Fig. 328.—Arreton Down. ½
In the Arreton Down hoard there was a single example of a weapon of this kind which was provided with a socket for the insertion of a handle or shaft, instead of having a tang. Fig. 328 is copied from the engraving published in the Archæologia.[967] As will be observed, the socket part is made to abut on the blade, much after the manner of a dagger handle, and has cast upon it two bosses in imitation of the heads of rivets for securing the blade. A weapon (8¼ inches), which there can hardly be a doubt is the original from which Sir Charles Frederick made his drawing for the Society of Antiquaries, is now in Canon Greenwell’s collection, and I know of no other example. It differs from the socketed knives in the character of the blade, which is thicker and more highly ornamented, like some of the daggers from the Wiltshire barrows. Whether it was itself intended to be a dagger, or whether it was the head of a spear or lance, I will not attempt to determine.
What has somewhat the appearance of being a weapon of the same character was found in a moss near Campbeltown,[968] Argyleshire, together with a bronze sword. It may, however, as already suggested, be merely a socketed knife.
A very beautiful weapon of this kind is in the museum at Lausanne. The blade is ornamented somewhat in the same manner as that of Fig. 328. The socket is shorter and ornamented with parallel rings and bands of triangles, alternately hatched and plain. There appear to be six rivets, and what may be termed the hilt has a deep half-oval notch in it, like that which is common on swords and daggers. The margin of this notch is decorated with punctured dots. It was, I believe, found near Sion, Valais, with portions of what may have been the ornaments of a sheath, and also with a long narrow celt, flanged at the upper part. The general resemblance between the Swiss and the English specimens is very remarkable.
An Egyptian[969] blade, with the side edges slightly curved inwards, and with the socket rather shorter than in Fig. 328, is in the museum at Boulaq. It is attached to the socket by three rivets.
Fig. 329.—Årup. ⅓
The second series of blades of which it is proposed to treat in this chapter are usually from six to sixteen inches long, rather broad at the base, and not unfrequently curved longitudinally. This latter circumstance, as well as their shape and weight, proves that some of these broad blades were not intended for use as daggers; and this being admitted, it seems to follow that others, which resemble the curved blades in all respects except their curvature, must be regarded as belonging to the same class of weapons. What these weapons were may I think be best shown by some examples from Scandinavia and Northern Germany, which also show the manner in which similar blades were attached to their shafts so as to form a kind of halberd or battle-axe.
That which I have selected by way of illustration is one that is engraved in Dr. Oscar Montelius’ “Sveriges Forntid,”[970] who has kindly lent me the block of Fig. 329. In this instance the scale adopted is one-third linear measure. In A is given a view of the upper end, seen from above, and in B a view from behind the blade, showing the great projection of the rivet-like knobs. The handle as well as the blade is in bronze. This specimen was found at Årup, in Scania. Another is engraved in Lisch’s “Frederico-Francisceum.”[971] It was found, with two others, at Blengow, near Buckow, Mecklenburg Schwerin, and is regarded by Lisch as a kind of battle-axe, or possibly as a “commander’s staff” or bâton of honour. Good examples of the same kind are in the museums at Malmoe and Kiel, and others have been described by Klemm.[972] Two have been found near Neu Ruppin. Others are in the Schwerin Museum. Another, with a separate socket, having three rivet-like bosses upon it, is in the Berlin Museum.[973] There can be little doubt that this last-mentioned weapon is a representative of an earlier form, when the shaft was merely of wood and the transverse blade was secured in it by means of three rivets. An intermediate form, in which the blade fits into a kind of open-work bronze socket for receiving a shaft, is preserved in the Berlin Museum.[974]
