Blinkenberg, Christian: The thunderweapon in religion and folklore: a study in comparative archaeology (London , Edinburgh: Cambridge University Press, 1911)

ORIGIN AND AGE 41
in some cases transferred to the statues which superseded the
shapeless stones in the cult.
Thus there is no evidence which makes it impossible to
assign the belief in and worship of thunderstones to the stone
age, even if it be maintained that the belief was originally
associated with the stone axes. And, in opposition to the
general view, the examination of the traditions has yielded
powerful arguments in favour of the theory that at any rate
the nucleus of the belief, which still lives, belongs to the
stone age.
These arguments may be summarised as follows:—
1. The wide extension of the thunderstone belief suggests
that it is an element of human culture which at an early date
was gradually spread from people to people over a great part
of the world.
2. Ideas which may very reasonably be supposed to have
been derived from this belief were known already in the bronze
age in the ancient civilized countries at the eastern end of the
Mediterranean.
3. The primitive nature of the idea in itself denotes
its issue from a conception of nature and of religion which
belongs to an early stage of human development; further,
among the special features attaching to it there are ideas
which are characteristic of primitive religion—that of the taboo,
for instance, of which evident traces have been found in the
traditions of various peoples.
4. The implements of the stone age and their use offer
a very natural explanation of the origin of the belief, whereas
in the later stages of human progress such conditions do not
hold good.