IN THE THAMES BASIN.
103
used as an axe. This method of hafting is employed among
certain existing savages.
Fig. 6 represents an exceptionally finely-pointed specimen
It may either have been used as a javelin-head, or else as an axe-
head, in which case the point would have been wedged into
a hole in the piece of wood forming the handle.
Fig. 7 shews a beautiful implement of rare workmanship
and unusual form.
Another characteristic, though comparatively rare, type of
axe-head is discoidal in shape, the oval periphery presenting an
fig. 7.—tongued-shaped implement from Swanscombe.
Drawn by J. P. Johnson. Natural size.
acute edge. Semi-circular forms also occur. Allen Brown
describes one from the low-level valley drift as "a very neatly
made axe-head much more advanced in form as well as in work-
manship than any instrument of that kind from the older drift of
the higher levels which has come under my notice. The blade
is skilfully chipped all over and the front is worked into a sharp
cutting edge."
Even the actual land surfaces on which the Palaeolithic
people manufactured their implements have been preserved here
and there, buried under varying thickness of drift. So well
defined are these old surfaces that in some instances the cracks
5 J. Allen Brown, "Working Sites and Inhabited Land-Surfaces of the Palaeolithic
Period." Trans. Middlesex Nat. Hist. Soc. (1889).