PERFORATED AND GROOVED HAMMERS.
Closely allied to the axe-hammers, so closely indeed that the forms
seem to merge in each other, are the perforated hammer-heads of stone,
which are found of various shapes, and are formed of several different
kinds of rocks. In many instances, the whole of the external surface
has been carefully fashioned and ground into shape, but it is at least
as commonly the case that a symmetrical oval pebble has been selected
for the hammer-head, and has been thus used without any labour being
bestowed upon it, beyond that necessary for boring the shaft-hole.
By some antiquaries, these perforated pebbles have been regarded as
weights, for sinking nets, or for some such purpose; but in most cases
this is, I think, an erroneous view—firstly, because the majority of
these implements show traces, at their extremities, of having been used
as hammers; and, secondly, because if wanted as weights, there can be
no doubt that the softer kinds of stone, easily susceptible of being
pierced, would be selected; whereas these perforated pebbles are almost
invariably of quartzite or some equally hard and tough material.
There are some instances, indeed, in which the perforation would
appear to be almost too small for a shaft of sufficient strength to
wield the hammer, if such it were; but even in such cases, where hard
silicious pebbles have been used, they must, in all probability, have
been intended for other purposes than for weights. I am inclined to
think that some means of hafting, not now in use, may have been adopted
in such cases, and that possibly the handles may have been formed
of twisted hide or sinews, passed through the hole in a wet state,
secured by knots on either side, and then allowed to harden by drying.
Such hafts would be more elastic and tough than any of the same size
in wood; but it must be confessed that there is no evidence of their
having been actually employed, though there is of the stones having
been in use |218| as hammers. I have an Irish specimen, 3 3∕4 inches
long, with the perforation tapering from about 1 3∕4 inch diameter on
either side, to less than 1∕2 an inch in the middle, and yet each end
of the stone is worn away by use, to the extent of 1∕4 inch below the
original oval contour. It is possible that these deep cavities may
have been intended to assist in keeping a firm hold of the stone when
used in the hand as a hammer without any shaft, in the same manner as
did the shallow indentations, which occasionally occur on the faces
of pebbles which thus served; but this is hardly probable when the
cavities meet in the centre to form a hole exactly like the ordinary
shaft-holes, except in its disproportionately small size. It is worthy
of notice, that even in axe-hammers the shaft-hole appears to be
sometimes absurdly small for the size of the implement. I have a Danish
specimen of greenstone, carefully finished, 6 3∕4 inches long, and
weighing 1 lb. 15 ozs. avoirdupois, and yet the shaft-hole is only 3∕4
inch in diameter on either side, and but 1∕2 an inch in the centre. The
axe from Felixstowe, already mentioned, presents the same peculiarity.
It has been suggested that one of the methods of hafting these
implements with the double bell-mouthed perforations, was by placing
them over a branch of a tree, and leaving them there until secured in
their position by the natural growth of the wood, the branch being then
cut off at the proper places, and serving as a handle. I have, however,
found by experience that even with a fast-growing tree, such a process
requires two or three years at the least, and that when removed, the
shrinkage of the branch in drying, leaves the hammer-head loose on
its haft. Such a system of hafting would, moreover, imply a fixity
of residence on the part of the savage owners of the tools, which
appears hardly compatible with the stage of civilization to which such
instruments are probably to be referred.
At the same time, it must be remembered that the Caribs of Guadaloupe
and the Hurons are, as has been mentioned at page 155, credited with an
analogous system of hafting imperforate hatchets.
It has also been suggested that some of these pierced stones were
offensive weapons, having been attached by a thong of leather to a
handle,[775] and used as “flail-stones,” after the manner of the
“morning-stars” of the middle ages. Such a method of mounting, though
possible, appears to me by no means probable in the |219| majority
of cases, though among the Eskimos[776] a weapon has been in use,
consisting of a stone ball with a drilled hole, through which a strip
of raw hide is passed to serve as a handle.
* * * * *
The first specimen that I have selected for illustration, Fig. 144,
might, with almost equal propriety, have been placed among the
perforated axes, though it has three blunt edges instead of one or
two. It was found at Balmaclellan, in New Galloway, and is now in
the National Museum at Edinburgh. It is of very peculiar triangular
form, 1 1∕2 inches in thickness, and with a perforation expanding
from an inch in diameter in the centre, to 1 3∕4 inches on each side.
An engraving of it is given in the _Proceedings of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland_.[777] This I have here reproduced on a larger
scale, so as to correspond in its proportions with the other woodcuts.
[Illustration: Fig. 144.—Balmaclellan.]
A curious hammer, of brown hæmatite, not quite so equilateral as the
Scotch specimen, and much thicker in proportion, found in Alabama, has
been engraved by Schoolcraft.[778] The holes, from each side, do not
meet in the middle.
[Illustration: Fig. 145.—Thames, London. 1∕2]
The specimen shown in Fig. 145 was found in the Thames, at London,
and is now in the British Museum. In form it is curiously like |220|
a metallic hammer, swelling out around the shaft-hole, and tapering
down to a round flat face at each extremity. So far as I know, it is
unique of its kind in this country. It is more probably the head of a
war mace than that of an ordinary hammer. A somewhat similar hammer, of
porphyry, is in the museum of the Deutsche Gesellschaft at Leipzig. It
is, however, shorter in its proportions.
[Illustration: Fig. 145A.—Kirkinner. 1∕2]
A stone hammer found at Claycrop, Kirkinner,[779] Wigtownshire, is, by
the courtesy of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, shown in Fig.
145A. In form, it is very like Fig. 136A from Wick, but blunter at the
edge.
The instrument shown in Fig. 146 is perhaps more like a blunted
axe-hammer than a simple hammer. It has at one end a much-rounded
point, and at the other is nearly straight across, though rounded in
the other direction. It would appear to be a weapon |221| rather than
a tool. It is formed of greenstone, and was found near Scarborough,
being now in the museum at the Leeds Philosophical Hall. A similar form
has been found in Italy.[780]
[Illustration: Fig. 146.—Scarborough. 1∕2]
[Illustration: Fig. 147.—Shetland. 1∕2]
A beautifully finished hammer-head, cross-paned at both ends, and with
a parallel polished shaft-hole, is shown in Fig. 147. It is of pale
mottled green gneissose rock, with veins of transparent pale green,
like jade, and was found in a barrow in Shetland. It is preserved
in the National Museum at Edinburgh, where is also another of the
same form, but broader and much more weathered, which was found at
Scarpiegarth,[781] also in Shetland. Mr. J. W. Cursiter has another
of these ruder examples (3 1∕2 inches) from Firth. He has also a very
highly polished specimen made of serpentine (4 inches) subquadrate
in section, and with hemispherical ends, from Lingrow, Orkney. The
perforation is conical, being 1 inch in diameter on one face and only
1∕2 inch on the other. A remarkably elegant instrument of this kind,
formed of a quartzose metamorphic rock, striped green and white, and
evidently selected for its beauty, is in the well-known Greenwell
Collection. It was found in Caithness. It is polished all over, and
4 1∕4 inches long, of oval section, with the ends slightly rounded.
The shaft-hole is parallel, 1∕2 inch in diameter, and about 3∕4
inch nearer to one end than to the other. In the same collection is
another specimen, rather more elongated in form, and of more ordinary
material, found near Harome, in Yorkshire, in a district where a
number of stone implements of rare types have been discovered. It is
of clay-slate, 5 1∕4 inches long, and of oval section. The shaft-hole
tapers from 1 inch at the faces to 9∕16 inch in the centre. A shorter
hammer, of gneiss, 3 3∕4 inches long, and of similar section, |222|
with a parallel shaft-hole 5∕8 inch in diameter, was found near
Blair-Drummond, and is now in the National Museum at Edinburgh. It has
a thin rounded edge at one end, and is obtuse at the other, as if it
had been broken and subsequently rounded over. The form occasionally
occurs in the South of England. In the British Museum is a beautiful
specimen (4 1∕4 inches) from Twickenham, and another of more ordinary
stone from the Thames, which was formerly in the Roots Collection.
Another polished hammer (of grey granite) with curved sides,
and narrower at one end than the other, was found in a cairn in
Caithness,[782] in company with a flint flake ground at the edge, some
arrow-heads, and scrapers. By permission of the Society of Antiquaries
of Scotland, it is shown in Fig. 148. A somewhat similar form of hammer
has been obtained in Denmark.[783]
[Illustration: Fig. 148.—Caithness. 1∕2]
[Illustration: Fig. 149.—Leeds. 1∕2]
The hammer-head shown in Fig. 149 resembles the Shetland implements
in character, though, besides being far less highly finished, it is
shorter and broader, and shows more wear at the end. The hole, also,
is not parallel, but tapers from both faces. It is stated to have been
found 12 feet deep in gravel, while sinking for foundations for the
works of the North-Eastern Railway in Neville Street, Leeds. It is
formed of greenstone, and has all the appearance of having been made
out of a portion of a celt.
I have a somewhat smaller hammer-head, of much the same form, from
Reach Fen, Cambridge, which also seems to have been made from a
fragment of a broken celt. I have seen one of the same kind, found near
Brixham, in Devonshire.
I have another specimen, from Orwell, Wimpole, Cambs., in which a
portion of an implement of larger size has also been utilized for |223|
a fresh purpose. In this case the sharper end of a large axe-head
of stone, probably much like Fig. 131, having been broken off, the
wedge-shaped fragment, which is about 3 inches long and 2 inches broad,
has been bored through in a direction at right angles to the edge,
and probably to the original shaft-hole, and a somewhat adze-like
hammer-head has been the result, what was formerly the edge of the axe
being rounded and battered.
Fragments of celts which, when the edge was lost, subsequently served
as hammers, but without any perforation, have not unfrequently been
found, both here and on the Continent. The Eskimo hammer, already
mentioned, has much the same appearance and character as if it had been
made from a portion of a jade celt.
The form of hammer shown in Fig. 150, may be described as a frustum of
a cone with convex ends. The specimen here figured is of quartzite,
and was found near Rockland, Norfolk. It is preserved in the Norwich
Museum. The hole, as usual with this type, is nearly parallel. The
lower half of a similar hammer, but of flint, 2 inches in diameter, and
showing one-half of the shaft-hole, which is 5∕8 inch in diameter, is
in the British Museum. It came from Grundisburgh, Suffolk.
A more conical specimen, tapering from 2 3∕8 inches to 1 7∕8 inches
in diameter, and 3 inches long, with a shaft-hole 7∕8 inch in
diameter within 3∕4 inch of the top, is in the Greenwell Collection.
It is of basalt, and was found at Twisel, in the parish of Norham,
Northumberland.
[Illustration: Fig. 150.—Rockland. 1∕2]
Some rather larger and more cylindrical instruments of analogous
form have been obtained in Yorkshire. One such, about 4 inches long,
and with a small parallel shaft-hole about 3∕4 inch in diameter, was
found with an urn in a barrow at Weapon Ness, and is in the museum at
Scarborough. With it was a flint spear-head or javelin-head. It is
described as rather kidney-shaped in the _Archæologia_.[784] I have the
half of another, made of compact sandstone, and found on the Yorkshire
Wolds.
The same form occurs in Ireland, but the sides curve inwards and the
section is somewhat oval. Sir W. Wilde[785] describes two such of
polished gneiss, and a third is engraved in Shirley’s “Account of
Farney.”[786] Sir William suggests that such implements were, in all
probability, used in metal working, especially in the manufacture
of gold and silver. Certainly, in most cases, they can hardly have
been destined for any ordinary purposes of savage life, as the labour
involved in boring such shaft-holes in quartzite, and especially in
|224| flint, must have been immense. It seems quite as probable that
these were weapons as tools, and, in that case, we can understand an
amount of time and care being bestowed on their preparation such as
in modern days we find savages so often lavishing on their warlike
accoutrements. Another argument in favour of these being weapons, may
be derived from the beauty of the material of which they are sometimes
composed. That from Farney is of a light green colour and nicely
polished, and one in my own collection, found near Tullamore, King’s
County, is formed of a piece of black and white gneissose rock, which
must have been selected for its beauty. One in the British Museum from
Lough Gur is of black hornblende.
The type with the oval section is not, however, confined to Ireland. In
the Greenwell Collection is a beautiful hammer of this class, which is
represented in Fig. 151. It is made of a veined quartzose gneiss, and
was found on Heslerton Wold, Yorkshire. As will be seen, it is somewhat
oval in section. The sides are straight, but the faces from which the
hole is bored are somewhat hollow. I have a specimen of the same form,
but made of greenstone (3 inches), from the neighbourhood of Sutton
Coldfield,[787] Warwickshire.
A barrel-shaped hammer (3 3∕4 inches) was found on the hill of
Ashogall,[788] Turriff, Aberdeenshire, and a rude triangular hammer on
the Gallow Hill of Turriff.
[Illustration: Fig. 151.—Heslerton Wold. 1∕2]
A smaller hammer-head, curiously like those from Farney and Tullamore,
both in form and material, was found with a small “food vessel”
accompanying an interment near Doune,[789] Perthshire. It is 2 5∕8
inches long, with a parallel shaft-hole 5∕8 inch in diameter.
Another, of small-grained black porphyry, neatly polished, and about
3 1∕4 inches long, similar in outline to Fig. 150, but of oval section,
and little more than an inch in thickness, was dredged up in the Tidal
Basin, at Montrose, and is preserved in the local museum.
A cylindrical hammer of grey granite (2 3∕4 inches) only partially
bored from both faces, was found in the parish of Glammis,[790]
Forfarshire. Mr. J. W. Cursiter, of Kirkwall, has a beautiful specimen
formed of striped gneiss (3 1∕4 inches) with well-rounded ends, and the
sides much curved inwards. It was found at Whiteness, Shetland. Another
of his hammers (2 3∕4 inches) with a parallel hole (7∕8 inch) has the
sides straight and is of oval section. It is of beautifully mottled
gneiss.
Another variety, allied to the last, has an egg-shaped instead of a
quasi-conical form; the shaft-hole being towards the small end of the
egg. The specimen here engraved, Fig. 152, is apparently of serpentine,
and was found at Hallgaard Farm, near Birdoswald, Cumberland. It is in
the Greenwell Collection.
I have a smaller but nearly similar specimen in greenstone, from |225|
the neighbourhood of Flamborough, Yorkshire. The hole in this is more
bell-mouthed than in the other specimen, and a little nearer the centre
of the stone.
One of nearly similar form, but rather flatter on one face,
3 1∕4 inches long, found in Newport, Lincoln, is engraved in the
_Archæological Journal_.[791]
Another in size and shape, much like Fig. 152, was dug up at
Llanrhaiadr-yn-Mochnant, Montgomeryshire.[792] Another in the British
Museum came from the neighbourhood of Keswick.
An egg-shaped hammer, 3 inches long, of mica schist, and found in
the Isle of Arran,[793] is in the National Museum at Edinburgh. The
shaft-hole is in the centre.
[Illustration: Fig. 152.—Birdoswald. 1∕2]
Sometimes these hammer-heads are, in outline, of an intermediate form
between Figs. 151 and 152, being oval in section, and more rounded
at the smaller end than the larger, which is somewhat flattened. One
such, in the Christy Collection, is formed of granite, and was found at
Burns, near Keswick, Cumberland. Another, of quartzite, 3 1∕4 inches
long, found on Breadsale Moor, is in the Museum at Derby. Neither
of them presents the same high degree of finish as Fig. 151. They
seem, indeed, to have been made from pebbles, which were but slightly
modified in form by their conversion into hammer-heads.
Occasionally, though rarely, flint pebbles naturally perforated have
been used as hammers. In excavating a barrow at Thorverton,[794] near
Exeter, the Rev. R. Kirwan discovered a flint pebble about 3 3∕4
inches long, with a natural perforation rather nearer one end than the
other, but which on each face has been artificially enlarged. Each
end of the pebble is considerably abraded by use. No other relics,
with the |226| exception of charcoal, were found in the barrow. Mr.
Kirwan suggests that the stone may have been used by placing the thumb
and forefinger in each orifice of the aperture; but not improbably
it may have been hafted. In the Museum at Copenhagen are one or two
axes of flint, ground at the edge, but with the shaft-holes formed
by natural perforations of the stone. And in M. Boucher de Perthes’
Collection[795] were two hammer-heads, with central holes of the same
character.
[Illustration: Fig. 153.—Maesmore, Corwen.]
The beautiful and elaborately finished hammer-head found at Maesmore,
near Corwen, Merionethshire, and now in the National Museum at
Edinburgh, is to some extent connected in form with those like Fig.
152. It is shown in Fig. 153, on the scale of 1∕2 linear, but a full
size representation of it is given elsewhere.[796] It is of dusky
white chalcedony, or of very compact quartzite, and weighs 10 1∕2
ounces. “The reticulated ornamentation is worked with great precision,
and must have cost great labour. The perforation for the haft is
formed with singular symmetry and perfection; the lozengy grooved
decoration covering the entire surface is remarkably symmetrical and
skilfully finished.” The Rev. E. L. Barnwell,[797] who presented it
to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, has observed that “the
enormous amount of labour that must have been bestowed on cutting and
polishing, would indicate that it was not intended for ordinary use
as a common hammer.” “Some have considered it as the war implement of
a distinguished chief; others, that it was intended for sacrificial
or other religious purpose, or as a badge of high office.” Other
conjectures are mentioned which it is needless to repeat. My own
opinion is in favour of regarding it as a weapon of war, such as, like
the jade _mere_ of the New Zealander, implied a sort of chieftainship
in its possessor. At the time of its discovery it was unique of its
kind. But since then a second example has been found, though in an
unfinished condition,[798] at Urquhart, near Elgin, and has also been
placed in the museum at Edinburgh. It is rather smaller, but of similar
type and material to the Welsh specimen. The shaft-hole is finished,
but the boring process has not been skilfully carried out, the meeting
at the centre of the holes bored from either face not having |227|
been perfect; and though the hole has been made straight by subsequent
grinding out, there is still a lateral cavity left. The faceted pattern
is complete at the small end, and commenced on both sides. Along the
edge of the face small notches are ground, showing the manner in which
the pattern was laid out before grinding the hollow facets.
A third but ruder example of the same kind was found in the Thames, at
Windsor,[799] and was exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries in 1895
by Mr. F. Tress Barry, F.S.A., who has kindly presented it to me. It is
of nearly the same size as the others, but the perforation is natural,
and there is no attempt at ornamentation, though much of the surface
has been ground in irregular facets.
The end of a naturally perforated flint nodule from Aldbourne, Wilts,
in the collection of Mr. J. W. Brooke, seems to be part of a hammer. It
is neatly faceted like the nucleus, Fig. 189, and has been rounded by
grinding. The hole has been partially ground.
[Illustration: Fig. 154.—Normanton, Wilts. 1∕2]
A very peculiar hammer, discovered by Sir Richard Colt Hoare,[800] in
Bush barrow, near Normanton, Wilts, is reproduced in Fig. 154. It lay
on the right side of a skeleton, which was accompanied by a bronze
celt without side flanges, a magnificent bronze dagger, the handle
of which was ornamented with gold, a lance-head of bronze, and a
large lozenge-shaped plate of gold. The hammer-head is “made out of a
fossil mass of _tubularia_, and polished, rather of an egg form,” or
“resembling the top of a large gimlet. It had a wooden handle, which
was fixed into the perforation in the centre, and encircled by a neat
ornament of brass, part of which still adheres to the stone.” As it
bore no marks of wear or attrition, Sir Richard hardly considered
it to have been used as a domestic implement, and thought that the
stone as containing a mass of _serpularia_, or little serpents, might
have been held in great veneration, and therefore have been deposited
with the other valuable relics in the grave. Judging from the other
objects accompanying this interment, it seems more probable that this
hammer was a weapon of offence, though whether the material of which
it was formed were selected from any superstitious motive, rather than
for the beauty of the stone, may be an open question. I have already
mentioned instances of _serpula_[801] limestone having been employed
as a material for celts of the ordinary character. The hole in this
instrument appears to be parallel, and may possibly have been bored
with a metallic tool. The occurrence of this hammer in association with
such highly-finished and |228| tastefully-decorated objects of bronze
and gold, shows conclusively that stone remained in use for certain
purposes, long after the knowledge of some of the metals had been
acquired.
The hammer-heads of the next form to be noticed are of a simpler
character, being made from ovoid pebbles, usually of quartzite, by
boring shaft-holes through their centres. The specimen I have selected
for illustration, Fig. 155, is in my own collection, and was found in
Redgrave Park, Suffolk. It is said to have been exhumed ten feet below
the surface, by men digging stone in Deer’s Hill. The pebble is of
quartzite, probably from one of the conglomerates of the Trias, but
more immediately derived from the gravels of the Glacial Period, which
abound in the Eastern Counties. The hole as usual tapers towards the
middle of the stone. The pebble is battered at both ends, and slightly
worn away by use. I have a rather smaller, and more kidney-shaped
hammer, also slightly worn away at the ends, found at Willerby Carr, in
the East Riding of Yorkshire, and one (4 inches), that is considerably
worn at both ends, from Stanifield, Bury St. Edmunds. An example was
found at Normandy,[802] near Wanborough, Surrey. I have seen one formed
from a sandstone pebble (4 1∕2 inches) found near Ware.
[Illustration: Fig. 155.—Redgrave Park. 1∕2]
In the Greenwell Collection is a large specimen, made from a flat
pebble (7 1∕2 inches) obtained at Salton, York, N.R.
[Illustration: Fig. 156.—Redmore Fen. 1∕2]
Fig. 156 shows a smaller variety of the same type, but rather square in
outline, and with the shaft-hole much more bell-mouthed. The original
is in my own collection, and was found in Redmore Fen, near Littleport,
Cambridgeshire. I have others from Icklingham (2 3∕8 inches) and
Harleston, Norfolk (3 1∕4 inches). Hammers of this and the preceding
type are by no means |229| uncommon. Mr. Joshua W. Brooke has one
(3 1∕4 inches) from Liddington, Wilts. One of quartzite, 5 inches
long, was found in a vallum of Clare Castle, Suffolk,[803] and is in
the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries; another (4 1∕2 inches) at
Sunninghill, Berks;[804] another (2 1∕2 inches) near Reigate.[805] One,
in form like Fig. 156 (4 1∕4 inches), was discovered in Furness.[806]
Others were found at Pallingham Quay,[807] and St. Leonard’s
Forest,[808] Horsham (5 inches), both in Sussex. What seems to be a
broken hammer (2 3∕8 inches) and not a spindle-whorl was obtained at
Mount Caburn,[809] Lewes. Another, circular in outline, and 3 inches
in diameter, was found at Stifford,[810] near Grays Thurrock, and is
engraved in the _Archæological Journal_.[811] I have here reproduced
the figure (Fig. 157), though the scale is somewhat larger than that of
my other illustrations.
In the British Museum is a specimen, originally about 3 1∕2 inches by
2 1∕4 inches, and 3∕4 inch thick, with the end battered, which was
found in a tumulus at Cliffe, near Lewes. Another, 3 3∕4 inches in
diameter, from the Thames; a subtriangular example from Marlborough
(4 1∕4 inches); and an oval one (3 7∕8 inches) from Sandridge, Herts,
are in the same collection.
[Illustration: Fig. 157.—Stifford.]
A longer form (6 1∕4 inches by 3 1∕8) was found at Epping Uplands,
Essex,[812] and another about 5 inches, rather hoe-like in form, in the
Lea, at Waltham. Another (4 1∕2 inches) was found in London.[813]
In the Norwich Museum are two hammer-heads of this type, one from
Sporle, near Swaffham (3 1∕8 inches), of quartzite; and the other of
jasper, from Eye, Suffolk, 5 inches by 2 3∕4 inches. In the Fitch
Collection are also specimens from Yarmouth (3 1∕2 inches), from Lyng
(5 inches), and Congham, Norfolk (6 inches), as well as a fragment of
one found at Caistor.
The late Mr. Warren, of Ixworth, had one from Great Wratting, near
Haverhill (4 inches), and the late Mr. James Carter, of Cambridge, one
3 1∕4 inches in diameter, from Chesterton.
In the Museum of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society is one of irregular
form, found near Newmarket. A thin perforated stone, 6 inches by 3
inches, from Luton,[814] in Bedfordshire, may belong to this class,
though it was regarded as an unfinished axe-head.
In the collection formed by Canon Greenwell is one found at Coves
Houses, Wolsingham, Durham (3 1∕2 inches), and another of quartzite
(4 1∕2 inches), with both ends battered, from Mildenhall Fen. He
discovered another of small size, only 2 1∕4 inches in length, with the
perforation not |230| more than 7∕16 inch in diameter in the centre,
in the soil of a barrow at Rudstone,[815] near Bridlington.
The late Mr. H. Durden, of Blandford, had two fragments of these
hammers, made from quartzite pebbles, one of them from Hod Hill,
Dorset, and the other from the same neighbourhood. A perforated oval
boulder of chert was also found near Marlborough.[816]
Both round and oval hammer-stones are in the Leicester Museum.[817]
One (6 1∕2 inches) was found at Doddenham, Worcestershire, and
others (3 3∕8 inches) at Silverdale,[818] Torver,[819] and elsewhere
in Lancashire.[820] A large specimen (8 inches) was found at Abbey
Cwm Hir,[821] Radnorshire, and a small one near Rhayader,[822]
Montgomeryshire. A circular example (4 1∕4 inches), with a very small
central hole, was discovered in Pembrokeshire.[823] Quartzite pebbles
converted into hammer-heads occur also in Scotland. The hole in one
from Pitlochrie[824] is only 1∕8 inch in diameter at its centre. In one
from Ythanside, Gight,[825] Aberdeenshire (4 3∕4 inches), it is only
1∕4 inch.
Besides quartzite and silicious pebbles, these hammer-heads were made
from fragments of several other rocks. The Rev. S. Banks had one of
greenstone, 5 3∕4 inches by 3 1∕4 inches, found at Mildenhall. A
disc of dolerite[826] (4 inches) with convex faces and perforated
in the centre in the usual manner, was found at Caer Leb, in the
parish of Llanidan, Anglesea. Several hammer-stones of this kind were
obtained by the late Hon. W. O. Stanley, M.P., in his researches in
the Island of Holyhead.[827] One of them, now in the British Museum,
is of trap, 4 1∕2 inches long and 3 inches broad, somewhat square at
the ends; another is of schist, 3 3∕8 inches long, and much thinner
in proportion. Both were found at Pen-y-Bonc. A fragment of a third,
formed of granite (?), was found at Ty Mawr, in the same island. One
of granite (?)[828] was found at Titsey Park, Surrey. A small one
of “light grey burr stone,” 2 3∕8 inches in diameter, was found at
Haydock,[829] near Newton, Lancashire. I have a subquadrate example (4
inches) of felsite, from Belper, Derbyshire. The Scottish specimens are
often of other materials than quartzite. A circular “flailstone,” found
at Culter, Lanarkshire, has been figured,[830] but the material is not
stated. The same is the case with an oval one, 4 inches long, found
near Longman,[831] Macduff, Banff; another from Forfarshire;[832] and a
third, 4 inches by 3 inches, from Alloa.[833]
Others from Portpatrick[834] (6 3∕4 inches), and from a cist at
Cleugh,[835] Glenbervie, Kincardineshire, have been figured. I have a
disc (3 inches), nearly flat round the circumference like a Danish
“child’s |231| wheel” from Ballachulish, Inverness. It is formed
of hornblendic gneiss. A hammer-stone of this kind from Poyanne,
Landes,[836] has been recorded.
Some of these circular pebbles may have formed the heads of war-maces,
such as seem to have been in use in Denmark in ancient times and in a
modified form, among various savage tribes in recent days.
A curious variety of this type, flat on one face and convex on the
other, is shown in Fig. 158. It is made from a quartzite pebble,
that has in some manner been split, and was found at Sutton, near
Woodbridge. It is now in the collection of General Pitt Rivers, F.R.S.
[Illustration: Fig. 158.—Sutton. 1∕2]
In the Christy Collection is another implement of much the same size,
material, and character, which was found at Narford, Norfolk. The ends
are somewhat hollowed after the manner of a gouge, but the edges are
rounded. It seems to occupy a sort of intermediate position between a
hammer and an adze.
One of similar, but more elongated form, found at Auquemesnil[837]
(Seine Inférieure), has been figured by the Abbé Cochet.
It is difficult to say for what purpose hammers of this perforated
kind were destined. I can hardly think that such an enormous amount of
labour would have been bestowed in piercing them, if they had merely
been intended to serve in the manufacture of other stone implements,
a service in which they would certainly be soon broken. If they were
not intended for weapons of war or the chase, they were probably used
for lighter work than chipping other stones; and yet the bruising at
the ends, so apparent on many of them, betokens their having seen hard
service. We have little, in the customs of modern savages, to guide us
as to their probable uses, as perforated hammers are almost unknown
among them. The perforated spheroidal stones of Southern Africa[838]
act merely as weights to give impetus to the digging sticks, and such
stones are said to have been in use in Chili[839] and California.[840]
The perforated discs of North America appear to be the fly-wheels of
drilling sticks. Some quartz pebbles perforated with small central
holes, and brought from the African Gold Coast,[841] seem to have been
worn as charms. |232|
In Ireland, perforated hammer-stones are much more abundant than in
England. They are usually formed of some igneous or metamorphic rock,
and vary considerably in size, some being as much as 10 or 12 inches in
length. Sir W. Wilde observes that stone hammers, and not unfrequently
stone anvils, have been employed by smiths and tinkers in some of the
remote country districts until a comparatively recent period. If,
however, these hammers were perforated, there can be but little doubt
that they must have been ancient tools again brought into use, as the
labour in manufacturing a stone hammer of this kind would be greater
than that of making one in iron, which would, moreover, be ten times as
serviceable. If, however, the stone hammers came to hand ready made,
they might claim a preference. For heavy work, where iron was scarce,
large mauls, such as those shortly to be described, might have been in
use rather than iron sledges; but the more usual form of stone hammer
would probably be a pebble held in the hand, as is constantly the case
with the workers in iron of Southern Africa. Even in Peru and Bolivia,
the late Mr. David Forbes, F.R.S., informed me that the masons skilful
in working hard stone with steel chisels, make use of no other mallet
or hammer than a stone pebble held in the hand. The anvils and hammers
used in Patagonia[842] in working silver are generally of stone, but
the latter are not perforated.
In Germany, as already[843] incidentally remarked, anvils formed of
basalt were in frequent use in the sixteenth century.
In Scandinavia and Germany the same forms of hammers as those found in
the British Isles occur, both in quartzite and in other kinds of stone.
They are not, however, abundant. Worsaae does not give the type in his
“Nordiske Oldsager,” and Nilsson gives but a single instance.[844]
Lindenschmit[845] engraves a specimen from Oldenstadt, Lüneburg, and
another from Gelderland.[846]
In Switzerland they are extremely rare. In the Neuchâtel Museum,
however, is a perforated hammer, formed from an oval pebble, and found
in the Lake-habitations at Concise; another, 2 inches in diameter, with
a small perforation deeply countersunk on each face, has been regarded
by M. de Mortillet[847] as a sink-stone for a net.
I have a lenticular mace-head, 3 inches in diameter and 2 inches thick,
formed of a silicious breccia from Pergamum. The hole tapers from 3∕4
inch to 1∕2 inch.
The half of a small perforated hammer made of greenstone and polished
is recorded to have been found at Arconum,[848] west of Madras. A
perforated stone, possibly a hammer, was found in the Jubbulpore
district, Central India;[849] and a fine example from the Central
Provinces,[850] rather more oval than Fig. 157, has been figured by the
late Mr. V. Ball.
In the British Museum is a perforated ball of hard red stone of a
different type from any of those which I have described, which came
from Peru. It is about 3 inches in diameter, with a parallel hole an
inch across. Around the outside are engraved four human faces, each
surmounted by a sort of mitre. It may be the head of a mace. |233|
Spherical mace-heads of marble and of harder rocks occur among
Egyptian antiquities. They are sometimes decorated by carving.
* * * * *
In this place perhaps it will be well to mention a class of large
hammer-stones, or mauls, as they have been termed, which, though
belonging to a period when metal was in use, are in all probability
of a high degree of antiquity. They consist, as a rule, of large oval
pebbles or boulders, usually of some tough form of greenstone or grit,
around which, somewhere about the middle of their length, a shallow
groove has been chipped or “picked,” from 3∕4 inch to 1 inch in width.
On the two opposite sides of the pebble, and intersecting this groove,
two flat or slightly hollowed faces have often been worked, the purpose
of which is doubtless connected with the method of hafting the stones
for use as hammers. This was evidently by means of a withe twisted
round them, much in the same manner as a blacksmith’s chisel is mounted
at the present day. In the case of the mauls, however, the withe
appears to have been secured by tying, like the haft of one form of
Australian stone hatchets (Fig. 105), and then to have been tightened
around the stone by means of wedges driven in between the withe loop
and the flat faces before mentioned.
A[851] German stone axe seems to have been fastened to its haft in the
same manner.
* * * * *
In many of the Welsh specimens about to be mentioned, the flat faces
are absent, and the notch or groove does not extend all round the
stone, but exists only on the two sides through which the longer
transverse axis of the pebble passes. In this case the wedges, if any,
were probably driven in on the flatter side of the boulder.
The ends of the pebbles are usually much worn and broken by hammering,
and not unfrequently the stone has been split by the violence of
the blows that it has administered. It is uncertain whether they
were merely used for crushing and pounding metallic ores, or also in
mining operations; but with very few exceptions they occur in the
neighbourhood of old mines, principally copper-mines.
In some copper mines at Llandudno,[852] near the great Orme’s Head,
Carnarvonshire, an old working was broken into about sixty years ago,
and in it were found a broken stag’s horn, and parts of what were
regarded as of two mining implements or picks of bronze, one about 3
inches and the other about 1 inch in length. In 1850, another ancient
working was found, and on the floor a number of these stone mauls,
described as weighing from about 2 lbs. to 40 lbs. each. They had been
formed from water-worn boulders, probably selected from |234| the
beach at Pen-maen-mawr. One of the mauls in the Warrington Museum[853]
is 6 5∕8 inches long, and weighs 3 lbs. 14 ozs. One of basalt,
measuring nearly a foot in length, was found in ancient workings at
Amlwch Parys Mine,[854] in Anglesea. Others have been discovered
in old workings in Llangynfelin Mine,[855] Cardiganshire, and at
Llanidan,[856] Anglesea.
A ponderous ball of stone, about 5 inches in diameter, probably used
in crushing and pounding the ore, a portion of stag’s horn, fashioned
so as to be suited for the handle of some implement, and an _iron_
pick-axe, were found in some old workings in the Snow Brook Lead Mines,
Plinlimmon, Montgomeryshire.[857]
Two of these hammer-stones, 4 1∕2 and 5 inches in length, were obtained
by the late Hon. W. O. Stanley, within hut circles, possibly the
remains of the habitations of copper miners in ancient times, at Ty
Mawr, in the Island of Holyhead. Some of these mauls are figured in the
_Archæological Journal_,[858] and are of much the same form as Fig.
159, the original of which probably served another purpose. Others of
the same character, formed of quartzite, were found at Pen-y-Bonc,[859]
Holyhead, and Old Geir,[860] Anglesea. They have also been found at
Alderley Edge,[861] Cheshire.
A boulder, like those from Llandudno, but found at Long Low, near
Wetton, Staffordshire, is in the Bateman Collection.[862] One from
Wigtownshire[863] has been regarded as a weight.
They are of not uncommon occurrence in the south of Ireland,[864]
especially in the neighbourhood of Killarney, where, as also in Cork,
many of them have been found in ancient mines. They have, in Ireland,
been denominated miners’ hammers. One of them is engraved in “Flint
Chips.”[865] I have seen an example from Shetland.
They have also been found in ancient copper mines in the province of
Cordova,[866] at Cerro Muriano, Villanueva del Rey,[867] and Milagro,
in Spain; in those of Ruy Gomes,[868] in Alemtejo, Portugal; and at the
salt mines of Hallstatt,[869] in the Salzkammergut of Austria, and at
Mitterberg,[870] near Bischofshofen.
A large hammer of the same class, but with a deeper groove all round,
has been recorded from Savoy.[871]
They are not, however, confined to European countries, for similar
stone hammers were found by Mr. Bauerman in the old mines of Wady
Maghara,[872] which were worked for turquoises (if not also for
|235| copper ore) by the ancient Egyptians, so early as the third
Manethonian Dynasty. It is hard to say whether the grooved stone found
by Schliemann at Troy[873] was used as a hammer or a weight.
What is more remarkable still, in the New World similar stone hammers
are found in the ancient copper mines near Lake Superior.[874] As
described by Sir Daniel Wilson,[875] “many of these mauls are mere
water-worn oblong boulders of greenstone or porphyry, roughly chipped
in the centre, so as to admit of their being secured by a withe around
them.” They weigh from 10 to 40 lbs., and are found in enormous
numbers. M. Marcou[876] has given an account of the discovery of some
of those mauls in the Mine de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest, at Point
Kievenau, Lake Superior. He describes them as formed of leptynite
(quartz and felspar), quartz, and porphyry, and weighing from 5 to 8
lbs. each; and mentions having seen one of quartz weighing about 5
lbs., which was in the possession of some Kioway Indians, and was bound
to a handle with a strip of bison skin.
This similarity or identity in form of implements used in countries
so wide apart, and at such different ages, does not, I think, point
of necessity to any common origin, nor to any so-called “continuity
of form,” but appears to offer another instance of similar wants
with similar means at command, resulting in similar implements for
fulfilling those wants. Grooved hammers for other purposes, as evinced
by their smaller size, and a few grooved axes, occur in Scandinavia.
An example among one of the lower races in modern times is afforded by
a large crystal of quartz, with its terminal planes preserved at both
ends, which has been slightly grooved at the sides for the purpose of
attaching it to a handle, and was brought by Captain Cook, from St.
George’s Sound, where it appears to have been used as a hammer or pick.
It is now in the British Museum, and has been described by Dr. Henry
Woodward.[877]
Even in Britain the hammer-stones of this form are not absolutely
confined to mining districts. Canon Greenwell, in one of the barrows at
Rudstone,[878] near Bridlington, found on the lid of a stone-cist two
large greenstone pebbles 8 and 9 3∕4 inches long, each with a sort of
“waist” chipped in it, as if to receive a withe, and having marks at
the ends of having been in use as hammers.
Closely connected in form and character with the mining hammers,
though as a rule much smaller in size, and in all probability intended
for a totally different purpose, is the class of stone objects of
one of which Fig. 159 gives a representation, reproduced from the
_Archæological Journal_.[879] This was found in company with two others
at Burns, near Ambleside, Westmorland; and another, almost precisely
similar in size and form, was found at Percy’s Leap, and is preserved
at Alnwick Castle. Another, from Westmorland, is in the Liverpool
Museum, and they have, I believe, been observed in some numbers in that
district. A stone of the same character, but more elaborately worked,
|236| having somewhat acorn-shaped ends, was found by the late Hon. W.
O. Stanley, at Old Geir,[880] Anglesea. Others from Anglesea,[881] one
of them ornamented, have been figured. They were originally regarded as
hammer-stones, but such as I have examined are made of a softer stone
than those usually employed for hammers, and they are not battered or
worn at the ends. It is, therefore, probable that they were used as
sinkers for nets or lines, for which purpose they are well adapted,
the groove being deep enough to protect small cord around it from wear
by friction. They seem also usually to occur in the neighbourhood
either of lakes, rivers, or the sea. A water-worn nodule of sandstone,
5 inches long, with a deep groove round it, and described as probably
a sinker for a net or line, was found in Aberdeenshire,[882] and is
in the National Museum at Edinburgh; and I have one of soft grit, and
about the same length, given me by Mr. R. D. Darbishire, F.G.S., and
found by him near Nantlle, Carnarvonshire.
[Illustration: Fig. 159.—Ambleside. 1∕2]
Many of these sink-stones are probably of no great antiquity. With two
transverse grooves, they are still in use in Shetland.[883]
The Fishing Indians of Vancouver’s Island[884] go out trolling for
salmon in a fast canoe, towing behind them a long line made of tough
seaweed, to which is attached, by slips of deer hide, an oval piece of
granite perfectly smooth, and the size and shape of a goose’s egg. It
acts as a sinker, and is said to spin the bait. A net-sinker, formed
of a pebble slightly notched or grooved, is among the antiquities from
|237| Lake Erie, engraved by Schoolcraft.[885] Others have been found
in the State of New York.[886] See C. Rau’s “Prehistoric Fishing.”[887]
Sink-stones are by no means rare in Ireland, and continue in use
to the present day. One of the same class as Fig. 159, but grooved
round the long axis of the pebble, is engraved by Sir W. Wilde.[888]
Similar stones occur in Denmark, and were regarded by Worsaae[889] as
sink-stones, though some of them, to judge from the wear at the ends,
and the hardness of the material, were used as hammers. I have seen, in
Sweden, the leg bones of animals used as weights for sinking nets.
Another form of sink-stone, weight, or plummet, was formed by boring a
hole towards one end of a flattish stone. Such a one, weighing 14 1∕4
oz., was dredged from the Thames at Battersea.[890]
Another, of oval form, pierced at one end, from Tyrie,[891]
Aberdeenshire, is in the National Museum at Edinburgh; and a
wedge-shaped perforated stone from Culter, Lanarkshire,[892] was
probably intended for the same purpose. These may have been in use for
stretching the warp in the loom when weaving. They are found of this
form with Roman remains.[893]
|238|