THE PREHISTORIC PERIOD As was found desirable with the relics of the Neolithic period, it seems best to treat those of the Bronze period in accordance with their forms, rather than attempt any chronological arrangement, 1 although it seems possible to divide the period in Britain into an earlier and a later stage. Regarding it as a whole, we cannot well assign to it a less duration than eight or ten centuries, and if iron, as seems probable, was already in use in southern Britain in the fourth or fifth century B.C., the beginning of the Bronze period in this country may, with some degree of certainty, be placed at about i2oo 2 or 1400 years B.C. In a separate work I have treated 3 of ' The Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons, and Orna- ments of Great Britain and Ireland,' and, in noticing the bronze antiquities found in Hertfordshire, it will be convenient in many cases to refer to figures in that book, instead of minutely describing the forms. Flat Celts. Of the earliest forms of bronze the flat celt, or hatchet, in form much like some of those made of stone, and the small knife- dagger I have not at present met with any examples in Herts. In Wilts and Yorkshire these forms have generally been found accompanying interments in barrows, and sometimes associated with battle-axes formed of stone. In a barrow in Therfield 4 parish, called Fylers or Money Hill, opened about 1855 by the late Mr. Joseph Beldam, F.S.A., there were found, about two feet from the bottom of the mound, and a good way in the interior, thirteen bars of metal hammered square, about 4^ inches long, varying in weight from about 3^ ounces to 5^ ounces, together with a small copper tool. They proved on analysis to contain 98^- percent, of copper, and a small quantity of tin or antimony, probably the latter. Unfortu- nately, these bars were not found by Mr. Beldam, but by the tenant of the land, who cut away the mound, and used its soil as a top-dressing. The evidence as to the age of these bars is therefore incomplete, but they not improbably belong to the Bronze period. About 1830, another barrow near the Thrift * in the same parish was opened. But little is known of its contents, which consisted of pottery and other objects reputed to be Roman. Winged Celts and Palstaves. A certain number of palstaves, a kind of narrow hatchet with a tang, intended to be hafted with a part of the wooden haft on either side of the tang, have been found in Hertfordshire. One 6 inches long, with a deep stop-ridge and midrib, was found in Park Wood near Knebworth in 1880, and is in the collection of Mr. W. Ransom, F.S.A. In outline it resembles fig. 60 in Ancient Bronze Implements. Another in the same collection, with deep stop-ridge and two ribs below, and with loop at the side, was found near Ashwell, 1889. It has lost part of its tang, but is still 4^ inches long. 1 Proc. Soc. Ant., 2nd ser., v. p. 412. * Evans, Ancient Bronze Implements, p. 473. 3 London, Longmans, 1881. See also Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Sac., viii. p. i.
- Proc. Soc. Ant., 2nd ser., i. p. 306 ; Archteol. Journ., xviii. p. 86 ; Ancient Bronze
Implements, p. 424. 6 Cussans' Hist, of Herts, i. (Odsey), p. 1 1 6. 233
