Fig. 12. Fig. 13. Flint flakes from the Crannog of Lough Ravel. Half-size.
Fig. 14. Flake of Basalt from Toombridge. Full-size.
Fig. 15.
Worked Flint from Lisnacroghera. Full-size.
[Plate VI.], No. 1 is a flint implement, probably a knife. No. 2—A well-worked flint, most likely used for the same purpose. No. 3—A flint “scraper,” that appears to be somewhat injured at one end. No. 4 represents what antiquaries style a “core” of flint. It is in fact the remains of a block, from which flakes have been struck for the purpose of forming them into arrow-heads, knives, &c., &c. No. 5 is a specimen of the hammer-stone so frequently discovered in the refuse heaps of Irish crannogs. They are usually abraded at the extremities, as if from long use, and similar articles occur in the shell mounds of our coasts, having probably been used for breaking crustaceæ. No. 6 is an ordinary stone hatchet. No. 7 represents a wooden object which has all the appearance of having been used as the handle of a stone-hatchet. It is here given ⅛ of the real size. The aperture, supposed to have been made for the reception of a stone celt, measures in length, 3⅜ in., but the shrinking of the wood in drying renders it impossible to say what its original breadth may have been. The dotted line is introduced to show how the cutting instrument was most probably placed. No. 8 may have been either a dagger or a spear-head; it is of bone; a rivet-hole indicates that a handle was at one time attached. No. 9—A knife of bone, the handle and blade in one piece. It measures 8 in. in length, and the haft portion, as shown in the illustration, is ornamented with a series of squares enclosing a rude pattern composed of dots. No. 10 is a very curious little article formed of bone, and not untastefully decorated in the same style as the socket portion of the iron spear-head, as shown in [plate IX.], fig. 6. It was evidently a scoop, and would be serviceable in the extraction of marrow from bones of deer, or other animals used as food by the lake dwellers. Nos. 11 and 12 are rude unornamented knives, in a single piece each. It is not easy to guess what articles of this kind could have been employed to cut, but so early as the times of stone chambers, knives of bone were in requisition.[85]
