which, however, probably belongs to the Early Iron Period, the latter course seems to have been adopted, as several heaps of rounded flint-pebbles, either derived from the sea-coast or from some bed of Lower Tertiary Age, have been found there, and in all probability constituted the munition of the slingers of the camp.
The late Mr. C. Monkman[1] remarked that in Yorkshire he always found the small globular sling-stones most plentiful at a short distance (50 to 200 yards away) from old entrenchments, and he was inclined to class under the head of sling-stones, nodules chipped over their whole surface, varying from an almost globular form to all degrees of flatness, and in size from 12 inch to 3 inches in diameter. This is perhaps too wide a definition, as most of the larger globular forms appear to have been destined for hammer-stones; and pebbles but half an inch in diameter would be almost too light for missiles. It is, however, impossible to say with certainty that any given specimen was undoubtedly a sling-stone, as the flatter forms, which were more probably missiles, merge in the form of a roughly-chipped oval celt like Fig. 17 at one end of the series, and in that of a discoidal scraper with a broken edge at the other. Many may be merely cores, from both faces of which flakes have been struck, so that the term "sling-stones," if employed for these roughly-chipped discs, must always be used in a somewhat doubtful sense, and for convenience rather than precision.
In Polynesia,[2] besides rounded pebbles, sharp, angular, and rugged stones were used for slinging. These were called Ofai ara, faced or edged stones.
Fig.351.—Dumfriesshire. 12
Another class of objects in stone which may possibly have served for the purposes of the chase or of war, consists of balls with their surface divided into a number of more or less projecting circles, with channels between them. They seem, so far as is known, to be confined to Scotland and Ireland.
- ↑ Yorksh. Arch. and Top. Journ., 1868.
- ↑ Ellis, "Polyn. Researches," vol. i. p. 291.
- ↑ "Preh. Ann. of Scot.," vol. i. p. 195. I am indebted to Messrs. Macmillan & Co. for the loan of this cut.
- ↑ Arch. Assoc. Journ., vol. xvii. p. 20.
- ↑ Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. vii. p. 102.
- ↑ Trans. Lanc. and Chesh. A. A., vol. iii. p. 255.
- ↑ P. S. A. S., vol. ix. p. 393.
- ↑ Smith's "Preh. Man in Ayrshire," 1895, p. 105.
- ↑ Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. vi. p. 11.
- ↑ "Cat. Arch. Inst. Mus. Ed.," p. 14.