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. 37 and 38 are shown two more of these slightly flanged
ornamented celts. The first is in the museum of the Royal Irish
Academy, and has already been figured by Wilde (Fig. 298). The lower
part of the blade is fluted transversely with chevron patterns punched
in along the curved ridges. In the second, which was presented to
me by Dr. Aquilla Smith, M.R.I.A., there is a fairly well defined
though but slightly projecting curved stop-ridge, and the blade is
decorated by boldly punched lines, forming a pattern which a herald
might describe as “per saltire argent and azure.” The cable fluting
on the sides is beautifully regular. The Rev. G. W. Brackenridge,
of Clevedon, possesses a longer specimen (5⅜ inches), found at
Tullygowan, near Gracehill, Co. Antrim, the faces of which are
ornamented with a nearly similar design. Canon Greenwell has another
example found at Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim.
The patterns punched upon the celts of this type show a great
variety of form, and not a little fertility of design in the ancient
artificers.[243] Various combinations of chevron patterns are the
most frequent, though grained surfaces and straight lines like those
on Fig. 17 also frequently occur. Sir William Wilde describes them
as hammered, punched, engraved, or cast. Most of the patterns were,
however, produced by means of punches, though it is possible that in
some instances the other processes may have been used.
[Illustration: Fig. 39.]
[Illustration: Fig. 40.]
[Illustration: Fig. 41.]
[Illustration: Fig. 42.]
[Illustration: Fig. 43.]
Figs. 39 to 43, borrowed from Wilde (Figs. 286 to 290), show some of
the patterns full size. The punch most commonly employed must have
resembled a narrow and blunt chisel; but a kind of centre-punch,
producing a shallow round indentation, was also employed, and possibly
a somewhat curved punch like a blunt gouge. In some cases the lines
between the punched marks are, according to Wilde, engraved. It is,
however, a question whether even the finest lines might not have been
produced by a chisel used after the manner of a punch. What were
probably punches for producing such patterns have been found in some
English hoards, as will subsequently be mentioned; and in the Fonderie
de Larnaud, Jura,[244] was a punch with an engrailed end for producing
a kind of “milled” mark, either in the mould or on the casting.
Another, with concentric circles, seems best adapted for impressing the
loam of the mould.
Some few of the Irish ornamented celts have well-defined stop-ridges
like the English example, Fig. 51; but these will be more in their
place in the following chapter. One or two other forms may, however,
be here mentioned, though they approximate closely to the chisels
described in subsequent pages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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