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 Figs. 9 and 10[192] are shown two more of these doubly tapering
flanged celts, which were found in the parish of Plymstock,[193]
Devonshire, about a mile east of Preston. They lay beneath a flat
stone at a depth of about two feet below the surface, together with
fourteen other celts, three daggers, one of which is given as Fig.
301, a spear-head or dagger, shown in Fig. 327, and a narrow chisel
(Fig. 190). All the sixteen celts are of the same general type, but
vary in length from 3¾ inches to 6¾ inches. The extent of the flanges
or wings also varies, and in some they project considerably, and
are brought with great precision to a sharp edge. At the narrow or
butt end, the late Mr. Albert Way, who described the hoard, noticed
a peculiar slight groove extending only as far as the commencement
of the lateral flanges. The character of the groove is shown in the
portion of the side view given with each figure. Mr. Way and Mr.
Franks thought that the narrow end of the celt, when produced from the
mould, had been slightly bifid, and that the little cleft had been
closed by the hammer. My own impression is that these marks are merely
the result of “drawing down” the narrow ends with the hammer after
their sides had been somewhat “upset” or expanded by hammering out the
side flanges.
The sides of some of these celts have been hammered so as to present
three longitudinal facets; others have the sides simply rounded. One
of the most interesting features of this discovery is its analogy
with that already mentioned as having been made at Arreton Down. The
greater number of the objects found at Plymstock were given by the
Duke of Bedford to the British Museum, and the remainder to the Exeter
Museum.
Four or five celts with slight side flanges were found in the
Wiltshire barrows by Sir E. Colt Hoare. The largest of these (6¼
inches long and 2½ inches broad) was found in 1808, in a tumulus
known as the Bush Barrow, near Normanton.[194] The following are the
particulars of this discovery:—On the floor of the barrow was the
skeleton of a tall man lying from south to north. Near his shoulders
lay the celt, which owes its great preservation to having been
inserted in a handle of wood. About eighteen inches south of the head
were several bronze rivets, intermixed with wood and thin pieces of
bronze, which were regarded as the remains of a shield. Near the right
arm were a large dagger of bronze and a spear-head of the same metal,
fully 13 inches long. The handle of this dagger, marvellously inlaid
with pins of gold, will be described in a subsequent chapter. On the
breast of the skeleton was a large lozenge-shaped plate of gold,
ornamented with zigzag and other patterns, and near it were some other
gold ornaments, some bone rings, and an oval perforated stone mace,
the representation of which I have reproduced in my “Ancient Stone
Implements.”
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