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.
