Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 2.djvu/63

Rh rounded cutting point, its general outline presenting a sort of parabolic curve (Pl. XV. No. 1); the other acutely pointed, with the sides curved slightly inwards (Pl. XV. No. 2). These have received from the workmen of St. Acheul the name of langues de chat, from their fancied resemblance in form to a cat's tongue. The sides of both kinds are brought to an edge by chipping, but are not so sharp as the point, and altogether these weapons seem better adapted for piercing than for cutting. In length, they vary from about four inches to eight or even nine inches. Both shapes are generally more convex on one side than the other, the convexity in some cases almost amounting to a ridge; they are usually truncated at the base, and not unfrequently at that end show a portion of the original surface of the flint; in some specimens the butt-end is left very thick, as if to add impetus to any blow given with the implement. The remarkable feature about them is, their being adapted only to cut or pierce at the pointed end; whereas in the ordinary form of stone hatchet or celt, the cutting edge is almost without exception at the broad end, while the more pointed end seems intended for insertion into the handle or socket, and the sides are generally rounded or flat, and not sharp.

These spear-shaped weapons from the drift are, on the contrary, not at all adapted for insertion into a socket, but are better calculated to be tied to a shaft or handle, with a stop or bracket behind their truncated end. Many of them, indeed, seem to have been intended for use without any handle at all, the rounded end of the flints from which they were formed having been left unchipped, and presenting a sort of natural handle. It is nearly useless to speculate on the purposes to which they were applied; but attached to poles they would prove formidable weapons for encounter with man or the larger animals, either in close conflict or thrown from a distance as darts. It has been suggested by M. de Perthes, that some of them may have been used merely as wedges for splitting wood, or, again, they may have been employed in grubbing for esculent roots, or tilling the ground, assuming that the race who formed them was sufficiently advanced in civilisation. This much I think may be said of them with certainty, that they are not analogous in form with any of the ordinary implements of the so-called Stone period.

The same remark holds good with regard to the third class into which I have divided these implements, viz. those with a cutting edge all round (Pl. XV. No. 3). In general contour they are usually oval, with one end more sharply curved than the other, and occasionally coming to a sharp point, but there is a considerable variety in their form, arising probably from defects in the flints from which they were shaped; the ruling idea is, however, that of the oval, more or less pointed.