SCRAPERS.
One of the simple forms into which flakes are susceptible of being
readily converted has, in consequence of its similarity in character to
a stone implement in use among the Eskimos for scraping skins and other
purposes, received the name of a “scraper,” or to use the term first
I believe employed by the late M. E. Lartet, a _grattoir_. A typical
scraper may be defined as a broad flake, the end of which has been
chipped to a semicircular bevelled edge round the margin of the inner
face, similar in character to that of a “round-nosed turning chisel.”
[Illustration: Fig. 203.—Eskimo Scraper.]
A very good specimen of an Eskimo scraper of flint, mounted in a handle
of fossil ivory, is in the Christy Collection, and has been engraved
for the “Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ.”[1361] For the loan of the woodcut,
Fig. 203, there given, I am indebted to the |299| representatives of
the late Mr. Christy. Sometimes the hafts are of wood, and they have
frequently indentations intended to receive the ends of the fingers
and thumb, so as to secure a good grasp. In the collection of Sir John
Lubbock is another specimen much like Fig. 203, with a flint blade
almost like a lance-head in character, but with the more pointed end
inserted in the handle; there is also another short straight-sided
blade of jade bound in a wooden haft, which is notched along one side
to receive the fingers, and recessed on the face for the thumb. This
latter seems well adapted for use as a knife or chisel; in fact, Sir
John Lubbock, who has figured the instruments in his “Prehistoric
Times,”[1362] terms them both knives. Another example has been engraved
by the Rev. J. G. Wood.[1363]
These instruments are said to be used for scraping skins,[1364] for
which indeed they seem well suited, if the flat face of the stone
be held vertically to the hide that is to be scraped. The handles,
however, are better adapted for pushing the scrapers forward on a flat
surface, and judging from the wear upon them they must have been so
used. The late Sir Edward Belcher[1365] has described them as Eskimo
planes, for the manufacture of bows and other articles of wood, but in
this respect he may have been mistaken.
The scrapers in use among the Fuegians[1366] are drawn towards the
operator and not pushed. Some North American varieties are mounted
after the manner of adzes.[1367] Mr. Otis T. Mason in his Paper “on
Aboriginal skin-dressing” has exhaustively treated the subject.
A form of Skin-scraper, straight at the edge, was in use among the
Pennacook tribe[1368] of North America, and though some of the Eskimo
instruments may have been used as planes, no doubt many were employed
in dressing hides. A peculiar form in use among the Gallas[1369] of
Southern Shoa has been figured by Giglioli,[1370] who has also recorded
the fact that flat scrapers of stone are still in use in Italy and
France for dressing hides.
Whether the instruments were used vertically as scrapers, or
horizontally as planes, the term “scrapers” seems almost equally |300|
applicable to them; and there appears no valid reason why, for the sake
of convenience, the same term should not be extended to their ancient
analogues, especially as their edges, as will subsequently be seen, are
in many cases worn away in a manner indicative of their having been
used for scraping.
* * * * *
The names of “thumb-flints” and “finger-flints” which have sometimes
been applied to the shorter and longer varieties of these instruments,
though colloquially convenient, appear to me not sufficiently definite
in meaning to be worthy of being retained.
Scrapers may be classified and described—firstly, in accordance with
the character of the flakes from which they have been made; and,
secondly, in accordance with the outline of the portion of the margin
which has been chipped into form, and the general contour of the
implement.
[Illustration: Fig. 204.—Weaverthorpe.]
Their outline is in some cases horseshoe-shaped or kite-shaped, in
others it is discoidal or nearly circular, and in others again it may
be compared with that of a duck’s bill or of an oyster-shell. To these
may be added side-scrapers, or such as are broader than they are long,
and the hollow scrapers with a rounded notch in them instead of a
semicircular end.
When the flakes have been chipped into the scraper form at both ends
they may be termed double-ended scrapers—to which class circular
scrapers also belong; where a sort of handle has been worked they may
be termed spoon-shaped, and where the butt has been chipped to a sharp
chisel-edge, at right angles to the flat face, they have been called
tanged scrapers.
In speaking of the sides as right or left, I do it with reference to
the flat face of the scraper, as shown in the first of the three views
of Fig. 204.
It will be well to pass some of the forms in review before entering
into any more general considerations.
The figures are all of full size, Fig. 204, from Weaverthorpe, on the
Yorkshire Wolds, is a good example of a symmetrical horseshoe-shaped
scraper. It is made from a broad flat flake, of rather pink |301|
flint, with the point chipped to a neat semicircular bevelled edge,
and one of the sides trimmed so as to correspond with the other. The
bulb of percussion visible on the flat face and side views has been
slightly splintered by the blow. It gives a graceful ogee curve to the
face longitudinally, which brings forward the scraping or cutting edge
at the end. In the centre this is slightly rounded and worn away by use.
I have other specimens almost identical in form from other parts of
the Yorkshire Wolds, from Suffolk, Sussex, and Dorsetshire. They are
abundantly found of smaller dimensions, and occasionally of larger,
sometimes as much as 2 1∕2 inches in diameter.
[Illustration: Fig. 205.—Sussex Downs.]
Fig. 205 shows another horseshoe-shaped scraper, which has become
white and grey by exposure. I picked it up on the Downs near Berling
Gap, on the Sussex coast, a few miles west of Eastbourne; a district
so prolific, that I have there found as many as twenty of these
instruments, of various degrees of perfection, within an hour. In
this case the scraper has been made from a broad ridged flake, and it
will be observed that not only the end but one of the sides has been
carefully trimmed, while the other has been left untouched, and has,
moreover, a flat facet on it, as shown in the side view. It would
appear from this that probably the side as well as the end was used
for scraping purposes, that whoever used it was right-handed and not
left-handed, and, moreover, that it is doubtful whether the implement
was ever inserted in a handle, at all events at the butt-end. I have a
nearly similar specimen, but trimmed at the end only, which I found in
the _vallum_ of the camp of Poundbury, near Dorchester, Dorset. I have
smaller instruments of the same form which I have found on the surface
of the ground at Abbot’s Langley, Herts; at Oundle, Northamptonshire;
and in the ancient encampment of Maiden Bower, near Dunstable. Large
scrapers are abundant in some parts of Suffolk.
The form is of common occurrence in Yorkshire, in all sizes from 2 1∕2
inches to one inch in length. To show the great range in size, and
|302| the variations in the relative thickness of the instruments, I
have engraved, in Fig. 206, a small specimen from the Yorkshire Wolds.
[Illustration: Fig. 206.—Yorkshire.]
[Illustration: Fig. 207—Helperthorpe.]
When the chipping to an edge is continued beyond a semicircle, in the
case of scrapers made from broad short flakes, an almost circular
instrument is the result. These discoidal scrapers are of extremely
common occurrence on the Yorkshire Wolds. Fig. 207 shows a specimen
from Helperthorpe.
They are not unfrequently formed from external flakes or splinters, and
are sometimes made from fragments broken from long flakes, inasmuch as
there is no bulb of percussion on the flat face. In rare cases the flat
face is the result of a natural fracture, and, more rarely still, it is
the external face of a flint nodule.
[Illustration: Fig. 208.—Weaverthorpe.]
When the instrument is broader than it is long, it has been termed a
side scraper. One in what is now white flint, made from a portion of
a flake, and showing no bulb on the flat face, is engraved in Fig.
208. It was found at Weaverthorpe. Occasionally the arc is flatter and
longer in proportion to the height than in this instance.
Fig. 209 may be called a long horseshoe-shaped scraper. It has been
made from a thick flat flake, which there had evidently been |303|
some difficulty in shaping, as at least two blows had failed of their
desired effect before the flake was finally dislodged. The back of the
scraper is disfigured by the marks of the abortive flakes produced by
these two blows. The end, and part of the right side are neatly trimmed
into form. This specimen also I found on the Sussex Downs, near Berling
Gap.
[Illustration: Fig. 209.—Sussex Downs.]
[Illustration: Fig. 210.—Yorkshire.]
[Illustration: Fig. 211.—Yorkshire Wolds.]
The implements of this form are often neatly chipped along both sides
as well as at the end. An example of the kind is given in Fig. 210, the
original of which is in milky chalcedonic flint, and was found on the
Yorkshire Wolds.
Fig. 211 shows another specimen from the Yorkshire Wolds. It is |304|
made from a flat flake, considerably curved longitudinally, and
trimmed at the end as well as along a small portion of the left side.
Some are more oval in form, and have been chipped along the sides, and
somewhat rounded at the butt. In several instances the chipped edge at
the butt-end is slightly worn away by friction, the edge of the rounded
end being unworn.
[Illustration: Fig. 212.—Yorkshire Wolds.]
[Illustration: Fig. 213.—Sussex Downs.]
Fig. 212 gives a kite-shaped scraper from Yorkshire, also made from a
flat flake, but showing a considerable extent of the original crust
of the flint of which it was made. It comes almost to a point at the
butt-end, and both edges are somewhat chipped away as if the instrument
had at that end been used as a boring tool. The point is somewhat
rounded by friction. Occasionally, scrapers of this form are chipped
on both faces at the pointed base, so as to make them closely resemble
arrow-heads. It seems possible that this pointing was for the purpose
of hafting the tool more readily in wood.
Fig. 213 shows one of what may be termed the duck-bill scrapers. It
is made from a flat flake as usual, somewhat curved, and showing all
along one side the original crust of the flint. It is neatly worked
to a semicircular edge at the end, but the sides are left entirely
untouched. I found it on the Sussex Downs, near Cuckmare Haven.
[Illustration: Fig. 214.—Yorkshire Wolds.]
A smaller analogous instrument, from the Yorkshire Wolds, is shown in
Fig. 214. It is made from an external flake, struck from a nodule of
flint of small diameter. The end alone is trimmed. Scrapers made from
such external flakes and splinters of flint are by no means uncommon.
I have one which appears to have been made |305| from a splinter of a
hammer-stone—a portion of the surface being bruised all over.
In Fig. 215 is shown another duck-bill scraper, with parallel sides,
found by myself on the Sussex Downs, near Berling Gap. It is a thick
instrument, with both sides and end trimmed into form, the flake
from which it is made having in all probability been originally much
broader, and more circular. The bulb of percussion is not in the middle
of the butt, but within three-eighths of an inch of the left side.
[Illustration: Fig. 215.—Sussex Downs.]
Another form of these instruments is not unlike the flat valve of an
oyster shell, being usually somewhat unsymmetrical either to the right
or to the left. A specimen of this class from the Downs, near Berling
Gap, is shown in Fig. 216. The end is neatly chipped to an almost
elliptical sweep, but the sides in this instance are left untrimmed;
the right side shown in the side view being flat and almost square with
the face. In some instances the trimming of the sides extends all the
way round to the butt.
Occasionally, though rarely, one of the sides, either right or left, is
trimmed in such a manner that its more or less straight edge meets the
curved edge of the end at an angle, so as to form an obtuse point. An
example of this kind is shown in Fig. 217, from the Downs, near Berling
Gap. This instrument is made from an external splinter of flint, the
edge at the end and front of one side alone being carefully chipped
into shape. It approaches in form to the _grattoir-bec_[1371] of French
antiquaries.
In most scrapers the bulb of percussion of the flake from which they
have been made is, as has already been said, at the opposite end to
that which has been trimmed to form the curved edge; but this is by no
means universally the case, for sometimes the bulb is at the side of
the scraper, and sometimes, though more rarely, it has been at the end
which has been worked to the scraper edge.
[Illustration: Fig. 216.—Sussex Downs.]
[Illustration: Fig. 217.—Sussex Downs.]
It seems needless to engrave examples of these varieties, which are
|306| only indicative of the manufacturers of the implements having
made use of that part of the piece of flint which seemed best adapted
to be chipped into the form they required. For the same reason we find
scrapers of an endless variety of forms, some of them exceedingly
irregular, as any one who has examined a series from the Yorkshire
Wolds will know. I have not, however, thought it necessary to give
|307| representations of all these minor varieties, as even more than
enough are engraved to show the general character of the instruments.
It is perhaps worth mentioning, that the flakes selected for conversion
into scrapers are usually such as expand in width at the point. It
is doubtful whether the long narrow flakes worked to a scraper-like
termination at one or both ends properly come under the category of
scrapers. I shall consequently treat of them under the head of wrought
flakes.
[Illustration: Fig. 218.—Bridlington.]
[Illustration: Fig. 219.—Bridlington.]
I must now pass on to the consideration of the forms showing a greater
extent of trimming at the edge than those hitherto described. Of these
the double-ended scrapers, or those presenting a semicircular edge
at either end, first demand notice. They are of by no means common
occurrence. Those I have seen have been for the most part found in
Yorkshire and Suffolk. Fig. 218 exhibits a specimen from Bridlington.
As is not unfrequently the case, it is rather thinner at the end
nearest to what was the butt-end of the flake. The sides are left
almost untrimmed, but each end is worked to a nearly semicircular
curve. In the Greenwell Collection is a specimen from one of the
barrows at Rudstone; as well as a large one from Lakenheath, and others
from Suffolk. Occasionally the length and breadth are so nearly the
same, that the scraper assumes the form of a disc, with sharp edges—a
kind of plano-convex lens. A specimen of this form from Bridlington
is shown in Fig. 219. It is, however, exceptionally regular in form.
I have another smaller specimen, not quite so circular or so well
chipped, which I found on the Downs between Newhaven and Brighton, and
I have others from Suffolk. Such a form was probably not intended for
insertion in a haft.
[Illustration: Fig. 220.—Yorkshire Wolds.]
Sometimes, where the scraper has been made from a flat flake, the
trimmed edge curves slightly inwards at one part, so as to produce a
sort of ear-shaped form. I have such, both with the inward curve on the
left side, as shown in Fig. 220, and also with it on the right side.
A deeply-notched tool, to which the name of hollow scraper has been
applied, will be subsequently mentioned.[1372] |308|
There are some scrapers which at the butt-end of the flake are chipped
into what has the appearance of being a kind of handle, somewhat like
that of a short spoon. That engraved in Fig. 221 is from the Yorkshire
Wolds, and is in the collection of Messrs. Mortimer, of Driffield. It
is chipped from both faces to an edge at each side in the handle-like
part. I have an implement of the same character, found at Sewerby, the
handle of which is slighter but less symmetrical. I have from the same
district another large discoidal scraper, 1 3∕4 inches in diameter,
and chipped all round, with a rounded projection, about 3∕4 of an inch
wide, left at the thicker end of the flake.
The Greenwell Collection contains specimens of the same character as
Fig. 221, found near Rudstone.
A nearly similar implement, in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy,
has been engraved by Sir W. Wilde.[1373]
Some of the large Danish scrapers are provided with a sort of handle,
and have been termed by Worsaae[1374] “skee-formet,” or spoon-shaped.
[Illustration: Fig. 221.—Yorkshire Wolds.]
It will be well now to refer to some of the published notices of the
discovery of these implements, which seem to have met with little
attention from antiquaries until within the last forty years. There is,
however, in the British Museum a fine horseshoe-shaped scraper, which
was found long ago by the late Dr. Mantell, in company with broken urns
and ashes, in a barrow on Windore Hill, near Alfriston. In the same
collection are four or five others of various sizes from barrows on
Lambourn Downs, Berks, as well as those from the Greenwell Collection.
Sir R. Colt Hoare has recorded the discovery of what appear to be two
discoidal scrapers, with a flint spear-head or dagger, a small hone or
whetstone, and a cone and ring of jet, like a pulley, accompanying an
interment, near Durrington Walls.[1375] He terms them little buttons
of chalk or marl; but from the engraving it would seem that they were
scrapers—probably of flint, much weathered, or altered in structure.
It seems likely that many more may have escaped his notice, as they
are of common occurrence in the tumuli in Wiltshire, as well as in the
other parts of Britain. They are also recorded |309| from Morgan’s
Hill[1376] and Winterbourn Stoke. The late Dean Merewether[1377] found
several in barrows on Avebury Down, together with numerous flint flakes.
Some were found with burnt bodies in barrows at Cockmarsh,[1378] Berks,
and others in a barrow at Great Shefford.[1379]
They occurred in barrows at Seaford,[1380] Sussex, and Lichfield,[1381]
Hants, as well as in Devonshire[1382] barrows.
Ten or twelve were also found by Dr. Thurnam in the chambered Long
Barrow, at West Kennet,[1383] with about three hundred flint flakes.
There was no trace of metal, nor of cremation in this barrow.
A neat scraper was found in a hut-circle on Carn Brê,[1384] Cornwall.
In the Yorkshire barrows they abound in company both with burnt and
unburnt bodies,[1385] without any metal being present. Canon Greenwell
has in some cases found them with the edge worn smooth by use.
Mr. Bateman found many in Derbyshire barrows, as, for instance, at
the head of a contracted skeleton on Cronkstone Hill,[1386] and with
another contracted skeleton with two sets of Kimmeridge coal beads, at
Cow Low, Buxton,[1387] and with four skeletons in a cist, in a barrow
near Monsal Dale.[1388]
They not unfrequently occur with interments in association with bronze
weapons. In a barrow on Parwich Moor, Staffordshire,[1389] called
Shuttlestone, Mr. Bateman found a skeleton, with a bronze dagger at the
left arm, and a plain flat bronze celt at the left thigh, and close to
the head a jet bead and a “circular flint.” As before stated, the late
Mr. J. W. Flower, obtained three, and a bronze dagger, from the same
barrow as the saw engraved at p. 266. They were also found with bronze
in barrows in Rushmore Park.[1390]
They are frequently to be seen on the surface of the ground. One
such, found by the late Mr. C. Wykeham Martin, F.S.A., at Leeds
Castle, Kent,[1391] has been figured. Others from the neighbourhood
of Hastings,[1392] the Isle of Thanet,[1393] and Bradford Abbas,
Dorset,[1394] have also been engraved. Many of those from Bradford
are said to have a notch on the left side, but I am doubtful whether
it is intentional. Gen. Pitt Rivers has found them at Callow Hill,
Oxon,[1395] and at Rotherley. They are also recorded from Holyhead
Island,[1396] Anglesea,[1397] |310| Tunbridge,[1398] Milton,[1399]
and West Wickham,[1400] Kent; Stoke Newington,[1401] Middlesex; and
Walton-on-the-Naze,[1402] Essex.
I have found them in considerable numbers in and near ancient
encampments. At Maiden Bower, near Dunstable, a party of three or four
have on more than one occasion picked up upwards of forty specimens.
I have examples from Hod Hill, Badbury Rings, and Poundbury Camp,
Dorsetshire; from Little Solsbury Hill, Bath; Pulpit Wood, near
Wendover, Bucks, and several localities in Suffolk, Cambs, and other
counties. Some are very thick, though quite symmetrical in outline.
On the Yorkshire Wolds, the Sussex Downs,[1403] and in parts of Wilts
and Suffolk, they are extremely numerous; but in any chalk country
where flint is abundant, this form of implement can be found. In other
districts, into which flint has to be imported, they are of course more
scarce. They seem, however, to occur in greater or less abundance over
the whole of England.
They are very numerous in Scotland, and extensive collections of them
from Elgin, Wigtown, and other counties are to be seen in the National
Museum at Edinburgh.
Specimens from a crannog in Ayrshire,[1404] Urquhart, Elgin,[1405] and
Gullane Links,[1406] Haddingtonshire, have been published.
They are found of nearly similar forms in Ireland, but are there rarer
than in England, though fairly numerous in Antrim.[1407]
In France the same form of instrument occurs, and I have a number of
specimens from different parts of Belgium.
A spoon-shaped scraper from Neverstorff,[1408] Schleswig Holstein, is
figured. They are likewise found in South Russia.[1409]
In Denmark scrapers of various forms are found, and are not uncommon in
the kjökken-möddings and coast-finds. Sir John Lubbock[1410] records
having picked up as many as thirty-nine scrapers at a spot on the coast
of Jutland, near Aarhuus.
In the Swiss Lake-dwellings they occasionally occur. I have a fine,
almost kite-shaped, specimen from Auvernier, given me by Professor
Desor, and others from Nussdorf. Some are engraved by Keller. They are
also found in Italy. I have a small specimen from the Isle of Elba.
I possess specimens formed of obsidian, from Mexico; and instruments
of jasper, of scraper-like forms, have been found at the Cape of Good
Hope.[1411] As already mentioned, they are well known in America. Some
are found in Newfoundland.[1412] |311|
Instruments of the same character date back to very remote times, as
numbers have been found in the cave deposits of the Reindeer Period of
the South of France, as well as in a few in our English bone caves, as
will subsequently be mentioned. A somewhat similar form occurs, though
rarely, among the implements found in the ancient River Gravels.
* * * * *
Besides being used for scraping hides, and preparing leather, it
has been suggested, by Canon Greenwell,[1413] that they might have
served for making pins and other small articles of bone, and also for
fabricating arrow-heads and knives of flint. As to this latter use I am
doubtful, but before entering into the question of the purposes which
implements of the “scraper” form were in ancient times intended to
serve, it will be well to examine the evidence of wear afforded by the
implements themselves. This evidence is various in its character, and
seems to prove that the implements were employed in more than one kind
of work.
Among some hundreds of scrapers, principally from the Yorkshire Wolds,
I have met with between twenty and thirty which show decided marks of
being worn away along the circular edge, by friction. In some, the edge
is only worn away sufficiently to remove all keenness or asperity,
and to make it feel smooth to the touch, and this perhaps along one
part only of the arc. In others, the whole edge is completely rounded,
and many of the small facets by which it was originally surrounded,
entirely effaced. The small striæ, resulting from the friction which
has rounded the edge, are at right angles to the flat face of the
implement, and the whole edge presents the appearance of having been
worn away by scraping some comparatively soft substance—such, for
instance, as leather. When we consider what an important part the skins
of animals play in the daily life of most savage tribes, and especially
of those exposed to a cold climate; and when we remember the amount of
preparation, in the way of dressing and scraping, the hides require
before they can be available for the purposes of clothing, or even tent
making, it becomes evident that some instruments must have been in use
by the ancient occupants of the country for the purpose of dressing
skins; and the probability of these scrapers having been devoted to
this purpose is strengthened by their being worn in just such a manner
as they would have been, had they been in use for scraping some greasy
dressing off not over-clean leather. The scrapers thus worn away
are for the most part of the horseshoe form. There are some, |312|
however, which have the edge worn away, not at the circular end but
along the edge towards the butt. In this case also they appear to have
been employed for scraping, but the evidence as to the character of the
substance scraped is not so distinct. It is, however, probable that
in the fashioning of perforated axes and other implements, made of
greenstone and other rocks not purely silicious, some scraping as well
as grinding tools may have been employed, and possibly the wear of the
edge of some of these tools may be due to such a cause. Even among the
cave-dwellers of the Dordogne we find scrapers bearing similar marks of
attrition, and we also know that flint flakes were used for scraping
the hard hæmatitic iron ore, to produce the red pigment—the paint with
which the men of those times seem to have adorned themselves.[1414]
It will of course be urged that it is, after all, only a small
proportion of these implements which bear these unmistakeable marks
of wear upon them. It must, however, be remembered, that to produce
much abrasion of the edge of an instrument made of so hard a material
as flint, an enormous amount of wear against so soft a substance as
hide would be necessary. It is indeed possible that the edge would
remain for years comparatively unworn were the substance to be scraped
perfectly free from grit and dirt. If we find identically the same
forms of instruments, both worn and unworn, there is a fair presumption
that both were intended for the same purpose, though the one, from
accidental causes, has escaped the wear and tear visible on the other.
There are, however, circumstances which in this case point to an almost
similar form having served two totally distinct purposes; for besides
those showing the marks of use already described, we find some of these
instruments with the edge battered and bruised to such an extent that
it can hardly have been the result of scraping in the ordinary sense of
the word.
To account for such a character of wear, there seems no need of going
so far afield as among the Eskimos, or any other semi-civilized or
savage people, to seek for analogies on which to base a conclusion—how
far satisfactory it must be left to others to judge. Among the primary
necessities of man (who has been defined as a cooking animal) is that
of fire. It is no doubt a question difficult of solution whether our
primitive predecessors were acquainted with any more ready means of
producing it than |313| by friction of two pieces of wood, especially
at a time when there is reason to suppose they were unacquainted
with the existence of iron as a metal. I have, however, already
mentioned[1415] that for the purpose of producing sparks, pyrites is
as effective as iron, and was indeed in use among the Romans. Now
the lower beds of our English chalk are prolific of pyrites, though
not to the same extent as the upper beds are of flint; and it is not
impossible that the use of a hammer-stone of pyrites, in order to form
some instrument of flint, gave rise to the discovery of that method
of producing fire, the invention of which the old myth attributed to
Pyrodes, the son of Cilix. When exposed upon or near the surface of the
ground, pyrites is very liable to decomposition, and even if occurring
with ancient interments it would be very likely to be disregarded. This
may account for the paucity of the notices of its discovery. Some,
however, exist, and I have already mentioned[1416] instances where
nodules of pyrites have been discovered on the Continent in association
with worked flints, both of Neolithic and Palæolithic age.
There are also instances of its occurrence in British barrows. That
careful observer, the late Mr. Thomas Bateman, found, in the year 1844,
in a barrow on Elton Moor,[1417] near the head of a skeleton, “a piece
of spherical iron pyrites, now for the first time noticed as being
occasionally found with other relics in the British tumuli. Subsequent
discoveries,” he says, “have proved that it was prized by the Britons,
and not unfrequently deposited in the grave, along with the weapons
and ornaments which formed the most valued part of their store.” With
the same skeleton, in a “drinking-cup,” with a small celt and other
objects of flint, was a flat piece of polished iron ore, and twenty-one
“circular instruments.” In another barrow, Green Low,[1418] Mr.
Bateman discovered a contracted skeleton, having behind the shoulders
a drinking-cup, a splendid flint dagger, a piece of spherical pyrites
or iron ore, and a flint instrument of the circular-headed form. Lower
down were barbed flint arrow-heads and some bone instruments. In Dowe
Low,[1419] a skeleton was accompanied by a bronze dagger and an “amulet
or ornament of iron ore,” together with a large flint implement that
had seen a good deal of service. A broken nodule of pyrites showing
signs of friction was found with a bronze dagger in a |314| barrow at
Angrowse[1420] Mullion, Cornwall. In a barrow at Brigmilston,[1421]
between Everley and Amesbury, Sir R. Colt Hoare found, with an urn
containing ashes, “the fragment of a bone article like a whetstone,
some chipped flints prepared for arrow-heads, a long piece of flint and
a _pyrites_, both evidently smoothed by usage.”
A piece of iron pyrites with a groove worn in it and a peculiarly
shaped implement of flint with evident marks of use at the larger end
were found with an interment near Basingstoke Station.[1422] Flint
arrow-heads and flakes were also present.
Nodules of pyrites occurred in such numbers in a barrow on Broad
Down,[1423] near Honiton, as to suggest the idea of their having been
placed there designedly, but none of them are described as abraded.
We have here, at all events, instances of the association of lumps
of iron pyrites with circular-ended flint instruments in ancient
interments. Can they have been in use together for producing fire? In
order to judge of this our best guide will probably be, so far at all
events as the flints are concerned, those in use for the same purpose
in later times, and even at the present day.
In the Abbé Hamard’s researches at Hermes[1424] (Oise), two flint
scrapers mounted in wooden handles round which were iron ferrules are
said to have been discovered in Merovingian graves.
[Illustration: Fig. 222.—French “Strike-a-Light.”]
The Abbé Cochet[1425] describes some of the flints found with
Merovingian interments as resembling gun-flints; one of these was
apparently carried at the waist, in a purse with money and other
necessaries. A steel and a small piece of flint were found in a
Saxon grave at High Down, Ferring,[1426] Sussex. A similar practice
of carrying in the pocket a piece of flint and some prepared tinder
prevails in some parts of Europe to the present day; and, as I have
before remarked, flints for this purpose are articles of sale. Fig.
222 shows one of these modern “strike-a-lights” which I purchased some
years ago at Pontlevoy, in France. It is made of a segment of a flake,
one edge and the sides of which have been trimmed to a scraper-like
edge, and the other merely made straight. The resemblance between
this and |315| some of the ancient “scrapers” is manifest. Another
strike-a-light flint, which I bought at a stall in Trier, is about
2 inches long by 1 3∕8 inches broad, and is made from a flat flake,
trimmed to a nearly square edge at the butt-end, and to a very flat
arc at the point, both the trimmed edges being of precisely the same
character as those of scrapers. I find, moreover, that by working such
a flint and a steel or _briquet_ together, much the same bruising of
the edge is produced as that apparent on some of the old “scrapers.” I
come, therefore, to the conclusion, that a certain proportion of these
instruments were in use, not for scraping hides like the others, but
for scraping iron pyrites, and not improbably, in later days, even
iron or steel for procuring fire. Were they used for such a purpose
we can readily understand why they should so often present a bruising
of the edge and an irregularity of form. We can also find a means of
accounting for their great abundance.
Looking at the question from a slightly different point of view, this
method of solution receives additional support. Everyone will, I
think, readily concede that, putting for the moment pyrites out of the
question, the inhabitants of this country must have been acquainted
with the method of producing fire by means of flint and steel or
iron, at all events so long ago as when their intercourse with the
Romans commenced, if not at an even earlier period. We may, in any
case, assume that flints have been in use as fire-producing agents for
something like 2,000 years, and that consequently the number of them
that have thus served must be enormous. What has become of them all?
They cannot, like some antiquities, be “only now rare because they were
always valueless,” for in their nature they are almost indestructible.
Many, no doubt, were mere irregular lumps of flint, broken from time
to time to produce such an edge as would scrape the steel; but is it
not in the highest degree probable that many were of the same class as
those sold for the same purpose at the present day—flakes chipped into
a more or less scraper-like form at one end?
There is yet another argument. In many instances these circular-ended
flints, when found upon the surface, have a comparatively fresh and
unweathered appearance; and, what is more, have the chipped parts
stained by iron-mould. In some cases there are particles of iron, in
an oxidized condition, still adherent. Such iron marks, especially on
flint which has weathered white, may, and indeed commonly do, arise
from the passage of harrows |316| and other agricultural implements,
and of horses shod with iron, over the fields; but did the marks arise
merely from this cause, it appears hardly probable that in any instance
they should be confined to the chipped edge, and not occur on other
parts of the flint.
[Illustration: Fig. 223.—Rudstone.]
I had written most of the foregoing remarks when, in November, 1870,
an interesting discovery, made by Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., in his
exploration of a barrow[1427] at Rudstone, near Bridlington, in
Yorkshire, came to corroborate my views. I have already described
a whetstone found with one of the interments in this barrow, and
mentioned that between the knees and the head were found, with other
objects, the half of a nodule of iron pyrites, and a long round-ended
flake of flint which lay underneath it. They are both represented full
size in accompanying figure (Fig. 223). A portion of the outside of the
pyrites has been ground smooth, and a projecting knob has been worked
down, so as to bring it to an approximately hemispherical shape, and
adapt it for being comfortably held in the hand. The fractured surface,
where the nodule was broken in two, is somewhat oval, and in the
centre, in the direction of the longer diameter, is worn a wide shallow
groove, of just the same character as would have been produced by
constant sharp scraping blows from a round-ended flake or scraper, such
as that which was found with it. The whole surface is somewhat worn and
striated, in the same direction as the principal central groove; and
the edge of the flat face of the pyrites is more worn away at the top
and bottom of the groove than at the other parts.
The scraper is made from a narrow thick external flake, the end of
which has been trimmed to a semicircular bevelled edge—a |317| portion
of one side has also been trimmed. At the end, and along some parts of
the sides, this edge is worn quite smooth, and rounded by friction, and
there are traces of similar wear at the butt-end. In a second grave
in the same barrow there lay, behind the back, two jet buttons and a
similar pyrites and flint. There can, I think, be no reasonable doubt
of their having been, in these instances, fire-producing implements,
used in the manner indicated in the annexed figure. The finding of the
two materials together, in two separate instances, in both of which
the pyrites and the flint presented the same forms and appearance,
establishes the fact of their connection; and it is hard to imagine
any other purpose for which pyrites could be scraped by flint except
that of producing fire. Moreover, in another barrow on Crosby Garrett
Fell,[1428] Westmoreland, Canon Greenwell found a piece of iron ore
(oxidized pyrites) held in the hand of a skeleton, and a long thick
flake of flint, evidently a “flint and steel.”
[Illustration: Fig. 224.—Method of using Pyrites and “Scraper” for
Striking a Light.]
It cannot have been merely for the purpose of producing a paint or
colour that they were brought together, as though the outer crust of
a nodule of pyrites might, if ground, give a dull red pigment, yet
the inner freshly-broken face would not do so; and, if it would, the
colour would be more readily procured by grinding on a flat stone than
by scraping. It would be interesting to compare these objects with the
pyrites and pebbles in use among the Fuegians[1429], who employ dried
moss or fungus by way of tinder, but appear to find some difficulty in
producing fire. The Eskimos[1430] and some North American tribes also
obtain fire from pyrites.
Sir Wollaston Franks has called my attention to another half |318|
nodule of pyrites preserved in the British Museum, which is somewhat
abraded in the middle of its flat face, though not so much so as that
from Yorkshire. It was discovered with flint flakes in a barrow on
Lambourn Down,[1431] Berkshire, by Mr. E. Martin Atkins, in 1850. In a
barrow at Flowerburn,[1432] Ross-shire, in 1885, a similar half nodule
and a flint scraper were found, and a discovery of the same kind was
made by Lord Northesk, at Teindside,[1433] near Minto, Roxburghshire,
about 1870. A fine piece of pyrites in company with worked flints was
found in 1881, in a ruined dolmen, in the Ile d’Arz,[1434] Brittany,
by the Abbé Luco. A well striated block of pyrites was also found with
numerous objects formed of flint and other kinds of stone, on the
Rocher de Beg-er-Goallenner, Quiberon, by M. F. Gaillard.[1435]
A nodule of pyrites, with a deep scoring upon it, and found in one of
the Belgian bone caves, the _Trou de Chaleux_, has been engraved by Dr.
E. Dupont,[1436] who regards it as having been used as a fire-producing
agent. The flint that produced the scoring appears to have had a
pointed, rather than a rounded end. Possibly the wearing away of the
ends of certain flakes, for which it has been difficult to account, may
be due to their having been used in this manner for striking a light.
There are yet some other long flakes which are trimmed to a
scraper-like edge at one or both ends; but in these cases the trimming
appears to have been rather for the purpose of enabling the flake to be
conveniently held in the hand, so as to make use of its cutting edge,
than with the intention of converting the trimmed end into a scraping
or cutting tool. The ends of some of the hafted knives or saws found in
the Swiss Lake-dwellings are thus trimmed.
On the whole, we may conclude, with some appearance of probability,
that a certain proportion of these instruments, and more especially
those of regular shape, and those of large size, were destined to
be used as scrapers in the process of dressing hides and for other
purposes; that others again, and chiefly those of moderate size with
bruised and battered edges, were used at one period with iron pyrites,
and at a subsequent date with iron or steel, for the |319| production
of fire; and lastly that others have had their ends trimmed into shape,
so as to render them symmetrical in form, or to enable them to be
conveniently handled or hafted.
[Illustration: Fig. 225.—Yorkshire Wolds.]
[Illustration: Fig. 226.—Yorkshire Wolds.]
* * * * *
There are still one or two other forms to which, from the character of
their edge, the designation of scraper may be given. The instrument
from the Yorkshire Wolds, shown in Fig. 225, may, for instance, be
called a straight scraper. It is made from a broad flat flake, with a
well-developed bulb of percussion on the face, and the counterpart of
another at the back, so that the section at the base is much curved.
The point of the flake and its left side have been chipped away, so
that they are nearly straight, and form between them an angle of
about 60°. The edge is sharper, and the form, I think, more regular
than if it had been used in conjunction with pyrites or steel, and I
am therefore inclined to regard it as a tool. The late Mr. Charles
Monkman, who gave me this specimen, also gave me another, more
crescent-shaped in form, the base being roughly chipped to a regular
sweep. I have another larger flint, similar to Fig. 225, found by the
late Mr. Whitbourn, F.S.A., in the neighbourhood of Godalming. Before
pronouncing definitely as to the degree of antiquity to be assigned
to such instruments, it will be well to have authenticated instances
of their discovery in association with other remains, and not merely
on the surface. In character, however, they much resemble other flint
instruments of undoubtedly high antiquity, though they present the
peculiarity of having the edge at right angles to the axis of the flake
from which they are made, instead of being parallel to it.
A singular flint instrument of a rudely heart-shaped form, with one
straight serrated edge, is figured with other tools, &c., from the
Culbin Sands.[1437]
To another of these forms, of which a not very first-rate example is
given in Fig. 226, the designation of hollow scraper may be applied,
the scraping edge being concave, instead of as usual, convex. This
specimen also is from the Yorkshire Wolds. I have, however, found
analogous instruments on the Sussex Downs, the hollowed edges of
which appear to have been used for scraping some cylindrical objects.
In |320| Ireland this form not unfrequently occurs. I have several
specimens with the hollow as regular in its sweep as any of the
scrapers of the ordinary form, and I have thought it advisable to
figure a typical example as Fig. 226A. They seem well adapted for
scraping into regular shape the stems of arrows or the shafts of
spears, or for fashioning bone pins. Among modern artificers in wood,
bone, ivory, or metal, scraping tools play a far more important part
than would at first sight appear probable, looking at the abundance
and perfection of our cutting tools and files. The latter, indeed, are
merely compound forms of “scrapers.”
[Illustration: Fig. 226A.—North of Ireland.]
A less symmetrical hollow scraper from the Culbin Sands[1438] has been
engraved; as has been another which Dr. Joseph Anderson[1439] used
in the production of an arrow-shaft, and which he found to be a very
efficient tool. Some writers have regarded these hollow-edged scrapers
as saws[1440], but I think erroneously.
Implements of the same character have been found in Egypt[1441], and in
France, and probably exist in other countries.
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