The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments, of Great Britain by John Evans
The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments, of Great Britain by John Evans is in Prehistory.
Books, Prehistory, The Ancient Stone Implements
Sir William Wilde has adopted a somewhat different arrangement, and regards the triangular as the primary form, and the leaf-shaped and lozenge-shaped as the last.
But whatever may have been the order of the development of the forms, it would, in my opinion, be unwarrantable to attempt any chronological arrangement formded upon mere form, as there is little doubt of the whole of these varieties having been in use in one and the same district at the same time, the forms being to some extent adapted to the flake of flint from which the arrowheads were made, and to some extent to the purposes which the arrows were to serve. The arrow-heads in use among the North American Indians1, when intended for hunting, were so contrived that they could be drawn out of the wound, but those destined for war were formed and attached to the shaft in such a manner that when it was attempted to pull out the arrow, its head became detached, and remained in the wound. The poisoned arrows of the Bushmen of South Africa are, in like manner, made with triangular heads of iron, which become detached in the body if an attempt is made to withdraw the arrow from the woimd it has caused.
Note 1. Schoolcraft, "Ind. Tribes," vol. i. p. 212.
I have already remarked on the difficulty of distinguishing javelin and arrow-heads; but, from their size, I think Dr. Thumam was justified in regarding those engraved as Figs. 273, 274, 275, as heads of javelins; and they may, therefore, be taken first in order. Two of them have already been engraved. § Their beau- tifully worked surfaces had, however, hardly had justice done them, and, by the kindness of Dr. Thurnam, I have been able to have them engraved afVesli, They were found in 1864, in company with another almost identical in form with the middle figure, cloee to the head of a contracted skeleton, in on oval barrow on Win terbourn Stoke Down, about a mile and a half north-west of Stonehenge. Thoy are moat skilfully chipped on both faces, which are equally convex, and they are not more than a quarter of an inch in thickness. As will be observed, three are leaf-shaped, and one lozenge-shaped, and this latter, though larger, is thinner and more delicate. They have acquired a milky, porcellanous surface while tying in tho earth. As has been remarked by Dr. Thumam, objects of this description have rarely been found in barrows. The two javelin-heads, if such they be, found by Mr. Mortimer in the Calais Wold barrow, near Pocklington, Yorkshire1, are lozenge-shaped and much more acutely pointed, and were accompanied by two lozenge-shaped arrow-heads. By the kindness of Mr. Llewcllynn Jewitt they are all four here reproduced as Figs. 276 to 279. What appears to be a similar javelin-bead to Fig. 277, 2| inches long, was found by the late Lord Londes- borough in a barrow on Seamer Moor, near Scarborough.' Javelin- heads of much the same form as those from Winterboum Stoke and Calais Wold occur not unfrequently in Ireland, but are rarely quite so delicately chipped. The class having both faces polished, though still only chipped at the edges, like Wilde's Fig. 27, haa not, to my knowledge, as yet occurred out of Ireland. A few of these may have served as knives or daggers, as they are intentionally rounded by grinding at the more tapered end, which at first sight appears to have been intended for the point, and not for the handle.
Note 1. Proc. Soc. Ant., 2nd 8., vol. iii. p. 324. Reliquary, vol. vI. p. 185.