WINGED CELTS AND PALSTAVES.
TO any one who has examined an extensive collection of the bronze
instruments found in this country it will at once be apparent that in
the class of celts designed to be fixed in some sort of haft, and not
themselves socketed for the reception of a handle, there is a wide
range of form. Any attempt, however, to divide them into well-marked
classes is soon seen to be futile, as there is found to be a gradual
transition from what at first sight appears to be a well-marked
form into some other which presents different characteristics. If,
for instance, we take the side flanges as a criterion, we find them
ranging from a mere thickening on the margins of the flat celts to
well-developed flanges, extending along nearly the whole blade; we
then find them confined to the upper part of the instrument, and in
some cases of great lateral extent, so as to be capable of being
hammered over to form a kind of semicircular socket on each side of
the blade. In other cases we find that the flanges have some part of
their apparent projection due to a diminution in the thickness of
the portion of the blade which lies between them. If we take as a
criterion the stop-ridge, as it has been termed, a projecting ridge
for the purpose of preventing the blade being driven too far into its
wooden handle, we find the ridge in a rudimentary form in the blades
which taper both ways; next as a slightly raised ridge or bead running
across the blade; then as a better-defined ridge, to which, at last,
greater development is given by a reduction in the thickness of the
blade above it. The presence or absence of a loop at the side is, no
doubt, a good differentiation, but as this is a mere minor accessory,
and two celts may be identical in other respects with the exception
of one being provided with a loop and the other being without it, it
does not materially assist in the classification of this group of
instruments, although for convenience’s sake it is best to treat of
the two varieties of form separately. An additional reason for this
may be found in the possibility that the loop was a comparatively
late invention, so that the palstaves provided with it may be in some
cases of later date than those without it, though the identity in the
ornamentation of some of the instruments of the two classes, and the
fact of their being occasionally found together, are almost conclusive
as to their contemporaneity.
[Illustration: Fig. 48. Fig. 49. Icelandic “Palstaves.”]
In the present chapter I propose to treat of the celts with a
stop-ridge, of the winged celts, and of those of the palstave form.
The winged celts may be generally described as those in which the
flanges are short and have a great amount of lateral extension. When
these wings are hammered over so as to form a kind of socket on each
side of the blade, one of the varieties of the palstave form is the
result. The other and more common variety of the palstave form has the
portion of the blade which lies between the wings or side flanges and
above the stop-ridge cast thinner than the rest of the blade, thus
leaving a recess or groove on each side into which the handle fitted.
I have already made frequent use of the term palstave, and it will
be well here to make a few remarks as to the origin and meaning of
the word. The term palstave, or more properly paalstab, comes to us
from the Scandinavian antiquaries. Their reason for adopting the term
was that there is still in use in Iceland a kind of narrow spade or
spud, which is known by the name of paalstab, and which somewhat
resembles these bronze instruments. Woodcuts of two of these Icelandic
palstaves are given in the _Archæological Journal_,[247] from drawings
communicated to Mr. Yates by Councillor Thomsen, of Copenhagen. They
are here by permission reproduced. The derivation of the term suggested
in a note to the Journal is that _paal_ comes from the Icelandic verb
_pula_, or _pala_, to labour, so that the word means the “labouring
staff.” But this appears to me erroneous. _Pul_, indeed, signifies
hard, laborious work; but _pæli_ (_at pæla_) means to dig, and _pall_
(_conf._ Latin _pala_ and French _pelle_) means a kind of spade or
shovel. The word, indeed, survives in the English language as _peel_,
the name of a kind of wooden shovel used by bakers for placing loaves
in the oven. The meaning of the term would appear, then, to be rather
“spade staff” than “labouring staff,” unless the word labouring be used
in the sense of the French _labourer_.
Mr. Thoms, in a note to his “Translation of Worsaae’s Primeval
Antiquities of Denmark,”[248] says that the “term Paalstab was formerly
applied in Scandinavia and Iceland to a weapon used for battering the
shields of the enemy, as is shewn by passages in the Sagas. Although
not strictly applicable to the (bronze) instruments in question, this
designation is now so generally used by the antiquaries of Scandinavia
and Germany, that it seems desirable, with the view of securing a
fixed terminology, that it should be introduced into the archæology
of England.” The term had already been used in 1848 in the “Guide to
Northern Archæology,”[249] edited by the Earl of Ellesmere, and has
now, like celt, become adopted into the English language.
I have not been able to refer to the passage in the Sagas mentioned as
above by Mr. Thoms, but whatever may be the original meaning of the
word palstave, it is applied by northern antiquaries to all the forms
of celts with the exception of those of the socketed type.[250]
Among English antiquaries it has, I think, been used in a more
restricted sense. Professor Daniel Wilson[251] defines palstaves
as “wedges, more or less axe-shaped, having a groove on each side
terminating in a stop-ridge, and with lateral flanges destined to
secure a hold on the handle. The typical example, however, which he
engraves has neither groove nor stop-ridge, but is what I should term a
winged celt, like Fig. 56.
In the present work I propose confining the term palstave to the two
varieties of form already mentioned; viz. the winged celts which have
their wings hammered over so as to form what may be termed external
sockets to the blade; and those with the portion of the blade which
lies between the side flanges and above the stop thinner than that
which is below.
The first form, however, of which I have to treat is that of the celts
provided with a stop-ridge on each face. These are almost always
flanged celts.
A fine specimen, with the stop-ridge consisting of a straight narrow
raised band across each face, and with a second curved band at
some distance below, is shown in Fig. 50. It was found at Wigton,
Cumberland, and is in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S. The
face between the two bands has a grained appearance given it by
hammering. The wings or side flanges are also faceted by the same
process. In the same collection is another blade (5¾ inches) of this
form, with a small stop-ridge, and having the lower part ornamented
with vertical punched lines. The sides have three facets, that in the
centre ornamented in a similar manner. This celt was found at Rougham,
Norfolk. I have a sketch of another (6¼ inches) found near Longtown,
Cumberland, in 1860.
[Illustration: Fig. 50.—Wigton. ½]
I have a nearly similar specimen, but only 4⅞ inches long, from
Stanton, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. Another (5¾ inches) with
only a slight stop-ridge was found at Aynhoe,[252] Northamptonshire,
and is in the collection of Sir Henry Dryden. Fig. 51 shows a
beautifully wrought and highly decorated flanged celt, provided with a
somewhat curved stop-ridge connecting the two flanges. The two faces
of the celt are ornamented with an interlaced pattern produced by
narrow dents, with a border of chevrons along each margin punched into
the metal. The flanges are worked into three facets ornamented with
diagonal grooves, and the lower side of the stop-ridge has a moulding
worked on it. This fine example of an ornamented celt was found near
Chollerford Bridge, Northumberland, and is in the collection of Canon
Greenwell, F.R.S.
[Illustration: Fig. 51.—Chollerford Bridge. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 52.—Chatham. ½]
A somewhat similar but unornamented variety of instrument, partaking
more of the palstave character, is shown in Fig. 52. The original
was found in excavations at Chatham Dockyard, and is now in the
British Museum. As will be seen, the recess for the haft ends in a
semicircular stop-ridge.
In Fig. 53 is shown a winged celt without stop-ridge found in
Burwell Fen, Cambridgeshire, and now in my own collection. The side
flanges or wings have been hammered into three facets, and are well
developed. The form of the blade is otherwise that of a flat celt,
except that there is a slight irregularity in the sweep of the sides,
which results from the hammering of the flanges. The form occurs
occasionally in Ireland, and one (4¼ inches) is figured by Wilde.[253]
Winged celts of nearly the same form, but provided with a stop-ridge,
are occasionally found. One of these in the British Museum, found at
Bucknell, Herefordshire, is shown in Fig. 54. The blade below the
stop-ridge is 9/16 inch thick; above it only ⅜ inch. A celt of much
the same character (7¼ inches), found at Wolvey, Warwickshire, is in
the collection of Mr. M. H. Bloxam, F.S.A.
[Illustration: Fig. 53.—Burwell Fen. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 54.—Bucknell. ½]
The double curvature of the sides may be noticed in the narrow
chisel-like celt shown in Fig. 55. The blade in this instance tapers
both ways from a line just below the wings, but without there being
any actual stop-ridge; a third slope is produced by the lower part of
the blade having been drawn down by hammering to form the edge. The
original was found at Culham, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, and is in my
own collection.
[Illustration: Fig. 55.—Culham. ½]
I have another specimen, 4½ inches long, and half as wide again as the
Culham chisel, which was found near Dorchester, Oxon. The blade at
the lower end of the wings is an inch wide, but in the straight part
between that point and the edge only a little more than ¾ inch wide.
Although these instruments are so narrow that they may be regarded as
chisels rather than axes, yet from their general character so closely
resembling that of Fig. 53, I have thought it best to insert them here.
A Scotch example will be subsequently cited.
Another form of winged celt without stop-ridge is shown in Fig. 56.
In this the blade is flat, and the wings, which form triangular
projections, stand at right angles to it. Had they been hammered
over to form semicircular receptacles on each side of the blade the
instrument would have been more properly described as a palstave. It
was found with others near Reeth, in the North Riding of Yorkshire,
and is in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., where are also
other specimens of this type from Linden, Northumberland (5¼ inches);
Brompton, N.R., Yorkshire (5¼ inches); and Wolsingham, Durham (5⅜
inches).
[Illustration: Fig. 56.—Reeth. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 57.—Dorchester. ½]
Fig. 57 shows a winged celt with a broad low stop-ridge. The part of
the blade above this is about ⅛ inch thinner than the part below, so
that though transitional in character it belongs to one of the classes
to which I would wish to restrict the term palstave. This specimen was
found near Dorchester, Oxfordshire, and is in my own collection.
I have a nearly similar palstave (6 inches long) found in Wicken
Fen, Cambridgeshire. In this the blade below the stop-ridge is ½
inch thick, and above it 5/16 inch. In this as well as in that from
Dorchester the stop-ridge is well below the level of the side flanges.
In one found on Hollingbury Hill,[254] near Brighton, and now in the
British Museum, the stop-ridge is nearly on the same level as the side
flanges. It was found in the year 1825, together with four looped
armillæ, a torque, and three spiral rings, which are said to have been
arranged in a symmetrical manner in a depression dug in the chalk.
Both the torque and the palstave were broken; and it is thought that
this was done intentionally, at the time of the interment.
A similar discovery is recorded as having been made in 1794 on the
Quantock Hills, when two large torques were found, within each of
which was placed a palstave. In this case, however, these instruments
were of the looped kind.
Winged celts of the type of Fig. 57 are of not unfrequent occurrence
in Ireland, though the stop-ridge is usually less fully developed.
[Illustration: Fig. 58.—Colwick. ½]
They also occur in France. One from Jonquières[255] (Oise) has been
figured. I have a good specimen (6¼ inches) from the Seine at Paris.
The wings are rather wider and the stop-ridge better defined than in
the figure. One from Gasny is in the Museum at Evreux.
There are several in the Göttingen Museum, from a hoard found in that
neighbourhood.
Usually the stop-ridge is nearly on the same level as the part of
the side flanges on which it abuts, as will be seen in Fig. 58.
This specimen was found in the gravel of the Trent at Colwick, near
Nottingham, and is in my own collection. The blade immediately below
the stop is fluted, and the bottom of this fluting tapers somewhat
in the contrary direction to the tapering of the blade. The junction
of the fluting and the face produces an elliptic ridge of elegant
outline. The blade is ⅝ inch thick at this ridge, but above the
stop-ridge barely ⅜ inch. It is rather thinner near the stop-ridge
than somewhat higher up, so that the blade would be as it were
dovetailed into the handle, if tightly tied to it. I have specimens of
much the same type from Attleborough, Norfolk (6⅜ inches), Newbury,
Berks (6¾ inches), and Hay, Brecknockshire (7⅛ inches). A curious
variety of this type found at Monach-ty-gwyn,[256] near Aberdovey, has
on the bottom of one of the recesses for the handle a number of sunk
diagonal lines crossing each other so as to form a kind of lattice
pattern. It seems to me that though this cross-hatching occurs on only
one face of the palstave, it was intended rather as a means of giving
it a grip on the handle than as an ornament, for when hafted this part
of the instrument must have been concealed by the wood. Mr. Barnwell,
however, regards it in the light of an ornament.
Plain palstaves of this character are of not unfrequent occurrence in
the North of France. I have one from a hoard found at Bernay, near
Abbeville. With it were palstaves of different varieties, but none
of them provided with loops. The form also occurs occasionally in
Holland.
In the palstave engraved as Fig. 59, the half-oval ornament below the
stop-ridge is preserved, but there is a raised bead round it. There is
also a slight median ridge running down the blade. The joint of the
two moulds in which it was cast can be traced upon the sides of the
instrument, and it appears as if one of the moulds had been somewhat
deeper than the other. The original was found at Barrington, near
Cambridge, and is in my own collection. I have other specimens of the
same type, and of nearly the same size, from Swaffham Fen, Cambridge;
and from Dorchester, Oxfordshire. The semi-elliptical ridge on the
latter is larger and flatter than in that figured. The same is the
case in a large specimen (6½ inches long) from Weston, near Ross, also
in my own collection.
I have seen others from the Fens, near Ely (6½ inches), and from
Mildenhall (6¼ inches), in the collections of Mr. Marshall Fisher, of
Ely, and the Rev. S. Banks, of Cottenham, near Cambridge. Another (5½
inches) from the Carlton Rode find is in the Museum at Norwich.
[Illustration: Fig. 59.—Barrington. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 60.—Harston. ½]
One from North Wales[257] (7¼ inches), in an unfinished state, is
in the British Museum. Another (6⅜ inches) from Llanfyllin,[258]
Montgomeryshire, is also of nearly this type. One from North Tyne (6½
inches), in the Newcastle Museum, has two of the looped ridges one
below the other on each face. In this type and in that subsequently
described the ridge at the sides of the semi-elliptical ornament
sometimes dies into the upper part of the blade. The variety like Fig.
59 is also abundant in the North of France. There were two or three
in the hoard from Bernay, near Abbeville, and I have one from the
neighbourhood of Lille.
In Fig. 60 the same general type is preserved, but there is a
vertical rib running down the middle of the semi-elliptical ornament
below the stop; and the median ridge along the upper part of the
blade is more fully developed. In this specimen, which is in my own
collection, and was found at Harston, near Cambridge, there is an
attempt at ornamentation along the sides, the angles of the blade
having been hammered in such a manner as to produce a series of small
pointed oval facets along them.
I have other specimens of the same type, but without the ornamentation
on the sides, from Burwell, Quy, and Reach Fens, near Cambridge, 6
inches, 5⅞ inches, and 6¾ inches long respectively. In that from
Burwell there is no median ridge below the ornament. Canon Greenwell
has one which was found with three others, one of them with a loop,
near Wantage, Berks.
[Illustration: Fig. 61.—Shippey. ½]
A rather peculiar variety of this type (6¾ inches), found in
Anglesea,[259] has been figured, as well as another from Pendinas
Hill,[260] near Aberystwith.
In palstaves of this class there is often a slight projection on each
of the sides a little below the level of the stop-ridge. Below this
projection the sides are usually more carefully hammered and planished
than above it.
In a narrow palstave of this class, found at Freeland, near Witney,
Oxfordshire, there are three short ridges at the bottom of each of
the recesses for the handle, like those in a palstave from Newbury,
subsequently described. These were probably designed to assist in
steadying the handle.
A palstave (7¼ inches) from Cynwyd,[261] Merionethshire, appears to be
of this type.
An instrument of this type from Les Andelys[262] (Eure) has been
figured. Another, with the vertical rib in the shield, from a hoard
found in Normandy, has been engraved by the Abbé Cochet.[263] Some
from the Bernay hoard have a similar ornament.
On some palstaves of this class there is a series of vertical ribs
within the semi-elliptical loop, as will be seen in Fig. 61. This is
taken from a specimen found at Shippey, near Ely, which is in the
collection of Mr. Marshall Fisher of Ely, who has kindly allowed me to
engrave it. I have one from Bottisham, near Cambridge (6¾ inches), on
which there is a smaller vertical ridge, on each side of the central
ridge, within the ornament. One from Snettisham, Norfolk (6⅛ inches),
like that from Shippey, is in the Norwich Museum. Another from
Lakenheath, Suffolk (5¾ inches), is in the collection of Mr. James
Carter of Cambridge.
A palstave with this ornament is in the Museum at Soissons.
The type is also found in Northern Germany.[264]
In some cases these vertical lines below the stop-ridge are not
enclosed in any loop. In Fig. 62 is shown an example of the kind from
a specimen in my own collection found in the Severn, near Wainlodes
Hill, Gloucester. It has a slight rib down the middle of the blade.
One of the same class (6¼ inches), with four vertical stripes, found
on Clayton Hill, Sussex, is in the collection of Mrs. Dickinson of
Hurstpierpoint; four others (about 6½ inches long), with five short
vertical ridges, were found with two of the type of Fig. 63 in making
the railway near Bognor, and are now in the Blackmore Museum at
Salisbury.
[Illustration: Fig. 62.—Severn. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 63.—Sunningwell. ½]
Another, apparently of the same type, found near Brighton, is engraved
in the _Sussex Archæological Collections_.[265]
Another variety, having nearly the same general form, but no
elliptical ridge below the stop, is shown in Fig. 63, engraved from a
specimen in my own collection, found at Sunningwell, near Abingdon.
The end of the recess for the handle is somewhat rounded, and there is
a well-marked central rib running down the blade. At the upper part,
near the stop-ridge, there are also slight side flanges. The metal
in the recess for the handle is thinnest near the stop, so as to be
somewhat dovetailing.
This is markedly the case in a fine example of the same type (6½
inches) with the _provenance_ of which I am unacquainted. In another,
also in my own collection, found at Newbury, Berks, the side flanges
of the blade are continued almost down to the edge, and the bottom as
well as the end of the recess for the handle is rounded. Near the end
of the recess are some slight longitudinal ribs, one on one face and
two on the other, perhaps designed to assist in steadying the handle.
The mouldings along the sides of the blade are often much more fully
developed, like those on Fig. 77.
Palstaves of this type have been obtained from the following
localities: from South Cerney,[266] near Cirencester; from the mouth
of the River Wandle,[267] in Surrey, now preserved in the British
Museum; from Bucks[268] (6 inches long), also in the British Museum;
from Chichester;[269] Astley,[270] Worcestershire; Llangwyllog,[271]
Anglesea (6¼ inches); from near Bognor,[272] Billingshurst,[273]
and Iford,[274] Sussex; and Lovehayne,[275] near Broad Down, Devon
(5⅛ inches); where several appear to have been found in the rough
state in which they came from the mould. I have an example from the
neighbourhood of Penzance.
One (6¾ inches) found near Ashford, Kent, is in the Mayer Collection
at Liverpool. One of the same kind was found with a hammer, a tanged
chisel, broken spear-heads, and rough metal, in Burgesses’ Meadow,
Oxford. The hoard is now in the Ashmolean Museum. In three palstaves
of this kind found in the parishes of Llandrinio,[276] and Caersws,
Montgomeryshire, and St. Harmon, Radnorshire, there is a hole in
the metal between the two recesses for the handle just above the
stop-ridge. It has been thought by Professor Westwood that these
holes were connected with the manner of fastening the instrument to
its haft, but it appears to me much more likely that they arise from
accidental defects in casting. This is certainly the case with two
specimens of my own, which also have holes through the same part of
the instrument, where the metal is thin.
One (5 inches), rather narrower in the blade than the figure, found
near Longford, Ireland, is in the Blackmore Museum at Salisbury.
Palstaves with a central and two lateral ribs on the blade are of not
unfrequent occurrence on the Continent, especially in the North of
France. I have examples much like the figure found in the hoard at
Bernay, near Abbeville. Others, much narrower in the blade, have been
discovered in large numbers in the North-west of France.
German examples have been figured by Lindenschmit.[277]
In another variety the blade is nearly flat, having only a broad
protuberant ridge extending along the upper part to the stop. A
palstave of this kind, found near Winfrith, Weymouth, Dorset, is shown
in Fig. 64. In this, the metal between the side flanges tapers towards
the top of the instrument, instead of being of nearly even thickness,
as is often the case, or thinnest near the stop-ridge, as it is
sometimes. Close to the stop the metal is ½ inch thick, while at the
top of the recess it comes to a nearly sharp edge. A palstave of this
character was found on Kingston Hill,[278] Surrey, near Cæsar’s Camp.
[Illustration: Fig. 64.—Weymouth. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 65.—Burwell Fen. ½]
In a specimen found at Winwick,[279] Lancashire, the blade below the
stop-ridge appears to be nearly flat. A broad flat ring of bronze, 1¾
inch in diameter (Fig. 188), was found at the same time. It has been
thought that this was attached to the shaft to prevent its splitting.
A palstave much like that from Winwick was found at Chagford, Devon,
and is in the possession of Mr. G. W. Ormerod, F.G.S. Another (6½
inches), from Ashford, Kent, is in the Mayer Collection at Liverpool.
Another of these plain palstaves, found near Llanidan,[280] Anglesea,
with one of the looped kind somewhat like Fig. 76, is engraved in the
_Archæologia Cambrensis_.
I have a palstave of nearly the same form, but with a more clearly
defined semi-conical bracket below the stop, which was found at
Masseyck, on the frontiers of Belgium and Holland.
A short and thick form of palstave is shown in Fig. 65, engraved from
a specimen found in Burwell Fen, Cambridge. On one of its faces it
has the semi-elliptical ornament, with one vertical rib in it, below
the stop-ridge. On the other there are five ribs instead of one within
the ornament.
[Illustration: Fig. 66.—East Harnham. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. Fig. 67.—Burwell Fen. ½]
I have another from Bottisham Fen (4⅜ inches), not quite so heavy in
its make, and perfectly flat below the stop-ridge. The ends of the
recess for the handle are somewhat undercut, so as to keep the wood
close to the blade when a blow was struck.
The shortened proportions of these instruments are probably due to
wear. In this instance it is not improbable that the cutting end of
the original palstave has been broken off, and the blunt end that was
left has been again drawn to an edge by hammering.
A form of palstave without any ornament below the stop-ridge is shown
in Fig. 66. This specimen was found in 1846 at East Harnham, near
Salisbury, and is now in my own collection. The thickness of the blade
below the stop is nearly ½ inch, above it but little more than ⅛ inch.
The sides are remarkably flat.
One, only 2½ inches long, merely recessed for the handle, found at
Chatham Hill, Kent, is in the Mayer Collection at Liverpool.
This plain form with a square stop-ridge is found in France and in
Western Germany.
A long chisel-like form of palstave is shown in Fig. 67, engraved
from a specimen in my own collection found in Burwell Fen, Cambridge.
It is ornamented with a semi-elliptical projecting ridge below the
stop. The flanges at the sides of the recess have some notches running
diagonally into them, so as to form a kind of barb, such as would
prevent the blade from being drawn away from the handle when bound to
it by a cord.
[Illustration: Fig. 68.—Thames. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 69.—Stibbard. ½]
I have another nearly similar tool, also from the Cambridge Fens, but
without any barbs. In a third, from the neighbourhood of Dorchester,
Oxon, there are neither barbs at the sides nor any ornament below the
stop-ridge. I have seen another of the same character (4½ inches)
which was found at Wolsonbury, Sussex, and is in the collection of
Mrs. Dickinson. Another (4¾ inches), found in the Thames at Kingston,
Surrey, is in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries. I have seen
another (6⅝ inches), found at Sutton, near Woodbridge, Suffolk, in
which there was a tongue-shaped groove below the stop-ridge, like that
on the socketed celt, Fig. 148, but single instead of double.
The Rev. James Beck, F.S.A.,[281] has a palstave of this kind 6 inches
long and 1¼ inch wide at the edge, with a projecting rib below the
stop-ridge and also in the recess above. It was found at Westburton
Hill, near Bignor, Sussex. There are depressions on each side of the
rib below the stop, forming an ornament like that on Fig. 81.
A narrow palstave, apparently of the same character, found at
Windsor,[282] is engraved by Stukeley.
A very beautiful narrow palstave, found in the Thames, and now in the
collection of General A. Pitt Rivers, F.R.S., is shown in Fig. 68. As
will be seen, the angles are ornamented with a kind of milling, and
the sides are also decorated with zigzag and chevron patterns.
In Fig. 69 is shown an unfinished casting for a palstave of
unusually small size, which formed part of the great hoard found at
Stibbard,[283] Norfolk. About seventy such castings were found, and
about ten castings for spear-heads (see Fig. 407).
[Illustration: Fig. 70. Irthington. ½]
The form of palstave with the side wings or flanges hammered over so
as to form a kind of semicircular socket on either side of the blade,
is of rare occurrence in Britain, and is usually provided with a loop.
In Canon Greenwell’s collection is one (7 inches) without any ornament
below the square stop-ridge, with the side wings slightly hammered
over. It was found with others (with and without loops), together with
a mould for palstaves (Fig. 527), at Hotham Carr, Yorkshire, E. R.
In a hoard of about sixty bronze objects found at Westow,[284] about
twelve miles from York on the Scarborough Road, was one palstave of
this kind, like Fig. 85, but without a loop, and about thirty socketed
celts, six gouges, a socketed chisel, two tanged chisels, and numerous
fragments of metal, including some jets or runners broken off castings.
The type is of common occurrence in Austria, South Germany, and the
South of France.
Palstaves of the adze form, or having the blade at right angles to
the septum between the flanges, are but very seldom found in Britain.
A small specimen from the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., is
shown in Fig. 70. It was found at Irthington, Cumberland.
Another, from North Owersby, Lincolnshire, in the same collection, is
shown in Fig. 71. It has a remarkably narrow chisel-like blade.
Irish examples will be subsequently cited.
I have, in Fig. 72, engraved for comparison a larger specimen in my
own collection, which came from the Valley of the Rhine, near Bonn.
One from Baden[285] is figured by Lindenschmit.
[Illustration: Fig. 71.—North Owersby. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 72.—Bonn. ½]
Others have been found near Landshut,[286] Bavaria, and in the
Rhine district.[287] One with a loop, from Hesse,[288] is engraved
by Lindenschmit. A long and narrow example of this type[289] was
found at Villeder, near Ploërmel, Morbihan, and has been figured
by Simonin. There are specimens in the museums at Rouen and Tours.
Some have a loop on one face. A specimen from Escoville is in the
museum at Caen. Several with and without loops have been found in the
Swiss lake-dwellings,[290] the type being termed the Hache Troyon by
Desor.[291]
A beautiful palstave of the same character is preserved in the Antiken
Cabinet at Vienna. Its sides are ornamented with four small sets of
concentric circles and a pattern of dotted lines, punched in after the
instrument was fashioned. The form has also been found in Italy.[292]
Palstaves without loops, but of which no detailed description is
given, are recorded to have been found at the following places:—The
Thames,[293] near Kingston; Drewsteignton,[294] Devonshire; Cundall
Manor,[295] North Riding, Yorkshire; Aspatria,[296] Cumberland; Ackers
Common,[297] near Warrington, Lancashire; Bushbury,[298] Brewood,
Handsworth, and a barrow on Morridge, Staffordshire; near Llanvair
Station,[299] Rhos-y-gad, Anglesea.
Palstaves of which it is not specified whether they were provided with
a loop or no, have been found in the Thames,[300] near London; the old
River, Sleaford,[301] Lincolnshire; Canada Wharf,[302] Rotherhithe;
Wolvey,[303] Warwickshire; and near Corbridge,[304] Glamorganshire (?).
Plain palstaves without loops have frequently occurred with other
forms of instruments in hoards of bronze objects. The following
instances may be cited. Several were found with unfinished socketed
celts, fragments of swords and spears, a socketed chisel, and lumps
of metal, at Romford,[305] Essex. At Nettleham,[306] near Lincoln,
one was found with looped palstaves, socketed celts, spear-heads, and
a tube, most of which will be mentioned in subsequent pages. In the
hoard at Battlefield,[307] near Shrewsbury, a palstave without loop,
a flat wedge-shaped celt, and three curious curved objects were found
together. Other instances are given in Chapter XXII.
The palstaves which are provided with a loop on one side present
as many varieties as those without the loop. The same character of
ornamentation occurs on the instruments of both classes. Indeed, for
some length of time both forms appear to have been contemporaneous and
in use together.
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.
[Illustration: Fig. 74.—Wallingford. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 75.—Stanton Harcourt. ½]
Some palstaves of much the same general character have a median ridge,
occasionally almost amounting to a rib, running down the blade below
the stop. One of this kind from Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, is
shown in Fig. 75. On the face of the recess there are some slightly
raised ribs running down to the stop, which are not shown in the cut.
Two (6¾ inches) were found near Bolton Percy, Yorkshire, one of which
is in Canon Greenwell’s collection, and the other in the British
Museum.
Mr. John Brent, F.S.A., has an example of nearly the same type from
Blean, near Canterbury. Another from Buckland, near Dover (6¼ inches),
is in the Mayer Collection at Liverpool. One from Ombersley,[319]
Worcestershire, appears to be of the same kind. I have also a large
specimen (6⅞ inches) from Bottisham, Cambridge.
In the palstave engraved as Fig. 76, the central rib down the
blade is much more fully developed. It was found at Brassington,
near Wirksworth, Derbyshire, and is in my own collection. It is
considerably undercut at the stop, so as to keep the handle pressed
against the central diaphragm of metal.
A palstave of the same character from Llanidan,[320] Anglesea, has
been figured. It is said to have been found with another without a
loop. Another from Boston,[321] Lincolnshire, is engraved in the
_Archæologia_. Others with the ribs very distinct were found in a
hoard at Wallington, Northumberland, and are in the possession of Sir
Charles Trevelyan.
I have seen others of the same general character which were found
at Downton, near Salisbury (5¾ inches), and at Aston le Walls,
Northamptonshire.
One with a narrower and more distinct midrib, found at Nymegen,
Guelderland, Holland, is in the museum at Leyden.
[Illustration: Fig. 76.—Brassington. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 77.—Bath. ½]
In Fig. 77 is shown another variety which has two beads running down
the sides of the blade, in addition to the central rib. I bought
this specimen at Bath, but I do not know where it was discovered.
It is much like one which was found on the Quantock Hills,[322]
in Somersetshire, and is engraved in the _Archæologia_. The side
flanges are, however, in that case more lozenge-shaped, and project
to obtuse points about half an inch above the stop. Two palstaves
and two torques were on that occasion found buried together, as has
already been mentioned. One of the same type (5¾ inches) from Elsham,
Lincolnshire, is in the British Museum.
One of narrower form (6⅛ inches) but of the same character, found
with socketed celts (some of them octagonal at the neck) at Haxey,
Lincolnshire, is in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S.
I have another of the same type, but imperfect, which was found with a
plain bronze bracelet, and what from the description must have been a
small ribbon-like gold torque, at Winterhay Green, near Ilminster. I
have a smaller specimen (5 inches) from the Cambridge Fens.
The unfinished casting for a palstave of the type Fig. 77 (5½ inches)
was found with four looped palstaves, and one without a loop, and a
spear-head like Fig. 409 at Sherford,[323] near Taunton, in 1879. Some
of the palstaves have a raised inverted chevron below the stop-ridge
by way of ornament.
Palstaves of the same character, but without the loop, have already
been described under Fig. 63. The looped type, like Fig. 77, occurs
also in Ireland.[324]
In the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of London is a heavy
narrow looped palstave (8 inches by 2 inches) with this ornamentation,
found in Spain.
[Illustration: Fig. 78.—Oldbury Hill. ½]
The central rib running down the blade is in many cases connected with
some ornament below the stop-ridge. The ornament consists usually of
raised ribs, either straight and converging, as on Fig. 78, or curved
so as to form a semi-elliptical or shield-shaped loop, as on Fig. 79.
The original of Fig. 78 was found on Oldbury Hill, Much Marcle,
Herefordshire, and is in my own collection. I have a smaller example
of the same type (5⅜ inches) found at Hammerton, Huntingdonshire, as
well as one from the Cambridge Fens (6 inches).
One (6¾ inches) found at Danesfield,[325] near Bangor, has been
figured. I have seen one found near Chelmsford (6¾ inches) with much
the same ornament. One (6¼ inches) in the Museum of the Society of
Antiquaries, found in Northamptonshire, has the middle rib large, and
the converging ribs much slighter. There are some which have only a
slight central ridge on the blade, and are ornamented with an indented
chevron below the stop-ridge. I have one such from the Cambridge Fens,
and I have seen one (6½ inches) which was found at Broomswell, near
Woodbridge, Suffolk.
A palstave of this character 6 inches long, found near the Upper
Woodhouse Farm, Knighton, Radnorshire, is engraved in the _Archæologia
Cambrensis_.[326] The loop, owing to a defect in casting, is filled
with metal. Six others (6 inches long), apparently of the same
character, were found with some rough castings of flanged celts at
Rhosnesney,[327] near Wrexham.
Two others (6 inches) were found with a chisel and a spear-head, like
Fig. 407, at Broxton, Cheshire, and are in the collection of Sir P. de
M. Grey Egerton, Bart.
The type is found upon the continent. One from Normandy[328] has been
engraved by the Abbé Cochet. I have an example from the neighbourhood
of Abbeville.
One from near Giessen, in the museum at Darmstadt, is figured by
Lindenschmit.[329]
[Illustration: Fig. 79.—Ross. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 80.—Honington. ½]
That with the shield-shaped ornament below the stop-ridge, shown in
Fig. 79, is in my own collection, and was found near Ross. The central
rib runs only part of the way up the shield. In a specimen from the
Cambridge Fens (5⅝ inches) it stops short on joining the ridge forming
the shield.
In others it forms a heraldic pale running through the shield, as in
five found at Waldron,[330] Sussex.
A smaller variety, in which the vertical rib does not extend into the
shield, is shown in Fig. 80. This specimen was found at Honington,
Suffolk.
In some the shield-shaped ornament consists of merely two triangular
depressions. A palstave of this class, rather narrow at the
stop-ridge, and with almost triangular blade, is shown in Fig. 81.
The original, which is of more yellow metal than ordinary, was found
in the neighbourhood of Ely, and is in the collection of Mr. Marshall
Fisher, who has kindly allowed me to figure it. In one such from
Downton, near Salisbury, in the Blackmore Museum, the faces of the
diaphragm between the recesses for the handle have raised ridges or
ribs running along nearly the whole length, five on one face and six
on the other. These are longer than in the Nottingham specimen shortly
to be mentioned.
In one found at Hotham Carr (5¾ inches), Yorkshire, and now in Canon
Greenwell’s collection, there is a bead running down the blade between
the two depressions.
[Illustration: Fig. 81.—Ely. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 82.—Bottisham. ½]
This shield-shaped ornament below the stop-ridge is well shown in a
palstave from Bottisham Lode, Cambridge, engraved as Fig. 82. What may
be called the field of the shield is on one face nearly flat; on the
other there are indentations on either side of the central ridge. As
will be seen, the extremities of the cutting edge are recurved, both
in this and the specimen from Ross shown in Fig. 79. It does not,
however, appear that the instruments were originally cast in this
form, but the wide segmental edge, together with the recurved ends,
seem to be the result of a constant hammering out of the blade, in
order to renew or harden the edge. Though the hammer was thus freely
used, the whetstone was employed both to polish the sides of the blade
and to perfect the cutting edge.
I have a French palstave found near Abbeville, almost identical with
this in size and form. The shield ornament is, however, replaced by
two triangular depressions with a rib left between them, like that on
Fig. 81.
In some specimens the ornamentation consists of a greater or less
number of parallel ribs below the stop-ridge, as in that from
Nettleham,[331] Lincolnshire, shown in Fig. 83. With this were found
two others and a fourth without loop, two peculiar socketed celts,
two spear-heads, and a ferrule, which will be subsequently mentioned.
They are now in the British Museum.
A nearly similar discovery was made in 1860 near Nottingham,[332]
where a palstave was found similarly ornamented, but also having three
ribs on the diaphragm above the stop-ridge. It was accompanied by
sixteen socketed celts, four spear-heads, a tanged knife, fragments of
swords, a ferrule, &c.
In Mr. Brackstone’s collection was a palstave of the same type, found
near Ulleskelf,[333] Yorkshire, in 1849, with two socketed celts, one
of them of the peculiar type shown in Fig. 158.
[Illustration: Fig. 83.—Nettleham. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 84.—Cambridge. ½]
I have a palstave found near Dorchester, Oxfordshire, of the same kind
as Fig. 83, with three ribs below the stop-ridge. There are also side
flanges at that part of the blade of the same length and character as
the ribs in the middle of the blade, so as virtually to make five ribs.
Canon Greenwell has specimens of this type (6⅛ inches) from
Llandysilio, Denbighshire, and (6 inches) from Ubbeston, Suffolk. One
(6¼ inches) from Keswick, Cumberland, in the same collection has the
ribs 1¾ inches long. Another (6⅜ inches) was found at Vronheulog,[334]
Merionethshire.
I have a very fine and perfect specimen (6¾ inches) from the Cambridge
Fens, on which the three ribs stand out in high relief and converge so
as to form a triangle below the stop-ridge something like that on Fig.
78.
A palstave, having a series of ribs upon the diaphragm as well as
below the stop-ridge, is shown in Fig. 84. In this instance the upper
series of ribs extends nearly to the top of the instrument. It was
probably thought that they assisted in making the haft firm to the
blade. This specimen, which has been much cleaned, is in the British
Museum, and as it formed part of the late Mr. Lichfield’s collection
it was probably found in the neighbourhood of Cambridge.
[Illustration: Fig. 85.—Carlton Rode. ½]
The form of palstave, so common in France and Germany, without
stop-ridge, and with the side wings hammered over so as to form a kind
of semi-cylindrical socket on either side of the blade, is rare in
England. A specimen from the great find of Carlton Rode,[335] Norfolk,
is shown in Fig. 85. There is usually at the top of the blade a sort
of dovetailed notch, which may possibly have been made of service in
hafting the tool. It originates, however, in there having been two
runners by which the metal was conducted into the mould, which when
broken off left two projections at the top of the blade. These being
hammered so as to round the external angles and flatten the ends have
come over towards each other, and made what was a notch with parallel
sides into one which is dovetailed.
In this hoard were found numerous socketed celts, gouges, chisels,
hammers, pieces of metal, &c. It seems to have been the stock in trade
of a bronze-founder. Some other specimens from the same hoard will
subsequently be described.
Another palstave of the same character was found, with many socketed
celts, fragments of swords and daggers, and rough metal, at
Cumberlow,[336] near Baldock, Herts.
Three others were found in 1806, with two socketed celts, a fragment
of a sword, three lumps of raw copper, and four gold armlets, on the
beach near Eastbourne,[337] immediately under Beachy Head. They passed
with the Payne Knight collection into the British Museum.
That found “in an old wall, in Purbeck,”[338] with the socket
“_double_ or _divided by a partition_,” as described by Mr. Hutchins
in a letter to Bishop Lyttelton in 1768, must probably have been of
this kind.
A good specimen of the same character but bent (5⅜ inches), as well
as part of another, was found at Wickham Park, Croydon, together with
several socketed celts. They are now in the British Museum.
The upper part of a palstave of this character was found with socketed
celts, gouges, &c., in the Hundred of Hoo,[339] Kent. It has been
thought that this was cast hollow to receive a central prong, but
the cavity is probably due to defective casting. A broken instrument
of this kind was found with socketed celts and metal on Kenidjack
Cliff,[340] Cornwall.
Palstaves of this type, both with and without loops, are much more
abundant on the Continent than in Britain. Numerous examples have been
found in France, in Rhenish Prussia, and in the Lake habitations of
Savoy and Switzerland.
A Danish example is engraved by Worsaae,[341] and several from
Germany[342] by Lindenschmit.
Iron palstaves with and without loops, some of them closely
approximating to the form of Fig. 85, but others more like the ordinary
Italian form of palstave, with a broad chisel-like blade, have been
found in the cemetery of Hallstatt.[343] In a specimen in my own
collection the side flanges are ornamented with transverse ribs,
precisely like those on some of the bronze palstaves from the same
locality. In one instance the upper part with the flanges is of bronze,
and the lower part of the blade of iron or steel.
This form of instrument, with a section in the form of the letter H
above, though easily cast, must have been extremely difficult to forge;
and though we can readily trace its evolution in cast bronze, it so ill
accorded with the necessary conditions for the profitable working of
malleable iron that it seems soon to have disappeared when iron came
into general use. The fact of the form occurring at all in iron shows
that the iron instruments were made in imitation of those in bronze,
and not the bronze in imitation of the iron. The same observation holds
good with the iron socketed celts, spear-heads, and swords from the
same cemetery.
Looped palstaves, without sufficient details being given of
their types, are recorded to have been found in Harewood Square,
London,[344] Oxford,[345] Devonshire,[346] and with socketed celts,
near Kidwelly,[347] Caermarthen.
A looped palstave rather like Fig. 75 is said to have been found in a
barrow near St. Austell,[348] Cornwall, in 1791, but no details are
given.
Palstaves provided with a loop on either side are of rare occurrence
in the British Islands.
A specimen found in 1871 at Penvores,[349] near Mawgan-in-Meneage,
Cornwall, is engraved as Fig. 86. In character it closely resembles
that from Brassington, Fig. 76, the main difference consisting in
its second loop. This specimen, with another from Cornwall and two
from Ireland, was exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries in 1873,
and is now in the British Museum. In the same collection is another,
6½ inches long, somewhat lighter below the stop-ridge, and having
the central rib less fully developed on the blade. It was found in
Somersetshire in 1868, in making the Cheddar Valley line of railway.
Another found in 1842, near South Petherton,[350] in the same county,
is in the possession of Mr. Norris at that place.
[Illustration: Fig. 86.—Penvores. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 87.—West Buckland. ½]
Another example, shown in Fig. 87 was found at West Buckland,[351]
Somersetshire, and is in the collection of Mr. W. A. Sanford. With
it were discovered a torque (Fig. 468,) and a bracelet, (Fig. 481,)
and also some charcoal and burnt bones, but there was no sign of any
tumulus. Irish specimens will be subsequently mentioned.
[Illustration: Fig. 88. Bryn Crûg. ½]
Another two-looped instrument of a different character was found at
Bryn Crûg,[352] near Carnarvon, in company with a tanged knife and a
pin with three holes through its flat head (Fig. 450). It is shown in
Fig. 88, copied on a reduced scale from the _Archæological Journal_.
It resembles a flanged celt except in having that part of the blade
which lies between the side loops raised to the level of the flanges.
In France these double-looped palstaves are of rare occurrence, but I
have seen one much like Fig. 86 which was found in the Department of
Haute Ariège, and is now in the Toulouse Museum. One from Tarbes[353]
was in the Exposition des Sciences Anthropologiques, at Paris in 1878.
Another was found at Langoiran (Gironde).
[Illustration: Fig. 89. Andalusia. ½]
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]
A palstave without loop, and which from the engraving appears to have
a well-marked stop-ridge and to have the side flanges much hammered
over, is said to have been found near Tintot-top,[363] in Clydesdale.
The description, however, says that it has no stop, otherwise the
figure would almost justify an attribution of the instrument to
Southern Germany rather than to Scotland. Another of much the same
character, but without any stop-ridge, has been figured from Baron
Clerk’s[364] collection as having been found in Scotland.
Palstaves with a side loop have been said[365] to be common in
Scotland; but this can hardly be the case, as in the Museum of the
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland there are no authenticated examples.
One from Aikbrae,[366] Lanarkshire (6¾ inches), like Fig. 77, has
been figured. Wilson gives another example like Fig. 78, but does not
say where it was found. The “spade” he gives as his Fig. 59 is in all
probability Italian.
[Illustration: Fig. 92.—Pettycur. ½]
A palstave rather like that from Balcarry, Fig. 91, but with a loop,
is figured by Gordon[367] as having been found in Scotland.
What may be classed as a celt with two side loops, or possibly as a
chisel, is said to have been found in the year 1810 in a barrow near
Pettycur,[368] Fifeshire. It is described as very strong, and the bend
in the upper part, as seen in Fig. 92, is thought to be accidental.
Wilson describes it as a crowbar or lever, but as its total length is
only 7½ inches it can hardly be classed among such instruments.
A somewhat similar tool, but without holes in the side stops (7⅞
inches), is in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy.[369]
Turning now to the instruments of this class discovered in Ireland,
I may observe that it is so difficult to draw the line between the
flanged celts, tapering both ways from a central ridge, and those
which have a slight projecting stop-ridge upon them, that some Irish
instruments of the latter class have already been mentioned in the
preceding chapter, to which the reader is referred for the more highly
ornamented varieties. Other Irish types have also been incidentally
cited.
Some of the Irish palstaves much resemble English and Scottish types,
but generally speaking there are sufficient peculiarities in their
forms to enable a practised observer to recognise their origin. For
several other varieties of form, besides those mentioned in the
following pages, the reader is referred to Wilde’s Catalogue.
Winged celts without a stop-ridge, like Fig. 53, have occasionally
been found in Ireland, and one is figured by Wilde.[370] I have one
(5¼ inches) from Armoy, Co. Antrim. The wide-spreading celt with a
slight stop-ridge and segmental band upon the blade, like Fig. 50,
also occurs. A remarkably fine specimen from Westmeath with punctured
ornaments on the wings and at the lower margin of the band has been
engraved by Wilde.[371] Some are without the segmental band.
The type of Fig. 54 has also been found. I have a specimen (6 inches)
from Ballinamallard, near Enniskillen.
Palstaves without a stop-ridge, and with broad lozenge-shaped wings,
like Fig. 56, are of rare occurrence. One of nearly the same type, but
having a low projecting ridge between the wings, is shown in Fig. 93.
[Illustration: Fig. 93.—Ireland. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 94.—Ireland. ½]
I have another from Armoy, Co. Antrim (6 inches), with a still
slighter transverse ridge, which forms the upper boundary to a
shield-shaped projection on the blade, on which is a central vertical
ridge with two others on each side less definitely marked. The base of
the shield is pointed.
A not uncommon type has a very high stop-ridge coming up to the level
of the side wings, the blade above the stop-ridge being somewhat
thinner than it is below. An example is shown in Fig. 94.
I have another from County Antrim, in which the lower part of the
blade has a slight median vertical ridge.
In a palstave in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy,[372] with
elliptical wings, a long fusiform boss has been cast in the centre of
the blade.
[Illustration: Fig. 95.—Ireland. ½]
In another instrument in the same collection the whole blade is
thickened out so as to form the stop-ridge, as will be seen in Fig. 95.
In other cases the ridge of the wings is continued as a moulding on
the face of the blade, so as to enclose a space below the stop-ridge.
From the base of this there sometimes proceeds a vertical rib, as seen
in Fig. 96.
Inverted chevrons by way of ornament below the stop-ridge are not
uncommon, sometimes with a vertical rib in addition.
Such compartments are often seen on the winged celts, with only
a slight stop-ridge. Fig. 97 shows an example from Lanesborough,
Co. Longford, now in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S. The
compartment is ornamented with vertical punch marks. The outside of
the wings is faceted after a fashion not unusual in Ireland, but there
is here a slight shoulder at the base of the central facet which may
have assisted in securing the blade to the handle. On a specimen at
Dublin there are on the otherwise flat sides elevated transverse
ridges, which, as Sir W. Wilde[373] has pointed out, may have served
“to keep the tying in its place.”
[Illustration: Fig. 96.—North of Ireland. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 97.—Lanesborough. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 98.—Trillick. ½]
The sides of other specimens of much the same type are otherwise
fashioned and ornamented. In Fig. 98 is shown a celt from Trillick,
Co. Tyrone, on the sides of which a kind of fern-leaf pattern has been
hammered, or rather punched, not unlike the carving on one of the
stones in the great chambered tumulus of New Grange. The shield plate
has two vertical hollows worked on it.
The side of a celt ornamented in the same manner is engraved by
Wilde.[374]
A small palstave, with two vertical grooves in the blade, is shown in
Fig. 99.
Another form of winged celt, with a low stop-ridge and with a vertical
rib passing through an inverted chevron on the blade, is shown in Fig.
100. The original is in the collection of Mr. Robert Day, F.S.A.
The same style of ornament occurs on palstaves of other forms.[375]
In some instances, there is in the centre of the stop-ridge a kind of
bracket on the blade, and the side wings are hammered over so as to
form an imperfect socket. A small example of the kind is shown in Fig.
101. I have a larger specimen (4½ inches) from Trillick, Co. Tyrone.
Vallancey[376] engraves a palstave of this type.
Others with flat blades and no brackets have the side flanges hammered
over in the same manner.
[Illustration: Fig. 99.—Ireland. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 100.—Ireland. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 101.—Ireland. ½]
A fine example, in which the conical bracket dies into the stop-ridge
and side flanges, is in the British Museum.
Palstaves with a loop at the side are not of such frequent occurrence
in Ireland as those without. Wilde[377] has engraved a specimen (6⅜
inches) like Fig. 77 as well as that[378] which I have here shown on a
larger scale as Fig. 102. This latter has the wings well hammered over
at the base, so as to form a kind of socket on each side of the blade.
It differs, however, from the English and foreign specimens like Fig.
85 in having a well-marked shoulder or stop on the blade between the
wings.
[Illustration: Fig. 102.—Ireland. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 103.—Ireland. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 104.—Ireland. ½]
Palstaves of nearly the same character, but without the loop, have
already been mentioned as found both in Ireland and Scotland. Others,
with loops like Fig. 103, have a bracket on the blade between the
flanges.
A remarkable form with slight side flanges and no stop-ridge, from
the Dublin Museum, is shown in Fig. 104. It is No. 630 in Wilde’s
Catalogue. The sides have deep diagonal notches upon them and the
upper part of each face is chequered, perhaps in order to assist in
steadying the blade in its handle.
Another noteworthy palstave, found at Miltown, Co. Dublin, is shown
in Fig. 105. In this the side wings are not hammered over, and the
stop is supported by a conical bracket. The shoulders, instead of
being nearly square to the midrib, are inclined upwards at an angle
of nearly 45°, so as to form receptacles in which the wedge-shaped
ends of the split handle would be held tight against the blade.
These inclined stops have been observed in other palstaves of
different forms, and Sir W. Wilde[379] has called attention to them
in connection with a palstave much like that now under consideration,
but without any projection or loop on the side. The most remarkable
feature in the Miltown example is a projecting, slightly curved
spike or neb placed near the top of the blade rather above the
position usually occupied by the loop. At first sight it looks like an
imperfect loop, but, on examination, it is evident that the casting is
perfect; and, on consideration, it seems clear that this projection
would serve quite as well as a loop for receiving a cord to hold the
blade back upon its haft, while for the actual tying it would be more
convenient, as the cord would have merely to be passed over a hook,
and not to be threaded through a loop. In a somewhat similar palstave
(3⅞ inches) in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy[380] there is
also a projecting neb, but more semicircular in outline. I am not
sure that it was intended for the same purpose. A looped palstave of
this type, but with the bottom of the side socket more circular, is
engraved by Vallancey.[381]
[Illustration: Fig. 105.—Miltown. ½]
Some of the socketed celts from the Bologna hoard have curved nebs on
each side instead of rings. Instruments of the same character, also
from Italy, have been engraved by De Bonstetten,[382] Schreiber,[383]
and Caylus.[384]
Double-looped palstaves, with a loop on either side, and in character
like Fig. 86, are almost or quite as rare in Ireland as in England.
The only specimen engraved by Wilde[385] is in the collection of Lord
Talbot de Malahide. It is 6¼ inches long, with the loops not quite
symmetrical. It was supposed to be unique. I have, however, another
specimen of this type (6⅜ inches) found at Ballincollig,[386] Co.
Cork, in 1854, which was formerly in the collection of the Rev. Thomas
Hugo, F.S.A. It so closely resembles Fig. 86 that it is not worth
while to engrave it.
Another remarkable and indeed unique instrument, in the Museum of the
Royal Irish Academy,[387] is shown in Fig. 106. It is like a flat
celt, but has grooves and stops at the side like a palstave with a
transverse edge. Below the stops are two loops. The sides below the
stops are ornamented with transverse lines, and on the face here shown
there is a dotted kind of cartouche below the stops, and a square
compartment chequered in lozenges above them. This latter is wanting
on the other face, but the corresponding cartouche below is divided
into small lozenges alternately hatched and plain.
[Illustration: Fig. 106.—Ireland. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 107.—Ireland. ½]
Another Irish instrument of nearly the same form, but without the
grooves and stops at the sides, is in the Bell Collection in the
Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh; but its exact place of finding is
uncertain. It is shown in Fig. 107, and, like that last described, has
each of its faces ornamented in a different manner.
[Illustration: Fig. 108.—Ireland. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 109.—Ballymena. ½]
The palstaves with a transverse edge are of more common occurrence in
Ireland than in England, but are even there very rare. That engraved
as Fig. 108 was formerly in the collection of the Rev. Thomas Hugo,
F.S.A.[388] A similar tool is figured by Vallancey.[389]
The smaller specimen shown in Fig. 109 was found near Ballymena, Co.
Antrim, and is in the collection of Mr. Robert Day, F.S.A. I have one
from the North of Ireland (4 inches) with the stops less distinct.
Another Irish specimen (3 inches) is in the British Museum. In the
Museum of the Royal Irish Academy are several varying in length from
2⅝ inches to 5¼ inches. They are classed by Wilde[390] among the
chisels. In describing the various forms illustrated by the figures,
I have from time to time called attention to the analogies which they
present with other European forms, and it is hardly necessary to make
any broad comparison of British palstaves and winged celts with those
of other European countries. It would indeed be a difficult task to
attempt, as in each country, if not in several districts in each
country, the instruments of this kind are characterised by some local
peculiarity.
Perhaps it will be more instructive to mention certain continental
forms which are conspicuous by their absence in Britain.
We have not, for instance, the southern French form with a kind of
contracted waist and broad side flanges or rounded wings in the middle
of the blade; nor, again, the long narrow form almost resembling a
marrow spoon; nor that with the almost circular blade, much like
an ancient mirror. Nor have we the German form, with the V-shaped
stop-ridge, nor that in which the stop-ridge forms a circular collar
above a blade with beadings along the sides. Nor have we the common
Italian form, with the blade like a long spud; nor, again, the narrow
Scandinavian form, which is often highly decorated.
And yet, in comparing the instruments described in the present chapter
with those of neighbouring countries, and especially of France, it will
at once be remarked that, as might have been reasonably expected, the
closest analogies are to be observed between some of those of England
and France, while in the more peculiarly Scottish and Irish types the
resemblances are more remote. It must, however, be borne in mind that
there is good evidence in the shape of moulds and bronze-founders’
hoards, such as will subsequently be mentioned, to prove that these
instruments were cast in various parts of this country; so that, though
some palstaves may be of foreign origin, yet, as a rule, it was the
fashion of the objects rather than the objects themselves for which
the inhabitants of Britain were indebted to foreign intercourse. Even
in the area now embraced by France there does not appear to have been
any single centre of manufacture, but, taken as a group, the palstaves
of the South, the North, and the North-west of France present some
distinguishing characteristics. The same is the case with the socketed
celts of that country, the English representatives of which will be
discussed in the next chapter.