

Flakes occur, but not so abundantly, in Spain and Portugal. A fragment of a ridged flake of jasper, found in the cave of Albuñol in Spain,[1278]is11⁄2inches long. In one of the Genista Caves[1279]at Gibraltar there was found one of the long flakes, but of which a part had been broken off. Another was61⁄2inches long and5⁄8inch wide. In Algarve,[1280]Portugal, they have been found up to 15 inches in length; some of them are beautifully serrated at the edges.

In Italy they are by no means uncommon, sometimes of great length. One, 7 inches long, is figured by Nicolucci.[1281]

Among the Swiss Lake-dwellers considerable use was made of flint flakes, not only as the material for arrow-heads, but for cutting tools. So great was the abundance of flint left on the site of some of their habitations, as at Nussdorf,[1282]that in after ages the spot was resorted to for generations, in order to procure flints for use with steel. It was by their being thus known as flint-producing spots that some of the Lake-dwellings were discovered. A flake nearly 7 inches long, from peat, in the Canton de Vaud, has been engraved by De Bonstetten.[1283]

A flake 9 inches long from Transcaucasia[1284]has been figured.

In Egypt[1285]flakes of flint have been found in considerable numbers in certain localities, some of them associated with polished stone hatchets; others are possibly of no extreme antiquity, though undoubtedly of artificial origin, and not of merely natural formation, as has been suggested by Lepsius.[1286]That distinguished antiquary has, however, found a number of well-formed ridged and polygonal flakes in Egypt, some of them in a grave which he has reason to assign to about 2500B.C.

A vast number of discoveries of flint flakes and other forms of worked flints has, of late years, been made in Egypt. It will probably be sufficient to indicate in a note[1287]some of the principal memoirs relating to the subject. They are found also in the Libyan[1288]desert. The discoveries at Helouan will be subsequently mentioned.

The presence of numerous flakes, scrapers and other forms of flint instruments, has also been noticed in Algeria.[1289]They are for the most part rude and small.

Flint flakes and tools are found on Mount Lebanon,[1290]and on the Nablus[1291]road from Jerusalem there are mounds entirely composed of flint chippings.{288}

Fig. 195.—Admiralty Islands.

In Southern Africa,[1292]near Capetown and Grahamstown, flakes abound on the surface of the ground, sometimes of chert or flint, but often of basaltic rock. I have one from Grahamstown 8 inches in length.

Their occurrence in India has already been noticed. The flakes from Jubbulpore[1293]are for the most part of small size, but some of those removed from the cores found in the river Indus must have been at least 5 or 6 inches long.

In America, flint, or rather horn-stone flakes, are not uncommon, though not so often noticed as the more finished forms. Some found in the mounds of Ohio are of considerable length, one engraved by Squier and Davis[1294]being51⁄2inches long. Some of the Mexican flakes of obsidian are fully 6 inches in length.

In ancient times the Ichthyophagi are described by Diodorus[1295]as using antelopes’ horns and stones broken to a sharp edge in their fishing, “for necessity teaches everything.” Flakes are still in some cases used without any secondary chipping or working into form.

We find, for instance, flakes of flint or obsidian, and even of glass, almost in the condition in which they were struck from the parent block, employed as lance and javelin-heads, among several savage people, such as the natives of Australia,[1296]and of the Admiralty Islands.[1297]One of those said to be in use among the latter people is shown, half-size, in Fig. 195,[1298]and exhibits the method of attachment to the shaft. The butt-end of the flake is let into a socket in a short tapering piece of wood, into the other extremity of which the end of the long{289}light shaft is inserted; both flake and shaft are next secured by tying, and then the whole of the socket and ligatures is covered up with a coating of resinous gum, occasionally decorated with zigzag and other patterns. Some flakes are mounted as daggers.

Some of the long parallel flakes also appear to have been hafted. One such, probably from Mexico, has been engraved by Aldrovandus as aculter lapideus.[1299]A tool in use among the natives of Easter Island[1300]consisted of a broad flake of obsidian, with a roughly chipped tang which was inserted in a slit in the handle to which it was bound, the binding being tightened by means of wooden wedges driven in under the string.

To return, however, to the flakes of flint which were used in this country for scraping or cutting purposes, at an early period, when metal was either unknown or comparatively scarce. Each flake, when dexterously made, has on either side a cutting edge, so sharp that it almost might, like the obsidian flakes of Mexico, be used as a razor. Some flakes indeed seem to have served as surgical instruments, as the practice of trephining was known in the Stone Period. So long as the edge is used merely for cutting soft substances it may remain for some time comparatively uninjured, and even if slightly jagged its cutting power is not impaired. If long in use, the sides of the blade become rather polished by wear, and I have specimens, both English and foreign, on which the polish thus produced can be observed. If the flake has been used for scraping a surface, say, for instance, of bone or wood, the edge will be found to wear away, by extremely minute portions chipping off nearly at right angles to the scraping edge, and with the lines of fracture running back from it. The coarseness of these minute chips will vary in accordance with the amount of pressure used, and the material scraped; but generally speaking, I think that I am right in saying that they are more delicate and at a more obtuse angle to the face, than the small chipping produced by the secondary working of the edge of a flake, of which I shall presently speak. In all cases where any considerable number of flakes of flint occur, such as there appears to be good reason for attributing to a remote period, a greater or less proportion of them will, on examination, be found to bear these signs of wear upon them, extending over, at all events, some portion of their edges.{290}

It is, however, difficult if not impossible, always to determine whether the chipping away of the edge of a flake is merely the result of use, or whether it is intentional. There can be no doubt that for many purposes the acute edge of a flake, as originally formed, was too delicate and brittle, and that it was therefore re-worked by subsequent chipping, so as to make the angle more obtuse, and thus strengthen the edge of the tool. It is curious to observe how rarely the edges of flakes were sharpened by grinding. It was probably considered less troublesome to form a new flake than to sharpen an old one; in the same way as it is recorded that the Mexican barbers threw away their obsidian flakes as soon as they were dull and made use of new ones. Dr. E. B. Tylor, in the free translation of the passage in Torquemada relating to these razors, appears, as has been pointed out by Messrs. Daubrée and Roulin,[1301]to have fallen into a mistake in representing them to have been sharpened on a hone, the original author having merely said that the edge of the obsidian flakes was as keen as if they had been forged in iron, ground on a stone, and finished on a hone.

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