Page:The Ancient Stone Implements (1897).djvu/297

Rh and in a definite arrangement, it is in the highest degree probable that such a combination of blows must be the result of design, and the features presented are almost as good a warrant for the human origin of the flake as would be the maker's name upon it. When, however, several of such flakes are found together, each bearing these marks of being the result of several successive blows, all conducing to form a symmetrical knife-like flake, it becomes a certainty that they have been the work of intelligent beings.

In size and proportions flakes vary considerably, the longest English specimens that I have seen being as much as 8 or 9 inches long, while some, which still appear to have been made use of as tools, are not more than an inch in length. Their proportional breadth is almost as variable.

With regard to the classification and nomenclature of these objects, I would suggest that the name of flake should be limited to such artificial splinters of flint as, either in their section or outline, or in both, present a certain amount of symmetry, and appearance of design; and that the ruder forms, such as would result from chipping some large object into shape, without any regard to the form of the parts removed, should be called chips or spalls. Such as show no bulb of percussion may be termed splinters. The Scottish name for flakes is "skelbs."

The inner, or flat face of a flake, is that produced by the blow which dislodged it from the parent block, core, or nucleus. The outer, ridged or convex face comprises the other facets, or, in some instances, the natural surface of the flint. The base, or butt-end of a flake, is that at which the blows to form it were administered ; the other end is the point.

Flakes may be subdivided into—

1. External, or those which have been struck off by a single blow from the outer surface of a nodule of flint. Many of these are as symmetrical as those resulting from a more complicated process of manufacture, and they have frequently been utilized, especially for scrapers.

2. Ridged flakes, or those presenting a triangular section. One face of these sometimes presents the external crust of the flint, as in Fig. 190. In others, the ridge has been formed by transverse