The Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments, of Great Britain and Ireland.Evans, John
History
The Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments, of Great Britain and Ireland.
Evans, John
Bronze age -- Great Britain; Bronze age -- Ireland; Great Britain -- Antiquities
In Canon Greenwell’s Collection is an oval blade (4 inches) with a
flat central rib, tapering to a point, running along it. It has no
tang, but there is a rivet-hole through the broad end of the rib. It
was found in an urn with burnt bones at Killyless, Co. Antrim.
The form most commonly known under the name of razor is that shown in
Fig. 269, from a specimen in my own collection, found in the Thames,
with a socketed knife and other objects, near Wallingford. One of
almost identical character was found at Llangwyllog,[776] Anglesea.
[Illustration: Fig. 271.—Dunbar. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 272.—Dunbar. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 273.—Dunbar. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 274.—Ireland. ½]
Another, without midrib, from the Heathery Burn Cave, is, by the
permission of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., shown as Fig. 270.
An example from Wiltshire[777] in the Stourhead Museum (now at
Devizes) is more barbed at the base and rounded at the top, in which
there is neither notch nor perforation.
It is difficult to assign a use for the small hole usually to be seen
in these blades. It may possibly be by way of precaution against the
fissure in the blade extending too far, though in most cases the notch
in the end of the blade does not extend to the hole.
Razors of this character have been discovered in Scotland. Three which
are believed to have been found together in a tumulus at Bowerhouses,
near Dunbar,[778] Haddingtonshire, about 1825, are shown in Figs. 271,
272, and 273. They are all in the Antiquarian Museum, at Edinburgh,
together with a socketed celt found with them.
[Illustration: Fig. 275.—Kinleith. 1/1]
Razors of the class last described have been found in Ireland, and
three are mentioned in Wilde’s Catalogue[779] of the Museum of the
Royal Irish Academy, to the Council of which body I am indebted
for the use of Fig. 274. The midrib of the specimen here shown is
decorated with ring ornaments formed of incised concentric circles, an
ornament of frequent use in early times, though but rarely occurring
on objects of bronze in Britain. There is a large razor of this kind
in the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin. Several unornamented blades
of this character were present in the Dowris hoard. Two which were
found in a crannoge[780] in the county of Monaghan were regarded as
bifid arrow-heads. One of these (2⅝ inches) is in the British Museum.
A blade of this kind, but with a loop instead of a tang, and a hole at
the base of the blade as well as one near the bottom at the notch, was
found at Deurne,[781] Guelderland, and is in the Leyden Museum.
The only remaining form of razor which has to be noticed is that of
which a representation is given of the actual size in Fig. 275.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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