Now if we examine a large number of swords of these types, we shall find that these butts vary in form, some being convex and others concave. In Plate VI. I have placed them in a series of seven, and it would, perhaps, be possible to sub-divide them more minutely, and to give several variants of most of the types. For reasons, which will, I think, be apparent to anyone consulting the Plate, and which I give more fully below, I believe Type A to be the earliest of the series; Type G, on the other hand, occurs in the famous cemetery at Hallstatt, in the Salzkammergut, and as iron swords and implements were found in most of the graves there, we may consider these bronze swords as belonging to the very last phase of the bronze age in Central Europe. As the butts of the blades show a gradual transition from the form usual in the daggers with riveted handles shown in Plate IV. to the Hallstatt type, we may, I think, feel satisfied that we have placed our series in strict chronological sequence. [Illustration: FIG. 13.--CONVEX AND CONCAVE BUTTS.] A glance at Type A, especially as seen in full length in Plate VII., shows us at once that it is a transitional form, and that it has grown out of an ogival dagger, similar to those given on Plate V. The butt is of the same shape, being a flattened semicircle, with the horizontal radii considerably longer than the vertical. The upper part of the blade, too, is of the same form, and the parallel incised lines are survivals of the grooves already described. These show that the prototype was of ogival shape. In two points only does it differ from the ancestral form: the blade has been lengthened considerably, till its form is of rather an unnatural shape, while at the other end a tang, shaped to fit the hand, and with flanged edges, has been cast in one piece with the blade. Here we have a leaf-shaped sword, it is true, but with the greatest breadth relatively near to the butt, and the tang flanged and with rivet holes to enable the wooden or horn sides to be attached to form the hilt. The section is somewhat rhomboidal.