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
The form is much more abundant in Spain, but in most cases both
the blade and the tang are long and narrow in their proportions.
An engraving of one from Andalusia is given in the _Archæological
Journal_,[354] and is here by permission reproduced as Fig. 89. I
have one like it from a mine in the Asturias. One rather broader
from the Sierra de Baza,[355] Andalusia, has also been figured. A
broken and unfinished double-looped palstave from Oviedo, now in the
British Museum, has a cup-shaped projection at the butt end which has
been filled with lead, possibly in old times, but for what purpose
it is impossible to say. An engraving of one much like it has been
published.[356] There are several such in the Museums at Madrid, with
the head of metal left on the castings.
The forms of celts and palstaves treated of in this chapter are found
also in Scotland, though perhaps less frequently than those of the flat
and flanged forms described in the previous chapter.
Many so closely resemble English specimens that it is needless to give
representations of them, as a reference to the figures in the preceding
pages will sufficiently indicate their character.
In the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh is a winged celt 4½ inches long
much like Fig. 56, which was found on the top of a hill called Lord
Arthur’s Cairn, in the parish of Tullynessle,[357] Aberdeenshire.
Another, 6 inches long, with the wings somewhat curved inwards, was
found at Kerswell,[358] in the parish of Carnwath, Lanarkshire.
Another winged celt, 4 inches long, was ploughed up on the estate of
Barcaldine,[359] Argyleshire.
In the same Museum are also winged celts (5 inches) from Birrenswark,
Dumfriesshire, and from the neighbourhood of Peebles, much like that
from Reeth (Fig. 56).
A chisel-shaped celt, in character much like Fig. 55, but having a
slight stop-ridge, was found in Burreldale Moss,[360] Keith Hall,
Aberdeenshire, and has been engraved by the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland, to whom I am indebted for the use of Fig. 90.
In a palstave (6¾ inches) from Kilnotrie,[361] Crossmichael,
Kircudbright, the lateral flanges are continued below the stop-ridge,
and there is a median ridge down the blade.
In some palstaves in the British Museum, found between Balcarry and
Kilfillan, Wigtonshire, the stop-ridges instead of being at right
angles to the face of the blade shelve outwards. One of them is
engraved as Fig. 91. The sides are hammered into V-shaped depressions
forming a kind of fern-leaf pattern along them.
Two of these palstaves are figured on a larger scale in the _Ayr and
Wigton Collections_.[362]
Another palstave from Windshiel, near Dunse, in the Antiquarian Museum
at Edinburgh, has also the flanges somewhat hammered over.
[Illustration: Fig. 90.—Burreldale Moss. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 91.—Balcarry. ½]
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