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
Some of them are, however, entirely devoid of ornament, as will be
seen from Fig. 73. This represents a palstave in my own collection
found near Dorchester, Oxfordshire. The loop has unfortunately been
broken off. At the stop the metal is 1¼ inch thick, but the diaphragm
between the two recesses for the haft is only ⅜ inch thick. This
specimen is shorter than usual in the blade, which not improbably has
been considerably worn away by use.
A somewhat larger instrument, but of precisely the same type, found
at Ramsbury,[308] Wilts, is engraved in the Salisbury volume of the
Archæological Institute. The Rev. James Beck, F.S.A., has one (6¼
inches) of narrower proportions, found at Pulborough,[309] Sussex. I
have seen another from near Wallingford, Berks. Stukeley has engraved
a somewhat similar palstave found near Windsor.[310]
[Illustration: Fig. 73.—Dorchester. ½]
In some the bottom of the recesses, instead of being square, is
rounded more or less like Fig. 52, and there is a projecting bead
round its margin. I have a narrow specimen of this kind 5⅝ inches
long and 1⅛ inch broad at the edge, found in the neighbourhood of
Dorchester, Oxon.
A number of palstaves of this kind were discovered in 1861 at
Wilmington,[311] Sussex, in company with socketed celts, fragments of
two daggers, and a mould for socketed celts. The whole of these are
now in the Lewes Museum.
In the hoard found near Guilsfield,[312] Montgomeryshire, were some
instruments of this kind, associated with socketed celts, gouges,
swords, scabbards, spear-heads, &c. Others from Stretton,[313]
Staffordshire (5¼ inches), and Lancashire[314] (5½ inches) are
engraved, though badly, in the _Archæologia_. Two others of this
character (5 inches) were found on Hangleton Down,[315] near Brighton,
and another at Glangwnny,[316] near Caernarvon.
I have seen others found at Sutton, near Woodbridge, Suffolk.
A larger example of the same type, found near Wallingford, and
communicated to me by Mr. H. A. Davy, is shown in Fig. 74. In this
the blade is flat and without ornament. The short specimen shown in
Fig. 73 may originally have resembled this; as such instruments must
have been liable to break, and would then have been drawn out and
sharpened in a curtailed condition; or if not broken would become
eventually “stumped up” by wear. In the British Museum and elsewhere
are many palstaves and celts which have been worn almost to the stump
by resharpening.
Nearly thirty palstaves, mostly, I believe, of this type, were found
with about twelve socketed celts, like Fig. 116, and lumps of rough
metal, near Worthing, in 1877. The whole had been packed in an urn, of
coarse earthenware.
Looped palstaves of the type of Fig. 74 are occasionally found in
Ireland. One with a small bead running down the centre of the blade
found in West Meath is engraved in the _Archæologia_.[317]
One from Grenoble,[318] Isère, is engraved by Chantre.
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