Page:The Ancient Stone Implements (1897).djvu/129

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE THIN AND HIGHLY POLISHED TYPE.
107

green colour, found in Burwell Fen, Cambridge, and, through the kindness of Mr. Marlborough Pryor, now in my own collection.
Fig. 52.—Burwell Fen. 1/2
The material appears to be a very hard diorite; and as both faces are highly polished all over, the labour bestowed in the manufacture of such an instrument must have been immense. It is somewhat curved lengthways, and on the inner face is a slight depression, as if, in chipping it out, one of the lines of fracture had run in too far; but even this depression is polished, and no trace of the original chipped surface remains. The point is quite sharp, and the sides are only in the slightest degree rounded.

A beautiful example of the kind is said to have been found in a barrow near Stonehenge.[1] Another of a green-grey colour (61/2 inches) was found at Lopham Ford, near the source of the Waveney, and was submitted to me in 1884, by the late Mr. T. E. Amyot, of Diss.

The late Mr. J. W. Flower, F.G.S., bequeathed to me a somewhat larger specimen of the same character, found at Daviot, Inverness. It is slightly broken at the pointed butt, but must have been about 8 inches long and 35/8 broad. The material may be a diorite, but perhaps more nearly approaches what the French term jadeite. In the Truro Museum is another highly polished celt of the same form, and similar material, found near Falmouth.

Mr. J. W. Brooke has a beautifully polished specimen, made of a green transparent stone, from Breamore, Salisbury. It has lost a small piece at the butt-end, but is still 8 inches long. It is only 25/8 inches broad at the cutting end.

Another celt, 73/4 inches long, "the edges thin, rising gradually to about the thickness of half an inch in the middle," was found in 1791 near Hopton, Derbyshire.[2] The material is described as appearing "to be marble, of a light colour tinged with yellow, and a mixture of pale red and green veins."

In the collection of the late Mr. J. F. Lucas was a celt of this type
  1. Arch., vol. xliii. p. 406.
  2. Arch., vol. xii. pl. ii. 1.