39
1 Contents 2 Unconscious paradigm 2 Introduction 3 The Patience Stone and less patient attempts to make hour-glass holed stones 4 Artefacts from Penlee Gallery and Museum 6 Penlee Museum contd.:Perforating an elongated stone; respecting the sides. 8 Table 1:LEPPR(1.1+) 10 The ease of manufacture of non-circular plan perforated implements 12 The non-drilling of Maesmore shaft-hole mace-heads 14 Recreating a shaft-hole adze in greenstone 15 Proper circular shaft-holes similar to those in cushion maces and battle-axes 16 Some midi sized perforations: Stone discs and bangles 17 Axe hammers at The Museum of London 20 Two implements briefly sketched from the MOL display cabinets 21 Conclusions about the perforating of hard stone implements Part 2 22 Pierced granite megaliths: a local distraction from making stone implements 23 Holed stone gate-post near Merry Maidens stone circle and some disappearances 25The Tolvan Stone 26 The Kenidjack Common holed stones near Tregeseal stone circle 29 Some Early Medieval metal-chiselled perforations 30 How to make Men-an-Tol 33 Returning to Men-an-Tol 34 Conclusions 36 Acknowledgements 36 References

The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

Experimental reproduction of European prehistoric perforated stones with emphasis on deviation from the circular plan hole.

Citation preview

Page 1: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

1

Contents 2 Unconscious paradigm

2 Introduction

3 The Patience Stone and less patient attempts to make hour-glass holed stones

4 Artefacts from Penlee Gallery and Museum

6 Penlee Museum contd.:Perforating an elongated stone; respecting the sides.

8 Table 1:LEPPR(1.1+)

10 The ease of manufacture of non-circular plan perforated implements

12 The non-drilling of Maesmore shaft-hole mace-heads

14 Recreating a shaft-hole adze in greenstone

15 Proper circular shaft-holes similar to those in cushion maces and battle-axes

16 Some midi sized perforations: Stone discs and bangles

17 Axe hammers at The Museum of London

20 Two implements briefly sketched from the MOL display cabinets

21 Conclusions about the perforating of hard stone implements

Part 2

22 Pierced granite megaliths: a local distraction from making stone implements

23 Holed stone gate-post near Merry Maidens stone circle and some disappearances

25The Tolvan Stone

26 The Kenidjack Common holed stones near Tregeseal stone circle

29 Some Early Medieval metal-chiselled perforations

30 How to make Men-an-Tol

33 Returning to Men-an-Tol

34 Conclusions

36 Acknowledgements

36 References

Page 2: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

2

The surprisingly late adoption of slotted perforation tools in Europe and what this

suggests about the Neolithic Outlook:

Attempts to recreate ancient artefacts, including the pierced megaliths of Cornwall with a

comparison of manufacturing marks and other clues; not least the perception of the primitive stone-

worker.

Graham Hill

The unconscious paradigm: Stone axe and hammer heads have circular holes because they have been drilled. Later Bronze and

Iron tools could be cast or forged so the elongated plan perforation became possible, which persists

to this day.

Introduction

On December 20th

2010 whilst visiting his sister, this writer asked her to try to remember a television

programme that they had both seen in late July or early August 1972. She was 5 and he 7 at the time.

Our parents had been negotiating with the Shulvers about buying their house. In the day we had got

lost in the woods and now we were staying up passed our bedtime.

From the excerpts that frightened me* I have recently deduced that we had been watching ‘The

Illustrated Hitchcock’ in which he discusses his life, with daughter; Pia Lindstrom and film historian;

William Everson. Without prompting; sister Alison remembered being frightened by ‘The shower

scene’ from Psycho. I remember this too, but being 18 months her senior I found myself being even

more disturbed by another excerpt which turned out to have been designed by Salvador Dali. In ‘The

dream sequence’ from Spellbound(1945); from my memory , a distorted wagon wheel falls off a

cliff.

Image: Impression of the distorted wheel.

Actually a man with a cloth covered face

drops the wheel off a building. I would like

to show a film still but obtaining rights is

harder than writing this essay and was not

achieved at the deadline.

This writer hopes to explain that in the past

the non-circular perforation, whilst possible

and often practical would have been taboo or

an act of sacrilege and as disturbing as Dali’s

wagon wheel was intended to be. But first we

must investigate the business of perforating

hard stones; starting at the beginning in the

Mesolithic or even Upper Paleolithic.

*At this age my parents were suffering from

The Luftwaffe and flying bombs!

Page 3: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

3

The Patience Stone and less patient attempts to make hour-glass holed stones.

According to a credible account by Patrick Mc Shane: he was set a task by native American; Willy

Lamere of the Shoshone as a test before he could take part in a ‘Vision Quest’. A river rolled basalt

cobble and a quartzite hammer-stone were selected and he was invited to peck a hole through from

both sides to the middle in one session before dusk and without breaking the cobble. There would be

no second chance and it appears that Mc Shane took this to heart; making full use of the time, not

breaking it and with the dwindling hammer-stone enlarge the neck to see the setting sun through the

middle.Hence: ‘ The Patience Stone’(Google).

This writer; unlike Mc Shane did not have a canny guide and broke 3 sizeable cobbles of

greenstone(modified basalt) and granite in 3 to 5 hours each in early September 2007.

The motivation for the task was apparently strong, but the intent not pure; being frustrated by the

poor fieldwalking opportunities and lack of finds of the very kind of object that he was attempting to

recreate.

Not only was the cobble choice niave; but also the selection of the very toughest ‘elvan’ dolerite

hammer-stones, which have no tendency to crumble on over-striking, unlike Mc Shane’s quartzite.

Hence the danger of splitting the cobble was high.

The 4th

attempt through a dubious coarse granite cobble was a success with the use of 3 progressively

lighter tough dolerite hammer-stones to break through a single cone shaped chip. This experimenter

was so pleased that he went no further; being happy to immortalise that split-second of triumph.

Images:2nd

-7th

Sept. 2007.

Micro-granite and 2 greenstone cobbles from Werrytown beach; broken during pecking and

successful breakthrough of coarse granite. Note thimble depression from smaller dolerite hammer.

2nd

stone shows break through a natural plane and 3rd

shows signs of an iron oxidised flaw.

These hourglass perforations are typical of the first pebble maces dating to the Mesolithic or earlier.

Page 4: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

4

Artefacts from Penlee Gallery and Museum

Characteristics of the hole of the example below are chipped with rougher lips of the entrance to the

hole where occassional mis-hits have occurred and a quite smooth bell-shaped cavity with some

deeper pecks showing. The neck is much narrower than the entrance and is mirror-imaged on the

other side.

In examples where the perforation has not broken through, the bottom of the hole can be smooth.

The experimenter attributes this to under-developed technique. In his early experiments a strong,

elongated pebble pecked well initially, but slowed as the hole deepened; conforming to the radius of

curvature of the pebble hammer and hence impacting over a large area and ‘polishing’ the surface

rather than spalling it.

Images: Courtesy of Penlee Gallery and Museum. A

micro-granite axe-hammer; incompletely perforated.

This is a tool of definitely Neolithic and even Bronze

age association.The finish becomes finer from lip

downwards and is even shiny in one of the dimples;

indicating a worker who has run out of ideas! The main

crack almost diagonally bisects the piece and like others in the side may have developed from

release of stress from corrosion of iron compounds in the rock after abandonment.

The next mace to be featured from The Penlee Collection is a near circular quartzite pebble with an

hour-glass perforation and narrow neck. It would have been lucky to have completed it with blunt

elongated tough pebble tools without it breaking and the internal peck marks suggest the use of

something sharper. Flaked flint is fragile for this job, but some of the chert available as naturally

transported pebbles to Cornwall has better impact strength and often a hardness similar to that of the

pebble mace due to granular quartz in the chert structure . Dave Weddle (2010) has demonstrated

this with chert fabricators; tools also associated with iron ore and fire-making (Clarke, 1970).

Image: a flint fabricator: find 541.1, West Penwith, Cornwall.(Hill,2008).

Page 5: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

5

Images: Courtesy of Penlee Gallery and Museum;

a broken quartzite pebble mace-head. Note pecked

damage to entrance, becoming smoother towards

neck of hole.

There remains little evidence to suggest how the

hole was widened.The slightly countersunk nested

concavity is evidence of finishing with a narrower

tool. There is no sign of a rotating action and indeed it would be unlikely as a tactic as the torsion

would fracture the quartz or chert tooling necessary to scratch the surface.

The likely methods have been found by experiment and ancient examples will be given which show

marks suggested by these techniques.

To Digress…

Image: Not all maces have man-made perforations. Flint

examples with the possible exception of the engraved

masterpiece from Knowth rely on the frequent natural holes in

nodules of this otherwise hard and brittle material.(Coe,1959)

This broken example; perhaps more amulet sized was found in

a mostly Neolithic flint surface scatter; in West Penwith,

Cornwall.

Find: 539.1(Hill,2008 unpubl.).

Penlee Museum contd.:Perforating an elongated stone;

respecting the sides.

Between September 1st and 5

th 2008 this experimenter

perforated a tough rosy granite cobble using elongated

‘fusiform’dolerite pebbles to break through. Conscious of the

unpredictable strength of granite, the direction of the blows tended to be biased in the longitudinal

direction. At breakthrough the hour-glass was decidedly oval in plan.

As had been recent practice, it was intended to make the hole substantially wider and it had been

found that this was more time consuming than expected.

Page 6: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

6

Tough dolerite stones were still this experimenter’s idiosincratic choice but butt down on a granite

anvil stone they were tapped on the nose with a larger dolerite cobble until they flaked. These tools

had a cutting action when impacted in the perforation and could be reflaked and used; often for

hours.

Images: Experimental archaeology journal, including 2 reflaked diorite pebbles. Notice that in the

side section drawing; the front wall of the perforation is less hour-glass than the back. The

relationship of this to the non-parallel top and bottom of the pebble will become an important part of

the discussion of manufacturing techniques in ancient examples of near shaft-hole implements. The

photo shows a near contemporary circular plan perforated cobble of similar stone to the oval holed

mace.

Next images: a recent acquisition by Penlee Gallery. This axe-hammer is typically highly corroded

for ‘greenstone’ ancient artifacts from West Penwith. The perforation is impressively large;

dominating the piece and conferring a little unease about its’ practicality for heavy blows. Even the

damage is obscured by the 2-3mm deep pitting. It is possible that there are some rotary finishing

marks in the perforation, but it is uncertain. What remains is a difference between the front and

back wall of the perforation. As with the previous modern rosy granite example; the top and bottom

of the piece are not parallel.

Page 7: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

7

Image: Penlee gallery axe-hammer. Compare

side section with that of previous rosy granite

item.

Images:The next Penlee

example has what might be a

classic shaft-hole perforation

with a slight widening and

roughening at the entrance but

a substantially straight sided

and circular form with nearly

smooth finish.

A cursory examination of this

axe-hammer might lead to a drilling(rotating tool) explanation, but the reader may be primed by my

observations and by the lack of any circumferential marks even to complete the internal finish. It is

this kind of object, along with even straighter shaft-holed objects like battle-axes and cushion maces

that gives the impression of more advanced techniques as the Neolithic gives way to the Bronze Age

(Roe,1968).

Copper tube drilling was practised in Old Kingdom Egypt(Gizeh) along with the flint boring of

diorite vases(Hodges,1970) and Paleo-Indians(Fundaburk,2001); have also left the characteristic

stone cores from this operation but with an organic alternative: perhaps a reed to embed the sand or

crushed chert.As for the Bronze-Age Chinese; their unsurpassed working of Jade is evidence for

craft specialisation at an early date, along with a stable hierachical society in which objects of great

labour could be worked to perfection for a feared and venerated leader.Technologies like mechanical

drilling and even lathes were developed for this task; drawing parallels with Egypt. Despite the

exceptional achievements of Stonehenege, Knowth and Silbury, societies as big and coherent did not

appear in Europe and stone working was more personal and improvised.

Page 8: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

8

Images:This final axe

from Penlee Gallery and

Museum has broken

across the smallest

section of greenstone.

The hole diameter is

28mm, but the radius at

the break is18mm;

giving an elongated hole

of about 36mm and

respecting the sides of

the stone as if it were

pecked and not drilled.

The slight all-over

corrosion has been

enough to obscure fine

working methods, but

the perforation is

rougher toward the

slightly damaged

entrances.

The concave upper and

lower surface is a

pleasing way of

removing most of this

outer damage from pecking mis-hits.In the longitudinal direction the

eccentrity ratio is 36 divided by 28; nearly equalling 1.3. This ‘longitudinal eccentricity perforation

plan ratio’ or ‘LEPPR’ will appear throughout the later part of this work.

Although the degree of eccentricity is open to question, due to the axe’s incompletenes; it remains a

fact and makes a strong case against a rotating method for its’ production. It seems difficult to

generate rotating side force and cut with a hand or stick rotated stone without something failing if the

hole is not circular ie when not supporting the drill symmetrically. Modern steel milling machines

have overcome these problems; but I think that that is a different world!

At 1.3 the eccentricity may be overlooked by the casual observer whilst contributing to the better

security of hafting taken for granted with modern tools.

It is worth considering how unusual eccentrically perforated stone implements are:

Table 1 Eccentric(LEPPR 1.1+) All Perforated Stones

Penlee Gallery and Museum(display) 1 ‘Heamoor’ 6

Royal Cornwall Museum(display) 1 ‘Polperro’battle-axe1.1LEPPR 21

Exeter Musuem(display) 0 6

Museum of London(display) 1(A14982) 21

Ancienttouch(internet) 0 5

National Museum of Ireland(internet) 0 3

Museum of the Earth (internet) 0 4

Mohen,1999.Standing Stones 0 5

British Museum(displays Europe ) 0 9

Pearce,1981.The Arch.of SW Britain 0 3

Fiona Roe,1968.Stone mace-heads and… 2?(fig32;3,11) 45

Page 9: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

9

Tonbridge Wells Museum(display) 0 1

Canterbury Roman Museum(stone-age display) 0 1

Hierapolis Museum (display) 0 1

Portable Antiquities Scheme ‘mace-head’ 0 16

Portable Antiquities Scheme ‘axe-hammer’ 0 4

Clarke,1970 Beaker Pottery… 1?no.778Garton Slack,Yorks. 3

Darwin Country(Shrewsbury Museum)internet 1(SHYMS:A/2003/165) 24

National Museum of Scotland,1892 0 14

Childe,1925.The Dawn of European…. 1;fig106,4 19

Paton Walsh,1975.The Island Sunrise 0 7

Plant,1942.Man’s Unwritten Past 0 7

Cunliffe,1998.Prehistoric Europe 0 4

Megaw,Simpson,1984.British Prehistory 0 3

De Morgan,1924.Prehistoric Man 0 2

Hawkes,1963.Prehistory 0 3

Briard,1979.The Bronze Age in… 0 4

Clark,1940.Prehistoric England 1(plate 20,battle-axe,LEPPR1.2) 0

You get the idea. Some objects may be duplicated in differernt sources. Definitely drilled objects ie

beads and spindle whorls are excluded, as are soft stones which are not hafted implements ie jet belt

sliders,loom and thatch weights and all the products of highly organised Bronze-Age civilisations;

namely Egypt and China. Many of these ie Egyptian mace heads are clearly drilled and turned .The

total of objects surveyed at 243 has little relevance to the number in existance in Britain or Europe

but the sample is big enough to suggest a non circular rate of about 3% and certainly less than 5% for

perforated stone objects designed for hafting. Included are the 3 jadeite rings of Morbihan

(Mohen,1999) which may have parallels with Capsian maces and bangles and Chinese Bi disks and

appear to require circular form. They will be discussed later.

This image: 9 non circular plan perforated stones.In order will be stated date of manufacture under

experimental archaeology conditions, present owner, rock type and LEPPR.

1. 1st-5th

Sept.2008, G.Hill,

Rosy Granite,1.5

2. 6th

-15th

Sept.2008, G.Hill,

Greenstone

3. 6th

Oct.2008, G.Hill,Dolerite,

’elvan’,1.3.

4.9th

-14th

Oct.2008,Roger

‘geologist’,Greenstone,1.3.

5.Apr.-midMay2009,

G.Hill,Greenstone,1.6.

6.Early May-early July2009,

John Neff, Greenstone,1.8.

7.10th

-12th

June2010,

Matt Mossop, Serpentine(?),1.7

8.EarlyOct.2010,G.Hill,

Quartzite,1.5.9.Sept.Oct.2010,G.

Hill, Greenstone,1.6.

(Thanks Roger for dolerite I.D.)

Page 10: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

10

The ease of manufacture of non-circular plan perforated implements.

It has been demostrated that implements with hour-glass perforations tend to have a circular plan due

to the systematic or even haphazard pecking tending remove high spots and irregularities over the

course of many impacts, but there is claimed by this experimenter to be a contradictory tendency to

bias the work along the longitudinal axis of an elongated stone.This tendency is made up of 2

components: ease of grip with reduced chance of self-injury and secondly a desire not to snap

through the stone at its smallest sectional area. This longitudinal tendency was applied to Rosy Granite1 and took a little longer to produce the neck which

could have become a circle of similar diameter to the maximum length of the slot if all points of the compass

strikes had been used.

Really effective removal of the ramps of an hour-glass perforation is a technology needed to produce ‘shaft-

holes’Whilst suggesting that Neolithic mace-heads were made by tubular boring, Fiona Roe in her 1968 paper

writes:

‘Such few unfinished examples as survive suggest rather[than tubular boring] they were made by a pecking

and grinding process, being conical in shape(fig.32,6), so evidently less advanced methods of boring were also

used.’(Roe,1968)

How were these objects finished?

The smooth, finish of many perforations has removed the evidence, but 2 mace-heads on the Portable

Antiquities Scheme website show evidence of a reciprocating; sawing or filing action.

SW YOR-D14 397 Mace. ‘The hole has radiating grooves in the edge, probably evidence of the way the hole

was made.’The deep longitudal sawed grooves cut into the neck of the hole and suggest a flint edged, hafted

or fabricator tool being used. This writer has added a PAS allowed comment to the page.

LIN-DE7E13 Mace ‘At one end of the hole there is a series of vertical grooves, approximately 5mm in length

and spaced circa 1mm apart. These marks might have been intentionally made to increase the grip of bone

wedges forced into the socket in order to make the haft more secure’ In another PAS allowed comment, this

writer suggested that a flint saw had been used through the hole from the other side to widen the neck of the

hour-glass, but at too steep an angle leaving work marks on the entrance.

This experimenter has found that there is a staged technique for producing ‘shaft-holes’ in the quickest way:

1;Peck an hour-glass hole from both sides, using a flaked ‘chisel-tipped’ tools of diorite or a tough grade of

chert. Aim to generate maximum width at breakthrough ie a bell-shaped cavity, rather than racing to a finish

and leaving cone-shaped cavities. This nicety makes a tremendous difference in ease of widening the neck.

At this stage you will have generated a circular plan hour-glass or something more oval if this is to your taste!

If the hole is circular you have the option of a rotating flint bit to ream a shaft-hole. This technique will be

discussed later, but please note that though very pleasing in effect it may be no quicker than other methods.

2. Continue with flaked tip tools to widen the neck. As the angle of attack lessens, then the removal becomes

less efficient and this may necesitate more frequent tool reflaking to prevent the neck just glossing without

progress.Reflaking of the side of the tool makes better use of the glancing strikes.

3.Soon the observant and determined experimenter will find that their best edged impact methods have

reached their limit of effectiveness. If one side of the neck has been straightened then the other side may have

a shallow ramp. The tool bounces off and may produce a concavity opposite to it. This feature will be

discussed later pertaining to Maesmore mace-heads(Roe,1968).

A long stick, perhaps‘green’ with bark will eventually just fit through the hole. If sharp sand or crushed quartz

or chert is added then the stick can be worked back and forth. A classic (in the literature) of rotation,perhaps

Images:sketches from

photos on Portable

Antiquities Scheme

website; finds.org.uk

Page 11: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

11

as a bowdrill is inferior to the rapid reciprocation of a stick up to 1 metre long. Initially the method is not very

effective as the cusp at the neck tends to strip away the grit, but with patience this flattens and the closer to

shaft-hole the better the action, using wider and heavier sticks as the neck widens to keep a fierce action.

This method works well with circular plan and slotted plan perforations and the fine sand tends to leave a

polish when the shaft-hole is completed.

More powerful versions of this technique exist; perhaps easier to use in larger diameter holes.Crushed chert

grit embedded in the stick is powerful but may need refrehing every few minutes. The stick layed onto the

chert on an anvil stone is hammered from the back to embed the grit.

Resin glued flint teeth into a seasoned wood stick or bone in the Mesolithic tradition are an option for flint-

workers more able than me.

A tanged flint saw bit was pushed through the perforation of battle-axe 2 and sawed down the remaining ramp

in a few hours. The first example of a dimple was left opposite it. Referring to the side view of battle-axe 2 it

is noticeable that the starting surfaces for the starting hour-

glass perforations are not parallel, giving an expanded blade at the front and a less high butt. This is a feature

common to many mace designs but other types ie axe-hammers tend to have parallel top and bottom surfaces. This has an effect on the ramps formed at the back and front of the perforation. The one at the front is closer

to straight and it goes first on percussive removal. The stubborn remnant of the rear one remains and the tool

ricochets off it to produce the dimple(s) in the front of the perforation.

Fiona Roe observes:

‘A feature that is unknown on stone implements with shaft holes save on mace-heads of the ovoid and pestle

varieties is an internal widening of the hole. This occurrs on some 39.2% usually though not invariably, being

formed towards the wider end of the implement’.(Roe,1968)

This diagram: Thank you Fiona Roe for allowing this fragment from ‘Stone mace-

heads and the latest Neolithic cultures of the

British Isles’ to be reproduced here. Not

included is table C which has some

straighter perforations but from more

parallel top and bottom surfaces. Unfinished

mace;6 may have failed from poor

technique but unlike the unfinished axe-

hammer from Penlee Gallery it does not have

a smooth finish: rather it looks like it has been

drilled in the sense of a rotary cutting action.

This hardly works against hard stone with

only quartz or chert(not diamond) available.

The next image may be helpful.

Images: Partially completed battle-

axe perforation with rear ramp

carrying grooves from hafted flint

tool(right). Note the dimple in the

neck where the forward ramp was

removed by previous chisel flaked

impactors bouncing off rear ramp.

Page 12: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

12

This image:Any reasonable person would say that these stones had been drilled. The 3 little

serpentine beads have been, with flaked

diorite bits embedded in seasoned twigs.

The smaller of the fine granite cobbles did

have some similar work done indoors in the

kitchen sink, but only so that I could child-

mind my 2 year old daughter. The technique

was uncompetitive and all breakthroughs

were completed by flaked dolerite percussive

tools. The slight rotation between strikes of

different or slowly crumbling pebble hammers

cut the nested circumferential ledges in a

manner probably convincing as a twist-

cutting action.

The non-drilling of Maesmore shaft-hole mace-heads

This image: In 2008 inspired and challenged by the

illustrations in Roe’s paper of Maesmore mace-heads this

experimter attempted to make something similar from a

greenstone cobble from near Mousehole. The perforation

depth attempted was slightly greater than those illustrated

and it proved to be at the limits of practicality with

percussion technology. After direct impact by flaked dolerite

pebbles,cylindrical ones were hammered into the cavity,

often with chert underneath to sharpen the cut. Again

rotating sticks with bits and grit proved slower than the most

indirect percussion in the depths of the hole.After

breakthrough, various flaked tools were hammered in to

widen the neck.Improvisation found a use for rotating stick

and grit to remove the cusps. Embedding the stick in the

ground and spinning the mace on it whilst dropping in

smashed chert eventually cleared the neck cusp leaving room

for the first thin tree branches to be reciprocated through it

with sharp chert grit and sand making parallel longitudinal

grooves in the perforation as it ground it to a shaft-hole and

incidentally stained my hands tea-brown from the bark tanin.

The front wall of the perforation contains 2 dimples for

reasons that may become clear from studying the diagrams

Image left: Neolithic crouch and stick, grit and

water in back and forth motion.

Images next: Stages of effort till breakthrough.

Shaded portion is rotation drilling. The rest

pecked, leaving 2 dimples;

relics of bell cavities pecked from non-parallel

pecking platform surfaces.

Page 13: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

13

Time taken to make the hole; about 16 hours messing about to breakthrough +3hours indirect percussion and

rotating abrasion to clear neck constriction +5 hours reciprocating stick’n grit to widen hole.

A second attempt would save time with specially flaked dolerite and chert impactors but this experimenter is

still awaiting inspiration.

Next I attempt to show the similarity in surface details between the Maesmore mace-heads ‘shaft-hole’

perforations and the greenstone example shown here. The excellent original drawings by Mr B A Brown show

longitudinal striations and pecked rough surfaces on the cavity surfaces. Given the quality of the drawings of

the exterior of these objects then the striations and pitted cavities are surely real features that I have freely

sketched from the originals.The very similar effects in the perforation of my modern greenstone mace-head

are a necessary if fortuitous result of the lack of alternative methods to produce a narrow shaft-hole.

It would seem that small scale manufacture of mace-heads did not give the makers an opportunity to develop

Images:left; New greenstone macehead.

Right; 5 Maesmore examples after J A Brown with

tops of perforations also redrawn, to confirm

Brown’s observation of striations running

longitudinally.

Page 14: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

14

a rational boring technique, if a shaft-hole was desired and the less advanced pecking and sawing were taken

up time and again as each example was made. This experimenter found that rotational drilling techniques

required quite well balanced and strong wood and the bow and it’s cord also needed a good background

knowledge; perhaps from using a fire dril or bow and arrow. Whilst ancient cultures are assumed to have these

technologies it may be that they could not all be harnessed to this task.The wear on the equipment used made

it high on ‘down time’ and unless a core drill could be developed, the process would have been slower than

pecking and sawing. Twist drills in stone tend to stop after short progress as they produce a dead centre

polished high spot where the drill tip has lowest velocity. Work has to be interupted for this to be crushed

away by a pecking tool. A rational use of a twist drill was found to be when a pilot hole of conical shape had

been pecked and the flint boring bit was not resting on it’s centre so that all the cut was on the sides. As the

tool chipped it would still cut further down the cavity. Replacement bits would cut a succession of slightly

tapered cylinders until evidence of the pecked hole was removed. This method is technologically almost

identical to pecking and sawing but produces results often indistinguishable from core dilling with abow.

Recreating a shaft-hole adze in greenstone

Below is a recreation of a broken shaft-hole adze found by Dave Edwards near Ludgvan, West Penwith.

As with the original, time is saved by over deep flake-work where it does not affect its’use; in this case on the

upper surface, reducing the amount of pecking and grinding required.10 hours to make, of which 3 were the

making and widening of the hole.

Complete shaft-hole adze with

Plasticene impression of

perforation.On the same scale is

Dave Edward’s broken green-

stone original from Ludgvan,

Cornwall.The perforation is

adequate for the handle whilst

retaining the widened lip to the

remains of the pecked hour-glass

pilot-hole and some flake

scars on the dorsal surface.

On the hat; flaked dolerite impactors to widen neck of

hour-glass in flaked and pecked rough-out.Werrytown

beach has abundant fusiform pebbles and partly

explains the late adoption of chert fabricator tooling.

Hole widened enough; long stick and coarse sand is

run up and down to straighten sides to shaft-hole.

Page 15: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

15

Proper circular shaft-holes similar to those in cushion maces and battle-axes

It would be taking a point too far to deny rotating techniques for holing hard stones.

Hammering just does not work with perforation diameters much smaller than 10mm as the tool is too fragile

in stone. Beads in serpentine, I can drill, but Iron Age Carnelians in Exeter Museum with perforations of about

5mm long are beyond my patience. So much more so are the 6-12 inch examples from the Indus Valley in the

British Museum collection.

The Museum of London has several of the cushion type of mace-head including a pair of white veined black

(?)diorite.They have no manufacturing marks left upon them, even at the entrance to the hole.

Given that these are some of the later holed stones then a drilling technique is feasable, but it need not entirely

supercede the older pecking, which quickly generates a roughout and pilot hole. A rotating drill cuts a shaft-

hole through the hour-glass and when the rough-out surface is ground down, this removes the damaged and

widened entrance, leaving a sharply defined perfectly circular hole.

David Weddle makes fine axes in Cornwall to the highest standards of symmetry and finish. In 2010 I was

fortunate to see finished examples and a roughout in which the hour-glass was in the process of being made

shaft-hole by the rotation of a tough chert fabricator. Not having the flint-working skills this experimenter

achieved reasonable results with flake drill bits; hard hammered on a granite anvil to give the right plan and

dimensions with an occasional re-chip to keep some cutting edge.

Images: from left to right; stages of reaming with flint bits and article after exterior grind.

Images: Far left; hand spun,

reversing drilling

technique,with hands dropping

down stick then quickly letting

go and starting again from top

of stick in the style of ISHI

(Kroeber,1961)

Left; worn flint bits with

adequately shaft-holed

boat axe culture styled

greenstone object.

Page 16: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

16

Some midi sized perforations: Stone discs and bangles. There are rare examples from Europe of larger perforations in portable stones. Morbihan in north France has

yielded disks of Jadeite and Serpentine reminiscent of the Chinese Bi, but not quite reaching their standards

of finish and circular symmetry.

The Capsian tradition of North Africa is rich in these objects; many of them appearing for sale on the internet.

Stouter examples are often described as maces whereas the finer ones may be bangles and also as a

form of currency has been suggested by some selling websites. The illustrated example has a pecked internal finish and well ground

external surface with a good final polish.This experimenter has found that

objects of this fineness are quite time consuming to make and

that maces of greater wall thicknessare less demanding.

A trick apparently not practiced by the ancients was to follow the

plan of a selected cobble rather than make a circular

rough-out from a larger one. If the idea was just to make a big

enough hole to put your arm through then much time could have

been saved and prehistory would have left a variety of slightly

irregular shapes.In any case using good flaked dolerite or chert

chisel impactors and maximise width before breakthrough gives

best results.

The diagram below shows a selection with dates

of manufacture, present owner, rock type and LEPPR.

1.Early Nov.2008,Anna Tyacke,Greenstone,1.0+

2.21-29th

Nov.2008,Amanda Hill,Greenstone,1.1

3.4-15th

Dec.2008,Elizabeth Hill,Greenstone,1.1

4.16-22nd

Dec.2008,Pam,Greenstone,1.3

5.12-18th

Jan.2009,G.Hill,Greenstone,1.4

6.Apr.2009,G.Hill,Greenstone,1.4

Object 1 is of the Morbihan disc form. 2 is much

like a capsian mace. 3,4 and 5 are intermediate in

fineness,though wearable as bangles. 6 is as fine as

the North African examples though not round.

30 hours might be a reasonable time to make one:

faster and you risk breaking it!

Images:left to right;

Object 6

Objects 2,4 and 5 and

pinch effect between

hammer-stone and

bangle on the

fingertips and palm

is something that a

North African

may have recognised

5000 years ago!

Page 17: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

17

Axe hammers atThe Museum of London

The Museum of London was revisited on 29/7/2011 and with the kind assistance of staff; not only were 2

drawn freely but faithfully behind the glass of the public displays, but a selection was made available from the

stores to handle and photograph.

Battle axe A14982 has a remarkable elongated perforation but the oblique views reveal the remains of an

hour-glass perforation which looks consistent with a longitudinally biased impactor technique with the extra

room to all but remove traces of the hour-glass at the ends of the perforation.

‘7 Perforated Stone Battle Axe A14982’

This has been drawn in its’ public display case so

there is no scale but proportions are quite accurate.

The excellent lighting allowed a good view of the

perforation, which is of elongated slot form with

rounded ends. At the centre of the perforation is a

ridge and above and below this, the perforation is

roughened and slightly dimpled. At the ends of the

perforation the ridge is reduced. A limey deposit

obscures futher internal details and may be from long

immersion in the Thames.

The work seems consistent with a pecked perforation

With most of the strikes slanting into the lonitudinal

direction. Likely little or no use of a saw or the fine

ridge could have been completely removed. The

polished ridge and rebounded slight cavity above this

suggest increasingly ineffective use of an impactor to

reduce the hour-glass. Never-the-less; patient work

produce a remarkable slot with LEPPR of 2.5

Top left: Faithful sketch of A14982.

Left and left below: Oblique side views of

perforation showing polished ridge.

Right: Oblique view of end of perforation

showing reduced ridge and limey cavities

above and below.

Page 18: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

18

‘9 Lloyde Collectiion 49.107/157 Perforated Stone axe hammer Thames Ditton. Source of stone

Northern England.’Left: oblique view.

Middle: Sketches of smooth hour-glass perforation with indication of striations.LEPPR 1.3.

Right:Oblique view showing reciprocating sawing marks.

‘Thames Petersham Aug 18/87 49.107/161’

Left: Accurate drawings showing ancient damage and

hour-glass perforation. Elongated plan of a round

ended slot. LEPPR of 1.6.

Above and below: Photos showing damage to tip of

axe and limey deposit in perforation from immersion

in the Thames.

Page 19: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

19

‘0.733’

Left: photo of plan of massive axe hammer.

Above: Accurate drawing. Slight LEPPR but not

exceeding 1.05. A coarse remnant of the hour-glass

is left as a ridge and rebound cavity.

Bottom right: Oblique view: Ridge and cavity are

visible, suggesting use of a blunt inpactor to

remove an hour-glass perforation.Flare and

chipping at the entrance may be remains of this.

Page 20: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

20

Two implements briefly skeched from the MOL display cabinets

The photographs taken at The Museum of London are reproduced in this chapter by their kind

permission.

‘2 Greenstone Macehead, 2500 BC,

A147578’

A quick sketch of a beautiful cushion

mace-head. The perforation is cylindrical and

polished. In this respect it is similar to the the pair of

marbled black and white

cushion mace-heads in a nearby display

case. However, highlighted in the drawing are a set of

fine lengthwise striations nearly polished out near to

the entrance to the perforation. A sharp saw has been

used, indicating removal of a pecked hour-glass

perforation. Similar marks can be seen on

LIN-DE7E13 (ibid.)

‘Perforated Stone battle axe,

Kingston A26498’

The polished cylindrical hole

would have been quick to start with

a pecked hour-glass hole with all

evidence removed. A rotating sharp

implement has left circumferential

striations emphasised here.A flint

bit; halfted works very well to

produce this effect. This

experimenter recognises the marks;

see ‘Proper circular shaft holes’

(ibid.)

Page 21: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

21

Conclusions about the perforating of hard stone implements

Informal and brief discussions with archaeologists in 2011 have shown that the subject of perforating ancient

stones is likely an already closed subject. An axe hammer noticed to have a slight eccentricity to the circular

perforation at Royal Cornwall Museum was not remarkable and another said that holes were made with emery

powder.

To understand how this consensus occurred then perhaps we must blame the success of the first Experimental

Archaeologist; ‘Flinders’ Petrie(Wikipedia) who was convincing in his descriptions of drilling tubular holes in

granite and diorite in Bronze Age Egypt and in his recognition of ancient drill cores(Petrie Museum) .He was

able to painstakingly bore out diorite vases using original illustrations as guides to his methods. Since then

other special cases such as the work of Paleo Indians, the industries of Bronze Age China and Indus Valley

have been conflated with the use of bow drills to make fire and drill fine holes in soft materials.

The contradictions to this paradigm are in plain sight. The quantities of non circular plan holes now appear to

have been under-estimated. Returning to MOL and RCM after my interest was piqued there are more

eccentric holes than the 3-5% I originally estimated. Additionally the working marks on artefacts are often

longitudinal and the perforation internal details on circular and eccentric holes alike have details which when

noticed at all by writers have been explained away without challenging original assumptions.

A.F. Chalmers in his treasured book; What is this thing called Science?’ explains a scientific paradigm of

interlocking ideas and practitioners. New theories and experiments for a time will embellish the existing work.

Inconvenient results will be clarified or ratoionalised away or just ignored. It may take the death of eminent

people in the field before other factors can bring about a crisis and the oportunity for maverick voices to be

heard and perhaps a paradigm shift to coalesce around a new set of ideas with lots of productive work to be

done to tidy up the loose ends.

If this document and associated stone objects are available to a hoped for new debate then the following

objects are suggested to have been perforated by pecking and not drilling;

Many non-descript ‘fishing’ and ‘thatch weights’of rude finish which often exhibit no exterior working.

Pebble mace-heads

Axe hammers

Shaft-hole axes and adzes

Battle axes

Maesmore mace-heads

Bangles and Capsian Maces

Pestle, ovoid and even cushion mace heads.

The reason why holes are circular is not dictated by technological constraint.

A significant minoriy are not circular and rather than try to explain them their significance continues to be

ignored.

In part 2 the manufacture of the holes in megaliths will be considered.

It is unlikely that anyone who considers the subject will suggest that they were drilled but there is still

research to be done.

How long did they take to manufacture?

What was used to make the holes?

What were the reasons for making the holes?

Are there signs of human pecking bias i.e. the LEPPR seen in the smaller stones?

Page 22: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

22

Page 23: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

23

Part 2

Pierced Granite Megaliths: a local distraction from making stone implements.

Cornwall has a nationally known holed granite slab called Men-an-Tol.

Whilst attempting to find how it was made this experimenter discovered that several people were of the

opinion that it was of natural origin, drawing parallels with the ‘tea-cups’(John Buchanon,2011); some

remarkable cascading bath-sized depressions in a horizontal granite slab on a Tor at the top of Carn Brea near

Redruth, Cornwall.Ian Cooke in ‘Journey to the Stones’ writes of Men-an-Tol:

‘If you look at the shape of the holed stone you may notice that whereas its western face is quite flat, the

opposite side is very obviously rounded with the hole itself splayed out far more, so that it makes a funnel

shape. The stone probably once laid horizontally as part of a stack of natural granite slabs of the type to be

seen on top of many rocky outcrops in West Penwith with its flat side resting on the stone beneath and the

round side upwards. The hole may have been a ‘ rock basin’ ,partially or completely worn through by the

weather over many thousands of years…’

Men-an-Tol is but one of a class of perforated granite stones and they all have substantially circular plan

perforations. It stretches belief that they were all natural, but evidence will be required from their study and

attempts at reproduction.

Images from Carn Brae: Far left; an oval rock basin

Left; ‘the tea-cups’

These features share steep, near

perpendicular walls. Men-an-Tol if of

natural origin has an unusual near

circular plan.

Men-an-Tol. Looking from the flared side of the hole. This

intersects a diagonal crack running from a nick visble in the

top leaving a triangular chip missing above the flared hole.

The hole is slightly egg shaped in plan and much of the

upper edge has been pecked to flat edge facets to maintain a

nearly equal amount of rock width around the central hole.

In Belerion(1981)Craig Weatherhill describes Men-an-Tol’s

location :

‘Like other holed stones in the district, it is within sight of a

Stone circle – the Boskednan Nine Maidens can be seen on

the skyline to the east…’

After discussing most of the remaining holed stones in

Cornwall a pierced megalith will be recreated(p.30) and the

features of Men-an-Tol described above; explained.

Page 24: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

24

Holed stone gate-post near Merry Maidens stone circle and some disappearances.

William Borlase(1769) describes this holed stone and others nearby:

‘About 65 paces exactly North of Rofmodreuy Circle in Burien, Cornwall, is a flat stone, fix inches thick at a

medium, two foot fix wide, and five foot high; 15 inches below the top, it has a hole fix inches diameter, quite

through. In the adjoining hedge I perceived another, holed in the fame manner; and in one wall of the village,

near by, a third of like make.’[I could not help leaving in the old printer’s ‘f’s].

William’s grand-son;William Copeland Borlase produced a map(1872) which shows all 3 holed stones.

Ian Cooke(1987) takes up the story:

‘Of the three holed stones marked, only the one immediately to the north-west of the circle exists. It is now

used as a gate post to the field on the far side of the road from the ‘Maidens’,at 43242457, and is about 5 and a

half feet high with a small hole about six inches in diameter being “ sharply cut” near to the top edge of the

stone. The hole seems to be too straight edged to be ancient.

Of the other two, a smallish rectangular holed stone previously built into a hedge on the other side of the lane

to the east of the circle was removed about 1960. The third holed stone once lay in the corner of the field to

the east of the Circle.’

The perforation is a comfortable size for putting hands through and it has therefore often been suggested that

it was used for shaking hands inside to make bargains and commitments. In its’ present position at the end of a

stone hedge, overgrown with gorse bushes one party would have had the worst of the bargain as was

discovered when surveying the obscured side.

Cornwall Record Office has a photo of ‘Choone Holed Stone’(google)taken in c.1860s with the comment that

it was ‘difficult to determine whether it was used as a gatepost at the time’.A postcard of Choone Holed

Stone,St. Buryan c.1905 with the caption: ‘The Whipping Stock Stone’is noted to be at a 90 degree angle to

its’ present position and that seen in the previous photograph.

This experimenter has found that coarse granite cobbles, like another cornish stone; serpentine is quite easily

broken. It was a relief to work larger pieces. These were perforated with larger flaked dolerite pebbles ; all

available on Werrytown beach, Penzance.

The next images in order give date of perforation, present owner, location and LEPPR.

Images left and right: A massive granite gate post

near to The Merry

Maidens standing stones.

The entrance to the hole is

quite sharp with straight

sides to a strongly spalled-

out back visible in the

upper right photo. The

pencil demonstrates the

LEPPR of 1.1.

Though it appears to have

been hand driven from the

gate side with the slab

lying on the ground, the

hole presents some

difficulties as a

prehistoric piece…

Page 25: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

25

Item 3 bears some similarity to the Merry Maidens holed stone, but at about 80kg it was just possible to

move it to work from both sides; so no back spall occurred. To have completed this hole from one side in a

working space of a little over 0.1 metres diameter would have been difficult. The ancient example has only

slightly greater room to aim dolerite boulders. (Incidentally this experimenter is convinced of what hammer-

stones were used by ancient peoples).There seem to be 2 ways of completing the perforation with stones:

1.Throw the rock in. This works but occasionally the rock bounces out in an unexpected way and bites you!

2.Work in a cramped, uncomfortable style; achieving weak blows, stress injuries and eventually a skinned or

bruised finger(s) which ends your work session.

Robin Payne writes of the Merry Maidens holed stone: ‘The age of this stone is uncertain.’(Payne,1999)

Whilst not able to prove it, this experimenter suggests that the stone was perforated by a long steel rod ,

hammered in the tradition of Cornish hard rock miners, who have left distinctive sub-triangular 1” across

holes found in many quarried blocks in this locale.How making inch holes translates into one of about 6

inches diameter is something a miner would have to explain.

The large spall(relative to other holed stones) on the back of the slab may be evidence of this more powerful

percussion if not the rotten nature of the granite in contact with the ground surface.

Geever.com says: ‘From the 17th

century techniques for drilling holes in rock were developed.In Cornwall a drill rod, or ‘boryer’ was used to create the hole using a hammer. The boryer was turned after each hit of the

hammer, this would chip out a piece of rock. This would eventually create a round hole.’

A motivation for the work may have been as an embellishment for an attractive though locally not unique

stone circle; perhaps enhancing the potential income for a tourist guide.

Drawings: a selection of coarse granite

perforated slabs.

1.20th

Feb2009,W.Thomas,Sennen,1.2

2.11th

Mar2009,G.Hill,Heamoor,1.1

3.17-19th

Mar2009.Left on beach at

SW4676429441.Has reappeared

several times in the shingle, but not for

over a year.Lost?1.1

Images left to right: Breakthrough(with flaked dolerite hammer). Installation at Newlyn Art

Gallery after transporting it along the sea wall lashed to a skate-board and lost after 2 weeks.

Item ‘3’widened from an hour-glass in a further 5 hours to allow my hand through.

Temporary installation in the tidal zone before disappearing and reappearing several times

and lost in shingle at Werrytown beach, Penzance.

Page 26: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

26

The Tolvan Stone.

This was the object of my search after seeing an engraving from 1880(Cooke,1887) by J.T.Blight.

Not in the public domain; the owners kindly allowed me to make all the measurements needed. The stone is

of impressive size. It leans at angle of 15 degrees to the vertical and would seem precarious but for the

evidence from the engraving which shows that it has since been reburied to nearly 1 metre greater depth.

John Buchanon points out that standing stones often have different species of lichen on each side and indeed

the mossy eastern face has a type made of orange bodies and the western side has a flaky grey species.

The perforation has a slightly rounded entrance with greater smoothness at the bottom as though from wear of

many passages through it. The hole is elongated in the direction of the longest axis and has a LEPPR of 1.1.

The western side of the hole is smoothed and rounded again at the bottom, but with torn, spalled steps above

to the exit of the hole. It would seem that the slab was perforated from one side then raised vertical. A 3 metre

tall and ?4 tonne megalith would have been difficult to move in any era. The stone is obviously cherished

by its’ owners but it has suffered in the past. There are 3 hand thrown sub-triangular miners’ boryer holes,

perhaps associated with controlling the movement of the stone during reburial?

Images:Top left; Present ground view, section through perforation and tilt

with estimated view of stone from

1880 engraving, which appeared

to be standing vertically.

Lower left to right photos:

Detail of West side and inside

hole;stepped, fractured and likely

spalled exit visible and true tilt.

2 views; oblique and upwards view of

sheltered East face.One of the miners’

drill holes is just visible above the

perforation. The other face is almost

without moss and the granite surface

slightly more orange(decomposed).

Access to the Tolvan Stone granted by kind

permission of the owners of Tolven Cross

Cottage.

Page 27: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

27

The Kenidjack Common holed stones near Tregeseal stone circle

From accurate directions in Belerion(Weatherhill,1981) ,Explorer102 map(OS,2003) and a compass the 5

stones were easy to find, despite 2 being broken and invisible below the height of the gorse. The spiny

vegetation makes even the footpaths passable only with good leg protection. It might be that there are other

antiquities hidden and an unfotunate fire would at least give the opportuity for a GPS aided survey.

Edmonds(1862) writes on page 91: ‘Granite slabs from 3 to 6 feet long, each perforated with a hole of about 5

inches bore, have been found near these temples[Tregeseal stone circle(s)]. Four such, including a broken one

are lying on the common, about a quarter of a mile north-east-by-east of the Tregeseal temple; and two may

be seen near the Dawns Myin, at the gaps or entrances into fields, one on the north across the great road, the

other towards the east. These “holed stones” are supposed to have been used for securing the victims. And

Toland, in his History of the Druids, speaking of two circular temples in the Orkney Islands, says:- “Near the lesser temple stand 2 stones….through the middle of which is a large hole to which criminals and

Victims were tied.”8’

Later on page 210;Edmonds relating to Carn Kenidjack refers to: ‘four “holed stones”.’

Given that there are some inaccuracies in the account; for instance the hole diameters of 5 inches (most are

about 3), there is still the strange inference that on the common in the area of Tregeseal stone circle and Carn

Kenidjack; since 1862 the number of holed stones has increased from 4 to 5!

Rediscovered by J.T.Blight(1864) in this state; it has been

repaired with concrete, visible on the stump.3 inch diameter hour-

glass perforation and corroded surfaces from long recumbent

position on acidic moorland. Stone 5(Weatherhill,1989).

Blight in his pamphlet(1864) shows this and the other stones

recumbent.It has been knocked over again in recent

years,perhaps by cattle. Easier to hole when a standing stone;

the holes have never-the-less been slightly mis-aligned,

giving the hour-glass an angled throat.Stone 4.

angled

Late Extra: stone 5 has been repaired at a cost of £4500 using stainless steel pins and attached to a

granite plinth.(The Cornishman, Sept.1,2011). I had ‘choked’when an earlier edition had shown a

picture of stone 1. Project Senior Archaeologist Ann Preston-Jones put my mind to rest! Read on.

Page 28: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

28

A second visit to the stones clears up discontinueties between the accounts. The Unperforated stone

(Weatherhill,1981),lying recumbent in the row is in fact broken in half with an hour-glass cavity in section.

This is nicely shown in a plate with the then 3 other recumbent stones drawn by J.T.Blight (1864) in position

between perforated stone 2 and 3(Weatherhill,1981).

Not wide based like 2; Blight’s drawing suggested that

after resting on the ground this stone was embedded

about a foot. Sited near one end; it was easier to aim the

cone holes to meet accurately. The narrowest point was

chosen to make the 3 inch hole. Stone 3.

A near rectangular slab, buried nearly 2 feet(Blight’s

recumbent drawing) and a skewed hour-glass hole. If

well founded, the stone could have been holed standing.

Stone 2.

Stone ‘2 and a half’with a hole pecked at the narrowest

point and another driven blind towards it slightly off-

target, leaving the skewed hour-glass neck.

Page 29: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

29

And the LEPPR of these stones is? These holes are small compared to the width in plan of the stones and any

eccentricites were dominated by misalignment when pecking blind from both sides so the near circular holes

were not unexpected.Stone 1 tells a different story:

Cemented stone, found re- broken.

Near cylindrical perforation with

massive spall removing back of

stone.In foreground is top of stone

with break and interior of hole

nearest.2 30cm rulers,compass and

GPS gadget are in view.In section

drawing feathered arrow points to

partial circumference remaining

sharp lip from when bottom of

cavity spalled out.The near right-

angled internal profile is unlike the

approximate 20mm radius of

curvature achieved with adequate

working space when using flaked

stone tools(see later photo by Dave

Edwards) in ‘How to make Men-an-

Tol’(ibid) and to this experimenter is

proof that stone 1 was not holed by

stones and likely by a boryer,perhaps

breaking the stone when it

spalled, so that the lip was left

without thought of removal.

In 2011 stone ‘5’ was repaired and Ann Preston-Jones kindly sent me a copy of the

report:Kenidjack holed stone, St Just, Cornwall. Repair and restoration.Preston-

Jones.A.2011.Historic Environment Projects.

It contains an authoratitive account of the history of the stones and includes my comments

about stone 1.

Page 30: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

30

Some Early Medieval metal chiselled perforations.

Granite stones continued to be pierced after the use of stone tools for the purpose was superceded in the

Iron Age. Whilst the circle and even the cross are archetypal symbols and so pre-date the Christian era ie

Bronze-Age wheel-headed pins, which combine both of these motifs(Briard,1979); stone crosses measured

here do not pre-date the use of iron tools and indeed the Penlee Market Cross has been exactly dated to 1007

by Charles Thomas(1999) from his decipherment of the inscriptions on the sides.

The blind holes and engraved decorations including the 4 triangles that delineate the market cross have an

internal profile fitting a finger tip with steep sided tapered sides. In the case of the Paul cross this leads to a

gently tapered set of hour-glass holes; too deep to be easily achieved by stone tools and suggesting that iron

chisels were used. They must have suffered from the quartz content of the granite and so became abraded and

deformed to produce the finger-tip bottom of hole profiles.

Stone 1.The lower surface has

been measured with a profile

guage and shows the partial

circumference sharp lip remaining

at this point with the spalled area

behind. The rest of the cavity is

dashed in and my hand is shown

to scale, trying to wield a 1kg+

flaked tip hammer-stone to try to

produce the sharp corner.

Imagine the difficulty of

producing this without damaging

the wrist, fingers or knuckles;

hence the boryer (steel mining

rod) suggestion.The Merry

Maidens holede stone cavity is

narrower and longer and spalled

on one side so is also under

suspicion as being made with

long metal tooling.

Holed stone 1

Image left:On returning to the Kenidjack stones this explicit

method of showing the sharp lip and spalled back was used.

On the nearly shear side are 2 and one third Lego bricks.

The cavity is quite smooth and even slightly expanded with

a second expansion before the lip.A core drill with 7inch

external diameter seems unlikely.If the miner chiselled an

annulus with boryer, leaving a core; this might produce the

feature.

J.T.Blight(1864) describes an unfinished stone outlying the Kenidjack group and Ian Cooke(1987) suggests that it is this

one; now finished!

Page 31: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

31

How to make Men-an-Tol

With thanks to the Thomas family and Fred who farm the land around Clodgy Moor, this experimenter was

allowed the opportuity to manipulate some large granite slabs that Fred had lifted out of the fields with his

low-loader.

The motivation for this project was multiple and complex, but certainly was an attempt to understand

how Men-an-Tol was made whilst paying tribute to the people who left their flintwork, greenstone

axes and pottery there around four and a half thousand years ago.As a totem to attract interest and

funds for a project to research those artefacts its efficacy was less certain. Rather I should like to thank

Anna Tyacke, Andy Jones and others for their efforts to bring that project to reality.

Through early 2009 granites of increasing size were holed on the beach at Werrytown. There were many kinds

of cobbles to use as hammer-stones.Greenstones proved too soft against the quartz in the granite matrix

whilst vein quartz was too fragile. The toughest smooth dolerite; a reheated fine grained basalt and

known as blue elvan in Cornwall was available on the beach. As smooth pebbles it made a blunt and bruising

attack; easily capable of splitting all but the largest slabs. Selected nosed or spindle shaped pebbles in the 0.5-

1.5kg range made single and double handed hammers of greater effectiveness.

It was noticed that a rough facet would be worn on the hammer after many strikes which improved the grip

on impact and spalling action.

Dry work was acceptable when working with the wind to take away harmful dust, but it was felt that keeping

the hammered surface wet had some beneficial effects, listed below:

1.Laying dust, making working more bearable, though it was still important to remove splashed clothing

before it dried in a dwelling.

2.Temporary white spot appears on impact, giving good visual feedback about the hammer effect.

3.Water flush removes debri so that it does not act as a cushion to further progress.

4.Water penetrates cracks so that hammer shock is transmitted more effectively with the possibility of

removing relatively larger pieces rather than just crushing them.

5. Belief in a method is what a human needs and leads from attempt to success. ‘ Water works!’

In May 2009, having selected a granite slab, a knapsack of dolerite cobbles was carried from Werrytown

beach to the site just over 3km away.

The Clodgy Moor spring provided water to wet the stone and it was found that no more than a dozen hammers

were used in the work.They were resharpened by striking them together. One had a good flat side and

Images:left; Paul cross with upper left detail(green) recorded in

section(red).

Lower: Penlee Market Cross with

blind holes in section with position

on monument(small sketch) shown

by arrows.

The taper of the holes is similar.

Page 32: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

32

became a favourite anvil for this.A similar hammer-stone re-used as an anvil is drawn in Prehistoric Extractive

Metallurgy in Cornwall (Budd,1992).

To complete this digression: The most tough rock; jadeite is removed as large flakes by lighting

a fire next to one of the naturally occurring blocks high in the Alps.(Edmonds,2010) At the nicely

judged moment when the rock is about to burst, a great blow from a hammer-stone frees a flake of

suitable size; often 20cm and rarely as seen with one of the Morbihan celts; much longer.

Returning to the 1 tonne granite slab. Its’ awkward sub-triangular plan meant that to fit a hole into it

of the half metre diameter to replicate Men-an-Tol would have been at some risk of breaking the

slab, so a conservative approach of following the sides was adopted. This gave a maximum

dimension of 0.6 metres and the chance for a smaller adult(me) to be able to squeeze through.

Images from Experimental Archaeology

(Hill,unpubl.):760g and 1kg+ dolerite hammers from

the dozen used to perforate Clodgy Moor

megalith.The lower one has also been used as an anvil

to resharpen the others.

Known as bloc-en-bloc technique; this is thought to

have been the earliest human method of flaking stones

and as well as being dangerous to the worker and

those around them(Lord,1993) it is considered to be

difficult to control.However this experimenter;

realising that it was the most powerful percussive

method and having learnt from the megalith project,

was able to remove large dolerite flakes to fashion into

the largest and thinnest of axes from late 2009.

onwards

Images: Confidence about how to strike against

an anvil of similar material, angled to send

debri away from the face was developed to the

point where rough-outs in the upper image could

be made. The large flakes were trimmed against

the anvil stone until of triangular form.Notice

that leather is wrapped around the palm as the

rough-out can recoil to cut the skin.In any case

this group, taking several hours was all that

could be done in one session due to the

punishment to tissues, nerves and joints.

Lower image;left to right: Partially ground rough-

out, 3 finished dolerite celts and a greenstone

example in slightly softer stone of the type

worked more conventionally by hammer-stone in

Prehistoric times in Cornwall. This can be can be

seen by study of unfinished examples ie 567.1

(Hill,2009,unpubl.)

Page 33: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

33

56 hours of effort completed the perforation. A maximum session of five and a half hours was

achieved but nearer to 3 hours at a time was optimal, needing only 24 hours to recover without

lasting damage.It was found that it took an hour or so to get into the feel of the activety and become

relaxed and efficient. Holding the hammer-stone lightly and going with the bounce meant that

gloves were not needed, although they were conspicuously worn with ear defenders for publicity

photos. Stopping the ears made working more comfortable and could have been achieved with

chewed leaves in ancient times. As well as improving concentration it allowed the illusion of

the rock being soft which was good for morale and stamina. Occasionally a euphoric session was

ended by the contact of a knuckle on suddenly real granite.

On June 9

th before Fred had had a chance to move the stone, I tried some wooden levers and log

rollers.After some practice a good technique rowed the stone 10 metres in a few hours. A foundation

trenchwas dug, largely with an iron gardening fork; antler picks not being in my shed. However

some boulders could only be dislodged by using hammer-stones, restoring the Prehistoric reverie.

Image: Clodgy Moor megalith.Incised with flint tools is

an engraved airliner with contrails on the sheltered inner

wall of the perforation.Under the trench for the kerb-

stone foundation ; wrapped in 7 layers of polythene to

delay the reaction with acidified water is an airliner

impressed concrete egg cotaining a rattling die-cast

model of a 777 airliner.

Both of these details are to explain to future observers in

case our documentation is lost at the possible end of

World Civilisation; that this stone was raised by the

Airliner culture and not their distant and respected

ancestors(Fossilism,forthcoming). Less than a year later

the installation had ‘bedded in’ and the experimenter was

not able to easily explain to 2 enthuisiastic European

hikers that the stone was not Bronze-Age and rather than

seem crazy, left them to take their pictures.

Images:Finished

with hammer-

stones used.

Image right:

Upright;revealing

spalled lip to

underside and

kerb covering

foundation

packing.

Page 34: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

34

The nearby rock pile provided the material to chock the gap made by levering the slab. Doing both at

once was possible by putting most of my weight in granite on the lever so that I could depress it

one handed whilst throwing in a rock with the other. There do not seem to be economies of scale

with this operation in that a slab twice as large would need more than 2 people as they would need to

apply their effort simultaneiously without getting in each others’ way. A 32 tonne stone was moved

and erected in France in 1979 with 3 teams of 20 people(Bahn,2004) showing a halving of

efficiency. 1 person can move 1 tonne over flat turf, but up a slope; for instance to cap a quoit would

have multiplied the number. The ramp system for such a project was judged outside the capability of

this experimenter. A rugby team would manage the task but might find it dangerous.

Returning to Men-an-Tol:

Given its volume of removal of granite at about 0.04 cubic metres, compared to half that volume for

The Clodgy Moor monolith which took 56 hours in slightly more cramped conditions then to hole

Men-an-Tol took close to 100 hours. It is apparent from the tension splits in the granite close to the

widened exit that all the work was done from one side and hence the hole was made with the slab

lying on the ground.The flared lip is at the same side as these splits and seems to have been made in

order to cosmetically improve the spalled exit to the hole. A crack has developed; almost splitting the

stone. This makes it less likely that the hole was developed from a natural water cut basin as any

weakness or fissure would have been exploited. Rather it occurred during manufacture or after.

The outside of the slab visible above ground has been trimmed to make it more circular. This could

have been achieved by a helper under instruction from the ‘master’ working in the middle. The wind

carrying dust and flying chips would have likely prevented more than 2 people working at a time.

Images:

Breaking through.

Photo; Dave Edwards.

Rolling on logs with first

inadequate lever.

Raising a tonne with a

proper lever. 30kg ballast

is a friend you can’t

maim!

It is then quite easy to lean

on the lever whilst

shoving in another piece

of granite packing.

Images:

Levering the slab into the

foundation trench.

Plumb-bob vertical:.2-layers of

packing stones left loose in the

foundation, then hammered tight

after pulling the slab the last 1-2

degrees by hand.

Spall on underneath of slab

partly dressed away with

hammer-stone to leave a

chamfer.

Page 35: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

35

The eccentricity of the hole is extended towards the longest dimension where a slight point is formed

Between the beginning of working of the flat outside edge and the natural ragged edge.Maximum

width in this direction is 0.51m and at right angles to it; 0.45m, giving a LEPPR of 1.1.

Conclusions: Implements and Holed Megaliths

The act of making a hole through a difficult material is a significant act to a human being.

It may be inspired by an example from nature or by being challenged by the achievement of others.

Once completed; the object may be regarded as practical; such as a bone needle or the less embellished kinds

of axe-hammer.

There are suggestions that some of these perforated objects; for instance highly refined battle-axes were too

fragile to use as weapons and indeed are often undamaged. Other mace-heads had too small a perforation

diameter for a strong haft. The Bush Barrow example(Megaw,1979) may have had a gold leaf decorated haft

according to some reconstructions; further detracting from its’ utility.The fantastic burial from Varna,

Bulgaria does include a slender battle-axe with a gold decorated haft(Cunliffe,1998)

Many other objects have suggested or assumed practical uses and this is reflected in their labelling as maces

and axe-hammers in museum collections.Holed megaliths also receive this treatment with the larger ones;

such as Men-an-Tol being popularly described as entrances to passage graves(Daniel,1960) and being

invested with the function of curing various ailments by climbing through; particularly back pain; of course!

The slightly smaller perforation of Tolvan stone was considered more suitable for passing babies and children

through for some benefit.The utilitarian argument continues with the smaller hole of the (surviving)

Merry Maidens perforated stone being a size to shake hands within to seal a bargain. The Kenidjack holed

stones with perforations large enough for one hand to go through are with reference to the Druids thought to

have been used to tether human sacrifices and perhaps later; criminals.

Without entirely rejecting these practical suggestions; this writer suspects that humans are wishing to

find a practical purpose or function to these objects in order to satisfy their own need to explain things of

apparently great age and human effort.

It has been the experience of this experimenter that when told of the actual amount of time taken to make a

stone mace or perforate a megalith, people are mildly surprised that although hours or even a few tens of

hours are involved, the amount of time taken is not as great as they would have imagined and certainly well

within the scale of tasks that hobbyists consider today. It is with that thought that it is possible to suggest more

expedient reasons for these seemingly epic and timeless pieces.If we understand the Patience Stone we may

Images:Top left; top edge showing worked flat facets and curved natural on right of stone.

Lower right;Crack in flared side of hole.

Middle; same side with interior of hole.

Drawing; Slab is wider at the base and seems to therefore need only a shallow foundation.

Other recumbent and re-raised stones nearby may have been part of a stone circle.

Page 36: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

36

see a meditation in the process of making it and its’subsequent persistence as merely an artefact of the

material used. The content of the meditation may be a personal matter but it will surely be guided by the

practical technique of repetitive, yet focussed activety in a rotated stone with the world available to perception

between the strikes.There is a vast body of human activety involving repetitive drumming, chanting, dancing

etc in order to achieve an altered state of consciousness and wheras we may wish to trivialise or even

condemn these activities in the present day unless they produce results that do not challenge the accepted

world view,we are safe to project our inner life on to ‘primitive cultures’ and their practices in the past.

Given the circular symbolism ascribed to many Neolithic and Bronze Age structures ie causewayed

enclosures, henges, stone circles, barrows and round-houses it might be feasable to include the

perforated stone objects in this group.

Before many had been removed and destroyed, W. Borlase and other antiquarians noted an association

between megalithic perforated stones and stone circles and this writer would suggest that they symbollically

represent a similar concept.The stone circles have been given solar observatory/callendrical associatons but

the perforated stones have often been resited and will not carry this information if ever they did, but there

remains a circle in the stone to perhaps represent the year, world and cosmos.

Carrying this association on to stone portable ‘implements’ is based upon them being intergrated within this

world. The suspicion of impracticality, combined with lack of use damage to many of them may support this

idea.

The practice of perforating and making these objects has produced a reverie during the process; trance-like yet

aware of the world around and focussed on the task by the discipline of stone impacting next to skin.There has

been a detachment from the immediate business of daily life and an opportunity to meditate on the properties

of stone and the human in their world and this has led to the perception that the act of perforating a stone is a

metaphor for the action of humans in their environment; in an uneasy and changing position between that of

animals and gods.Oscar Wilde states our situation in one of his best known observations:

‘We are all in the gutter,but some of us are looking at the stars.’

The discovery of the ease of making non-circular holes in stone and its’ numerical expression as LEPPR has

shown that for the most part (19 times out of 20) humans from the Mesolithic to the end of the Bronze Age

tempered their practical expression with a subservience to ‘the Great Scheme of Things’. Holes were

close to circular so as not to step too far out of the cycle of nature and upset the gods. Some of the Bronze Age

axe hammers i.e. the Museum of London 2.5 LEPPR example seem to have tested this balance and may have

represented a new confidence of elites to dominate man and nature. This may have been premature.

The circular perforation persisted in the manufacture of metal objects with copper battle-axes in

Yaroslav burials and axes and adzes from Maikop barrow(Childe,1957) retaining this feature.As new

implements were developed using split mold technology ie socketed axes and sickles non circular forms

became the norm. The later Bronze age Irish Dowris phase tools(Megaw,1979) with oval, square and

rectangular cavities for hafting would be examples. The circular symbol was now carried instead on many

other articles as a decorative element ornamenting surfaces as well as in circular objects, such as bracelets,

torcs, terminal discs, enlarged pin heads, ornamental metal shields and dress fastenings.The act of making a

hole has been reproduced in all parts of daily life in decorative objects and decoration. The circle is given its’

explicit meaning of rotation by turning it into a spiral and this trope is set free across the object in the lively

movement of la Tene, Celtic and its’ revivals such as Art Nouveau.Meanwhile the implement is freed to be

a practical object without compromise. Iron tools such as the Bulbury Hoard, Dorset from the first century

B.C.(Cunliffe,1978) are similar to those used today. Humans were now acting to harness nature and people

with less deference to the balance of nature. Those with ambition and good fortune might be as gods with

followers or subjects to pay tribute to them.

There is in Cornwall today as elsewhere a sometimes peaceful, sometimes less happy dialogue between

bearers of different belief systems. What is today called Paganism; in this writer’s opinion is a revival of what

was a logically consistent way of the first sedentary farmers marking the seasons and interceding with the

gods of nature to bring a good harvest and guard against natural disaters and tragedies. The human urge to

give thanks with offerings and to bribe the gods with great sacrifices leads entirely logically to human

sacrifice and despite its’ great failings; too numerous to mention, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ ‘for all our

sins’ is a unique and progressive selling point for the Christian religion inflicted on the ‘Celts’ by the

conquering Romans and perhaps at last abolishing the deep tradition of human sacrfice.Having offended both

sides of my family this atheist still feels the need to invent a god in order to put him in his human place.

Meanwhile here is a little tableaux of the battle; perhaps not meant to have any conscious meaning but now

Page 37: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

37

sealed in position by acts of law as a ‘scheduled ancient monument’ and repeated to me that “ it must not be

moved” by the present encumbrant.

That holed stone is described by J.T.Blight(1864): ‘In the vicarage garden, St. Just is a holed stone 2ft 6ins wide, 2ft high, 8ins thick, and with a hole 6 ins in diameter. It was brought by the late Mr Buller from near the site of the very remarkable

intersecting circles at Botallach, now destroyed.’

Access to this stone by kind permission of the occupiers of St. Just Vicarage.

Acknowledgements The Museum of London; Cathy Ross , Jon Cotton and staff

The Penlee Gallery and Museum; Nicholas Thomas and staff.

The Portable Antiquities Scheme

Fiona Roe

St. Just Vicarage holed stone custodians.

The Tolvan Stone; custodians.

References

BLIGHT,J.T.1864.The Holed Stones of Cornwall, bound pamphlets at Morrab Library.

BORLASE,W.1769.Antiquities Historical and Monumental of Cornwall. W.Boyer and J.Nichols,London.

BORLASE,W.C.1872.Naenia Cornubiae. Longmans.p.214.

BRIARD,J.1979.The Bronze Age in Barbarian Europe.Book Club Associates.p.14

BUDD,P. and GALE,D.(editors).1992. Prehistoric Extractive Metallurgy in Cornwall. CAU.p.12,figure 8

Cwmystwyth. ‘This hammer has had three uses. The top end has done heavy work and is badly broken. The

lower end bears some marks of pounding or crushing. The flat sides made it suitable for use as an anvil.

There is one main hollow and another very slight depression below it. There are now no indications of

hafting.’

CHALMERS,A.F.1982, 2nd

edition.What is this thing called science? OU press. CHILDE,V.G.1957.sixth edition.The Dawn of European Civilization.Routledge&Kegan Paul.London.

CLARKE,D.L.1970.Beaker Pottery of Great Britain and Ireland.Cambridge University Press.

CLARKE,G.1940.Prehistoric England.B.T.Batsford.London.pl.20.

COE,W.R.1959.Piedras Negras Archaeology:Artifacts,Caches,and Burials.University of Pennsylvania.p.17

‘The making of this flint was probably to a large extent initially facilitated by a deep central pit or natural

perforation in the core.Flints with natural perforations are known to have been available,…’

St.Just Vicarage:

The cross on the

wheel of granite

with another incised

into it is

upright with the

broken holed stone

recumbent at its’

foot.

The stone has a near shaft-hole

perforation; even slightly belled,

but this is quite achievable with

stone tools working from both

sides as the stone is only 130mm

thick. It has remained in situ

in the time of the present vicar

(20 years) and there is nothing

known about the other half.

Page 38: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

38

COOKE,I.1987.Journey to the stones;mermaid to merrymaid:nine walks to ancient sites in Land’s End

Peninsula,Cornwall.Men-Tol Studio,Penzance.

The CORNISHMAN.21/7/2011. Cash found to repair holed stone. By Ellie Evans.

The CORNISHMAN.01/9/2011. Prehistoric holed stone repaired. By Toby Meyjes.

CUNLIFFE,B.1978.Iron Age Communities in Britain. Routledge & Kegan Paul,London,Henley and

Boston,p.293: 14.4 ‘ Selection of iron tools’

CUNLIFFE,B.editor.1994.Prehistoric Europe:An Illustrated History.Oxford University Press.

DANIEL,G.1960. The Prehistoric chamber tombs of France. Thames and Hudson [To be fair, Daniel does not

make any claims for Men-an-Tol. The French examples may include large perforated slabs].

EDMONDS,M.2010.100 Objects…,Jadeite Axe.BBC Radio 4 broadcast.

EDMONDS,R.1862.The Land’s End District:Its Antiquities,Natural History,Natural Phenomena and Scenery.

J.Russell Smith,London.

FUNDABURK,E.L.,FUNDABURK FOREMAN,M.D.2001.Sun Circles and Human Hands: The Southeastern

Indians Art and Industries.University of Alabama Press.p.128 ‘The picture illustrates one method of drilling

holes in stone. A reed or cane drill,with moist sand as the abrasive was often used by the natives.On the right

is a typical core which resulted from such drilling. It is 1and one quarter inch long. It tapers in reverse to the

taper inside the drilled hole, because the friction of the work cuts the outside of the cane, making it smaller

and the inside of the cane, making it larger,as the drilling progresses.The cane is fresh.The stone and core are

from Franklin County, Alabama.(Courtesy H. K. Kleine).’

GIZEH UC.16036(Google),Petrie Museum. Granite cylindrical core found by Petrie.

GRIFFITHS,N.JENNER,A.,WILSON,C.1991revised edition.Drawing Archaeological Finds:A Handbook

Archetype Publications Ltd.

HAWKES,J.1963.History of Mankind:Cultural and Scientific Development,volume 1:Prehistory.

George Allen and Unwin Limited, London.

HILL, G.E.2004-.Lithics Catalogue.(unpublished drawings of lithics and pottery finds)

HILL,G.E.2007-.Experimental Archaeology: Primitive Stonework (unpublished manufacturing journal)

HODGES,H.1970.Technology in the Ancient World.Book Club Associates,London.p.96,fig100: ‘Hollowing

stone vases: a scene from the walls of an Egyptian tomb of about 2500B.C.’

Fig101: ‘A reconstruction of the drill used to hollow stone vases…The drills were fitted with a crescentric bit

of flint turned by hand, and weighed down by rocks attached to the handles.’

KROEBER,T.1961.ISHI in two worlds. The Regents of the University of California.

LAING,L&J.1982.The Origins of BritainPaladin,London.

LONGWORTH,I.H.1985.Prehistoric Britain.British Museum Publications Limited.p.35,fig.44

LORD,J.1993.The Nature and Subsequent Uses of Flint; Volume 1;The Basics of Lithic Technology.p.31.

MACALISTER,R.,1949.revised edition.The Archaeology of Ireland.Braken Books.London.

MEGAW,J.V.&SIMPSON,D.D.A.editors.1984.Introduction to British Prehistory.Leicester University Press

MOHEN,J.1999.Standing Stones:Stonehenge,Carnac and the World of Megaliths.Thames& Hudson.London.

MORGAN,J.1924.Prehistoric Man.Kegan Paul,Trench,Trubiner&Co.,Ltd.

ORDNANCE SURVEY.2003.Explorer 102,Lands End 1:25000 scale.Ordnance Survey,Southampton

ORDNANCE SURVEY.2005.Explorer 103,The Lizard,Falmouth & Helston 1:25000 scale.

Ordnance Survey,Southampton.

PATON WALSH,J.1975.The Island Sunrise.Andre Deutsch, London.p.36

PAYNE,R.,LEWSEY,R.(illustrator).1999.The Romance of the Stones:Cornwall’s Pagan Past.

Alexander Associates.p.62,Merry Maidens Holed Stone.p.96 Tregeseal Holed stones, ‘SW38953255’

Tolvan Holed Stone. ‘SW70632770’p.162, ‘it has been moved in the past and may not now be exactly in its

original position.’

PEARCE,S.M.1981. The Archaeology of South West Britain.Collins,London.

PLANT,E.1942.Man’s Unwritten Past.Oxford University Press.London

RENFREW,C.&BAHN,P.2004.4th

edition.Archaeology:Theories,Methods and Practice. Thames &Hudson,London.p.323

ROE,F.1968.Stone mace-heads and the latest neolithic cultures of the British Isles.,Studies in Ancient

Europe: Essays presented to Stuart Piggott.Edited by J.M.Coles and D.D.A.Simpson, Leicester

University Press.p.145-172.

THOMAS,C.1999.Penzance Market Cross: A Cornish Wonder re-wondered. Penlee House.

WEATHERHILL,C.1981.Belerion:Ancient Sites of Land’s End.Alison Hodge,Penzance.p.23

Page 39: The Surprisingly Late Adoption of Slotted Perforation Tools and What This Suggests About the Neolithic Outlook

39