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 flanged celt with a slight stop-ridge, having the sides ornamented
with a cable pattern and the faces with rows of triangles alternately
hatched and plain, is shown in Fig. 24. The original was found near
Perth,[234] and is in the collection of the Rev. James Beck, F.S.A.
A celt with five hatched bands surmounted by triangles, and with the
sides cable moulded, though found in Denmark,[235] much resembles this
Scottish specimen and some of those from Ireland. Another with similar
sides, but with the lower part of the faces ornamented with narrow
vertical grooves, was found at Applegarth,[236] Dumfriesshire, and is
now in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh. It is represented in Fig.
25.
Another decorated celt of the same character, though with different
ornamentation, is shown in Fig. 26. The curved hands on the faces
are formed of lines with dots between, and the sides have a kind
of fern-leaf pattern upon them, like that on the winged celt from
Trillick, Fig. 98. The original was found at Dams, Balbirnie,[237]
Fifeshire.
[Illustration: Fig. 26.—Dams. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 27.—Ballinamallard. ½]
A very large number of flat celts of the simplest form have been
found in Ireland. So numerous are they that it would only encumber
these pages were I to attempt to give a detailed account of all the
varieties, and of all the localities at which they have been found.
Sir William Wilde, in his most valuable “Catalogue of the Museum of
the Royal Irish Academy,” has placed on record a large amount of
information upon this subject, from which some of the facts hereafter
mentioned are borrowed, and to which the reader is referred for farther
information. Some of those of the rudest manufacture are formed “of
red, almost unalloyed copper.”[238] These vary in length from about 2½
inches to 6½ inches, and are never ornamented.
In Fig. 27 is shown a small example of a celt apparently of pure
copper, which was found at Ballinamallard, Co. Fermanagh, and was
kindly added to my collection by the Earl of Enniskillen. I have
another, more like Fig. 28, from Ballybawn, Co. Cork, presented to me
by Mr. Robert Day, F.S.A.
A small celt of this character, from King’s County, now in the British
Museum, is only 2⅛ inches in length.
Fig. 28 shows a very common form of Irish celt, in this instance made
of bronze. The instruments of this type are in general nearly flat,
and without any marked central ridge, such as is to be observed more
frequently on the longer and narrower form, of which a remarkably
small specimen from the collection of Mr. R. Day, F.S.A., is shown in
Fig. 29.
[Illustration: Fig. 28.—North of Ireland. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 29.—Ireland. ½]
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