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
These tools or weapons—for, like the American tomahawk, they seem
to have been in use for peaceful as well as warlike purposes—may be
divided into several classes. Celts may be described as flat; flanged,
or having ribs along the sides; winged, or having the side flanges
extended so as almost to form a socket for the handle on either side of
the blade, to which variety the name of palstave has been given; and
socketed. Of most of these classes there are several varieties, as will
be seen farther on.
The name of celt which has been given to these instruments is derived
from the doubtful Latin word “celtis” or “celtes,” a chisel, which is
in its turn said to be derived _à cœlando_ (from carving), and to be
the equivalent of _cœlum_.
The only author in whose works the word is found is St. Jerome, and it
is employed both in his Vulgate translation of the Book of Job[105] and
in a quotation from that book in his Epistle to Pammachius. The word
also occurs in an inscription recorded by Gruter and Aldus,[106] but as
this inscription is a modern forgery, it does not add to the authority
of the word “celtis.”
Mr. Knight Watson, Sec. S. A., in an interesting paper communicated to
the Society of Antiquaries of London,[107] has given several details
as to the origin and use of this word, which he considers to have
been founded on a misreading of the word _certe_, and the derivation
of which from _cœlo_ he regards as impossible. There can be no doubt,
as Beger pointed out two centuries ago, that a number of MSS. of the
Vulgate read _certe_ instead of _celte_ in the passage in Job already
mentioned, and that in all probability these are the most ancient and
the best. But this only adds to the difficulty of understanding how a
recently invented and an unknown word, such as _celte_ is presumed to
be, can have ever supplanted a well-known word like _certe_; and so
far as the Burial Service of the Roman Catholic Church is concerned
can have maintained its ground for centuries. Nor is this difficulty
diminished when we consider that the ordinary and proper translation of
the Hebrew לֹער is either “in æternum” or “in testimonium,” according
as the word is pointed לָעַר or לְעֵר, and that, so far as I am aware,
there is no other instance of its being translated “_certe_.” On the
other hand, a nearly similar word, פְעֵס “with a stylus,” or, as it is
translated, “a pen,” occurs in the same passage; and assuming that this
was by some accident read for לער by St. Jerome, he would have thought
that the word for stylus was used twice over, and have inserted some
word to designate a graving tool, by way of a synonym. The probability
of such an error would be increased if his MS. had the lines arranged
in couplets in accordance with its poetical character, the passage
standing thus when un-pointed:—
עפרתו ברול בעס
יתצבון בַצזר לער
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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