Fig. 233.—Edington Burtle. ½
Two other sickles found on Sparkford Hill,[706] also in Somersetshire, present the same peculiarity. One of these much resembles Fig. 233, though nearly straight along the back. The other is flat on both faces. Each has lost its point. A chisel-like tool was found with them.
With the Edington sickles were found a broad fluted penannular armlet and what may have been a finger-ring of the same pattern, a plain penannular armlet of square section, part of a light funicular torque like Fig. 467, part of a ribbon torque like Fig. 469, and four penannular rings, some of them apparently made from fragments of torques.
Two other sickles of the same character, each with two projecting pins, were found in Taunton[707] itself in association with twelve palstaves, a socketed celt, a hammer (Fig. 214), a fragment of a spear-head, a double-edged knife, a funicular torque (Fig. 468), a pin (Fig. 451), some fragments of other pins, and several penannular rings of various sizes.
Fig. 234.—Thames. ½
All the objects found at Edington, Sparkford Hill, and Taunton are now in the museum in Taunton Castle.
A thinner form of flat sickle, if such it be, has been found in Kent. Among a number of bronze objects which were discovered at Marden,[708] near Staplehurst, there is a slightly curved blade with a rivet at one end, which appears to present a sickle-like character. I have not seen the original, and as it is described as a knife-blade it may prove to have been one, or possibly, what is of far rarer occurrence, a saw.
Of socketed sickles a few have at different times been dredged up from the Thames. One of these, found in 1859, is in my own collection, and is shown in Fig. 234. The blade, which is almost as sharp at the back as at the edge, is not quite central with the socket, but so placed as to make the instrument better adapted for use in the right hand than in the left. The socket tapers considerably, and is closed at the end.