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
Among nineteen bronze celts discovered about the year 1845 on the
property of Mr. Samuel Ware, F.S.A., at Postlingford Hall,[188] near
Clare, Suffolk, were several of this class, two of which (6½ and 5½
inches), now in the British Museum, are figured in the _Archæologia_.
One of them is ornamented with a chevron pattern, covering the part of
the blade usually decorated, and having vertical lines running through
the centres of the chevrons, and through the junction of their bases.
The other is ornamented with a series of curved parallel lines running
across the blade, as on Fig. 16. They have a slight projection or
ridge at the thickest part of the blade, as have also two that are not
ornamented, which likewise were presented by Mr. Ware to the British
Museum.
Another celt of this kind (4⅞ inches) was found with a bronze
spear-head having loops at the lower part of the blade in the Kilcot
Wood,[189] near Newent, Gloucestershire. The faces are ornamented with
parallel rows of short diagonal lines, bounded at the lower end by a
double series of dots, and a transverse row of diagonal lines.
In the remarkable hoard of bronze instruments discovered on Arreton
Down, in the Isle of Wight, about the year 1735, were, besides the
spear-heads and dagger blades, of which mention will be made in
subsequent chapters, four of these flanged celts. Of these one (6⅞
inches) was ornamented both on the face and sides, but is at present
only known from a drawing in an album belonging to the Society of
Antiquaries.
[Illustration: Fig. 8.—Arreton Down. ½]
The others were plain, and of one of them a woodcut is given in the
_Archæologia_,[190] which by the permission of the Council of the
Society of Antiquaries is here reproduced as Fig. 8. It is 8 inches in
length, and is one of the largest of its class in the British Museum.
As will be seen, the blade itself is of the doubly tapering kind. The
others are 4½ and 4¾ inches long. They are said to have been found
arranged in regular order,[191] and, as Mr. Franks has suggested, may
possibly have been the store deposited by some ancient founder, which
he was unable to reclaim from its hiding-place.
[Illustration: Fig. 9.—Plymstock. ⅔]
[Illustration: Fig. 10.—Plymstock. ⅔]
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