Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/25

Rh trench two metres wide and about eleven metres in length; this section was being removed carefully, a single cubic metre at a time. Every bone, potsherd, flint, or other relic as it was removed was

at once labeled, and a complete record regarding it entered in a note-book. The commoner shells at this locality were species of the genera Ostrea, Cardium, Littorina, Nassa, Tapes, and Mytilus. Bones of various birds, mammals, and fish were rather common. The day we were there two diggers removed about three cubic metres of material, and the yield of relics was four rude flint axes, one fishhook, and some bits of pottery. The upper level area of the terrace proper is sprinkled with flakes, knives, and hatchets of flint, plain evidence of an old village site.

The later neolithic of Denmark presents a magnificent development. Flint of the finest quality is found everywhere. In no part of the world did its chipping attain greater perfection. Material for other implements of stone was not rare, and was fully utilized. The consequence is that throughout the country beautiful relics of the later stone age are found; they lie on the surface; they are dug up in plowing and in excavations of all kinds; they are picked out by peat cutters; they are discovered in tumuli or old graves. Lubbock says: "Many of these barrows, indeed, contain in themselves a small collection of antiquities, and the whole country may even be considered as a museum on a great scale. The peat bogs, which occupy so large an area, may almost be said to swarm with antiquities, and Prof. Steenstrup estimates that, on an average, every column of peat three feet square contains some specimen of ancient workmanship."

This part of the stone age was marked by the curious habit of erecting great monuments of stone and earth—dolmens, giant chambers, etc. Such monuments are sometimes called Flint.