Page:Excavations at the Kesslerloch.djvu/57

Rh idea cannot well hold good here, for amongst all the animal remains found in the cave not a single fish-bone has been noticed. Possibly they may have been intended for a kind of awl or piercer, one end having been fastened into a handle.

There is also another singular implement drawn, Plate VIII. fig. 44, and between five and six inches long. At one end it is ground down on one side like a chisel, and towards the end of this plane there is a hollow of a somewhat curved form and about a third of an inch deep; probably this may have been for the insertion of a flint. At the other end there is a cavity rather more than a quarter of an inch deep; but whether this was due to chance or intention cannot be decided. Though this implement very much resembles the agricultural tools of the lake-dwellers, yet I very much doubt whether it was used for a similar purpose. May it not have been a tool for extracting the edible roots from the ground?

It is difficult to say to what purpose the implements drawn, Plate XIV. figs. 91 and 92, and Plate IX. fig. 55, were applied.

The specimen drawn, Plate VII. fig. 42, probably represents a dagger with a carved handle, the point of which, however, is unfortunately broken off. Even the ornamentation has suffered considerably by use in the course of time.

The two implements drawn, Plate VIII. fig. 45, and Plate XIV. fig. 93, are interesting. As far as I know similar implements have not been found in any other cave. On the larger specimen there are very peculiar engravings, hardly visible to the naked eye; parallel lines on a raised ground alternate with similar lines in hollows.

Together with these different implements there were found a considerable number of objects used for ornaments. Every one of these is perforated; the holes are small, hardly a line in diameter, and very neatly worked. We may first mention five teeth perforated at the root, three of them are incisors of a horse, another is the canine of a small carnivorous animal, and the fifth is indeterminable. This last (Plate XIII. fig. 78) is in fact cut off at its root, and at the other end it has been rubbed down, so that its upper surface has a black and yellow striped appearance. No doubt this ornament was highly prized in those days. Most probably all these perforated teeth (Plate