w meaningless scratches. It is not
perforated. Dr. Munro does not dispute the genuine character of many
strange figurines in flint, from Volosova, though the redoubtable M. de
Mortillet denounced them as forgeries; they had the misfortune to
corroborate other Italian finds against which M. de Mortillet had a
grudge. But Dr. Munro thinks that the two plaques of Volosova may have
been made for sale by knavish boys. In that case the boys fortuitously
coincided, in their fake, with similar plaques, of undoubted antiquity,
and, in some prehistoric Egyptian stones, occasionally inscribed with
mere wayward scratches.

For these reasons I think the Volosova plaques as genuine as any other
objects from that site, and corroborative, so far, of similar things from
Clyde.

{ Figs. 14, 15: p104.jpg}

To return to Portugal, M. Cartailhac recognises that the _plain_ plaques
of slate from sites in the Cevennes "are certainly analogous" with the
plaques from the Casa da Moura, even when these are elaborately
ornamented with vandyked and other patterns. I find one published case
of a Portuguese plaque with cups and ducts, as at Dumbuck (fig. 16).
Another example is in _Antiguedades Prehistoricas de Andalucia_, p. 109.
{104} However, Dr. Munro leaves the Cevennes Andalusian, and Portuguese
plaques out of his argument.

M. Cartailhac, then, found inscribed and perforated slate tablets "very
common in Portugues neolithic sepulchres." The perforated holes showed
signs of long wear from attachment to something or somebody. One, from
New Jersey, with two holes, exactly as in the Dunbuie example, was much
akin in ornament to the Portuguese plaques. One, of slate, was plain, as
plain as "a bit of gas coal with a round hole bored through it," recorded
by Dr. Munro from Ashgrove Loch crannog. A perforated shale, or slate,
or schist or gas coal plaque, as at Ashgrove Loch, ornamented or plain,
is certainly like another shale schist or slate plaque, plain or
inscribed. We have shown that these occur in France, Portugal, Russia,
America, and Scotland, not to speak of Central Australia.

My suggestion is that, if the Clyde objects are forged, the forger knew a
good deal of archaeology--knew that perforated inscribed plaques of soft
mineral occurred in many countries--but he did not slavishly imitate the
patterns.

By a pleasant coincidence, at the moment of writing, comes to me the
_Annual Archaeological Report_, 1904, of the Canadia