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
A spear-head (6½ inches) in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh, found
near Forfar, is ornamented with two bands of three parallel lines
round the socket.
The sockets of some Irish spear-heads are highly decorated. That of
a long leaf-shaped specimen from Athenry, Co. Galway, is shown in
Fig. 393, kindly lent me by the Royal Irish Academy. It is Fig. 382
in Wilde’s Catalogue, in which also some other examples are engraved.
The chevron ornament and the alternate direction of the hatching are
highly characteristic of the style of the Bronze Period.
A similar decoration is found on English specimens. One found at
Bilton, Yorkshire,[1221] with other spear-heads, fragments of swords,
and socketed celts, has round the socket three bands of triangles
alternately hatched and plain, and the blade is ornamented with a
single row of the same kind on each side of the central rib. One from
Edington Burtle, Somerset (4½ inches), in the Taunton Museum, has a
band of hatched triangles above three bands of parallel lines with
transverse lines between.
A broken spear-head from the Broadward[1222] find has the blade
ornamented in the same way. A row of plain triangles is left on each
side of the midrib, while the rest of the blade is hatched, the set
of parallel lines in each point between the plain triangles being
alternately to the right and to the left.
A fragment of a blade from the Haynes Hill hoard,[1223] Kent, has ring
ornaments engraved along each side of the midrib.
As has already been observed, the edges of this class of spear-heads
are not unfrequently fluted, but it occasionally happens that the
whole blade is ornamented by minute ribs and flutings. The spear-head
(10½ inches) found with two swords and two ferrules at Fulbourn,
Cambridge,[1224] affords an example of this kind. On each side of the
central rib containing the socket are two sharp ridges one below the
other, next comes a hollow fluting, then a ridge, and then the fluting
which forms the edge. To judge from the engraving, another found at
Gringley, Nottinghamshire,[1225] must also have been fluted in a
somewhat similar manner.
[Illustration: Fig. 394.—Thetford. ½]
The discovery of other leaf-shaped spear-heads with rivet-holes
through the sockets is recorded to have been made at the following
places, and many others might no doubt be added to the list: the
Thames, near Battersea[1226] (16¾ inches); near Wallingford[1227] (7¼
inches); and Kingston[1228] (6½ and 7-6/10 inches); two (7¾ inches
and 6 inches) were found near Toddington, Beds;[1229] at Beacon Hill,
Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire,[1230] two (7½ inches and 6½ inches)
were found with a socketed celt and gouge. Others were discovered near
Yarlet, Staffordshire;[1231] near Alnwick Castle[1232] (sixteen with
celts and swords); Vronheulog, Merionethshire;[1233] and Longy Common,
Alderney[1234] (one with blade ornamented).
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