Weaving-combs from the West Village 63

In this record it will be well to amplify the above statements by this

Table Showing the Number of Weaving Appliances found in eleven of the Meare Lake Village Dwellings.

* Of these 15 were found collected in one place.

It is important to point out here that a large proportion of the teeth of these
combs bear signs of hard wear and prolonged use. Transverse grooves (presumably
thread marks) on the under surface of the teeth, generally penetrating the can-
cellous tissue, are frequently met with, and often they penetrate to such a
depth that it is evident that had they been used for a longer period the apices
would have dropped off and so reduce the length of the teeth. The constant
beating-in of the weft was responsible for this deterioration of the combs, and
this feature is particularly well seen in HII 15, where in Plate XX the under-surface
of the comb is illustrated to show the grooves referred to. Among other specimens
showing this evidence of usage are :-HH 11, 18, 35, 48, 56 and 128.4A

II. GENERAL REMARKS ON THE COMBS FOUND IN THE WESTERN VILLAGE

One hundred and thirty weaving-combs, including fragments and that (HH 81) in process of manufacture were found in the western village at Meare! 5 and nearly all of them were manufactured from pieces of antler (chiefly of the red-deer), and apparently none of horse or ox bone6. The material from which three of the

4A Dr. Clay noted that similar grooves were noticed on antler combs of unknown use from an Indian village site
near Madisonville, Ohio (Peabody Museum Papers, viii, no. 1).

5 Fifty-three of the combs from the western village are figured. At the time of the close of the season's work in 1938,
forty-nine combs have already been found in the eastern village.

6 At Glastonbury eight of the eighty-nine specimens were of bone. Many of the combs from other sites, described
as being of bone, are on closer examination found to be of antler.

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