THE USE OF PITS FOR STORAGE OF GRAIN.
5
battering, but the larger end is more bruised than the smaller. On
examination with a lens there is seen to be a kind of glaze all over
the instrument, brought about by a slight partial grinding, and after-
wards by constant use after the pecking was done. The labour
required to bring a block of granite into such good form must have
been immense, and there can be little doubt that the tool was highly
esteemed by its maker.
The pestle was designed for use with a stone mortar, many of
which may be seen in archaeological collections. It was meant
for breaking and bruising all kinds of food and other objects that
required breaking and bruising in a mortar—as corn, nuts, roots,
bones, etc.—including the smashing of small stones for mixing with
clay for pottery. The use of the pestle and mortar preceded in
ancient times the use of the quern or rotatory mill. Like the quern,
the pestle and mortar has been in use from prehistoric times to the
present day. The example illustrated is probably ancient British,
and of the same age as the adjoining British camp, known as
Loughton or Cowper's Camp.
If used as a club, the heavy instrument before us would prove a
most formidable and deadly weapon. It is by no means improbable
that it was sometimes so used by its original British owner.
NOTE ON THE USE OF PITS IN BRITTANY
FOR STORAGE OF GRAIN.
By CHARLES BROWNE, M.A., Barrister-at-Law.
On reading through (as I have done with very great interest) the
Report on the Deneholes, I have observed in Mr. Spurrell's paper,
at page 271 (Essex Naturalist, vol. i.), the following passage:
"The preservation of corn in pits was certainly practised in Northern
France during the first half of the last century, and, from what can
be gathered, it is probable that the practice continued into the
present century," to which is appended this note : "It may, indeed,
be continued to the present day in some out-of-the-way places ; for
agricultural customs are strangely persistent."
I was during last autumn travelling in Brittany for some weeks—
not, indeed, in out-of-the-way places, but still in many parts beyond
the reach of a railway. I observed repeatedly in the fields a mound
of about two or two and a half feet high, in the centre, or sometimes