Page:Excavations at the Kesslerloch.djvu/48

Rh A glance at the bone implements enables us in a moment to notice certain essential peculiarities, so that we are able to class them into different groups.

In the first group are found all those implements which terminate at one end in an arrow-formed point, and towards the opposite end become regularly broader, and are made sharp on one side, like a chisel (Plate IV. fig. 14). We call these bone implements 'arrow-heads.' They vary much in size, being from 5$1⁄2$ to 2$1⁄2$ inches long, and from $4⁄10$ of an inch to about $1⁄4$ of an inch wide. Those found in the greatest abundance were about 2$1⁄2$ inches long and $1⁄4$ of an inch thick (Plate XIII. fig. 74). It is very singular that the length of the flat cut at the bottom is almost always the same, viz., 1⋅181 inch dec. About fifty-five of these implements were found, some of which are as perfect as if they had been made but yesterday; the majority, however, were broken. Sometimes the point is wanting, sometimes the side cut, evidently caused by the general use of these implements. In some cases the parallel lines scratched in with flint diagonally across the one-sided cut are still visible. Only one single specimen has similar scratches or furrows on the upper side of the sharpened part. The number of these lines depends entirely on chance; commonly there are five or six. This chisel-shaped end was evidently spliced with the cut surface of a wooden shaft, and the two were bound together by means of a thong of reindeer skin, or platted horsehair, or twisted intestines. The lines on the cut surface were probably only intended to give a firmer hold between the arrow-head and the shaft, so that the work might be stronger. The lines on the upper side gave more hold to the binding material. The bevelled or sloped part is always carried from the under-porous side to the upper and more solid part, and with good reason, for if the contrary had been done the end of the bevelled part would have been formed of the porous and fragile portion, and thus the implement could never have come into use. One of the specimens belonging to this group (Plate V. fig. 19) exhibits on the upper side an ornamentation made of triple parallel lines, and another specimen is ornamented with double intersecting lines lying close behind one another.

The second group of bone implements is composed of those, one end of which gradually tapers to a point, while the other end grows wider, and is sharpened like a chisel on both sides. These we call lance-heads (Plate IV. fig. 15, and Plate V. fig. 18). The