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
The remarkable sword with a somewhat analogous termination to the
hilt, shown in Fig. 351, was found at Thrunton Farm,[1086] in the
parish of Whittingham, Northumberland, and is in the collection of
Lord Ravensworth. With it was found another sword already mentioned,
a spear-head with lunate openings in the blade (Fig. 418), and some
smaller leaf-shaped spear-heads. They are said to have been all
found sticking in a moss with the points downwards, and arranged in
a circle. The pommel end of the hilt is in this instance a distinct
casting, and is very remarkable on account of the two curved horns
extending from it, which are somewhat trumpet-mouthed, with a
projecting cone in the centre of each.
In Scotland a number of bronze swords have been found which bear, as
might have been anticipated, a close resemblance to those from England.
That shown in Fig. 352 was found in a moss at Leuchland, Brechin, in
Angus, and is now in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S. Its
length is 26½ inches, and the six rivets for attaching the hilt are
still in the hilt-plate, which is doubly hooked at the end. A rib
from the thicker part of the blade is prolonged part of the way down
the hilt-plate as in Fig. 344. Another sword, broken at the hilt, but
still 26¼ inches long, was found on the same farm. A find from Brechin
is mentioned further on. A sword with four rivet-holes, like those
from Arthur’s Seat, found on the borders between England and Scotland,
and engraved by Grose,[1087] has the same peculiar end to the
hilt-plate, as has one with five rivets from Methlick, Aberdeenshire,
now in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh. Grose has also engraved
two, each with six rivet-holes in the wings and two or three in the
hilt-plate, found in Duddingston Loch,[1088] near Edinburgh, as well
as the hilt-plate of another, found near Peebles, with slots in the
wings and a slot and rivet-hole in the tang.
Some fragments of swords from this loch are in the Antiquarian Museum
at Edinburgh. Almost directly above Duddingston Loch, on Arthur’s
Seat,[1089] two other swords were found during the construction of the
Queen’s Drive. They are 26¼ inches and 24¼ inches long, in outline
like Fig. 342, with one rivet-hole in each wing and two in the centre
of the hilt-plate.
Two (23⅜ inches and 20½ inches) of the usual character, with
nine rivets and hilts much like Fig. 354, have been found in
Lanarkshire.[1090]
In Gordon’s “Itinerarium Septentrionale”[1091] a sword (24½ inches)
found near Irvine, Argyleshire, is engraved, as is also one (26
inches) found in Graham’s Dyke near Carinn, which is said to be in the
Advocates’ Library at Edinburgh. The figures do not seem accurate, but
show seven rivets in one and three in the other. Gordon makes no doubt
that these swords are Roman.
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