at the sides, diminislies to 12 an inch, in the centre. In this respect it resembles some of the hammer-stones shortly to be described.
Fig. 136 presents a rather more elaborate form, which is, however, partly due to that of the flat oval quartzite pebble from which this axe-hammer was made. The hammer-end seems to preserve the form of the pebble almost intact; it is, however, slightly flattened at the extremity. The original is preserved in the Greenwell Collection, and was found in a cist at Seghill,[1] near Newcastle, in 1866. The bones, by which it was no doubt originally accompanied, had entirely gone to decay. A Scotch example, made of basalt, the sides of which are much more concave, is shown in Fig. 136a, kindly lent by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. It was found at Wick,[2] Caithness.
Fig. 136a.—Wick, Caithness. 12
It was an axe-head somewhat of the character of Fig. 136, but sharper at the hammer-end, that was found in an urn, near Broughton in Craven, in 1675, and with it a small bronze dagger (with a tang and single rivet hole) and a hone. It is described and figured by Thoresby.[3] Hearne[4] regarded it as Danish. It is described as of speckled marble polished, 6 inches long and 312 inches broad, with the edge at one end blunted by use. A nearly similar form (412 inches) has occurred in Shetland.[5] What appears to be an unbored axe of this kind is in the Powysland Museum.[6]
