Besides the peculiar mode in which they are broken, denoting that it had been done for the purpose of extracting the marrow,[1] there may be sometimes observed, on the surface of the bones, scratches and shallow cuts, which appear to have been caused by the edge of some instrument employed to remove the flesh.
In fact, we collected among the very ashes on the hearth a hundred pieces of silex, some of no definite form, but the greater number fashioned after the type so universally met with and designated by archæologists under the name of "knives." It would appear that a portion at least of these implements had been manufactured on the spot, as we found, in the neighbourhood of the hearth, the nuclei of the blocks from which splinters of various dimensions had been struck off. We also found, in the same situation, a stone of a circular form, flattened on two sides with a central depression on each, and constituted of a rock not found in this region or the Pyrenees, and which, from the explanation of its object given me by M. Steinhauer, Conservator of the Ethnographic Museum at Copenhagen, was used for renewing, by skilful blows, the edges of the flint knives. The central depression on each flat side was intended for the fingers and thumb in the required manœuvre.[2] We also procured from among the ashes two portions of silex broken so as to have numerous facets, which have been regarded by archæologists as missiles [sling-stones], and which are rendered more destructive by the numerous angles presented on the surface.
Besides these flint arms and knives there were also found, both in the ashes and in the superjacent ossiferous layer, many other instruments of divers forms, and made for the most part of the more compact portion of the Reindeer's horn. Some of these are in the form of arrow-heads, simply lanceolate, and without wings or recurrent barbs, such as are found in arrow-heads of a more recent period. All are broken immediately below the widened base of the lance-shaped portion. Some of these arrows appear to have been reddened by the action of fire, as if they had been left in the flesh of the animal when it was cooked. One of the largest among them exhibits, on its two opposite surfaces, some impressions in the form of a cross, which, though with some hesitation, may be regarded as having been caused by the teeth of a carnivorous ammal in its endeavours to draw the arrow from the wound (??). One of these bone--
- ↑ Travellers relate that among people who live chiefly on the products of the chase, the marrow of the bones of the Herbivora is highly appreciated and sometimes reserved for the chiefs. Among the Laps and Greenlanders the marrow taken warm from the animal is held one of the greatest delicacies, and is presented as a mark of honour, according to M. Morlot, to the visitor and Government officers.—Morlot, Etudes geologico-archeologiques en Danemarch et en Suisse.
- ↑ Implements for the same purpose have been figured in the "Atlas of Antiquities of the Stone Age of Denmark," by M. Worsaae. M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards has also informed me that he saw similar implements in one of tho museums in Holland recently visited by him.
