3. Those with loops in the angles between the edge of the blade and the socket.
4. Those with side apertures and perforations through the blade.
To these four classes may be added—
5. Those in which the base of each side of the blade projects at right angles to the socket, or is prolonged downwards so as to form barbs.
| Fig. 378. Thames, London. ½ | Fig. 379. Lough Gur. ¼ | Fig. 380. Lough Gur. ½ | Fig. 381. Heathery Burn Cave. ½ |
A remarkably fine specimen of a broad leaf-shaped spear-head of the first class is shown in Fig. 378. The original was found in the Thames at London, and still contains a portion of the wooden shaft smoothly and carefully pointed. The wood is, I think, ash; and my opinion is supported by that of Mr. Thiselton Dyer, F.R.S., who has kindly examined the shaft for me. There are no traces of the pin or rivet, which in the spear-heads of this character appears to have been formed of wood, horn, or bone, rather than of metal, probably with the view of the head being more readily detached from the shaft, in case the latter was broken. I have, however, a leaf-shaped bronze spear-head of this class, found in the Seine at Paris, in which a metallic rivet is still present. It is formed of a square rod of bronze, which at each end has been hammered into a spheroidal button, of at least twice the diameter of the hole through which the rivet passes. Portions of the wooden shaft are still adhering to the rivet. The wood in this instance also appears to be ash.
I have a rather narrower spear-head of the same type as Fig. 378 (10¾ inches), found with a bronze sword near Weymouth; and another identical in type with that from the Thames, but only 9 inches long, found in the county of Dublin.
Others of nearly the same form (12¾ inches and 8¾ inches) were found with a bronze sword in an ancient entrenchment at Worth,[1174] in the parish of Washfield, Devon.