Lake Erie, engraved by Schoolcraft.[1] Others have been found in the State of New York.[2] See C. Rau's "Prehistoric Fishing."[3]
Sink-stones are by no means rare in Ireland, and continue in use to the present day. One of the same class as Fig. 159, but grooved round the long axis of the pebble, is engraved by Sir W. Wilde.[4] Similar stones occur in Denmark, and were regarded by Worsaae[5] as sink-stones, though some of them, to judge from the wear at the ends, and the hardness of the material, were used as hammers. I have seen, in Sweden, the leg bones of animals used as weights for sinking nets.
Another form of sink-stone, weight, or plummet, was formed by boring a hole towards one end of a flattish stone. Such a one, weighing 1414 oz., was dredged from the Thames at Battersea.[6]
Another, of oval form, pierced at one end, from Tyrie,[7] Aberdeenshire, is in the National Museum at Edinburgh; and a wedge-shaped perforated stone from Culter, Lanarkshire,[8] was probably intended for the same purpose. These may have been in use for stretching the warp in the loom when weaving. They are found of this form with Roman remains.[9]
- ↑ "Ind. Tribes," vol. ii. pl. 39.
- ↑ Op. cit., vol. ii. p. 90.
- ↑ 1884, p. 156 seqq., also Arch. f. Anth., vol. v. p. 262
- ↑ "Cat. Mus. R. I. A.," p. 95, fig. 77.
- ↑ "Nord. Oldsag.," fig. 88; Nilsson, "Stone Age," pl. ii. p. 34.
- ↑ Arch. Assoc. Journ., vol. xiv. p. 327.
- ↑ Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. iv. p. 489.
- ↑ Arch. Assoc. Journ., vol. xvii. p. 19.
- ↑ See a paper on "Antike Gewicht-steine," by Prof. Ritschl, in the Jahrb. d. Ver. v. Alterthums-fr. im Rheinl., Heft. xli. 9; also xliii. 209.
