PICKS, CHISELS, GOUGES, ETC.
I now come to several forms of implements which, though approximating
closely to those to which the name of celts has been applied, may
perhaps be regarded with some degree of certainty as forming a separate
class of tools. Among these, the long narrow form to which, for want of
a better name, that of “Picks” has been given, may be first described.
It is, however, hard to draw a line between them and chisels.
[Illustration: Fig. 107.—Great Easton. 1∕2]
* * * * *
An idea of the prevailing form will be gathered from Fig. 107, which
represents a specimen in my own collection found at Great Easton, near
Dunmow, Essex, and given me by Colonel A. J. Copeland, F.S.A. Its
surfaces are partially ground, especially towards the upper end, which
appears to have been pointed, though now somewhat broken. The lower
end is chipped to a rounded outline, but this end is not ground, and
the outer or more convex face of the implement, in one part shows the
original crust of the flint.
In the Fitch Collection is a finer and more symmetrical specimen of
the same kind from North Walsham. It is 7 1∕2 inches long, rather more
than 1 inch wide, and 7∕8 inch thick. It is polished nearly all over,
both faces are ridged, so that it is almost rhomboidal in section,
though the angles are rounded; one face is curved lengthways much more
than the other, which is nearly straight. At one end it is ground to
a semicircular edge, but at the other it is merely chipped, and still
shows part of the original crust of the flint. Another implement of
this character, but 11 1∕2 inches long, and 2 7∕8 inches wide in the
broadest part, was found at Melbourn,[610] Cambridgeshire, and was in
the collection of the late Lord Braybrooke. |174|
I have seen another nearly 6 inches long, but little polished, and
almost oval in section, which was found at Melton, near Woodbridge,
Suffolk. This also is blunt at one end, and ground to a semicircular
edge at the other. A fragment of a tool of this class, found near
Maidenhead, is in the Geological Museum in Jermyn Street. Another, more
roughly chipped out and but partially polished, was found on Mount
Harry, near Lewes, and is preserved in the Museum in that town. It is
narrow at one end, where it is ground to a sharp edge.
The late Mr. H. Durden, of Blandford, had another, found on Iwerne
Minster Down, Dorset, 5 1∕2 inches long and 1 1∕4 inches broad, more
celt-like in type. One face is more convex than the other; the sides
are sharp, and one end is squarer than the other, which comes to a
rounded point.
In my own collection is one of oval section (5 inches), polished nearly
all over, from Burwell Fen, Cambridge; another (4 3∕8 inches), much
polished on the surface, is from the Thames at Twickenham. A third,
from Quy Fen, Cambridge (4 7∕8 inches), is rather broader in its
proportions, and of pointed oval section. A fourth, from Bottisham Fen
(4 3∕4 inches), has a narrow segmental edge, and is rounded at the
butt, where it is slightly battered. These may perhaps be regarded as
chisels.
[Illustration: Fig. 108.—Bury St. Edmunds. 1∕2]
In the Greenwell Collection is what appears to be a fragment of a
chisel, still about 4 inches long, found at Northdale, Bridlington. The
same form of implement is found in France. I have a fragment of one
which was found by M. Dimpre, of Abbeville, in the old encampment known
as the Camp de César, near Pontrémy.
In the case of some very similar implements of flint from Scandinavia
it is the broad end that is usually sharp, though some are entirely
unground.
Occasionally these implements occur in this country in the same
unpolished condition, like Fig. 108, from the neighbourhood of Bury
St. Edmunds. This also presents on the more highly ridged face the
same curvature in the direction of its length as is to be observed on
the polished specimens, and the pointed end seems the sharper and the
better adapted for use.
I have a fine unground specimen (6 inches) from Feltwell, Norfolk, and
another (4 1∕2 inches) from Chart Farm, Ightham, Kent, given to me by
Mr. B. Harrison.
Unfortunately there are no indications by which to judge of the method
of hafting such instruments. It appears probable, however, that the
broader end may have been attached at the end of a handle, like those
in Fig. 104, and that the tool was a sort of narrow adze or pick,
adapted for working out cavities in wood, or it may be for |175|
grubbing in the ground. Some rough instruments of this character are
found in Ireland,[611] but are usually more clumsy in their proportions
than the English specimens that I have figured. They are often of a
sub-triangular section, and pointed at one or both ends, though rarely
ground. I have, however, a tapering pointed tool of black chert, and
belonging to the same class of implements, found in Lough Neagh.[612]
It appears adapted for boring holes in leather or other soft substances.
[Illustration: Fig. 109.—Burwell.]
[Illustration: Fig. 110.—Near Bridlington. 1∕2]
A very remarkable implement belonging to the same group is shown in
Fig. 109. It was found in the Fen country near Burwell, Cambridge, and
was given me by the late Mr. J. W. Flower, F.G.S. At the broad end it
is much like the instruments just described. A portion of both faces
has been polished, the sides have been rounded by grinding, and though
it has been chipped to an edge at the broad end, this also has been
rendered blunt in the same manner, possibly with the view of preventing
it from cutting the ligaments by which it was attached to a handle. The
narrow end is ground to a chisel edge, which is at right angles to that
of the broad end. In form and character this chisel end is exactly like
that of a narrow “cold chisel” of steel, in use by engineers. Whether
it was used as a narrow adze or axe, or after the manner of a chisel,
it is difficult to say.
Fig. 110 is still more chisel-like in character. It is of flint
weathered white, but stained in places by iron-mould, from having been
brought |176| in contact with modern agricultural implements, while
lying on the surface of the ground. It was found at Charleston, near
Bridlington. It is unground except at the edge, where it is very sharp,
and at one or two places along the sides, where slight projections have
been removed or rounded off by grinding. The butt-end is truncated, but
is not at all battered, so that if a hammer or mallet was used with
it, without the intervention of a socket or handle, it was probably
of wood. I have another specimen of rather smaller size from the same
locality. It is, however, of porphyritic greenstone, and the butt-end,
instead of being truncated, has been chipped to a comparatively sharp
edge, which has subsequently been partially rounded by grinding. If
used as a chisel at all, this implement must have been inserted in a
socket.
Mr. H. Durden had a chisel of the same character found at Hod Hill,
Dorset, 5 1∕2 inches long, and 1 3∕8 inches broad, with the sides
ground straight.
The Greenwell Collection contains a flint chisel of this form 5 inches
long and 1∕2 inch broad, found near Icklingham, Suffolk. It is ground
at the sides as well as at the edge. Another, 4 3∕4 inches long, in
the same collection, was found at North Stow, Suffolk. There is also a
small chisel of hone-stone, 2 7∕8 inches long, found at Rudstone, near
Bridlington, and another 3 3∕4 inches long, of subquadrate section,
found in a barrow at Cowlam,[613] Yorkshire.
The form occurs in France. A beautiful chisel (7 inches), polished all
over, and brought to a narrow edge at either end, was found in the Camp
de Catenoy (Oise).[614] It is nearly round in section. Another, of dark
jade-like material (4 inches), polished all over, was obtained from a
dolmen at Pornic[615] (Loire Inférieure).
There are occasionally found some small chisels apparently intended for
holding in the hand, as if for carving wood. One of these, from Dalton,
on the Yorkshire Wolds, and in the collection of Messrs. Mortimer, is
shown in Fig. 111. It is of grey flint, slightly curved longitudinally,
nearly semicircular in section, with the side angles rounded, the butt
truncated, but all its sharp angles worn or ground away, and with a
circular edge slightly gouge-like in character. It has been ground
transversely or obliquely on both faces, but the _striæ_ from the
grinding are at the edge longitudinal. I have a nearly similar tool
from West Stow, Suffolk (5 1∕4 inches), and one from the neighbourhood
of Bridlington, Yorkshire, but the butt-end is broken.
[Illustration: Fig. 111.—Dalton, Yorkshire. 1∕2]
Another flint chisel, from the same neighbourhood, 3 1∕2 inches long
and 7∕8 inch wide, in my collection, presents the peculiarity of having
the butt-end ground to a sharp narrow semicircular edge, the principal
edge at the other end being broader and less curved. There can be |177|
little doubt of this having been merely a hand tool. A portion of the
edge at the narrow end is worn away as if by scraping bone or something
equally hard. This wearing away does not extend to the end of the tool.
Another specimen from Yorkshire is in the Blackmore Museum.[616]
A chisel from Suffolk,[617] ground at both ends, has been figured.
The implement shown in Fig. 112 appears to belong to this same class
of tools, though closely resembling some of those which will hereafter
be described as “arrow-flakers,” from which it differs only in not
showing any signs of being worn away at the ends. It is of flint neatly
chipped, and was found at Helperthorpe, Yorkshire. I have another of
the same form, but a trifle longer, found by Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S.,
near Baldock, Herts. Neither of them shows any traces of grinding.
A similar chisel of flint, square at the edge, and found near
Londinières[618] (Seine Inférieure), is engraved by the Abbé Cochet.
[Illustration: Fig. 112.—Helperthorpe. 1∕2]
Implements, which can without hesitation be classed as chisels, are
rare in Ireland, though long narrow celts approximating to the chisel
form are not uncommon. These are usually of clay-slate, or of some
metamorphic rock. I have, however, specimens of oval section not more
than an inch wide, and as much as 5 inches long, with narrow straight
edges, which seem to be undoubtedly chisels. I do not remember to have
seen a specimen in flint, those described by Sir W. Wilde[619] being
more celt-like in character.
Narrow chisels, occasionally 10 and 12 inches long, and usually square
in section, and either polished all over or merely ground at the
edge, are of common occurrence in Denmark and Sweden.[620] They are
sometimes, but more rarely, oval in section.
In Germany and Switzerland the form is scarce, but one from the
Sigmaringen district is engraved by Lindenschmit,[621] and a Swiss
specimen, in serpentine, by Perrin.[622]
Some of the small celts found in the Swiss lakes appear to have
been rather chisels than hatchets or adzes, as they were mounted in
sockets[623] bored axially in hafts of stag’s horn. In some instances
the hole was bored transversely through the piece of horn, but even
then, the tools are so small that they must have been used rather as
knives or drawing chisels than as hatchets. Chisels made of bone are
abundant in the Swiss Lake-settlements. They are also plentiful in
some of the caverns in the French Pyrenees, which have been inhabited
in Neolithic times. Several have also occurred in the Gibraltar caves.
|178|
Among the Maories of New Zealand small hand-chisels of jade are used
for carving wood and for other purposes. They are sometimes attached
to their handles by a curiously intertwined cord,[624] and sometimes
by a more simple binding. For the sketch of that shown in Fig. 113,
I am indebted to the late Mr. Gay. The original is in the British
Museum.[625] It will be observed that the end of the handle, which has
been battered in use, is tied round with a strip of bark to prevent its
splitting. The blade seems to rest against a shoulder in the handle, to
which it is firmly bound by a cord of vegetable fibre. A stone chisel
from S. E. Bolivia[626] is mounted in the same fashion, but the blade
is shorter. The stone chisels in use in ancient times in Britain were,
when hafted at all, probably mounted in a somewhat analogous manner.
[Illustration: Fig. 113.—New Zealand Chisel. 1∕2]
* * * * *
Considering the great numbers of gouges or hollow chisels of flint
which have been found in Denmark and Sweden, their extreme rarity
in Britain is remarkable. It seems possible that the celts with an
almost semicircular edge, some of which, when the two faces of the
blade are not equally convex, are of a gouge-like character, may have
answered the same purpose as gouges. It is to be observed that this
class of celts is scarce in Denmark, where gouges are abundant; but
possibly the ancient inhabitants of that country may have been more of
a canoe-forming race than those of Britain, so that, in consequence,
implements for hollowing out the trunks of trees were in greater demand
among them. The best-formed gouges discovered in England, have, so far
as I am aware, been found in the Fen country, where it is probable that
canoes would be in constant use.
* * * * *
Two such, found in Burwell Fen, are preserved in the Museum of the
Cambridge Antiquarian Society, one of which is shown in Fig. 114. The
other is rather smaller, being 5 1∕4 inches long and 1 7∕8 inches
broad. They are entirely unpolished, with the sides nearly straight and
sharp, and one face more convex than the other. At the butt-end they
are truncated, or show the natural crust of the flint. The cutting edge
at |179| the other end is approximately at right angles to the blade,
and is chipped hollow, so that the edge is like that of a carpenter’s
gouge.
In Fig. 114A, is shown a fine gouge of white flint in my own
collection. It was found in 1871 on the Westleton Walks, Suffolk, and
was ceded to me by Mr. F. Spalding. It has been most skilfully and
symmetrically chipped out, but both the surface and the edge are left
entirely unground. What may be termed the front face is flatter than in
the specimens last described. The cutting edge is more rounded.
[Illustration: Fig. 114.—Burwell. 1∕2]
[Illustration: Fig. 114A.—Westleton Walks. 1∕2]
The next specimen, Fig. 115, is less decidedly gouge-like in character.
It is of grey flint, and was in the collection of the late Mr.
Caldecott, of Mead Street, having been found at Eastbourne, Sussex. The
sides are sharp, but rounded towards the butt, which is also round. A
large flake has been taken lengthways off the hollow face, and it may
be mainly to this circumstance rather than to original design, that the
gouge-like character of the implement is due.
Most of the Danish gouges have a rectangular section at the middle of
the blade, and the butt-end is usually truncated, and sometimes |180|
shows marks of having been hammered, so that these implements were
probably used without hafting and in conjunction with a mallet or
hammer of wood or stag’s horn. Another and rarer form of gouge with a
sharp elliptical section, tapers to the butt, and may have been used
for paring away charred surfaces without the aid of a mallet. Some
small examples of this class show, however, polished markings, as if
from having been inserted in handles.
Under the head of gouges I must comprise a few of those celt-like
implements already mentioned, which, without being actually ground
hollow, yet, by having one of their faces much flatter transversely
than the other, present at the edge a gouge-like appearance, somewhat
after the manner of the “round-nosed chisels” of engineers. One of
these was discovered in a barrow on Willerby Wold,[627] Yorkshire, by
Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., though it was not associated with any burial.
[Illustration: Fig. 115.—Eastbourne.]
It is shown in Fig. 116, and is formed of a light green hone-stone,
carefully ground and even polished, and presents a beautifully regular
and sharp cutting edge. It would appear to have been intended for
mounting as a hollow adze rather than as a gouge, and would when thus
mounted have formed a useful tool for hollowing canoes, or for other
similar purposes.
In the Greenwell Collection is also another implement of the same
character and material, but smaller, being 4 inches long and 2 3∕8
inches |181| broad. It was found at Ganthorpe, Yorkshire. The sides in
this case are flat.
The implement shown in Fig. 117 has, when the convex face is seen,
much the same appearance as Fig. 68. The other face, however, is
slightly hollowed towards the middle longitudinally, and is nearly flat
transversely, so that the edge presents a gouge-like appearance. It was
found at Huntow, near Bridlington, and is in my own collection. The
material is greenstone, the surface of which is somewhat decomposed,
and seems in places to have been scratched by the plough or the harrow.
[Illustration: Fig. 116.—Willerby Wold. 1∕2]
[Illustration: Fig. 117.—Bridlington. 1∕2]
A considerable number of gouges of this bastard kind have been found
in Ireland, and I have figured one from Lough Neagh.[628] A few of the
Irish celts are actually hollowed at the edge, so as to become more
truly gouge-like in character.
Besides occurring in abundance in Scandinavia, gouges, properly so
called, are also found in Northern Germany and Lithuania. They also
occur in Russia,[629] Finland, and Western Siberia, and even in Japan
and Cambodia. |182|
One of flint, 5 inches long, from the neighbourhood of Beauvais
(Oise), is in the Blackmore Museum. The same form has also been found
in Portugal[630] and Algeria.[631]
A stone implement,[632] “a square chisel at one end and a gouge at the
other,” was found in one of the Gibraltar caves.
In North America,[633] including Canada and Newfoundland, gouges formed
of other varieties of stone than flint are by no means uncommon, and
among the Caribs of Barbados, where stone was not to be procured, we
find gouge-like instruments formed from the _columella_ of the large
_Strombus gigas_. On the western coast of North America, mussel-shell
adzes are still preferred by the Ahts[634] to the best English chisels,
for canoe-making purposes.
Some narrow bastard gouges, almost semicircular on one face and flat
transversely on the other, but not hollowed, have been found in the
Swiss Lake-settlements. I have one of diorite, 5 3∕4 inches long and 1
inch broad, from Sipplingen. The butt is roughened as if for insertion
in a socket. A similar form is found in Germany. I have a specimen
9 1∕2 inches long found in the neighbourhood of Mainz.
A bastard form of gouge, mounted as an adze, is in use in the Solomon
Islands. One tied to its haft with rattan is in the Christy Collection.
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