Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/148

 The Stone Age in Greece. 127 and in no respect can they challenge comparison with the fine products of the neolithic age of Northern and Western Europe.' All the axes which we have passed in review have the air of having been put to many uses ; nevertheless we also light upon diminutive axes, which must be regarded as amulets, and the object of a special worship. A hole has often been drilled through them, making it plain that they were intended to be hung about I Fic. I3.^ade aie. the neck (Fig. 1 3). According to M M. Heldenreich and Dumont, very similar axes, worn about the person, are not uncommon at the present day in Greece. They go by the name of (JiuXaxTiJpia, " preservatives," and are supposed to guard the wearer against disease and the evil eye. Were further proof needed to establish the talismanic char- acter of these amulet-axes, we should find it in the precious ill Fig. 15. — Poinls of polished !>lone. Actual size. Fig. i6 —Stone chisel. .AcIuiU material out of which not a few were made : the Finlay collection alone has furnished two, a cornelian and an amethyst ; which latter is a real axe in small, evidenced by its fine cutting edge and indentations showing where the handle was fitted on {Fig. 14). If we have mentioned and reproduced specimens of amulets, possibly not very ancient, but always notable for fine polish, it was with no intention of carrying them back to ages preceding ' ViRCHOW, Verhandlungen.