Rock through rock: Primitive experiments in perforating hard rocks that reproduce manufacturing marks on prehistoric stone tools

and suggestions as to why circular holes were made by Neolithic people in Europe. 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 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 stoneworker. 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 Dalis 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!

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 diorite hammer-stones, which have no tendency to crumble on over-striking, unlike Mc Shanes 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 diorite 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 the thimble depression from smaller diorite 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.

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). 4

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 5th 2008 this experimenter perforated a tough rosy granite cobble using elongated fusiform diorite 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. 5

Tough diorite stones were still this experimenters idiosincratic choice but put butt down on a granite anvil stone they were tapped on the nose with a larger diorite 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.

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.

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 axes 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 Polperrobattle-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 8

Tonbridge Wells Museum(display) Canterbury Roman Museum(stone-age display) Hierapolis Museum (display) Portable Antiquities Scheme mace-head Portable Antiquities Scheme axe-hammer Clarke,1970 Beaker Pottery Darwin Country(Shrewsbury Museum)internet National Museum of Scotland,1892 Childe,1925.The Dawn of European. Paton Walsh,1975.The Island Sunrise Plant,1942.Mans Unwritten Past Cunliffe,1998.Prehistoric Europe Megaw,Simpson,1984.British Prehistory De Morgan,1924.Prehistoric Man Hawkes,1963.Prehistory Briard,1979.The Bronze Age in Clark,1940.Prehistoric England

0 0 0 0 0 1?no.778Garton Slack,Yorks. 1(SHYMS:A/2003/165) 0 1;fig106,4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1(plate 20,battle-axe,LEPPR1.2)

1 1 1 16 4 3 24 14 19 7 7 4 3 2 3 4 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, Diorite, 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.

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 shaftholesWhilst 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.

Images:sketches from photos on Portable Antiquities Scheme website; finds.org.uk

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, perhapsgreen 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

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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 flintworkers 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

Images: Partially completed battleaxe 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.

is noticeable that the starting surfaces for the starting hourglass 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 maceheads 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 axehammer 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.

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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 childmind my 2 year old daughter. The technique was uncompetitive and all breakthroughs were completed with flaked diorite 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 twistcutting action.

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

This image: In 2008 inspired and challenged by the illustrations in Roes 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 diorite 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. 12

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 stickn grit to widen hole. A second attempt would save time with specially flaked diorite 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.

Images:left; New greenstone macehead. Right; 5 Maesmore examples after J A Brown with tops of perforations also redrawn, to confirm Browns observation of striations running longitudinally.
It would seem that small scale manufacture of mace-heads did not give the makers an opportunity to develop

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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 its 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 its 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 itsuse; 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.

On the hat; flaked diorite 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.

Complete shaft-hole adze with Plasticene impression of perforation.On the same scale is Dave Edwards broken greenstone 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.

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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 shafthole 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.

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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 diorite 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!

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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.

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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. 18

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.

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Two implements briefly skeched from the MOL display cabinets

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.)

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

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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 weightsof 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?

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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

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 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.

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-Tols 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.

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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 printers fs]. Williams 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.

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 spalledout 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

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 Stoneis 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 diorite pebbles available for working on Werrytown beach, Penzance. The next images in order give date of perforation,present owner, location and LEPPR.

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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

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 in diorite boulders. (Incidentally this experimenter is convinced of what hammerstones 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.

Images left to right: Breakthrough(with flaked diorite hammer). Installation at Newlyn Art Gallery after transporting it along the sea wall lashed to a skate-board and lost after 2 weeks. Item 3widened 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. 25

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.

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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 hourglass perforation and corroded surfaces from long recumbent position on acidic moorland. Stone 5(Weatherhill,1989). 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 chokedwhen an earlier edition had shown a picture of stone 1. Project Senior Archaeologist Ann Preston-Jones put my mind to rest! Read on.

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

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Not wide based like 2; Blights 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 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).

Stone 2 and a halfwith a hole pecked at the narrowest point and another driven blind towards it slightly offtarget, leaving the skewed hour-glass neck.

A near rectangular slab, buried nearly 2 feet(Blights recumbent drawing) and a skewed hour-glass hole. If well founded, the stone could have been holed standing. Stone 2.

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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 rightangled 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-anTol(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.PrestonJones.A.2011.Historic Environment Projects. It contains an authoratitive account of the history of the stones and includes my comments about stone 1.

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Holed stone 1

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.

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

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.

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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.

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 quartz-porphyry diorite; 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 0.51.5kg 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 diorite 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

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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).

Images from Experimental Archaeology (Hill,unpubl.):760g and 1kg+ diorite 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 diorite 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 roughout, 3 finished diorite 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.)
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.

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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 kerbstone 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.

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. Images:Finished with hammerstones used. Image right: Upright;revealing spalled lip to underside and kerb covering foundation packing. On June 9th 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.

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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 cant maim! It is then quite easy to lean on the lever whilst shoving in another piece of granite packing. 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. 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. 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. 34

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.

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.

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 thefunction 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

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see a meditation in the process of making it and itssubsequent 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 writers 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

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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. St.Just Vicarage: The stone has a near shaft-hole The cross on the perforation; even slightly belled, wheel of granite but this is quite achievable with with another incised stone tools working from both into it is sides as the stone is only 130mm upright with the thick. It has remained in situ broken holed stone in the time of the present vicar recumbent at its (20 years) and there is nothing known about the other half. foot.

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,

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COOKE,I.1987.Journey to the stones;mermaid to merrymaid:nine walks to ancient sites in Lands 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 Lands 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 vasesThe 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:Cornwalls Pagan Past. Alexander Associates.p.62,Merry Maidens Holed Stone.p.96 Tregeseal Holed stones, SW38953255 Tolvan Holed Stone. SW70632770p.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.Mans 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 Lands End.Alison Hodge,Penzance.p.23

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