It appears that the earlier arrow-points were of the triangular type, with or without stems, and it is supposed that the addition of barbs was an evolutionary process of improvement, and of course of later date. Thus none of the arrows from Schaffis have barbs, but on the other hand Vinelz has supplied some beautiful examples ([Fig. 7]). The barbed forms are also prevalent on the palafittes of Lake Varese and Polada, but they are entirely absent from the stations in the Mondsee, Attersee, and Laibach Moor.
The discovery of some arrow-points with a portion of the wooden shaft still attached has disclosed the fact that this union was accomplished, at least in some instances, by means of an adhesive material like asphalt. In the Neuchâtel district this material might, indeed, be the natural product of this name, as it is so readily found in the neighbouring Val de Travers. It is more probable, however, that, as suggested by Dr. Dom, of Tübingen, it was the manufactured product of birch-bark—a suggestion which explains the frequency with which rolls of this material were found among the débris of so many lake-dwellings. This adhesive material was used, not only for fixing arrow-points and other implements in their handles, but also, when mixed with charcoal, to give a black gloss or varnish to pottery. Its discovery and application for such purposes in Polada, Mondsee, Schussenried, and many of the Swiss stations of the Stone Age, as St. Aubin, Locras, Moosseedorf, etc., proves that its use was prevalent over the whole lake-dwelling area of the Stone Age.
Spear-heads and daggers were manufactured from flint, and specimens of the latter have been found inserted into a wooden handle or surrounded by a withe so as to give a better grip to the weapon. There were also very effective weapons of this class made from the leg-bones of deer and other animals, as well as from the tines of staghorns, etc.
For the purpose of carrying on the ordinary avocations of domestic and social life the lake-dwellers were in possession of a varied assortment of tools and implements, the precise function of some of them, however, being difficult to determine. They had hatchets, knives, saws, scrapers, borers, etc., of flint and other hard stones. Cutting instruments were also made of horn, bone, and the tusks of the wild boar, as well as an endless variety of pointers, chisels, etc. With such tools they constructed wooden houses, scooped out canoes, and shaped wood into various kinds of dishes, clubs, and handles. The stone celt or axe-head, the most indispensable of all implements to the Stone Age people, was mounted in a variety of ways. Most frequently there was a casing of horn into which the axe was fixed, and this casing was then fitted into a wooden handle ([Fig. 185], Nos. 8 and 10). Sometimes the horn fixing had a V-shaped slit in the opposite end from the hatchet ([Fig. 7], No. 13), which fitted into a corresponding slit in a crooked handle ([Fig. 185], Nos. 1, 13, and 14). When locked the instrument became a kind of adze, the cutting edge transverse to the axis of the handle. This method Dr. Gross thinks was more especially used in the Copper Age. At Wangen horn fixings were rarely used, the hatchet being inserted into a split cleft in a crooked branch. It is interesting to note that this method was in use among the prehistoric salt-miners at Hallein, near Salzburg,[125] and at Castione in Italy ([Fig. 185], No. 13).[126] The smaller axes and chisels, as well as a variety of flint implements, were not infrequently inserted directly into suitable portions of deer-horn, as shown in many of the accompanying illustrations.
The perforated axe of stone or horn had simply a wooden handle firmly fixed by a wedge inserted into a split at its end in the perforation, an example of which, found at Schussenried, Mr. Frank carefully preserves. Besides these there is a variety of objects of horn and bone which might have been used as implements or weapons, but mostly, I should say, for agricultural purposes, such as picks ([Fig. 185], Nos. 4 and 7), hammers, clubs, etc. Some of the smaller bone implements were also inserted into handles, specimens of which were particularly numerous at St. Aubin.
Flint saws were extremely abundant, and are to be found among the remains of almost all the earlier stations, many of which still retain their wooden or horn handles. Only in Polada has the compound and double-handed saw been found ([Fig. 67], No. 12). It consists of a casing of wood with four flints cemented into a groove along one of the edges.[127]
Fig. 185.—Miscellaneous Objects.
Nos. 20 to 24 = 2⁄3, and the rest, except No. 25 = 1⁄3 real size.
Another curious implement supposed to be a saw was found at Vinelz, and is now in the Cantonal Museum at Berne ([Fig. 185], No. 17). It consists of a massive handle of wood, evidently fashioned for the hand, with three worked flints stuck in a row and kept in their place by asphalt.