by many supposed that they are also of Roman manufacture.
The Romans used bronze extensively, and even fabricated their swords of this material. We are told that, under Æmilius, they owed one of their crowning victories over the Gauls to the superiority of their weapons of bronze over the badly-tempered iron of their invaders. The bronze circular shields, however, some examples of which are exhibited in our national museum, have been found in graves supposed to be British.
Celts of bronze.—Celts, so called from “celtis,” a chisel. These instruments may be classed as “wedge-shaped;” as celts with ridges, celts with stop-ridges, and celts with sockets. Some of the latter have one loop, sometimes a loop on each side. (See examples “C.”) The oldest form is probably the “wedge-shaped,” being a natural imitation of the flint or stone chisel. (Fig 1 c.)
There are numerous examples of celts in the British Museum, and to these we invite attention. The mode of fastening, or of hafting, these instruments is not very perfectly understood. The weapons of the South Sea Islanders give us some idea how rude implements may be supplied with handles either fixed into a solid piece of wood, or placed in a split or cavity and fastened by thongs or some other description of tie. The presence of the loop on the bronze celts (Figs. 4 and 5) obviously suggests its use to assist in giving it greater firmness of hold, and the ridge or socket also indicates the method of inserting the implement in the staff or handle.
The moulds in which these celts have been cast have been discovered with other antiquities, and in some instances with lumps of the prepared metal close by. The moulds were formed of stone or metal, the upper and lower surfaces being constructed to fit together as accurately as possible, presenting an opening through which the metal was poured in.
Considerable discussion has arisen respecting the modes by which the celts were affixed to their handles..png)
The celt of the simple form was probably (Fig. 1 c) inserted into a wooden haft, as in the example given of the stone implement (No. 1 d).
Some of the socketed celts might have been fixed on a crooked stick, with an arm nearly at right angles, and by a thong from the loop or loops strengthened in their position on the staff; or they might have been adapted to their handles, as the socketed lance-heads are in the present day; although by these arrangements they would lose much of their efficiency. It may not be unlikely that one species of the celt, the “socketed,” with one loop only, was supplied with a short wooden staff, and by a leathern thong was attached to a handle like the main stick of a flail. Thus whirled by a combatant, it would be a formidable weapon in a primitive state of warfare.
Spear-heads of bronze, with loops, or rather orifices in the sides, have also been deposited among ancient remains.
The stone implements and weapons found in graves and elsewhere, may be justly considered as amongst objects exhibiting earliest proofs of the handicraft of man.
The wedge with which the savage split wood; the knife, perhaps at first but a flint flake, accidentally splintered, with which he skinned the animals he had taken in the chase, or divided their flesh; the arrow or spear heads, pointed and affixed to their respective shafts or hafts, and with which he had slain his prey, would be among the most primitive instruments fabricated by man. Accordingly we find in or about the most ancient graves, these silent yet eloquent expounders of the manners, habits, and civilisation of a long perished people. The great proportion of these implements are composed of flint; other specimens are of sandstone, jade, ironstone, porphyry, jasper, chalcedony, &c.
Fig. 3 d is a beautiful example of a chisel of white flint, found in a wood near Canterbury, where there are traces still apparent of ancient entrenchments. Roman remains and British pottery had previously been found on the spot. The length of the implement is 6½ inches, greatest breadth 1¾ inches. We consider this an example of a British war chisel: when hafted, it would present an appearance very similar in appearance to the stone celt in a handle (Fig. 1 d).
Fig. 4 d is an example of a stone implement in the museum at Canterbury.
Fig. 2 d is a specimen of a peculiar shape. It measures 7½ inches in length. It is described as “a stone hammer found at Orebo in Sweden.” Its form seems to indicate it is not of so ancient a period as generally assigned to implements of this description. The same remark might apply to specimen Fig. 8, also at Canterbury, had not a similar maul or hammer, now in the museum at Swansea, been found at Stanmadock, in Gower. The boring of the hole in the centre, and the symmetrical appearance of the relic itself, implies a mechanical skill not often exhibited in these primitive implements.
Fig. 6 d is a very perfect example of the ancient skinning knife, with the lower portion cut away for insertion into a haft. It was picked up from a heap of gravel thrown up during excavations for the Canterbury and Dover Railway, and near the first-named locality.
Fig. 7 d is an example of a flint knife. Figs. 9, 9 represent flint arrow-heads, often found in or near British camps or interments. Figs. 10, 10, 10, are specimens, in bone, of arrow or of bolt heads; the one ornamented with incised lines was found at Woodperry. The exact size is given in the engraving.
Fig. 5 d is an implement of a high antiquity, said to have been found in Gray’s Inn Lane, in