department of the Charente is engraved by de Rochebrune;[1] and a third from the department of Seine et Oise is in the Musée de St. Germain.[2] A fine example of the same form is in the Museum at Tours, and another in that of Blois. In the collection of M. Reboux[3] was a curious implement from the Seine, formed of flint, pointed at each end, and perforated in the middle. Another, in flint, from Mesnil en Arronaise[4] (Somme) (812 inches), has been figured. The perforations may be natural, though improved by art. In my own collection is one of the finest specimens that I have ever seen. It is also from the Seine at Paris. It is 934 inches long, and slightly curved in the direction of its length; on either side there is a long sunk lozenge, in the centre of which is the cylindrical shaft-hole, and the ends expand into flat semicircular blades about 214 inches across. The material is a hard basaltic rock, and the preservation perfect. It was found in 1876.
A stone axe in the Museum of the Royal Institution at Swansea, and found at Llanmadock, in Gower, has been kindly lent me for engraving, and is shown in Fig. 120. It expands at the sharper end much more suddenly and to a much greater extent than does that from Hunmanby. The edge at that end, which is almost semicircular in outline, has suffered from ill-usage since it was discovered; the material of which it is made being felspathic ash, the surface of which has become soft by decomposition. The other and narrower end is flattened to about half an inch in width. The implement has already been engraved on a smaller scale.[5]
In Bartlett's "History and Antiquities of Manceter, Warwickshire,"[6] is engraved an axe of the same character as this, but expanding at the blunter end almost as much as it does at the edge, which is described as being very sharp. It is said to have been formed of the hard blue stone of the country, but "from age or the soil in which it has lain" to be "now coloured with an elegant olive-coloured patina." It was found on Hartshill Common, in 1770, where a small tumulus had been cut through, "the bottom of which was paved with brick, which by the heat of the fire had been nearly vitrified." There is probably some mistake as to the bricks.
Another axe-head like Fig. 120, 8 inches in length, and more distinctly hammer-like at the narrow end, was found in the parish of Abernethy, Perthshire, and has been engraved by Wilson.[7]
In character these axes with expanded ends more nearly resemble some of the Scandinavian and North German types than do most of the other British forms. Broken stone axes expanding at the edge have been found on the site of Troy.
In the Museum of the Leeds Philosophical Society is a double-edged axe-head of a larger and coarser kind, which is said to have been found near Whitby. Its authenticity was strongly vouched for by the late Mr. Denny, but I fear that it is a modern fabrication.
An implement of the same form, from Gerdauen, East Prussia, is- ↑ "Mém. sur les Restes d'Indust.," &c., 1866, pl. x. 12.
- ↑ Mortillet, "Promenades," p. 146.
- ↑ Cong. préh. Bologne, 1871, p. 101. Do. Buda-Pest, 1876, p. 87. "Mus. Préh.," No. 500.
- ↑ Rev. Arch., 3rd S., vol. vii. p. 66.
- ↑ Arch. Journ., vol. iii. p. 67.
- ↑ P. 17, pl. ii. 3.
- ↑ "Preh. Ann. of Scot.," vol. i. p. 193.
