On Flint Cores as ImplementsAuthor(s): GillespieSource: The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 6(1877), pp. 260-263Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and IrelandStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2841412 .

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260 Dr. GILLESPIE.-Of Flint Cores as Imnplements.

However, several reasons unite to speak in favour of the proba- bility that the present Indian tribes in Central America are the descendants of the Toltecans, who, after inhahiting the plateau of Mexico in the beginning of the 11th century, migrated southwards, considerably intermixed with the wild Chichimecas.

The author then read the following paper: On FLINT CoREs as IMPi,EMENTS. By Dr. GILLESPIE.

TiE examination of a large number of flint cores has led me to discredit the views commonly held about these structures. Thev have been generally looked on as the blocks left after flakes had been struck off for use, and that they were then thrown aside as refuse, nobody having appeared to recognise the fact that they are all in reality implements of very definite construction, and of so common occurrence that it is a matter of surprise that this interesting fact has not been before noticed. Some of the chief reasons that have led me to recognise the implemental nature of these cores are-ist. The fact that they follow a definite typical arrangement. 2nd. That some of them are so small that the flakes struck from them could be of little practical use as working tools. 3rd. That the niumbers of cores found in any one locality are out of all proportion to the number of flakes. 4th. That immense numbers of flakes are found which bear no marks of use, and which may properly be looked on as waste. 5th. That almost all the cores found do bear undoubted marks of use.

On comparing a large number of cores from various localities, I find that they are all characterised by possessing a plain surface as a base, from which the sides, or, as it is in some cases, merely a worked face on a rough block, rise at angles varying from 60 to 80O, and that in one of the most typical forms, which is commonly known as a "hoof core," the angle was exceedingly constant at about 70Q. This form, too, is generally elongated, and sometimes smoothly rounded off at one end, which would admit of its being readily held in the hand, and used probably in the manner of a plane. The edge, formed at the junction of the base and sides, almost invariably bears marks of use. In the larger cores these marks are coarser, and the edge is broken away, and crushed, as if by pounding or striking some hard substance. Some of these have been re- faced, when the edge was lost, by fresh flakes being struck off; and thus a new cutting edge was made to replace the old one without a new block being required. In the smaller cores and pointed nuclei the chipping at the edge is much finer, as if they tiad been used as planes or scrapers for working some substance,

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Dr. GILLESPIE.-Ofl Flint Cores a8 Implenments. 261

such as bone or horn, which requires a stronger and thicker edge than could be got by the acute angle of an ordinary flake; and further, in those conical nuclei, where great pains seem to have been taken to work them to a point, there is never any appearance of this inted end having been used, while the lower edge bears evident marks of such use. In many of these cores the flakes are so struck off the face of the block as to leave one or more projecting points, separated by depressions (and this flat end is always at less than a right angle with the side), which give a deeply-Mdented outline to the aspect of the base. In some cases each end of the core is bevelled off at a working angle, in which cme marks of use are easily distin-

guished on both; this, and the re-facing a block to procure a new edge, show that these ancient workmen were not deficient in some ideas of economisin g trouble and material.

These core-like stones differ materially from such coarse flakes which are usually recognised as " strike-a-lights." Out of 100 cores which I examined 12 were double-ended, 35 were bevelled at an angle of 70" as near as possible, 10 at 75", 24 at 80", 9 at 65", 5 at 60", &c. These were collected at various stations, viz., Wanboro', Seale, Farnham, and Post- ford, in Surrey; Pullboro', Sussx; at Reading in Berks; and at Yorktown and Wishmoor, in Surry; and the cores figured in the " Reliquime Aquitanic43," P1. 1, figs. 1 to 5, show exactly the same characters, fig. 3 exhibiting a double-ended one. Mr. Evans states, in "Ancient Stone Implements," that cores were generally

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262 Discu8ssion.

thrown away as refuse, the object of the operator being to pro- cure flakes'; but I would suggest that, if my conclusions be borne out by a more general study of worked cores, we shall have to look upon them as implements manufactured for some definite purpose, and not as mere workshop refuse. -The large numbers, and the variety of localities in which these are found, whether in the caves of the Dordogne or in the resting-grounds and camps on the uplands of England, give an importance and interest to the study of these ancient tools which may prove of use when attempting to form any general notion of the culture and modes of life of the men who made and used them.

Some high authorities account for the crushing and chipping at the edge by considering these as merely the marks of abortive attempts to strike off new flakes; but flakes are struck off by selecting a projecting angle, which itself is the result of two flakes having been struck off with one edge conterminous, and the separation of the flake usually takes place with a clean edge at the point of impact; whereas the chipping, which I look on as marks of use, is, in the best examples, a fine, con- tinuous scalloping, following the outline of the depressions as well as the projections, and conforming exactly to the use- marks on flakes and scrapers, which are undisputed in their character.

If flints were ever used as flaking instruments, I should be inclined to look on these so-called cores as the flakers; but there is little beyond surmise to help us to form a notion on the subject. As before suggested, bone, horn, and hard wood would have been the most likely materials to work on, if these instruments were used at all as chisels, planes, or scrapers. Professor Rupert Jones suggests that they may have been used as gouges to dig out canoes with. Captain Cooper King thinks they may have been of service in sharpening the charred ends of stakes, &c.; but in the present state of our knowledge it is impossible to come to any definite conclusion on the subject. These worked cores have not, I believe, been found among the drift implements. and must be referred, I think, to the earlier neolithic period.

DisCUSSION. The PRESIDENT thought that Dr. Gillespie's view of the use to

which the cores were put was worthy of attention, although he did not concur in thinking that they were in most cases constractecl for the purpose of being used in planes in the way that we know from the Esquimaux the so-called scrapers were used. Dr. Gil-

*This is no doubt true of such blocks as the Presigny cores, and those of obsidian from Mexico, flint from Scinde, &c.

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J. P. HARRISON.-On Marks upo)t Chalk at Cissbury. 263

lespie's conjecture is based on the observation that the cores have always a flat top or base, that the facets at the side are often at an angle with this base, forming an edge at the point of junction, and that this edge is often bruised or worn. A flat top or base was, however, always formed preparatory to striking off the flakes, and all flakes show the traces of such a flat top above the bulb of per- cussion: the angle of the facet may have been accidental and was never a right angle, and the bruising of the edge may have been formed in striking off the flake, as is often the case when the flake is struck off with a round stone. Still he thought some of those with acute angles might have been used as Dr. Gillespie supposes, and his observations appear to throw a new light upon the matter.

Mr. PARK HARRISON and others joined in the discussion, and. Dr. GILLESPIE replied.

The following paper was read by the author: OA MARKS found upon CIHALK at CISSBURY. By J. PARK

HARRISON, MI.A. SooN after it was established, by the scientific method of explo- ration adopted by Colonel Lane Fox last summer at Cissbury, that the shafts and galleries in the ditch of the camp had been excavated at a date anterior to the existing ramparts,* the ques- tion suggested itself whether the pits opened in the year 1874 by Mr. Tindale and Mr. Ernest Willett, were of the same remote age, and intended, either wholly or in part, for a similar pur- pose. To see if this could be ascertained by anything distinc- tive, I descended with the aid of a rope, down a steep slope composed of loose chalk, to a ledge about 10 feet from the bottom of Mr. Willett's pit. This ledge or stage was cut in the solid chalk rock, and ran along the east side of the pit for a length of 8 feet, and it was easy from thence to reach one of the heaps of chalk, that had accumulated to a height of about 5 feet on the floor. In its main features the pit differed from those excavated last summer, both in dimensions and plan. It was square instead of oval; or, speaking more exactly, it was of a rude rhomboidal form, a parallelogram with the corners rounded off, the principal curve being to the north-east. Gal- leries communicated with the central shaft through low entrances, as in the case of the pits in the ditch, but they were wider and higher, owing, perhaps, to the greater solidity of the chalk. One of the galleries, which ran for some 20 feet into the chalk rock in a north-easterly direction, re- turned in a line almost parallel to its first course; and at the time of my visit the upper part of the entrance to this gallery

* Though some pits inside the camp were suspected by Lord Rosehill and Canon Greeiwell to have been so, no steps had been taken to ascertain the point.

VOL. VI. U

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