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 a blade of this class (7 inches), found with burnt bones and
chippings of flint in a barrow at Teddington,[911] the midrib appears
to be formed of three beads.
Another (9 inches) formed part of the Arreton Down[912] find, of which
more will hereafter be said. The blade is ornamented with delicate
flutings and curves, and the midrib ends in a crescented hollow
exactly opposite to the usual notch in the handle. This specimen is
now in the British Museum.
A bronze dagger (6¾ inches) with three rivets, of which the blade
has much suffered from decomposition, was found with a lump of iron
pyrites within an urn in a barrow at Angrowse Mullion,[913] Cornwall.
A dagger blade of nearly the same kind, but with six rivets, found in
a barrow at Carnöel,[914] Finistère, is in the museum at the Hôtel
Cluny, Paris.
I have a dagger (9 inches) much like Fig. 302, only somewhat more
taper, found in the Seine at Paris. It has had three rivet-holes, and
on the blade are two bands of four lines parallel with the edge.
The strengthening of the blade is sometimes effected by forming it
with three or more projecting ribs instead of a single midrib. In
Fig. 304 is shown a dagger blade in my own collection, found not far
from Cambridge. On either side of the central rib and along the outer
margin of the two other ribs are lines of minute punctures by way of
ornament.
A somewhat larger blade (8⅝ inches), from Little Cressingham,[915]
Norfolk, has two deep furrows, one on each side of the broad central
midrib, and beyond these again two lateral ribs. This was secured
to its hilt by six rivets, three on each side. It was found with a
contracted male skeleton, accompanied by a necklace of amber beads and
some articles made of thin gold plate.
A dagger with a central rounded midrib, and apparently two
lateral ribs like those on Fig. 304, was found in a barrow near
Torrington,[916] Devon. It has three rivets, by which it was attached
to a wooden handle, and the blade showed traces of a wooden sheath,
which like the handle had perished.
A very small dagger or knife, with apparently a well-marked central
rib, found near Magherafelt,[917] Co. Londonderry, is shown in Fig.
305. It has a haft of oak attached, which is thought to be original.
Any pins or rivets that may have existed are now lost, and possibly
what were used may have been formed of wood or horn. Some thin wedges
of oak appear to have been used for steadying the blade in the haft,
the upper part of which has somewhat suffered from fire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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