126 PRIMAEVAL MAN IN THE VALLEY OF THE LEA.
The curious flint implement of aberrant form illustrated, one-half
its actual size, in fig. 2, was found on the "Palaeolithic Floor" at
Shacklewell, and is now in the British
Museum, Bloomsbury. It belongs to the
keen and unabraded class, and is made
from a block of flint, which exhibits a deep
natural depression on one edge; this de-
pression was at first a large natural hole.
The implement is beautifully made, and
shows the work of a skilled and ex-
perienced implement maker, but why a
good workman should have used such a
defective and unsuitable piece of stone to
work upon, is difficult to imagine. The
man or woman probably made the tool
out of sheer wilfulness. When made it
must have excited curiosity, and possibly
some little mirth or even horse-play
amongst the companions of the maker.
One of the smallest of the Stoke New-
ington Implements was found by Mr. G.
T. Lawrence, in the trimmed flake illus-
trated in fig. 3; this example weighs less than half an ounce. Some
of these small tools resemble arrow, spear, and lance heads, but I
greatly doubt whether
any such weapons were
known to Palaeolithic
men. Our Palaeolithic
precursors spoilt many
of their implements in
the course of manu-
facture. On the