as 12 inches long, but none have as yet been found of this length. One trimmed on both edges, and 814 inches long, was dredged from the bed of the Seine[1] at Paris, and is now in the Musée d'Artillerie, with another nearly as long found about the same time in the same place. Both appear to be of Pressigny flint. Others have been found in different parts of France.[2] A beautiful flake, 834 inches long, trimmed on its external face, and found near Soissons,[3] was in the collection of M. Boucher de Perthes. I have one of the same character, 812 inches long and 138 inches broad in the middle, most symmetrically shaped and perfectly uninjured, which was formerly in the collection of M. Meillet, of Poitiers. It is said to have been found at Savanseau, and in places has a red incrustation upon it, as if it had been embedded in a cave. In the Grotte de St. Jean d'Alcas,[4] was found a blade of the same kind, together with some lance-heads of flint worked on both faces. Occasionally they are found in the dolmens. The Allée couverte[5] of Argenteuil furnished one, 714 inches long; and one of the dolmens in the Lozère[6] another, 8 inches in length. One almost 10 inches long and 1 inch broad, found at Neuilly-sur-Eure,[7] has on the convex face the delicate secondary working, like ripple marks, such as is seen in perfection on some of the Danish and Egyptian blades of flint.
Others have been found in the dolmen at Caranda[8] (Aisne), du Charnier[9] (Ardèche), and in the Grotte Duruthy (Landes).[10]
Curiously enough, the long flakes found in some abundance in Scandinavia are rarely, if ever, worked on the convex face alone, but are either left in their original form, or converted by secondary working on both faces, into some of the more highly finished tools or weapons.
In the Swiss Lake-dwellings flakes trimmed at the edges and ends are of not unfrequent occurrence. Some of these, as already described, have been regarded as saws.
Two long trimmed flakes, from Chevroux, tied to wooden handles, both string and handle partially preserved, are in the Museum at Lausanne.[11] There is a small pommel at the end of the handle.
A remarkably fine Italian specimen of a ridged flake, 11 inches in length, and carefully trimmed along both edges, is in the British Museum. It is stated to have been found at Telese, near Pæstum.[12]
Many of these trimmed flakes, as well as in some cases those entirely untrimmed, have been called by antiquaries spear-heads and lance-heads. They have frequently been found with interments in barrows.
Not to mention numerous instances recorded by Mr. Bateman, I may cite a flake found in company with a barbed flint arrow-head at- ↑ Rev. Arch., N. S., vol. ii. p. 129.
- ↑ Marchant, "Notice sur divers insts.," 1866, pl. i. Parenteau, "Inv. Arch." 1878, pl. ii.
- ↑ "Ant. Celt. et Antéd.," vol. i. p. 379.
- ↑ Cazalis de Fondouce, "La grotte sép. de St. J. d'Alcas," pl. i. 1.
- ↑ Rev. Arch., N. S., vol. xv. pl. ix. 26.
- ↑ Mortillet, Matériaux, vol. v. p. 321.
- ↑ Rev. de la Soc. Lit. de l'Eure, 3rd S., vol. v.
- ↑ "Coll. Caranda," Moreau, 1877, pl. iii.
- ↑ "L'anc. de l'homme dans le Vivarais," De Marichaud, 1870, pl. xi. 5.
- ↑ Mat., vol. ix. p. 162.
- ↑ "Ant. Lac. du Mus. de Lausanne," 1896, pl. ix.
- ↑ "Horæ Ferales," p. 137, pl. ii. 32.
