Page:The Ancient Stone Implements (1897).djvu/214

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192
PERFORATED AXES.
[CHAP. VIII.

specimen found, in 1865, at North Bovey, Devon. It is of greenstone, about 33/4 inches long. The sides taper towards the butt-end, which is rounded, and the hole in the middle appears to be only about 1/2 inch in diameter, but bell-mouthed at each face. It is now in the Museum at Exeter. Another (37/8 inches) was found at Ugborough, Devon.[1]

The implement shown in Fig. 124 seems to be an unfinished specimen belonging to this class. It is formed of greenstone, portions of the natural joints of which are still visible on its surface. It seems to have been worked into shape by picking rather than by grinding; but the hole appears, from the character of the surface, to have been ground. Had it been continued through the stone, it would probably have been considerably enlarged in diameter, and if so, the implement

Fig. 124.—Stourton. 1/2

would have been much weakened around the hole. It seems possible that it was on this account that it was left unfinished. It was found near Stourton, on the borders of Somerset and Wilts.

The third of the classes into which, for the sake of convenience, I have divided these instruments, consists of axe-heads with a cutting edge at one end only, the shaft-hole being near the other end, which is rounded.

Fig. 125 represents an elegant specimen of this class, found at Bardwell, in Suffolk, and formerly in the collection of Mr. Joseph Warren, of Ixworth, but now in my own. The material appears to be felstone. The edge is slightly rounded, the shaft-hole carefully finished, and the two faces ground hollow, probably in the manner suggested at p. 43.

  1. Tr. Dev. Assoc., vol. xxii, p. 44.