CHISELS, GOUGES, HAMMERS, AND OTHER TOOLS.
ALTHOUGH, doubtless, many if not most of the instruments of different
forms, described in the preceding chapters, were used as tools, and
not as weapons, yet in some cases, especially where they have been
found in graves, it is more probable that they formed part of the
equipment of a warrior than of an artificer. With regard to the various
forms of which I intend to treat in the present chapter, there can
hardly exist a doubt that they should be regarded as tools, and not as
weapons. Already in the Neolithic Period we find many of these forms
of tools, such as chisels and gouges, developed; and so far as hammers
are concerned, it seems probable that for many purposes a stone held
in the hand may have served during the Bronze Period as a hammer or
mallet, just as it often does now in the age of steel and steam. I have
elsewhere[567] mentioned a fact communicated to me by the late Mr.
David Forbes, F.R.S., that in Peru and Bolivia the masons, skilful in
working hard stone with steel chisels, make use of no other mallet or
hammer than a stone pebble held in the hand.
The simplest form of chisel is of course a short bar of metal brought
to an edge at one end and left blunt at the other where it receives the
blows of the hammer or mallet. Such at the present day are the ordinary
chisels of the stone-mason, and the “cold chisel” of the engineer.
Most of the Scandinavian chisels of flint are of nearly the same
form as the simplest metal chisels, being square in section in the
upper part and gradually tapering to an edge at the lower end. Bronze
chisels of this form are, however, but rarely met with in any part of
Europe. One such, however, was found at Plymstock,[568] near Oreston,
Devonshire, in company with sixteen flanged celts like Figs. 9 and
10, three daggers, and a tanged spear-head, engraved as Fig. 327. It
is shown in Fig. 190. Its length is 4 inches, and the cutting edge
is rather more than ¼ inch in width. The late Mr. Albert Way, who
describes this specimen in the _Archæological Journal_, regarded it as
unique in England; and the form, so far as I am aware, has not again
been found in this country. It is now in the British Museum.
I have a large chisel of the same type, but apparently formed of
copper, which was found in the neighbourhood of Pressburg, Hungary. It
is 7½ inches long, about ⅞ inch square in the middle, and expands in
width at the edge, which is lunate. Others of the same form, 4½ inches
and 5¾ inches long, also from Hungary, are in the Zurich Museum. Such
chisels have also been found in the Swiss Lake-dwellings.
[Illustration: Fig. 190. Plymstock. ⅔]
[Illustration: Fig. 191. Heathery Burn. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 192. Glenluce. ½]
A long chisel, formed from a plain square bar drawn to an edge, was
found by Dr. Schliemann[569] in his excavations at Hissarlik.
Bronze chisels of the same form were also in use among the ancient
Egyptians.
A smaller chisel, conical at the butt end and possibly intended for
insertion into a handle, is shown in Fig. 191. The original is in the
collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., and was found with numerous
other bronze antiquities in the Heathery Burn Cave, Durham, already
so often mentioned. One rather larger, about 3 inches long and 1/5 inch
broad, probably found in one of the barrows at Lake[570] or Durnford,
is in the collection of the Rev. E. Duke, of Lake House, near
Salisbury. It may possibly have been a large awl.
An Aztec[571] chisel of nearly the same form as Fig. 191, and about 4½
inches long, contains 97·87 copper and 2·13 of tin. Another from Lima
contains 94 copper and 6 of tin.
The small bronze chisel from Scotland, shown in Fig. 192, exhibits
a somewhat different type; the blade tapering evenly away from the
edge. The point which was intended to go into the handle appears to
have been “drawn down” a little by hammering, which has produced
slight flanges at the sides. The edge has also been hammered. The
original was kindly lent me by the Rev. George Wilson, of Glenluce,
Wigtonshire, and was found, with a conical button and a flat plate
of cannel-coal or jet, on the Sandhills of Low Torrs, near Glenluce.
Numerous arrow-heads and flakes of flint have also been found among
the sands at the same place.
A flat chisel (4½ inches) like Fig. 192, but rather broader at the
edge, which is somewhat oblique, was found with two flat sickles on
Sparkford Hill,[572] Somersetshire.
There were some small chisels of this class in the Larnaud hoard[573]
(Jura).
Others have been found in the Swiss Lake-dwellings.[574]
Two shorter edged tools, found at Ebnall,[575] Salop, which have been
described as chisels or hammers, seem rather to have been punches, and
will be mentioned subsequently.
As chisels were probably used in ancient times, as at present, not only
in conjunction with a mallet, but also in the hand alone with pressure
as paring-tools, it would have been found convenient to attach them to
wooden or horn handles. Accordingly we find them both provided with a
tang or shank for driving into a wooden handle, like the majority of
modern chisels, and also, though more rarely, with a socket for the
reception of a handle, like the heavy mortising chisels of the present
day. Chisels of the tanged variety vary considerably in size and
strength, and in the relative width of the blade to the length.
[Illustration: Fig. 192*. Carlton Rode. ½]
That shown in Fig. 192 is from the great hoard discovered at Carlton
Rode,[576] Norfolk, already mentioned, and is preserved in the Norwich
Museum. The marks of the joint of the mould are still visible on the
tang. It was found with numerous celts and gouges, a hammer, and at
least one socketed chisel. Another tanged chisel of nearly the same
form and dimensions is also in the Norwich Museum. It formed part of
the Woodward Collection, and was probably found in Norfolk.
A chisel much more expanded at the edge, and also of lighter make,
was found at Wallingford, Berks, in company with a double-edged knife
or razor, and a socketed celt, gouge, and knife, of which notices are
given in other parts of this book. It is engraved as Fig. 193, and is
in my own collection, as is also the original of Fig. 194. This formed
part of the hoard discovered in Reach Fen, Cambridge, and was the only
one of the kind there found. A socketed chisel-like celt from the same
hoard has been already described and figured at page 133, Fig. 159.
Tanged chisels have also occurred in various other hoards of bronze
antiquities. Some were found with numerous celts and other tools at
Westow,[577] on the Derwent, Yorkshire, which from their curved edges
and general character the late Mr. James Yates regarded as the σμίλα
χαρτοτόμος, or chisel for cutting paper, mentioned by Philoxenus, and
as the currier’s chisel, σκιτοτόμος, mentioned by Julius Pollux. If
I were to offer an opinion it would be that any cutting tool of the
Bronze Period in Britain was more likely to have been used for cutting
leather than paper, the latter commodity being, to say the least of
it, scarce in Britain at that time; and, moreover, that chisels are
generally used for cutting wood and not leather.
In the collection of Canon Green well, F.R.S., are two of these tanged
chisels from Westow, about 4½ inches long and 1⅛ inch broad at the
edge. A small part of the blade below the round collar is cylindrical.
In the British Museum is a small specimen of this kind (3½ inches)
from the Thames.
[Illustration: Fig. 193.—Wallingford. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 194.—Reach Fen. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 195.—Thixendale. ½]
In the Mayer Collection at Liverpool is a specimen, 4 inches long and
⅞ inch broad at the edge, found near Canterbury in 1761. The collar is
flat above and almost hemispherical below. Another, with part of the
tang broken off, and the blade 2½ inches long and 1½ inch wide, was
found in the Kirkhead Cave, Ulverstone, Lancashire, and was described
to me by Mr. H. Ecroyd Smith.
Another, rather like Fig. 199, but broken at the angles, was found
with spear-heads and a socketed celt at Ty Mawr,[578] Anglesea. What
appears to be a chisel of this kind (4¾ inches long) was found near
Biggen Grange,[579] Derbyshire, and is in the Bateman Collection.
Another was found at Porkington,[580] Shropshire.
A fragment of a tanged chisel was found with a large hoard of broad
spear-heads, &c., at Broadward, Shropshire.
A remarkably small specimen from Thixendale, in the East Riding of
Yorkshire, is in the collection of Canon Greenwell, who has kindly
allowed me to engrave it as Fig. 195. The stop, instead of being as
usual a circular collar, consists of a bead on each face, so that in
the side view it appears as if an oval pin traversed the blade.
[Illustration: Fig. 196.—Yattendon. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 197.—Broxton. ½]
Nearly similar side-stops are to be observed in the chisel represented
in Fig. 196, which was found with two others (3¾ inches and 4½ inches)
in a hoard of bronze antiquities at Yattendon,[581] Berks, of which
I have given an account elsewhere. With the chisels were instruments
of the following forms, some in a fragmentary condition: flat celts,
palstaves, socketed celts, gouges, socketed and tanged knives, swords,
scabbard ends, spear-heads, and flat, conical, and annular pieces of
bronze. The other two chisels from this hoard were more like Fig. 194.
A very large example of a chisel of this kind is shown in Fig. 197,
the original of which was kindly lent me by Sir Philip de M. Grey
Egerton, F.R.S. It was found in company with two looped palstaves
and a spear-head near Broxton, Cheshire, about twelve miles south of
Chester.
An instrument of somewhat the same character, from Farley Heath, has
already been described at p. 69.
A tanged chisel, 5 inches long, and without any stops or collar, was
found with other objects at Burgesses’ Meadow, Oxford, in 1830, and is
now in the Ashmolean Museum.
This form of instrument occurs but rarely in Scotland; but what appears
to be a chisel of this kind is engraved by Wilson.[582] His figure is,
however, a mere diagram, without any scale attached, and the instrument
is described as an axe blade with a cross limb, or as a “spiked axe.”
Whatever its character, the original of the figure is said to have been
found with other bronze relics at Strachur, Argyleshire.
An example of a chisel of elongated form is in the Antiquarian
Museum[583] at Edinburgh, but it is uncertain in what part of Scotland
it was found. By the kindness of the Council of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland it is shown as Fig. 198.
[Illustration: Fig. 198.—Scotland. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 199.—Ireland. ½]
In Ireland they are much more common. There are thirteen specimens in
the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, as catalogued by the late Sir
William Wilde,[584] varying in length from 2½ to 6¼ inches. Some of
these Irish chisels, which approximate to flat celts in character, have
already been described in Chapter III.
That which Wilde has given as his Fig. 395 is almost identical in
form with the chisel from Ireland in my own collection which is here
engraved as Fig. 199, though considerably longer altogether, and
somewhat longer proportionally in the tang.
I have another example from Belaghey, County Antrim, which is 6⅜
inches long, and much stouter in the tang and in the neck of the blade
than that here figured. It is only 1⅜ inches wide at the edge.
Among those in the museum at Dublin is one which is decorated with
knobs round the collar. Two others are figured in “Horæ Ferales.”[585]
In the British Museum is one (4⅝ inches) with a well-marked collar.
Another, with the square tang broken off, has a loop at the side of
the round part of the blade, which is 2¼ inches long. This curious
specimen was found near Burrisokane, county Tipperary.
Another chisel (4¾ inches) in the same collection has side-projections
only, like Fig. 195.
Another (3¼ inches), with a well-developed collar, is engraved in the
_Archæological Journal_.[586] The form shades off into that of the
flat celts having projections at the sides.
Others in the collection of Mr. Robert Day, F.S.A., resemble Fig. 196
(4½ inches) and Fig. 197 (6 inches). The latter was found at Kanturk,
Co. Cork.
Tanged chisels have been found, though not abundantly, in France. One
from Beauvais is in the museum at St. Germain.
The socketed form of chisel is by no means common in this country; but
some instruments, probably intended for use as chisels, have already
been described among the socketed celts not provided with loops. These
are all comparatively broad at the cutting edge; but there is another
variety, with a narrow end, formed much like the modern engineer’s
“crosscut chisel,” some specimens of which will be now described.
[Illustration: Fig. 200. Carlton Rode. ½]
That shown in Fig. 200 is from the great find of Carlton Rode,[587]
Norfolk (1844), from which several specimens, including a tanged chisel
(Fig. 192) and a socketed celt without loop (Fig. 160), have already
been described; and some other forms, such as gouges and hammers, have
yet to be mentioned. The edge is only 3/16ths of an inch in width, and
the tool seems well adapted for cutting mortises. The idea of a mortise
and tenon must be of very early date, as a mere stake driven into the
ground supplies it in a rudimentary form; and tools let into sockets,
or having sockets to receive handles, afford instances of connections
of the same kind. In our modern mortising chisels the cutting edge,
instead of being in the middle of the blade, so as to have a V-shaped
section, is usually at the side, and presents an outline like the upper
part of a K, V. I have not met with this bevelled edge among bronze
chisels.
On the side of this Carlton Rode chisel may be seen the mark of the
joint of the mould in which it was cast. The socket, as usual with
these tools, is circular.
A bronze chisel of the same form, 3¾ inches long, was found at
Romford,[588] Essex, in company with socketed celts, palstaves,
fragments of swords, a broken spear-head, and lumps of metal. It has
already been figured.
In the hoard found at Westow, Yorkshire, already mentioned, were two
or three socketed chisels. One of them, 2½ inches long, is engraved in
the _Archæological Journal_.[589] That which I have here engraved as
Fig. 201 is probably the same specimen. It is now in the collection
of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S. Tanged chisels, gouges, and socketed celts
were found at the same time.
[Illustration: Fig. 201. Westow. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 202. Heathery Burn. ½]
In the same collection is a somewhat smaller chisel, the socket of
which is square instead of circular. This was found in the Heathery
Burn Cave, Durham, together with a number of objects, belonging to
the Bronze Period, of which further mention will be made hereafter.
Another, found at Roseberry Topping, Yorkshire, is now in the Bateman
Collection, at Sheffield. A small narrow-edged chisel was found in a
hoard at Meldreth, Cambridgeshire.
I am not aware of any socketed chisels of the narrow form having been
found in Scotland.
In Ireland they are rare, but in the collection of Mr. R. Day, F.S.A.,
are a few specimens of undoubtedly chisel-like character. The broad
celt-like form has been described in a previous chapter.
In France they are also far from common. There are, however, two in
the museum at Tours, found at the Chatellier d’Amboise. There is
also one in the museum at Narbonne.[590] They have been found in
Savoy,[591] Doubs,[592] and Jura.[593]
Several have been found in the Lake-dwellings of Switzerland.[594]
One with a treble moulding round the mouth and a polygonal neck from
Mœrigen[595] exhibits much taste in its manufacture.
A number of chisels both of the tanged and the socketed forms were
present in the great hoard of bronze objects discovered at Bologna.
Socketed examples from Italy are in the museum at Copenhagen,[596] and
in the British Museum.
I have some from Macarsca, Dalmatia, of which the sockets have been
formed by hammering out the metal and turning it over, instead of
being produced as usual, by means of a core in the casting.
Socketed chisels from Emmen and Deurne, Holland, are in the
museum[597] at Leyden.
From North Germany I may cite one (6⅛ inches) from Schlieben,[598]
which is in the Berlin Museum.
Others are engraved by Lindenschmit,[599] Schreiber,[600] and
Lisch.[601]
One from Kempten, Bavaria, is in the Sigmaringen Collection.[602]
[Illustration: Fig. 203. Carlton Rode. ½]
GOUGES.
Closely allied to chisels are gouges, in which, the edge, instead
of being straight, is curved or hollowed, so that it is adapted for
working out rounded or oval holes. In some languages, indeed, the name
by which these tools are known is that of “hollow chisels.” It is an
early form of instrument, and a few specimens made of flint have been
found in this country, though they are here extremely rare, while,
on the contrary, they are very abundant in Denmark and the South of
Sweden. In the Scandinavian countries, however, bronze gouges are never
found; and though gouges of stone were not unknown in this country
during its Stone Period, their successors in bronze do not appear to
belong to the early part of the Bronze Period, but, on the contrary,
seem to be characteristic of its later phases.
Of bronze gouges there are the same two varieties as of the ordinary
chisel, viz. the tanged and the socketed, of which the former is far
rarer than the latter. Indeed the only tanged gouge from Britain with
which I am acquainted is that from the Carlton Rode[603] hoard, already
so often mentioned, which is shown in Fig. 203. The original is in the
Norwich Museum, the trustees of which kindly allowed me to engrave
it. As will be seen, it is of remarkably narrow form, especially as
contrasted with the socketed gouge from the same hoard shown in Fig.
207. There was a broken tanged gouge in the great hoard of bronze
objects found at Bologna.
Of English socketed gouges the most common form is that shown in Fig.
204, from an original in the British Museum, which was found with a
spear-head (Fig. 391), socketed knife (Fig. 240), hammer (Fig. 210),
awl (Fig. 224), and two socketed celts, at Thorndon,[604] in Suffolk.
There were six gouges of the same character, but of different sizes,
in the hoard found at Westow,[605] Yorkshire, some of which have
been figured. Another (3½ inches) found with socketed celts and some
curious ornaments under a large stone at Roseberry Topping,[606] in
Cleveland, has also been figured. Another was found with socketed
celts and spear-heads at Exning,[607] in Suffolk. The cutting end of
another was associated with socketed celts in the hoard discovered
at Martlesham in the same county. Part of another was discovered,
with a socketed celt, fragments of blades, and rough copper, at
Melbourn,[608] Cambridgeshire. Another was found, with socketed celts,
spear-heads, and an armlet, within the encampment on Beacon Hill,[609]
Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire. Another, with socketed celts,
spear-heads, &c., at Ebnall,[610] near Oswestry; and another (2½
inches), with socketed celts, fragments of knives, a button or stud,
and lumps of metal, at Kensington.[611] This hoard is in the British
Museum.
[Illustration: Fig. 204. Thorndon. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 205. Harty. ½]
A gouge was found with four socketed celts and about 30 lbs. of
rough copper in an urn at Sittingbourne,[612] Kent. A plain gouge
formed part of the hoard found at Stanhope,[613] Durham. A remarkably
fine gouge, 4¼ inches long and nearly 1¼ inch wide at the edge, was
found, with spear-heads, socketed celts, part of a celt mould, and
lumps of metal, at Beddington,[614] Surrey. At Porkington,[615]
Shropshire, a gouge accompanied the tanged chisel lately mentioned.
In the hoard found at Guilsfield,[616] Montgomeryshire, there were
two gouges in company with looped palstaves, socketed celts, &c. In
my own collection are three socketed gouges, about 3½ inches long,
which form part of the hoard from Reach Fen, Cambridgeshire, in
which were socketed celts, socketed and tanged knives, and numerous
other objects. In some of the instances cited, as at Guilsfield and
Ebnall, the upper part of the socket is beaded instead of plain.
One of this kind from the Harty hoard already mentioned is shown in
Fig. 205. There were two such in the hoard, which comprised numerous
socketed celts and the moulds for them, and various tools of the
bronze-founder. There were also the two halves of a bronze mould for
such gouges which will subsequently be described. In the Museum of
the Cambridge Antiquarian Society is a gouge from Bottisham Lode (3
inches) with a slight shoulder about ½ inch from the top of the blade,
the upper part of the neck being larger than the lower. One of three
found in the Heathery Burn Cave (2¾ inches) is also shouldered. Of the
other two (3⅜ inches and 3¼ inches) one is very slightly shouldered.
They are in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., as is also a
plain example (3¾ inches) from Scothorn, Lincolnshire.
In the British Museum are the unfinished castings for two gouges, one
2¾ inches long and fully ½ inch wide, and the other 3 inches long and
⅜ inch wide at the edge, which in both is but slightly hollowed. They
were found with a socketed celt (Fig. 146) near Blandford, Dorset. The
longer one is of very white and hard bronze.
[Illustration: Fig. 206. Undley. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 207. Carlton Rode. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 208. Tay. ½]
Two gouges, one 3½ inches and the other broader, but only 2 inches
long, found with various other objects at Hounslow; as well as one
from the Thames at Battersea (4 inches), are in the same collection.
Two gouges (3¼ inches and 5 inches) were found, with a hammer, a
spear-head, and a socketed celt with a loop on the face (Fig. 154),
near Whittlesea. The whole are in the museum at Wisbech.
Two from Derbyshire are in the Blackmore Museum at Salisbury.
A socketed gouge of unusually long proportions is shown in Fig. 206.
It was found at Undley, near Lakenheath, Suffolk, and is in my own
collection. In the Carlton Rode hoard were also two long gouges with
the hollow extending more nearly to the socket end. They are both
rather trumpet-mouthed. One of them is 4½ inches long and 9/16 inch
wide at the edge, the other 4⅛ inches long and ¾ inch wide. I have not
seen the originals, but describe them from a lithographed plate.
The broad short gouge shown in Fig. 207 is also from Carlton Rode.
It is broken at the mouth of the socket, but I have, in the figure,
restored the part that is wanting. The original was lent me by the
trustees of the Norwich Museum. Another[617] from the same hoard,
about 3¼ inches long, has the groove, which is wide and rather flat,
extending only an inch upwards from the edge.
Socketed gouges have been found, though very rarely, in Scotland. That
shown in Fig. 208, the cut of which has been kindly lent to me by
the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, was dredged up in the river
Tay.[618] This appears to be almost the only Scottish specimen at
present known. Professor Daniel Wilson[619] terms it “one of the rarest
of the implements of bronze hitherto found in Scotland;” but he adds
that other specimens have been met with in the Tay.
In Ireland they are considerably more abundant, there being at least
twenty specimens in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, one of them
as much as 4½ inches long.
One, much like Fig. 208, has been engraved by Wilde as Fig. 399.
Others are figured in the _Archæological Journal_[620] and “Horæ
Ferales.”[621] In one of these, 2½ inches long, the hollow is carried
up to the collar round the mouth as a square-ended recess. One gouge
appears to have been originally tanged. Several socketed gouges from
Ireland are in the British Museum. Mr. R. Day, F.S.A., has examples
from Mullingar and Derry, the latter with a collar at the top. They
occurred also in the Dowris hoard. A gouge[622] only 2½ inches long
and unusually broad has a small loop at the upper end of the concave
part. It is here engraved as Fig. 209, from the original in the Museum
of the Royal Irish Academy. This may be the specimen figured by
Vallancey.[623] I have a specimen like Fig. 208. /#
[Illustration: Fig. 209.—Ireland. ½]
#/ Socketed gouges are occasionally found in France. One, 4¼ inches
long, with two mouldings round the top, ornamented with faint diagonal
lines, was found with socketed celts and other implements in the
Commune de Pont-point[624] (Oise), near the river Oise, and is in
the Hotel Cluny, Paris. Others from the Hautes Alpes[625] and from
the Fonderie de Larnaud have been figured in Mr. Ernest Chantre’s
magnificent Album.
There are three with moulded tops, from the hoard of Notre Dame d’Or,
in the Poitiers Museum.
A fine gouge (about 5½ inches) with a moulded top is in the museum
at Clermont Ferrand (Puy de Dôme). A very fine French gouge of this
character is in the British Museum.
I have a specimen much like Fig. 208 found in the Seine at Paris.
Others were in the hoard at Dreuil, near Amiens, and in a second hoard
also found near that town.
Large gouges with moulded tops, from the Stations of Auvernier,[626] in
the Lake of Neuchâtel, and Mœrigen, in the Lake of Bienne, are in Dr.
Victor Gross’s collection.
There was at least one socketed gouge in the great Bologna hoard.
In Germany they are very rare, but one from the museum at Sigmaringen,
with a somewhat decorated socket, is engraved by Lindenschmit. It was
found at Kempten, Bavaria.[627] Others, from Düren and Deurne, North
Brabant, Holland, are in the museum at Leyden.
A socketed gouge, with the edge turned to a sweep of about 1 inch
radius, is in the museum at Agram, Croatia.
One from Siberia[628] has been figured by Worsaae.
HAMMERS AND ANVILS.
Another form of tool constructed with a socket to receive the handle
in precisely the same manner as the socketed celts and gouges is
the hammer. It is worthy of notice that, though perforated hammers
formed of stone are comparatively abundant in this country, yet that
instruments of the same kind in bronze are unknown. It is true that
what looks like a perforated hammer, said to be of bronze, was found in
Newport, Lincoln, and is engraved in the _Archæological Journal_,[629]
but there is no evidence of its belonging to the same period as the
ordinary tools formed of bronze; and the suggestion that it may have
been the extremity of a bell-clapper is, I think, not far from the
truth. It is very probable that many of the perforated stone hammers
belong to the Bronze Period of this country, as do doubtless most of
the perforated stone battle-axes or axe-hammers; for in the early part
of the Bronze Period it is likely that metal was far too valuable to
be used for heavy tools and weapons, and even towards the close of the
period it seems as if it was only the lighter kind of hammers which
were formed of bronze. The heaviest I possess weighs only five ounces,
and the lightest less than half that weight. As will subsequently be
seen, it is possible that some of these instruments were of the nature
of anvils rather than of hammers, but for the present it will be most
convenient to speak of them under the latter name.
The most common form of hammer is that which is shown in Fig. 210, from
an original in the British Museum found at Thorndon,[630] Suffolk, in
company with a spear-head, socketed gouge, socketed knife, and two
socketed celts. The two hammer-like instruments engraved as Figs. 211
and 212 were found, with a number of socketed celts, moulds, &c.—in
fact the whole stock-in-trade of an ancient bronze-founder—in the Isle
of Harty, Sheppey, and are in my own collection. The larger of the
two shows a considerable amount of wear at the end, which is somewhat
“upset” by constant use. The smaller is more oxidized, so that the
marks of use are less easily recognised. The metal of which they are
formed seems to contain a larger admixture of tin than is usual with
the cutting tools; and I have noticed the same appearance in some other
instances, so that even in early times the singular fact must have
been known that by adding to copper the softer metal, tin, in a larger
proportion than the one-tenth usually employed for bronze, a much
harder metal resulted. At the present time the extremely hard alloy
used for the specula of reflecting telescopes is formed by an admixture
of about two parts of copper and one part of tin, the two soft metals
mixed in these proportions forming an alloy almost as hard as hardened
steel.
[Illustration: Fig. 210.—Thorndon. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 211.—Harty. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 212.—Harty. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 213.—Carlton Rode. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 214.—Taunton. ½]
In the Carlton Rode find, of which mention has already been frequently
made, was a hammer of much longer proportions than those from the Isle
of Harty. By the kindness of the trustees of the Norwich Museum I have
been able to engrave it as Fig. 213. It expands considerably at the
mouth. As will be seen, the end is “upset” by use. What appears to
be a hammer of much the same kind, but with the face still smaller,
was found with a hoard of bronze objects, including palstaves,
spear-heads, flat sickles, a torque, &c., at Taunton.[631] It is shown
in Fig. 214.
A hammer somewhat larger in its dimensions than Fig. 211, but in
type more resembling Fig. 212, having no shoulder upon its body, was
found at Roseberry Topping,[632] in Cleveland, with a socketed celt,
a gouge, and other objects. Another broken hammer was found, with a
hoard of bronze objects, at Stanhope,[633] Durham.
A small hammer (2¼ inches), found with gouges and other objects near
Whittlesea, is in the Wisbech Museum.
Another with a circular socket was in the hoard found in Burgesses’
Meadow, Oxford.
A small one was found at Rugby,[634] and is in the possession of Mr.
M. H. Bloxam, F.S.A. I have one (3 inches) found near Cambridge.
I am not aware of any examples having as yet been found in Scotland.
In Ireland they are rare, but four “round-faced socketed punches,”
varying from 2 to 4 inches in length, are mentioned in Wilde’s
Catalogue. These are probably hammers.
In the British Museum are also several Irish hammers, one of which is
shown full size in Fig. 215, for the use of which I am indebted to the
Council of the Society of Antiquaries.[635] It is cylindrical in form,
with two rings of projecting knobs around it. The end is circular
and slightly convex, and has a ridge across it, due to constant use.
Another, found, with trumpets, spear-heads, and numerous other bronze
relics, at Dowris,[636] King’s County, is shown in Fig. 216, also
lent me by the same Council. It is of a different type from any of
the others, expanding beyond the socket into a large flat blade. It
appears never to have been in use. Two other small Irish specimens,
one with a long oval face, are in the British Museum. I have a hammer
(2½ inches) much like Fig. 210, but with the shoulder nearer the
top, found with a socketed celt and some perforated and other rings,
near Trillick, Co. Tyrone. I have also an imperfect specimen with the
end expanded, but not to the same extent as Fig. 216. This was found
with a broken sword, spear-heads, and a socketed knife, on Bo Island,
Enniskillen, and was kindly procured for me by the Earl of Enniskillen.
[Illustration: Fig. 215.—Ireland. 1/1]
[Illustration: Fig. 216.—Dowris. 1/1]
Socketed hammers have been found in several European countries. I have
two from France. One of them (3½ inches), like Fig. 212 in form, was
found, with a spear-head, a double-edged knife, some curved cutting
tools, and an anvil of bronze (Fig. 217), together with a large
torque and a plain bracelet of gold, at Fresné la Mère, near Falaise,
Calvados. The other (2 inches), stouter in its proportions and more
like Fig. 210, was found near Angerville, Seine et Oise. A short thick
hammer was found at Briatexte, Tarn.[637]
An instrument in the British Museum, in form much like Fig. 216, found
at Vienne (Isère?), has only a small square hole in the socket, and
may have served as an anvil rather than as a hammer. A hammer also
with expanded end was found near Chalon,[638] and another in the
Valley of the Somme.[639]
A cylindrical hammer or anvil was found in the hoard of the Jardin des
Plantes at Nantes.[640]
Cylindrical hammers have been found among the Lake-dwellings of the
Lac du Bourget,[641] Savoy, one of them provided with a loop. M.
Rabut, of Chambéry, has a stone mould from the same lake for casting
such hammers. Another hammer-mould of stone was found at the Station
of Eaux Vives, near Geneva.
In my own collection is one of these looped socketed hammers, nearly
square in section, from Auvernier, in the Lake of Neuchâtel. Others
from Swiss Lake-dwellings, both with and without loops, are engraved
by Keller. Professor Desor has a hammer expanding towards the end
from the Lake of Neuchâtel.[642] A hammer found at Mœrigen[643]
seems to have been formed from a portion of a looped palstave. The
Lake-dwellers frequently utilized such broken instruments. Another
hammer, from the Lake of Bienne,[644] is hexagonal in section, and
ornamented with reversed chevrons on its faces.
They are occasionally found in Hungary. I have seen one ornamented
with chevrons in relief upon the sides. One with saltires on the
sides, and some fragments of others, were in the Bologna hoard.
The object engraved by Madsen[645] as possibly the ferrule of a lance
may be a hammer of this kind.
A solid bronze hammer (4½ inches), of oblong section, with two
projecting lugs on each side for securing the handle, found near
Przemysl, Poland, was exhibited at the Prehistoric Congress at Pesth.
It was found with a bronze spear-head, and is in the Museum of the
Academy of Sciences at Cracow.
As to the manner in which these socketed hammers were mounted we have
no direct evidence. It seems probable, however, that many of them had
crooked hafts of the same character as those of the socketed celts. It
is worth notice that on some of the coins of Cunobeline[646] there is
a seated figure at work forging a hemispherical vase, and holding in
his hand a hammer which in profile is just like a narrow axe, the head
not projecting beyond the upper side of the handle. A seated figure
on a hitherto unpublished silver coin of Dubnovellaunus, a British
prince contemporary with Augustus, holds a similar hammer, or possibly
a hatchet, in his hand. But though when in use as hammers they were
mounted with crooked shafts, it is quite possible that some of these
instruments may have been fitted on to the end of straight stakes and
have served as anvils. The Rev. W. C. Lukis, F.S.A., informs me that
at the present day the peasants of Brittany make use of iron-tipped
stakes, which, when driven into the ground, form convenient anvils on
which to hammer out the edges of their sickles, and which have the
great advantage of being portable. Though such anvils are not, so far
as I am aware, any longer used in this country, traces of their having
been formerly employed appear to be preserved in our language, for a
small anvil to cut and punch upon, and on which to hammer cold work, is
still termed a “stake.”
It is worthy of remark that an implement of the same kind as these
so-called socketed hammers, and made in the same manner, of a very hard
greyish alloy, was found in the cemetery at Hallstatt,[647] and was
regarded by the Baron von Sacken as a small anvil. A bronze file was
found with it.
It is also to be observed that of the two hammer-like instruments found
together in the Harty hoard one is much larger than the other, and may
have formed the head of a stake or anvil, while the other served as a
hammer. Still, as a rule, a flat stone must have served as the anvil
in early times, as it does now among the native ironworkers of Africa,
and did till quite recently, for many of the country blacksmiths and
tinkers of Ireland.[648] Among Danish antiquities some carefully made
anvils of stone occur, but I am not certain as to the exact age to
which they should be assigned.
[Illustration: Fig. 217.—Fresné la Mère. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 218.—Fresné la Mère. ½]
Bronze anvils of the form now in use are of extremely rare occurrence
in any country. That figured by Sir William Wilde[649] appears to me to
be of more recent date than the Bronze Period, and I am not aware of
any other specimen having been found in the British Isles; but as it
is a form of tool which may eventually be discovered, it seems well to
call attention to it by engraving a French example. This anvil is shown
in two views, in Figs. 217 and 218. As will be seen, it is adapted for
being used in two positions, according as one or the other pointed
end is driven into the workman’s bench. In one position it presents
at the end two plane-surfaces, the one broad and the other narrow,
inclined to each other at an angle of about 120 degrees, so that their
junction forms a ridge. This part of the anvil has seen much service,
as there is a thick burr all round it, caused by the expansion of the
metal under repeated blows. On the projecting beak there are three
slight grooves gradually increasing in size, and apparently intended
for swages in which to draw out pins. In the other position the anvil
presents no smooth surface on which to hammer, but a succession of
swages of different forms—some half-round, some V-shaped, and some
W-shaped. There are also some oval recesses, as if for the heads of
pins. The metal of which the anvil is made appears to contain more tin
than the ordinary bronze, and therefore to be somewhat harder. On one
face is the mark of the runner ⅞ inch in diameter, which was broken off
after the tool was cast.
This interesting tool was found with the hammer already mentioned,
a spear-head, a double-edged knife or razor, a knife with the end
bent round so as to present a gouge-like edge, and a large curved
cutting-tool of the same character (Fig. 247), all of bronze, at
Fresné la Mère, near Falaise, Calvados. With them was a magnificent
gold torque with recurved cylindrical ends, the twisted part being of
cruciform section; and a plain penannular ring or bracelet, formed from
what was a cylindrical rod. The whole find is now in my own collection.
It is not by any means improbable that this anvil was rather the tool
of a goldsmith of the Bronze Age than that of a mere bronze-worker.
I have another anvil of about the same size, but thinner, which was
found in the Seine at Paris. It also can be mounted two ways, but in
each position it presents a nearly flat but somewhat inclined face,
and there are no swages in the beaks, one of which is conical and the
other nearly rectangular.
M. Ernest Chantre has engraved two other specimens, somewhat differing
in form, but of much the same general character. They were found near
Chalon-sur-Saône and near Geneva.[650] The analysis of the metal of
one of them gives 16 parts of tin to 84 parts of copper.
Another bronze anvil is in the museum at Amiens, and a fifth, also
from France, is in the British Museum. This has a flat projecting
ledge at the top, and at right angles a slightly tapering beak. An
anvil of the same kind, but without the beak, was found with other
objects near Amiens, and is now in the museum of that town.
A small anvil without a beak, found at Auvernier,[651] in the Lake of
Neuchâtel, is in the collection of Dr. Gross. A square flat anvil,
somewhat dented on the face, formed part of the Bologna hoard.
In my own collection is what appears to have been a larger anvil of
bronze, which was found, with other instruments of the same metal, at
Macarsca, Dalmatia. In form it is not unlike an ordinary hammer-head
about 5 inches long; but the eye through it appears to be too small
for it ever to have served to receive a haft of the ordinary kind,
though it probably held a handle by which to steady the tool when in
use. One end is nearly square and but slightly convex; the other is
oblong and rounded the narrow way. Both ends are much worn. On one
face and one side are rounded notches or swages. This tool has been
cast in an open mould, as one face presents the rough surface of the
molten metal, which contains a large proportion of tin. The other face
and the sides are fairly smooth.
SAWS AND FILES.
While speaking of bronze tools, which up to the present time have
not been noticed in Britain, but which may probably be some day
discovered—if, indeed, they have not already been found—the saw must
not be forgotten.
A fragment of what has been regarded as a rudely formed saw of bronze
was indeed found, with a sword and several celts, at Mawgan,[652]
Cornwall, and is now in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries. It
is 4 inches by ¾ inch, coarsely toothed, and the serrations appear to
have been cast. I am, however, rather doubtful whether it was really a
saw.
Saws have been found both in Scandinavia and in France, in the latter
country in hoards apparently belonging to the later portion of the
Bronze Period. One from Ribiers,[653] Hautes Alpes, is about 5½
inches long and ¾ inch broad, slightly curved, and with a rivet-hole
at one end for attachment to the handle. Two from the “Fonderie de
Larnaud,”[654] Jura, are nearly one-half smaller. There were five
specimens in that hoard, and M. Chantre enumerates sixteen altogether
from various parts of France and Switzerland. A fine specimen, with a
rivet-hole for the handle, was found at Mœrigen,[655] in the Lake of
Bienne.
The Scandinavian[656] type is of much the same character, though some
are more sickle-like in shape, with the teeth on the inner sweep.
A saw, found with celts, spear-heads, diadems, &c., at Lämmersdorf,
near Prenzlau, is in the Berlin Museum. A short one, with a rivet-hole
for the handle, found at Stade, is in that at Hanover.
A saw of pure copper was found in some excavations of dwellings of
remote date at Santorin,[657] in the Grecian Archipelago, in company
with various instruments formed of obsidian. Some fragments of saws
occurred in the Bologna hoard. Part of one from Cyprus is in the
British Museum. A copper(?) saw from Niebla, Spain, 9 inches long,
also in the British Museum, has the teeth arranged to cut as it is
drawn towards the workman, and not when pushed away from him.
The file is another tool of exceedingly rare occurrence in bronze,
though not absolutely unknown in deposits belonging to the close of the
Bronze Period. Sir William Wilde[658] mentions “a bronze circular file,
straight, like a modelling tool,” as being in the Museum of the Royal
Irish Academy, but I have not seen the original and am not confident as
to its age. A file[659] was, however, found in the great hoard of the
Fonderie de Larnaud, and another from the Lake-dwellings of the Lac du
Bourget is in the museum at Chambéry.
[Illustration: Fig. 219. Heathery Burn. ¼]
The early form of file is indeed much the same as that of a very broad
saw, the toothing being coarse and running at right angles across the
blade. In the cemetery at Hallstatt,[660] in Upper Austria, files of
this character were found, several in bronze and one in iron. The
bronze files are from 5 to 10 inches long, and some which are flat for
the greater part of their length are drawn down, for about 2 inches at
the end, into tapering round files. In the Bologna hoard were several
fragments of files, including one of a “half-round” file.
TONGS AND PUNCHES.
From our greater acquaintance with the working of iron than with that
of bronze, there seems to us a sort of natural connection between
the anvil, hammer, and tongs. It must, however, be borne in mind
that bronze is a metal which instead of being, like iron, tough and
ductile, becomes “short” and fragile when heated, so that all the
hammering to which the tools and weapons of bronze were subjected in
order to planish their faces, or to draw out and harden their edges,
was probably administered to them when cold. At least one pair of
bronze tongs has, however, been found, which is shown in Fig. 219. This
instrument was discovered, with numerous other antiquities, in the cave
at Heathery Burn,[661] near Stanhope in Weardale, Durham, and is now
in the collection of Canon Greenwell. As half of a mould for socketed
celts and some waste runners of bronze were found, it is evident that
the practice of casting bronze was carried on in the cave, and these
tongs were probably part of the founder’s apparatus. Whether they were
used merely as fire-tongs, or for the purpose of lifting the crucible
or melting-pot, is a question. They appear, however, much too light to
be of service for the latter purpose.
In the museum of the Louvre at Paris are some Egyptian tongs of bronze,
which are remarkably similar to those from Durham. A workman seated
before a small fireplace, holding a blowpipe to his mouth with one
hand and with a pair of tongs in the other, is shown in a painting at
Thebes, published by Sir Gardner Wilkinson.[662]
What I have ventured to regard as another of the tools of the
bronze-founder is a kind of pointed punch or pricker, of which an
example is given in Fig. 220. This, as well as another which had lost
its point, was found, with socketed celts, gouges, moulds, &c., forming
the whole stock-in-trade of a bronze-founder, in the Isle of Harty,
Kent. It seems to have been furnished with a wooden handle, into which
the tang was driven as far as the projecting stop; and its purpose
appears to have been the extraction of the cores of burnt clay from out
of the sockets of the celts.
[Illustration: Fig. 220.—Harty. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 221.—Reach Fen. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 222.—Ebnall. 1/1]
That these sockets were formed over a core of clay inserted into the
mould is proved by numerous celts having been found with the cores
still in them. The heat of the melted metal was sufficient to convert
the clay into terracotta or brick, and in this condition the cores
have been preserved. Some force was necessary to extract such hardened
cores, and this could be well effected by driving in such a pointed
instrument as that here figured. If the two prickers from the Harty
hoard were originally of the same length, the broken one has lost a
portion from its end exactly corresponding in length with the depth
of the socket of the largest celts found with it; as if it had been
driven home through the burnt clay quite to the bottom of the socket,
and then had been broken off short at the mouth of the celt in the vain
endeavour to extract it.
Some small punches, without any tang for insertion in a handle, were
found with socketed celts and numerous other objects in the hoard
from Reach Fen, already mentioned. One of these is shown in Fig. 221.
No moulds were discovered in this case; and though the hoard has all
the appearance of being the stock of an ancient bronze-founder, it
is possible that these shorter punches may here have been used for
some other purpose than that of extracting cores. The end of one is
sharp, that of the other presents a small oblong face. It is possible
that, like the instruments next to be described, these may have been
punches used in the decoration of other articles of bronze. Mr. H.
Prigg,[663] in his description of this hoard, has suggested such an
use. The large end of the punch shown in the figure bears no mark of
having been hammered; it may, however, have been struck with a wooden
mallet. Punches, more chisel-shaped at the point, appear to have been
in use for producing the incuse ornaments which occur on so many of
the flat and flanged celts. I am not aware of any tools which were
undoubtedly used for this purpose having been observed in Britain; but,
as I have already remarked, there were found at Ebnall,[664] Salop,
two short-edged tools, which may possibly be punches, and if so may
have been applied to this use. One of these is shown in Fig. 222, the
block for which has been kindly lent me by the Council of the Society
of Antiquaries. The other is described as of similar form but of rather
longer proportions. They were found in company with spear-heads, celts,
gouges, and broad dagger-blades; but it does not appear that any of
these were ornamented with punch-marked patterns. The tools may,
therefore, have been merely some kind of strong chisels, possibly used
for breaking off the jets and superfluous metal from the castings. The
thickness of the tool is rather greater than the cut would lead one to
imagine, being ½ inch. These two tools have been regarded as hammers,
or possibly weights. I have now spoken of them as punches, or possibly
chisels, but it may be that after all it was the broad end that was
destined for use, in which case they might be regarded as anvils.
Whatever the purpose of these particular tools, there can be but little
doubt that punches were in use for the ornamentation of the flat faces
and the sides of celts; and it will be well to be on the look out
for such tools when hoards belonging to the ancient bronze-founders
are examined. For the most part, however, these seem to belong to a
period posterior to that of the ornamented flat celts, though decorated
spear-heads occur in them.
Some of the punches from the Fonderie de Larnaud and from the
Lake-dwellings may have served for decorating other articles in bronze.
AWLS, DRILLS, OR PRICKERS.
Allied to the pointed tools last described, but considerably smaller,
are the awls, drills, borers, or prickers of bronze which have so
frequently been found accompanying interments in barrows. No doubt such
instruments must have been in very extensive and general use; but it
is only under favourable conditions that such small pieces of metal
would be preserved, and when preserved it is only under conditions
equally favourable that they would attract the attention of an ordinary
labourer. It is, therefore, mainly to the barrow-digger that we are
indebted for our knowledge of these little instruments. Many belong
to a very early part of the Bronze Age, but the form continued in use
through the whole period.
A somewhat detailed essay upon them has already appeared in the
_Archæologia_[665] in the late Dr. Thurnam’s admirable and exhaustive
paper on “Ancient British Barrows,” from which I am tempted largely to
borrow. I am also, through the kindness of the Council of the Society
of Antiquaries, enabled to make use of some of the woodcuts which
illustrate Dr. Thurnam’s paper. He distinguishes three types of these
instruments, which, as he points out, correspond to some extent with as
many types or varieties of the bronze celt. They are as follows:—
I. That with a simply flattened end or tang for insertion into its
handle.
II. That with a well-marked shoulder, where the stem and tang unite;
the object being to prevent its passing too far into the handle.
III. That with a regular stop-ridge, or waist, almost as marked as that
in a carpenter’s awl, as distinguished from that of a shoemaker.
One of the first type, from the Golden barrow at Upton Lovel, is
engraved by Hoare,[666] and is shown in Fig. 223. With it were two
cups, a necklace of amber beads, and a small bronze dagger. It is
almost the longest of those found by Sir R. Colt Hoare, which were
upwards of thirty in number. The only longer specimen was found in a
barrow near Lake,[667] and there also some beads and a bronze dagger
accompanied the interment. It is considerably thicker than Fig. 223,
and the tang for insertion in the handle is broader and flatter. A
smaller awl of the same character was found in a barrow on Upton Lovel
Down,[668] opened by Mr. Cunnington. In this instance there were two
interments in the same grave, and several flint celts and a perforated
stone battle-axe were found, as well as numerous instruments of bone,
and a necklace of beads of jet or lignite.
[Illustration: Fig. 223. Upton Lovel. 1/1]
[Illustration: Fig. 224. Thorndon. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 225. Butterwick. 1/1]
An awl of this kind (3-1/10 inches) found, with a spear-head,
hammer, knife, and gouge of bronze, at Thorndon, Suffolk,[669] most of
them already described, is now in the British Museum, and is shown in
Fig. 224.
Several such instruments, some of them not more than an inch in
length, were found by Canon Greenwell[670] in his exploration of
the Yorkshire barrows. In nine cases awls or prickers accompanied
interments of unburnt bodies, and in three cases they were found among
burnt bones. In most instances instruments of flint were found with
them. An aged woman in a barrow on Langton Wold[671] had three bronze
awls or prickers, as well as an assemblage of bone instruments, animal
teeth, marine shells, and other miscellaneous property, buried with
her. Dr. Thurnam regarded these as drills used with a bow, but I think
such an use is doubtful. Some of the awls from the Yorkshire barrows,
instead of being flattened at one end, are drawn down to a point at
both ends, leaving the middle of larger diameter so as to form a kind
of shoulder. These, I presume, are included under Dr. Thurnam’s Type
II. Sometimes this central part of the blade is square and sometimes
the tang is square, like that described by Stukeley[672] from a barrow
near Stonehenge as “a sharp bodkin round at one end, square at the
other where it went into a handle.”
An awl, square at the centre, and round at each end in section, is
shown in Fig. 225. It was found by Canon Greenwell in a barrow at
Butterwick, Yorkshire, in company with the celt (Fig. 2), and other
objects. The point has unfortunately been broken off.
A typical example of Dr. Thurnam’s second class from a barrow at
Bulford,[673] Wilts, is shown in Fig. 226. Another was found at
Beckhampton, and a small pricker of the same type was found with a
burnt interment at Storrington,[674] Sussex. Like those found by Sir
R. C. Hoare, this was regarded as the pin for fastening the cloth in
which the bones were collected from the funeral pyre. The fact of
several of them having been found still inserted in their hafts, as
will subsequently be seen, will suffice to prove that this view is
mistaken.
Several awls pointed at both ends were found by the late Mr. Bateman
during his researches in the Derbyshire barrows. In Waggon Low[675]
at the right shoulder of a contracted skeleton were three instruments
of flint, and a small bronze awl 1½ inches long, tapering each way
from the middle, which is square. Another, pointed at each end, lay
with a drinking cup and a rude spear- or arrow-head of flint near the
shoulder of a youthful skeleton in a barrow near Minning Low.[676]
Another of the same kind was found in a barrow on Ilam Moor,[677]
Staffordshire. Another was found with calcined bones in a barrow in
Larks-Low,[678] Middleton.
[Illustration: Fig. 226. Bulford. 1/1]
[Illustration: Fig. 227. Winterbourn Stoke. ½]
In several instances there were traces of a wooden handle, as was
the case with one, upwards of 3 inches long, which was found with a
flint spear-head, a double-edged axe of basaltic stone, and objects of
bone, among the calcined bones in a sepulchral urn from a barrow at
Throwley.[679]
In a barrow at Haddon Field[680] there was a small drinking cup near
the back of a contracted skeleton, and beneath this an arrow-head of
flint, an instrument of stag’s-horn like a netting mesh, and a bronze
awl showing traces of its wooden handle.
In another barrow near Gotam, Nottinghamshire,[681] there lay near the
thigh of a contracted skeleton a neatly chipped spear-head of flint,
and a small bronze pin which had been inserted into a wooden handle.
In a barrow near Fimber,[682] Yorkshire, opened by Messrs. Mortimer,
there were found near the knee of a contracted female skeleton a
knife-like chipped flint and the point of a bronze pricker or awl.
With another female interment in the same barrow a bronze pricker was
found inserted in a short wooden haft. The Britoness in this instance
wore a necklace of jet discs with a triangular pendant of the same
material.
A bronze pin, 1½ inches long, accompanied by a broken flint celt and
some arrow-heads and flakes of flint, together with calcined bones,
was found in an urn in Ravenshill barrow,[683] near Scarborough.
In some of the Wiltshire barrows more perfectly preserved handles
have been found. One of these, copied from Hoare’s “Ancient
Wiltshire,”[684] is shown in Fig. 227. It was found in the King barrow
with what was probably a male skeleton buried in the hollowed trunk
of an elm tree. With it was a curious urn of burnt clay and two
bronze daggers, one near the breast and the other near the thigh.
The handle is described as being of ivory, but I think Dr. Thurnam
was right in regarding it as of bone. The awl in this instance is of
the third type, having a well-marked collar round it. Another of the
same character, but retaining only a small part of the haft, so that
the shoulder is better shown, was found with burnt bones in an urn
deposited in a barrow near Stonehenge.[685] No mention is made as to
the nature of the material of which the haft was formed.
In the case of an awl of the first type, engraved by Dr. Thurnam, and
here reproduced as Fig. 228, the handle is of wood, but the kind of
wood is not mentioned.
[Illustration: Fig. 228. Wiltshire. ½]
One or two bronze or brass awls with square shoulders are in the
Museum of the Royal Irish Academy.[686] Several awls with their
original wooden handles have been found in the Lake-dwellings
of Savoy,[687] and others in hafts of stag’s-horn in the Swiss
Lake-dwellings.
Whether the twisted pins from the Wiltshire barrows are of the nature
of gimlets, as suggested by Dr. Thurnam, is a difficult question. I
shall, however, prefer to treat of them as personal ornaments rather
than as tools. It is possible that they may to some extent have
combined the two functions. As to the instruments which I have been
describing being piercing tools or awls, there seems to be little
doubt; and Mr. Bateman can hardly have been far wrong in regarding
them as intended to pierce skins or leather. Though not curved like
the cobbler’s awl of the present day, they are probably early members
of the same family. In Scandinavia these instruments are of frequent
occurrence, sometimes being provided with ornamental handles also made
of bronze.[688] They are in that part of Europe often found in company
with tweezers and small knives of bronze, and all were probably used
together in sewing, the hole being bored by the awl and the thread
drawn through by the tweezers and, when necessary, cut with the knife.
Possibly the use of bristles as substitutes for needles dates back to
very early times.
In one instance at least tweezers have been found in Britain in company
with objects apparently belonging to the Bronze Age, though no doubt to
a very late part of it. Those represented in Fig. 229 were discovered
near Llangwyllog,[689] Anglesea, together with a two-edged razor, a
bracelet, buttons, rings, &c., which are now in the British Museum.
A more highly ornamented pair of tweezers, with a broad end, found
with a bone comb, a quern, spindle-whorls, &c., in a Picts’ house near
Kettleburn,[690] Caithness, belongs to a considerably later period.
[Illustration: Fig. 229. Llangwyllog.]
[Illustration: Fig. 230. Ireland.]
The needles of bronze found in the British Isles do not as a rule
appear to belong to the Bronze Period, though some of those found
on the Continent seem to date back to that age. Two are engraved by
Wilde,[691] and there are altogether eighteen such articles in the
Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. A broken specimen (1¼ inch) from the
sand-hills near Glenluce,[692] Wigtonshire, has been figured.
Another useful article anciently formed of bronze—though perhaps not,
strictly speaking, a tool—may as well be mentioned in this place;
I mean the fish-hook, of which, however, I am able to cite but one
example as having been found in the British Isles. This was found in
Ireland, and is shown in Fig. 230,[693] kindly lent by the Royal Irish
Academy.
Fish-hooks of bronze have been found in considerable abundance on the
site of several of the Swiss Lake-dwellings; and it is not a little
remarkable that in form many of them are almost identical with the
steel fish-hooks of the present day. The barb, to prevent the fish from
struggling off the hook, is in most instances present, and double hooks
are occasionally found. The attachment to the line was, even in the
single hooks, frequently made by a loop or eye, formed by flattening
and turning back the upper part of the shank of the hook. Fish-hooks
were found in the Fonderie de Larnaud (Jura),[694] and in the hoard of
St. Pierre-en-Châtre (Oise).
Such are the principal forms of tools and instruments of bronze found
in these islands. Some of them, such as the socketed gouges, hammers,
and chisels, can only belong to the latter part of the Bronze Period,
when the art of using cores in order to produce sockets or other hollow
recesses in castings was well known. Others, like the simple awls so
frequently found in company with instruments of flint in our barrows,
appear to extend from the commencement of the Bronze Age to its close.
There still remains to be described a class of instruments in use by
the husbandman, and not by the warrior; and as the present chapter has
extended to such a length, it will be well to treat of these under a
separate heading.