Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XVI - The Royal Museum of Northern Antiquities
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
Chap. XVI.
MUSEUM: AGE OF STONE.
235
and others hollowed out in a most artistic manner. The
saws are of great beauty, of flint, and jagged at the
edges with the greatest regularity, resembling the
vertebra of a fish, from which the model has evidently been
derived.
Of knives for household and other purposes there are
several forms. Some are double-edged, and some have
square handles, évasé towards the hilt, with an almost
imperceptible ornament running down the centre; others
have no handle at all.
One specimen is of great rarity — a sickle-shaped
blade, with straight handle; and many of a half-moon
form, not unlike the currier’s knife, or the barbarous
media luna used in the Spanish bull-fights to hamstring
the wretched animal when he refuses to attack the
matador.
The harpoons of flint are elegant in form, the
arrowheads heart-shaped and triangular, notched at the edge
with a delicacy almost incredible; some, long and narrow,
are inserted into pieces of bone. The jaw of a stag is
preserved, in which remains fixed the broken head of
a flint arrow: the animal, it is conjectured, continued
to live, having been only slightly wounded.
One case contains a collection of ornaments in amber
—girdles, necklaces, &c.—all discovered at the same
time in one locality in Jutland, probably the contents
of a shop. Some of the necklaces are strung with
considerable attention to design, and do credit to the taste
of this early period of Scandinavian history.
A large collection of oyster and other shells, dug up
en masse, were first claimed by the geologists as the
relics of early times; it was a regular stand-up fight
—Antiquaries versus Geologists; but, after a care-
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
