KNIVES, RAZORS, ETC.
IT is a question whether, if in this work strict regard had been paid
to the development of different forms of cutting implements, the knife
ought not to have occupied the first place, rather than the hatchet or
celt; for when bronze was first employed for cutting purposes it was no
doubt extremely scarce, and would therefore hardly have been available
for any but the smaller kinds of tools and weapons.
[Illustration: Fig. 239.—Wicken Fen. ½]
Both hatchets and knives, or rather knife-daggers, have been found with
interments in barrows; but it seems better to include the majority of
the latter class of instruments, which appear to occupy an intermediate
place between tools and weapons, in the next chapter, which treats of
daggers; rather than in this, which will be devoted to what appear to
be forms of tools and implements. Some of these, however, like the
celt or hatchet, may have been equally available both for peaceful and
warlike uses; and though I have to some extent tried to keep tools and
weapons under different headings, it appears impossible completely to
carry out any such system of arrangement. Nor in treating of what I
have regarded as knives does it seem convenient first to describe what
appear to be the simpler and older forms, inasmuch as there are other
forms which in all respects except the shape of the blade so closely
resemble some of the socketed sickles described in the last chapter,
that they seem almost of necessity to follow immediately in order. The
first instrument which I shall cite has sometimes indeed been regarded
as a sickle, though it is more properly speaking a curved knife.
[Illustration: Fig. 240.—Thorndon. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 241.—Reach Fen. ½]
It was found in Wicken Fen, and is now in the Museum of the Cambridge
Antiquarian Society, the Council of which has kindly permitted me to
engrave it as Fig. 239. It has already been figured, but not quite
accurately, in the _Archæological Journal_,[727] the rib at the back
of the blade being omitted. I am not aware of any other example of
this form of knife having been found in the United Kingdom, but a
double-edged socketed knife with a curved blade, found in Ireland, is
in the Bateman Collection.
The ordinary form of socketed knife has a straight double-edged blade,
extending from an oval or oblong socket, pierced by one or two holes,
through which rivets or pins could pass to secure the haft. These holes
are usually at right angles to the axis of the blade, but sometimes in
the same plane with it.
Fig. 240 shows a knife with two rivet-holes, which was found at
Thorndon, Suffolk, together with socketed celts, a spear-head, hammer,
gouge, and an awl, several of which have been figured in preceding
pages. Another (9 inches long), much like Fig. 240, but with the
sides of the socket flat, and the blade more fluted, was found in the
Thames, and is engraved in the _Archæological Journal._[728] Another,
of much the same size and general character, formed part of a hoard of
bronze objects found in Reach Fen, near Burwell, of which mention has
already frequently been made. It is in my own collection, and is shown
in Fig. 241. I have another, 6½ inches long, found in Edmonton Marsh.
A fine blade of this kind, with two rivet-holes in the hilt (14½
inches), was found in the New Forest, Glamorganshire, and was formerly
in the Meyrick Collection.[729] It is now in the British Museum. The
blade has shallow flutings parallel with the edges.
A socketed knife of this kind (4½ inches) was found by General A. Pitt
Rivers, F.R.S., in a pit at the foot of the interior slope of the
rampart of Highdown Camp,[730] near Worthing, Sussex. It may possibly
have accompanied a funereal deposit.
In some instances the two rivet-holes run lengthways of the oval
of the socket. One such, discovered with other objects at Lanant,
Cornwall (8¼ inches), is engraved in the _Archæologia_.[731] It is now
in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries. One like it was found on
Holyhead Mountain,[732] Anglesea, and is now in the British Museum.
A fragment of a knife of this kind is in the museum at Amiens, and
formed part of a hoard found near that town. It has a beading at the
mouth of the socket, and also one about midway between the rivet-holes.
[Illustration: Fig. 242.—Heathery Burn Cave. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 243.—Kilgraston, Perthshire. ½]
Commonly there is but a single hole through the socket, especially in
the smaller specimens. That shown in Fig. 242 is of this kind, but
presents the remarkable feature of having upon each face of the socket
six small projecting bosses simulating rivet-heads. It was found in the
Heathery Burn Cave,[733] Durham, with socketed celts, spear-heads, and
numerous other articles. Another from the same cave (5⅛ inches) with a
plain and rather larger socket is in the collection of Canon Greenwell,
F.R.S.
Of other specimens, but without the small bosses, the following may
be mentioned:—One (6½ inches long) found with socketed celts, part
of a sword blade, and a gouge, at Martlesham, Suffolk, and in the
possession of Captain Brooke, of Ufford Hall. Two found in the Thames
near Wallingford.[734] Another (5⅜ inches), from the same source, in
my own collection. This was found with a socketed celt, gouge, chisel,
and razor (Fig. 269). One from Llandysilio, Denbighshire, found with
socketed celts and a spear-head, is in Canon Greenwell’s collection. A
knife of this kind was among the relics found above the stalagmite in
Kent’s Cavern, near Torquay.
I have a knife of this character (4¾ inches), but with the rivet-hole
in a line with the edges of the blade, found in Dorsetshire.
In Scotland the socketed form of knife is very rare.
That shown in Fig. 243 was found at Kilgraston, Perthshire, and is in
the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S. It has a central rib along
the blade and two shorter lateral ribs, and in some respects has more
the appearance of being a spear-head than a knife.
Another, with the rivet-hole in the same plane as the blade, was found
near Campbelton, Argyleshire, and has been engraved as a spear-head
by Professor Daniel Wilson.[735] The discovery of a blade having its
original handle, as subsequently mentioned, proves, however, that some
of these are rightly regarded as knives, though another form (Fig.
328) has more the appearance of being a spear-head. The curved knife
with a socket, figured by the same author,[736] can hardly, I think,
be Scottish.
[Illustration: Fig. 244.—Kells. ½]
In Ireland the socketed form of knife is more abundant than in either
England or Scotland. No less than thirty-three such knives[737] are
recorded by Sir W. Wilde, as preserved in the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy, of five of which he gives figures. Many specimens also exist
in private collections.
That shown in Fig. 244 is in the collection of Canon Greenwell,
F.R.S., and was found at Kells, Co. Meath. As will be observed, the
blade is at the base somewhat wider than the socket. The indented
lines upon it appear to have been produced in the casting, and not
added by any subsequent process. A knife of the same kind, found in
the Bog of Aughrane, near Athleague, Co. Galway, is still attached to
the original handle, which, like many of those of the flint knives
found in the Swiss Lake-dwellings, is formed of yew. It has been
several times figured.[738]
I have a specimen of the same character, but in outline more like Fig.
240, 6 inches long, from the North of Ireland.
A knife of this kind, found in a hoard at St. Genouph, is in the
Tours Museum.
In some instances the junction between the blade and the socket is
made to resemble that between the hilt and blade of some of the bronze
swords and daggers, such as Figs. 291 and 349.
The example shown in Fig. 245 is in my own collection. I do not,
however, know in what part of Ireland it was found. The rivet-hole is
at the side, and not on the face, in which, however, there is a slight
flaw, which assumes the appearance of a hole in the figure. In Canon
Greenwell’s collection is a nearly similar specimen (10¾ inches),
found at Balteragh, Co. Derry, with two rivet-holes at the side and
the socket somewhat ornamented by parallel grooves at the mouth and at
the junction with the blade.
[Illustration: Fig. 245.—Ireland. ½]
One of the socketed knives in the Academy Museum at Dublin has two
rivet-holes on the face. Of the others, about two-thirds have a single
rivet-hole on the face, and the other third one on the side.
A long blade, somewhat differing in its details from Fig. 245, was
found between Lurgan and Moira, Co. Down, and, it is stated, in
company with the bronze hilt or pommel shown in Fig. 246. These
objects formed part of the Wilshe Collection, and are now in the
Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. Two objects, somewhat similar to
Fig. 246, found with spear-heads in Cambridgeshire, will subsequently
be mentioned. A piece of bronze of much the same form, found with a
hoard of bronze objects at Marden,[739] in Kent, seems to be a jet or
waste piece from a casting. It has, however, been regarded as part of
a fibula.
The socketed form of knife is hardly known upon the Continent,
though, as will have been observed, it has occasionally been found
in the North of France. Among the fragments of metal forming part of
the deposit of an ancient bronze-founder, and discovered at Dreuil,
near Amiens, I have the fragments of two such knives. I have also a
fine and entire specimen, 9¼ inches long, from the bed of the Seine
at Charenton, near Paris. There is a transverse rib at each end
and in the middle of the socket, through the face of which are two
rivet-holes. A portion of the original wooden handle is still in the
socket, secured in its place by two pins, also apparently of wood,
which pass through the rivet-holes. Another knife (6⅝ inches), like
Fig. 241, but with only one rivet-hole, was also found in the Seine at
Paris, and is now in my collection.
Several socketed knives with curved blades have been found in the
Swiss Lake-dwellings, and one such, found with the sickle already
mentioned, is in the Amiens Museum.
There is another form of socketed knife which it will be well here to
mention. The blade is sharp on both sides, but instead of being flat it
is curved into a semicircle. For a typical example I am obliged to have
recourse to a French specimen.
That shown in Fig. 247 is in my own collection, and was found with
a gold torque and bracelet, a bronze anvil (Fig. 217), and other
objects, at Fresné la Mère, near Falaise, Calvados. It seems well
adapted for working out hollows in wood. With it was found a small,
tanged, single-edged knife, the end of which is bent to a smaller
curve.
[Illustration: Fig. 246.—Moira. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 247.—Fresné la Mère. ½]
An instrument of much the same character (4 inches) was found, with a
bronze sword, spear-heads, &c., in the Island of Skye, and is now in
the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh. As Professor Daniel Wilson[740]
observes, “in general appearance it resembles a bent spear-head, but
it has a raised central ridge on the inside, while it is nearly plain
and smooth on the outer side.—The most probable use for which it has
been designed would seem to be for scraping out the interior of canoes
and other large vessels made from the trunk of the oak.” It is shown
as Fig. 248. Another instrument of the same kind (4½ inches), found at
Wester Ord, Invergordon, Ross-shire, is engraved in the _Proceedings
of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_,[741] and is here by their
permission reproduced as Fig. 249.
[Illustration: Fig. 248.—Skye. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 249.—Wester Ord. ½]
It seems by no means improbable that such instruments may have been
mistaken for bent spear-heads, and that they are not quite so rare as
would at present appear.
Two specimens of the socketed form have been found in the Lake
settlement of the Eaux Vives, near Geneva, and are now in the museum
of that town. Another, with a tang, is in the collection of M. Forel,
of Morges, and was found among the pile-dwellings near that place.
[Illustration: Fig. 250.—Reach Fen. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 251.—Reach Fen. ½]
A fragment of what appears to have been one of these curved knives,
but with a solid handle, and not a socket, was found with gouges and
various fragments at Hounslow, and is now in the British Museum.
What seems to be a tanged curved knife of this kind formed part of the
great Bologna hoard.
Another form of knife, which appears to be intermediate between those
with sockets and those with merely a flat tang, is shown in Fig. 250.
In this there are loops extending across the blade on either side,
which would receive the ends of the two pieces of wood or horn destined
to form the handle, so that a single rivet sufficed to bind them and
the blade between them firmly together.
The original was found in Reach Fen, Cambridgeshire, and is now in my
own collection. The blade has the appearance of having been originally
longer, but of being now worn away by use. I know of no other specimen
of the kind. The power to cast such loops upon the blade is a proof of
no ordinary skill in the founder.
A palstave with a loop of this kind instead of a stop or side-flanges
was found at Donsard,[742] Haute Savoie.
Another form of knife or dagger has merely a flat tang, in some cases
provided with rivets by which it could be fastened to a handle, in
others without rivets, as if it had been simply driven into a handle.
The blade shown in Fig. 251 was found in the same hoard as that
engraved as Fig. 241. The rivets are fast attached to the blade, and
the handle through which they passed was probably of some perishable
material, such as wood, horn, or bone.
Another blade (5¼ inches), with a broad tang and two rivet-holes, was
found in the Thames.[743]
In the British Museum is a knife much like the figure, 8 inches long,
and showing three facets on the blade, found in the Thames at Kingston.
The knife-blades with broad tangs, which were not riveted to their
handles, were in some instances provided with a central ridge upon the
tang, which served to steady them in their handles, and in others the
stem or tang was left plain.
One of the former class, from the Heathery Burn Cave, is shown in Fig.
252. It is in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S.
An imperfect knife of the same kind, found in Yorkshire, is in the
Scarborough Museum.
Another, with the edges more ogival, like Fig. 241, was found in the
neighbourhood of Nottingham,[744] with socketed celts and numerous
other objects in bronze.
Another, broader at the base and more like a dagger in character, was
found with various other articles at Marden,[745] Kent.
More leaf-shaped and sharply pointed blades of this kind, probably
daggers rather than knives, have been often found in Ireland. One[746]
(10½ inches) has been figured by Wilde. Another was in the Dowris
hoard.
In the Isle of Harty hoard, already more than once cited, was a knife
with a plain tang, shown in Fig. 253. It has rather the appearance of
having been made from the point of a broken sword, as the edges of the
tang have been “upset” by hammering. The blade itself is now narrower
than the tang, the result probably of much wear and use.
The end of a broken sword in the Dowris hoard has been converted
into a knife in a similar manner. In the collection of the late Lord
Braybrooke is what appears to be part of a tanged knife, sharpened at
the broken end so as to form a chisel.
In the Reach Fen hoard was a knife (4⅛ inches) of much the same
character, but not so broad in the tang.
A flat blade with a tang for insertion in a haft must have been a very
early form of metal tool. Among the Assyrian relics from Tel Sifr, in
South Babylonia, such blades were found, of which there are examples
in the British Museum.
Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., has two leaf-shaped blades of copper, with
tangs set in handles of bone rather longer than the blades, which were
lately in use among the Esquimaux. In form they resemble Fig. 257.
It will now be well to mention some of the other Irish specimens of
this class.
The knives with the projecting rib upon the tang are by no means
uncommon, and there are several in the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy and elsewhere. Canon Greenwell has one (6⅜ inches) from
Ballynascreen, Co. Tyrone, much like that from the Heathery Burn Cave
(Fig. 252).
[Illustration: Fig. 252.—Heathery Burn Cave. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 253.—Harty. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 254.—Ireland. ½]
The knife or dagger with a plain tang and an ornamented blade engraved
as Fig. 254 is in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. Another,
simply ridged and with a single rivet-hole in the tang, found at
Craigs,[747] Co. Antrim, is in the collection of Mr. R. Day, F.S.A.
It is less round-ended than the blade with a central rib along it
and one rivet-hole in the tang, shown in Fig. 255. This is in my own
collection, and was found at Ballyclare, Co. Antrim.
A mould for blades of this character will subsequently be mentioned.
Another form of knife, unless possibly it was intended for a
lance-head, is shown in Fig. 256. This specimen is also from the Reach
Fen hoard, but is of yellower metal and differently patinated from the
objects found with it. Canon Greenwell has a knife of the same form
(4¾ inches), found at Seamer Carr, Yorkshire. Another, smaller (3⅜
inches), is in the British Museum, but its place of finding is not
known. A nearly similar blade, found near Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, is
shown in Fig. 257.
Another example of this form (5⅜ inches) is in the British Museum.
Sir W. Wilde[748] has figured some other examples of the same kind,
from 3 to 4 inches long, which he regarded as arrow-heads. They appear
to me, however, too large for such a purpose.
In the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy is yet another variety, with
the blade pierced in the centre (Fig. 258).
[Illustration: Fig. 255.—Ballyclare. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 256.—Reach Fen. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 257.—Ballycastle. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 258.—Ireland. ½]
Before proceeding to describe some other symmetrical double-edged
blades, it will be well to notice such, few examples as have been found
of single-edged blades, like the ordinary knives of the present day.
Abundant as these are, not only in the Lake-dwellings of Switzerland,
but in France and other continental countries, they are of extremely
rare occurrence in the British Isles.
In Fig. 259 I have engraved a small instrument of this kind, found at
Wigginton, near Tring, Herts, the handle of which terminates in the
head of an animal. It was therefore not intended for insertion into a
haft of some other material.
I have another bronze knife, rather longer and narrower, and with a
pointed tang, which is said to have been found in London; but of this
I am by no means certain.
[Illustration: Fig. 259.—Wigginton. 1/1]
The rude knife found with the Isle of Harty hoard, and shown full
size as Fig. 260, is the only other English specimen with which I am
acquainted, but no doubt more exist.
[Illustration: Fig. 260.—Isle of Harty. 1/1]
The only specimen mentioned in the Catalogue of the Museum of the
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland is in all 14 inches long, with
a thick back and notched tang, and of this the place of finding is
unknown. Professor Daniel Wilson[749] speaks of it as having been
found in Ayrshire, and regards it as a reaping instrument. He also
figures a socketed knife of much the same size from the collection
of Sir John Clerk at Penicuick House, in which are also some tanged
specimens. I cannot help suspecting that these are of foreign origin.
In Ireland the form appears to be at present unknown.
[Illustration: Fig. 261.—Allhallows, Hoo. ½]
In Fig. 261 is shown a knife of a form which is of extremely rare
occurrence in this country; though, as will be seen, it has frequently
been found in France.
The specimen here figured has been kindly lent me by Mr. Humphrey
Wickham, of Strood, and was found with a hoard of bronze objects
at Allhallows, Hoo,[750] Kent. The hoard contained socketed celts,
gouges, a spear-head, fragments of swords, and the object engraved as
Fig. 286. One more crescent-like in form was found with a hoard of
bronze objects near Meldreth, Cambridgeshire, and is in the British
Museum.
Knives of this kind were associated with celts, gouges, &c., in
the hoard of Notre-Dame d’Or, now in the museum at Poitiers. Two
also were present in the Alderney hoard found near the _Pierre du
Villain_.[751]
Some knives of this character were found with a hoard of bronze tools
and weapons at Questembert, Brittany, and are now in the museum at
Vannes. A broken one was in the hoard of the Jardin des Plantes,
Nantes.[752] One from La Manche is engraved in the _Memoirs of the
Society of Antiquaries of Normandy_, 1827-8, pl. xvi. 20. A knife
of this character of rectangular form, each side being brought to
an edge, was found with other bronze relics at Plonéour, Brittany,
and is engraved in the _Archæologia Cambrensis_.[753] In character
this knife closely resembles some of those in flint.[754] A kind of
triangular knife of the same character was found at Briatexte[755]
(Tarn). One from the station of Eaux Vives, in the Lake of Geneva,
has the face ornamented at the blunt margin with a vandyke of hatched
triangles. In some French varieties there are rings at the top of the
blade instead of holes through it. In a curious specimen from St.
Jullien, Chapleuil, in the collection of M. Aymard, at Le Puy, the edge
is nearly semicircular, and there are eight round holes through the
blade as well as two rings at the back. Some of the razors from the
Lake-dwellings of Savoy and Switzerland are of much the same character
as these knives. I have a knife of this class with a rather large
triangular opening in it and two circular loops, found at Bernissart,
Hainault.[756] Another somewhat different was found at Lavène[757]
(Tarn).
[Illustration: Fig. 262.—Cottle.]
A Danish[758] knife of this character has five circular loops along
the hollowed back. A Mecklenburg[759] knife has three such loops and
corded festoons of bronze between.
The bronze knife or razor, shown full size in Fig. 262, was found at
Cottle,[760] near Abingdon, and is now in the British Museum. It is
of a peculiar and distinct type, but somewhat resembles in character
the oblong bronze cutting instrument found at Plonéour, Brittany,
already mentioned. It is thinner and flatter than would appear from
the figure. A Mecklenburg[761] knife or razor figured by Lisch is
analogous in form.
I have a rough and imperfect blade of somewhat the same character as
that from Cottle, but thinner and more curved. It has no hole through
it, but thickens out at one end into a short boat-shaped projection
about ½ inch long. It was found near Londonderry.
A diminutive pointed blade which appears to be too small to have
been in use as a dagger, and which from the rivet-hole through the
tang can hardly have served as an arrow or lance head, is shown in
Fig. 263. This specimen formed part of the Reach Fen hoard. A very
small example of this kind of blade, from a barrow near Robin Hood’s
Ball, Wilts, has been figured by the late Dr. Thurnam, F.S.A., in his
second exhaustive paper on “Ancient British Barrows,” published in the
_Archæologia_,[762] from which I have derived much useful information.
A small blade with the sides more curved is shown in Fig. 264, which I
have copied from Dr. Thurnam’s engraving.[763] The original was found
in Lady Low, Staffordshire.
A smaller example, with a longer and imperforated tang, found in an
urn at Broughton,[764] Lincolnshire, and now in the British Museum,
has been thought to be an arrow-head; but I agree with Dr. Thurnam
in regarding both it and the small blades described by Hoare[765] as
arrow-heads, as being more probably small double-edged knives.
[Illustration: Fig. 263. Reach Fen. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 264. Lady Low. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 265. Winterslow. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 266. Priddy. ½]
Some remarks as to the almost if not absolutely entire absence of
bronze arrow-heads in this country will be found in a subsequent page.
The larger specimens of these tanged blades of somewhat triangular
outline I have described as daggers, but I must confess that the
distinction between knives and daggers is in such cases purely
arbitrary. The more rounded forms which now follow seem rather of the
nature of tools or toilet instruments than weapons.
Fig. 265, copied from Dr. Thurnam’s plate,[766] represents what
has been regarded as a razor blade. It was found in a barrow at
Winterslow, Wilts, and is now in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.
Its resemblance to the leaf of rib-wort (_Plantago media_) has been
pointed out by Dr. Thurnam, who records that it was found in an urn
with burnt bones and a set of beautiful amber buttons or studs. He
has also figured one of nearly the same size, but with fewer ribs,
from a barrow at Priddy, Somerset. This also has been regarded as an
arrow-head, though it is 3 inches long and 1½ inches broad. It has a
small rivet-hole through the tang. The original is now in the Bristol
Museum, and its edge is described as sharp enough to mend a pen.[767]
I have reproduced it in Fig. 266. A blade of much the same kind was
found in an urn, with an axe-hammer of stone and a whetstone, at
Broughton-in-Craven,[768] in 1675.
[Illustration: Fig. 267.—Balblair.]
[Illustration: Fig. 268.—Rogart. 1/1]
Canon Greenwell records the finding of an oval knife (2⅞ inches) with
burnt bones in an urn at Nether Swell,[769] Gloucestershire.
A flat blade, almost circular, with a somewhat longer tang than any
here figured, formed part of the great Bologna hoard.
These instruments are occasionally found in Scotland. Some of them are
of rather larger size, and ornamented in a different manner upon the
face.
A small plain oval blade, which has possibly lost its tang, was found
in a tumulus at Lieraboll,[770] Kildonan, Sutherland, and has been
figured. Two oval blades were found with burnt bones in urns near St.
Andrews.[771]
Another, found in a large cinerary urn at Balblair,[772]
Sutherlandshire, is shown full size in Fig. 267. The edges are very
thin and sharp, and the central rib shown in the section is ornamented
with incised lines.
Another blade of the same character, but ornamented with a lozenge
pattern, and with the midrib less pronounced, is shown in Fig. 268,
also of the actual size. It was found in a tumulus at Rogart,[773]
Sutherland.
[Illustration: Fig. 269.—Wallingford. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 270.—Heathery Burn Cave. ½]
Another, apparently more perfect, and with many more lozenges in the
pattern, is engraved in Gordon’s “Itinerarium Septentrionale.”[774] He
describes it as “the end of a spear or Hasta Pura of old mixt brass,
finely chequered.” It was in Baron Clerk’s collection.
The only English example which I can adduce was found with some
sickles, a torque, and numerous other objects at Taunton. It is of
nearly the same size and shape as Fig. 267, but the centre plate
is fluted with a slight ridge along the middle and one on either
side, and is not ornamented. It is described as a lance-head in the
_Archæological Journal_.[775]
I am not aware of any such blades having ever been found in Ireland,
in which country the plainer forms of oval razors also seem to be
extremely rare.
In Canon Greenwell’s Collection is an oval blade (4 inches) with a
flat central rib, tapering to a point, running along it. It has no
tang, but there is a rivet-hole through the broad end of the rib. It
was found in an urn with burnt bones at Killyless, Co. Antrim.
The form most commonly known under the name of razor is that shown in
Fig. 269, from a specimen in my own collection, found in the Thames,
with a socketed knife and other objects, near Wallingford. One of
almost identical character was found at Llangwyllog,[776] Anglesea.
[Illustration: Fig. 271.—Dunbar. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 272.—Dunbar. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 273.—Dunbar. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 274.—Ireland. ½]
Another, without midrib, from the Heathery Burn Cave, is, by the
permission of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., shown as Fig. 270.
An example from Wiltshire[777] in the Stourhead Museum (now at
Devizes) is more barbed at the base and rounded at the top, in which
there is neither notch nor perforation.
It is difficult to assign a use for the small hole usually to be seen
in these blades. It may possibly be by way of precaution against the
fissure in the blade extending too far, though in most cases the notch
in the end of the blade does not extend to the hole.
Razors of this character have been discovered in Scotland. Three which
are believed to have been found together in a tumulus at Bowerhouses,
near Dunbar,[778] Haddingtonshire, about 1825, are shown in Figs. 271,
272, and 273. They are all in the Antiquarian Museum, at Edinburgh,
together with a socketed celt found with them.
[Illustration: Fig. 275.—Kinleith. 1/1]
Razors of the class last described have been found in Ireland, and
three are mentioned in Wilde’s Catalogue[779] of the Museum of the
Royal Irish Academy, to the Council of which body I am indebted
for the use of Fig. 274. The midrib of the specimen here shown is
decorated with ring ornaments formed of incised concentric circles, an
ornament of frequent use in early times, though but rarely occurring
on objects of bronze in Britain. There is a large razor of this kind
in the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin. Several unornamented blades
of this character were present in the Dowris hoard. Two which were
found in a crannoge[780] in the county of Monaghan were regarded as
bifid arrow-heads. One of these (2⅝ inches) is in the British Museum.
A blade of this kind, but with a loop instead of a tang, and a hole at
the base of the blade as well as one near the bottom at the notch, was
found at Deurne,[781] Guelderland, and is in the Leyden Museum.
The only remaining form of razor which has to be noticed is that of
which a representation is given of the actual size in Fig. 275.
This instrument was found at Kinleith,[782] near Currie, Edinburgh,
and has been described and commented on by Dr. John Alexander Smith.
The blade, besides being perforated in an artistic manner and having a
ring at the end of the handle, is of larger dimensions than usual with
instruments of this kind. The metal of which it is composed consists
of copper 92·97 per cent., tin 7·03 (with a trace of lead).
[Illustration: Fig. 276.—Nidau.]
It affords the only instance of a razor of this shape having been
found in the British Isles. The form much more nearly approaches one
of not uncommon occurrence on the Continent than any other British
example, and Dr. Smith has illustrated this by the accompanying figure
of a razor from the Steinberg, near Nidau,[783] on the Lake of Bienne
(Fig. 276). I have a razor of nearly the same form from the Seine at
Paris, and others have been found in various parts of France.[784]
The nearest in character to Fig. 275 is perhaps one found in the hoard
of Notre-Dame d’Or,[785] and preserved in the museum at Poitiers.
Instead of the blade being a single crescent, it consists of two
penannular concentric blades with a plain midrib connecting them,
which has a ring at the external end. An instrument with the blade
formed of a single crescent was found at the same time.
A German example is in the Museum of the Deutsche Gesellschaft, at
Leipzig.
In the next chapter I shall treat of those blades which appear to be
weapons rather than tools.