nodule of pyrites preserved in the British Museum, which is some- what abraded in the middle of its flat face, though not so much so as that from Yorkshire. It was discovered with flint flakes in a barrow on Lambourn Down,[1] Berkshire, by Mr. E. Martin Atkins, in 1850. In a barrow at Flowerburn,[2] Ross-shire, in 1885, a similar half nodule and a flint scraper were found, and a discovery of the same kind was made by Lord Northesk, at Teindside,[3] near Minto, Roxburghshire, about 1870. A fine piece of pyrites in company with worked flints was found in 1881, in a ruined dolmen, in the Ile d'Arz,[4] Brittany, by the Abbé Luco. A well striated block of pyrites was also found with numerous objects formed of flint and other kinds of stone, on the Rocher de Beg-er-Goallenner, Quiberon, by M. F. Gaillard.[5]
A nodule of pyrites, with a deep scoring upon it, and found in one of the Belgian bone caves, the Trou de Chaleux, has been engraved by Dr. E. Dupont,[6] who regards it as having been used as a fire-producing agent. The flint that produced the scoring appears to have had a pointed, rather than a rounded end. Possibly the wearing away of the ends of certain flakes, for which it has been difficult to account, may be due to their having been used in this manner for striking a light.
There are yet some other long flakes which are trimmed to a scraper-like edge at one or both ends; but in these cases the trimming appears to have been rather for the purpose of enabling the flake to be conveniently held in the hand, so as to make use of its cutting edge, than with the intention of converting the trimmed end into a scraping or cutting tool. The ends of some of the hafted knives or saws found in the Swiss Lake-dwellings are thus trimmed.
On the whole, we may conclude, with some appearance of probability, that a certain proportion of these instruments, and more especially those of regular shape, and those of large size, were destined to be used as scrapers in the process of dressing hides and for other purposes; that others again, and chiefly those of moderate size with bruised and battered edges, were used at one period with iron pyrites, and at a subsequent date with iron or steel, for the
- ↑ Figured in Arch., vol. xliii. p. 422.
- ↑ Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. xix, p. 356.
- ↑ P. S. A. S., vol. viii. p. 137.
- ↑ "Expl. des Dolmens," Vannes, 1882, I. p. 6.
- ↑ C. R. de l'Assoc., fr. pour l'av. des Sciences, Grenoble, 1885.
- ↑ "Les Cav. de la Belgique," vol. ii. pl. ix. 2. "L'homme pendant les Ages de la Pierre," 1871, p. 74.
