Primitive Man Part 27

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 157.--Flint Hammer, fitted with a Stag's-horn Handle.]

This mode of insertion into a handle is frequently met with during the polished-stone epoch, as we have already stated upon the authority of Boucher de Perthes (see fig. 112).

There was also another way of adapting for use the stone chisels and hammers. The following is the mode employed. The flint was inserted into a short holder of stag's horn, hollowed out at one end for this purpose, the other end of the piece of horn being cut square. This squared end, which was thinner than the rest of the holder, was fitted into a wooden handle, which had been perforated with a hole of the same shape and size.

M. Desor, in his 'Memoire sur les Palafittes,' supplies the following sketch (fig. 158), as representing these double-handled hatchets.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 158.--Stone Hatchet, with double Handle of Wood and Stag's Horn.]

It is very seldom that hatchets of this type are met with in a complete state in the lacustrine habitations of Switzerland; the handles have generally disappeared. In other localities, where the hatchets are very plentiful, very few holders are found. Is it not the case that in these spots the stone was the special object of work and not the handles?

There were, in fact, in Switzerland, as in France and Belgium, workshops devoted to the manufacture of these articles. The large number of hatchets, either just commenced or defective in workmanship, which have been found in some of the princ.i.p.al lacustrine settlements leave no doubt on this point.

The finest and most carefully-wrought instruments are the hammers and double, or hatchet-hammers. Most of them are made of serpentine. One of the ends is generally rounded or flattened, whilst the other tapers off either into a point or a cutting edge, as represented in figs. 159 and 160, taken from M. Desor's work. They are perforated with a round hole intended to receive a handle of wood. This hole is so sharply and regularly cut out, that it is difficult to believe it could have been made with nothing better than a flint tool. Metal alone would appear to be capable of effecting such finished work. This is one of the facts which tend to the idea that the lacustrine settlements, which have been ascribed to the Stone Age, belong rather to the bronze epoch.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 159-160.--Serpentine Hatchet-hammers, from the Lacustrine Habitations of Switzerland.]

Fig. 161 represents another hatchet-hammer obtained from the Swiss lakes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 161.--Another Hatchet-hammer, from the Lacustrine Habitations of Switzerland.]

The knives and saws have nothing remarkable about them. They are mere flakes of flint, long and narrow in shape, the cutting edge or teeth being on the widest side. There are some which are fitted into handles of stag's horn, as represented in fig. 162, taken from M. Desor's work.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 162.--Flint Saw fitted into a piece of Stag's Horn.]

They must have been fastened into the handles by means of bitumen, for traces of this substance have been found on some of the handles. The same plan was adopted in order to fix the hatchets in their holders.

The spear-heads (fig. 163) are very skilfully fashioned; their shape is regular, and the chiselling very perfect, although inferior to that observed in Denmark. They are made level on one side, and with a longitudinal middle ridge on the other.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 163.--Flint Spear-head from the Lacustrine settlements of Switzerland.]

The arrow-heads are very varied in shape (fig. 164). In delicacy of workmanship they are in no way inferior to the spear or javelin-heads.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 164.--Various shapes of Flint Arrow-heads, from the Lacustrine settlements of Switzerland.]

The cutting of these small objects must have required much labour and skill. Some are toothed on the edges, which must have rendered the wounds inflicted by them much more dangerous. The greater part of these arrow-heads are made of flint, but some have been found the material of which is bone, and even stag's horn.

The arrow-heads were fixed into the shafts by means of bitumen. This plan is represented in figs. 165 and 166, which are given by M.

Mortillet in his 'Promenades prehistoriques a l'Exposition Universelle.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 165.--Arrow-head of Bone fixed on the Shaft by means of Bitumen.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 166.--Stone Arrow-head fixed on the Shaft by means of Bitumen.]

Sometimes they were merely attached to the shaft by a ligature of string (fig. 167).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 167.--Arrow-head fixed on the Shaft by a Ligature of String.]

A few relics have been discovered of the bows which were used to impel these arrows. They were made of yew, and roughly cut.

Tools and instruments of bone seem, like those made of flint, to have been much in use. In addition to the arrow-heads which we have just mentioned, there have also been found piercers, or bodkins of various shapes (figs. 168 and 169), chisels for working in wood (fig. 170), pins with lenticular heads (fig. 171), needles perforated sometimes with one eye and sometimes with two, and occasionally hollowed out round the top in a circular groove, so as to attach the thread.

Figs. 168, 169, 170 and 171 are given by M. Desor in his 'Memoire sur les Palafittes.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 168.--Bone Bodkin, from the Lacustrine Habitations of Switzerland.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 169.--Bone Bodkin, from the Lacustrine Habitations of Switzerland.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 170.--Carpenter's Chisel, from the Lacustrine Habitations of Switzerland.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 171.--Bone Needle.]

It is probable that, as during the reindeer epoch, garments were sewn by means of the needle and the bodkin, the latter piercing the holes through which the needle pa.s.sed the thread.

That kind of needle which has a hole in the middle and is pointed at the two ends, which is found in large numbers in the lacustrine settlements, must doubtless have been used as a hook for fishing. When the fish had swallowed the bait, the two points stuck into the flesh, and it was then easy to pull out the captive. Some of these fish-hooks are carved out of boars' tusks.

Stag's horn was likewise employed for several other purposes. A kind of pick-axe was sometimes made of it (fig. 172); also harpoons (fig. 173), harpoons with a double row of barbs (fig. 174), and small cups of conical shape (fig. 175), perforated with a hole in the upper part so that they could be suspended if required.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 172.--Pick-axe of Stag's Horn.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 173.--Harpoon made of Stag's Horn, from the Lacustrine Habitations of Switzerland.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 174.--Harpoon made of Stag's Horn, from the Lacustrine Habitations of Switzerland.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 175.--Vessel made of Stag's Horn.]

The taste for personal adornment was not foreign to the nature of the primitive people of Switzerland. Canine teeth and incisors of various animals, rings and beads made of bone or stag's horn, all united in a necklace, formed one of their most usual adornments.

They also made use of hair-pins and bone combs. These pins were finished off with a k.n.o.b, and combined elegance and simplicity in their shape; they would, indeed, be no disfigurement to the _coiffure_ of the women of modern times.

Such were the instruments, utensils and tools, used for the purpose of domestic life, which have been found in the lacustrine habitations of Switzerland belonging to the Stone Age. We will now pa.s.s on to the objects of the same character, peculiar to the bronze epoch.

The quant.i.ty of bronze objects which, up to the present time, have been collected from the Swiss lakes is very considerable. The finest collection in the country, that of Colonel Schwab, contained in 1867, according to a catalogue drawn up by Dr. Keller, no less than 4346 specimens.

Most of these objects have been cast in moulds, as is evident from the seams, the traces of which may be observed on several of the specimens.

Among the most remarkable of the relics of the bronze epoch which have been recovered from the Swiss lakes, the hatchets or celts are well deserving of mention. They are from 4 to 8 inches in length, and weigh from 10 to 15 pounds. Their shapes are varied; but all possess the distinctive characteristic of being adapted to fit longitudinally on their handles, and not transversely, as in the Stone Age. It is but seldom that they are not furnished with a hole or ear, so as to furnish an additional means of attachment.

We have in the first place the hatchet with wings bent round on each side of the blade, so as to const.i.tute a kind of double socket, intended to receive a handle divided in the middle and bent into an elbow. This is the most prevalent type. Sometimes, as may be noticed in fig. 176, the upper end is pierced with an eye, doubtless intended to hold a band for fixing firmly the curved handle. This arrangement is peculiar to the hatchets of large size, that is, to those which had the most strain put upon them.

Another type which is very rare in Switzerland--only one specimen of it existing in the Museum of Neuchatel--is that (fig. 177) in which the wings, instead of bending back upon the blade perpendicularly to the plane of the cutting edge, turn back in the same plane with it, or in the thickness of the blade.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 176.--Bronze Winged Hatchet, from the Lacustrine Habitations of Switzerland.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 177.--Winged Hatchet (front and side view), from the Lacustrine Habitations of Switzerland.]

There is also the hatchet with the ordinary socket, either cylindrical (fig. 178) or angular. This shape is very common in France, where they are known by the name of _celts_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 178.--Socketed Hatchet from the Lacustrine Habitations.]