In Ireland, perforated hammer-stones are much more abundant than in England. They are usually formed of some igneous or metamorphic rock, and vary considerably in size, some being as much as 10 or 12 inches in length. Sir W. Wilde observes that stone hammers, and not unfrequently stone anvils, have been employed by smiths and tinkers in some of the remote country districts until a comparatively recent period. If, however, these hammers were perforated, there can be but little doubt that they must have been ancient tools again brought into use, as the labour in manufacturing a stone hammer of this kind would be greater than that of making one in iron, which would, moreover, be ten times as serviceable. If, however, the stone hammers came to hand ready made, they might claim a preference. For heavy work, where iron was scarce, large mauls, such as those shortly to be described, might have been in use rather than iron sledges; but the more usual form of stone hammer would probably be a pebble held in the hand, as is constantly the case with the workers in iron of Southern Africa. Even in Peru and Bolivia, the late Mr. David Forbes, F.R.S., informed me that the masons skilful in working hard stone with steel chisels, make use of no other mallet or hammer than a stone pebble held in the hand. The anvils and hammers used in Patagonia[1] in working silver are generally of stone, but the latter are not perforated.
In Germany, as already[2] incidentally remarked, anvils formed of basalt were in frequent use in the sixteenth century.
In Scandinavia and Germany the same forms of hammers as those found in the British Isles occur, both in quartzite and in other kinds of stone. They are not, however, abundant. Worsaae does not give the type in his "Nordiske Oldsager," and Nilsson gives but a single instance.[3] Lindenschmit[4] engraves a specimen from Oldenstadt, Lüneburg, and another from Gelderland.[5]
In Switzerland they are extremely rare. In the Neuchâtel Museum, however, is a perforated hammer, formed from an oval pebble, and found in the Lake-habitations at Concise; another, 2 inches in diameter, with a small perforation deeply countersunk on each face, has been regarded by M. de Mortillet[6] as a sink-stone for a net.
I have a lenticular mace-head, 3 inches in diameter and 2 inches thick, formed of a silicious breccia from Pergamum. The hole tapers from 34 inch to 12 inch.
The half of a small perforated hammer made of greenstone and polished is recorded to have been found at Arconum,[7] west of Madras. A perforated stone, possibly a hammer, was found in the Jubbulpore district, Central India;[8] and a fine example from the Central Provinces,[9] rather more oval than Fig. 157, has been figured by the late Mr. V. Ball.
In the British Museum is a perforated ball of hard red stone of a different type from any of those which I have described, which came from Peru. It is about 3 inches in diameter, with a parallel hole an inch across. Around the outside are engraved four human faces, each surmounted by a sort of mitre. It may be the head of a mace.
- ↑ Journ. Anthrop. Inst., vol. i. p. 198.
- ↑ Sup., p. 64.
- ↑ "Stone Age," pl. i. 12.
- ↑ "Alt. u. h. V.," vol. i. Heft i. Taf. i. 4.
- ↑ Op. cit., vol. i. Heft viii. Taf. i. 6.
- ↑ "Or. de la Navig., &c.," fig. 20.
- ↑ Trans. preh. Cong., 1868, p. 236.
- ↑ Proc. As. Soc. Beng., 1866, p. 135.
- ↑ Proc. As. Soc. Beng., Mar., 1874.
