A blade of nearly the same form as Fig. 279, but with only two rivet holes, found in a barrow at Blewbury,[806] Berks, is preserved in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. Another, also with two rivets, was found by the late Mr. Bateman in a barrow near Minning Low,[807] Derbyshire. Its handle appears to have been of horn. Its owner, wrapped in a skin, had been buried enveloped in fern-leaves, and with him was also a flat bronze celt, a flat bead of jet, and a flint scraper. Dr. Thurnam mentions eighteen[808] other blades, varying from 2½ inches to 6¾ inches in length, as having been found during the Bateman excavations, as well as one 7¾ inches long and sharply pointed, found at Lett Low,[809] near Warslow, Staffordshire. Of these twenty, sixteen were found with unburnt bodies and four with burnt. Some of these were, however, of the tanged variety, and some fluted or ribbed. At Carder Low a small axe-hammer of basalt, as well as a knife-dagger of this kind, with the edges worn hollow by use, had been placed with the body. The same was the case in a barrow at Parcelly Hay, near Hartington, Derbyshire.
At End Low, near Hartington, there was a rudely formed “spear-head” of flint beside the knife-dagger, and at Thorncliff,[810] on Calton Moor, Staffordshire, “a neat instrument of flint.”
In some cases, though there were holes in the blade, there were no rivets[811] in them, which led Mr. Bateman to think that they were attached to their handles by ligatures. In a barrow in Yorkshire,[812] Mr. Harland found, with remains of a burnt body, a small bronze knife which still had adhering to it some portions of cord partly charred, apparently the remains of what had formed the attachment to the handle. Pins of wood, bone, or horn were no doubt frequently used instead of metal rivets. Such pins seem to have been commonly employed for securing spear-heads to their shafts. “An instrument of brass,[813] formed like a spear-head, but flat and thin,” was found in a barrow on Bincombe Down, Dorsetshire. “It had been fixed to a shaft by means of three wooden pegs, one of which remained in the perforation when found, but on being exposed to the air fell immediately into dust.” In certain dagger blades with four or more rivet-holes some are devoid of rivets, while there are metal rivets in the others.
A remarkably small blade, only 1¾ inches long, with two rivet-holes, was found in a tumulus in Dorsetshire.[814] Another (4⅛ inches) lay with burnt bones, in what was regarded as a cleft and hollowed trunk of a tree, in a barrow near Yatesbury,[815] Wilts. Another, more triangular in shape, and also with two rivet-holes, was found in a barrow near Stonehenge.[816]
Another (2½ inches) of the same character was found with burnt bones, a needle of wood, and a broken flint pebble, in an urn at Tomen-y-Mur,[817] near Festiniog, Merionethshire.
Of knife-daggers with three rivet-holes found in our southern counties, may be mentioned one (5½ inches) found with a drinking cup and a perforated stone axe, accompanying an unburnt interment, in a barrow at East Kennett,[818] Wilts. Another (4¼ inches), also accompanied by a stone axe-hammer, was found in a barrow called Jack’s Castle,[819] near Stourton. The body had in this instance been burnt. Another knife-dagger, also with burnt bones, in a barrow at Wilsford,[820] was accompanied by two flint arrow-heads, some whetstones, and some instruments of stag’s-horn. Another, protected by a wooden scabbard, was found in a barrow at Brigmilston.[821]
What appear to have been blades of the same kind were found with burnt bones in the barrows near Priddy,[822] Somerset, and Ashey Down,[823] Isle of Wight (6 inches). The latter is tapering in form. One (7⅜ inches) which shows no rivets was found at Culter,[824] Lanarkshire.
An unfinished blade without rivet-holes was also found, with castings of palstaves and flanged celts, at Rhosnesney,[825] near Wrexham.
From Derbyshire may be cited that from Carder Low,[826] already described, and one from Brier Low.[827] Another from Lett Low,[828] Staffordshire, has already been mentioned, as have been others described by Bateman.[829] One from a barrow at Middleton[830] was regarded by Pegge as a spear-head.