Fig. 2.—Butterwick. ½
In front of the chest were six buttons, five of jet and one of sandstone, two of which are figured in my “Ancient Stone Implements.”[154] The handle of the celt or axe-head could be plainly traced by means of a dark line of decayed wood, and to all appearance the weapon had been worn slung from the waist. “The blade is of the simplest form, modelled on the pattern of the stone axe, and may, it is probable, be regarded as the earliest type of bronze axe antecedently to the appearance of either flanges or socket. It is 4 inches long, 2⅜ inches wide at the cutting edge, and 1⅛ inches at the smaller end. It had evidently been fixed into a solid handle to a depth of 2 inches.”
A very similar discovery to that at Butterwick was made by the late Mr. Thomas Bateman in a barrow upon Parwich Moor, Derbyshire,[155] called Shuttlestone, opened by him in June, 1848. In this case a man of fine proportions and in the prime of life had been interred, surrounded by fern-leaves and enveloped in a hide with the hair inwards. Close to the head were a small flat bead of jet and a circular flint (probably a “scraper”). In contact with the left arm lay a bronze dagger, much like Fig. 279, with two rivets for the attachment of the handle, which had been of horn. About the middle of the left thigh was a bronze celt of the plainest axe-shaped type. The cutting edge was turned towards the upper part of the person, and the instrument itself had been inserted into a wooden shaft for about 2 inches at the narrow end. The celt and dagger are engraved in the Archæological Association Journal,[156] and the former in the Archæologia.[157] It is about 5½ inches long, and in form much like Fig. 19.
In a small barrow named Borther Low,[158] about two miles south of Middleton by Youlgrave, Mr. William Bateman discovered a skeleton with the remains of a plain coarse urn on the left side, a flint arrow-head much burnt, a pair of canine teeth of either a fox, or a dog of the same size, and a diminutive bronze celt. In the catalogue of the Bateman Museum[159] this is described as “of the most primitive type, closely resembling the stone celts in form,” and 2 inches only in length. It is there stated to have been found with a flint spear, but this seems to be a mistake for an arrow-head.[160]
Dr. Samuel Pegge,[161] in his letter to Mr. Lort already cited, mentions that “Mr. Adam Wolsey the younger, of Matlock in Derbyshire, has a celt found near the same place a.d. 1787, at Blakelow in the parish of Ashover, with a spear-head of flint, a military weapon also.” Not improbably this was an axe-head of the same class.
A celt of much the same character as Fig. 2, but in outline more nearly resembling Fig. 19, 4⅜ inches long and 2⅜ broad at the cutting edge, was found in company with two diadems or lunettes of gold such as the Irish antiquaries call “Minds,” at Harlyn, in the parish of Merryn, near Padstow, Cornwall, and is engraved in the Archæological Journal.[162] The objects were found at a depth of about six feet from the surface, and with them was another bronze article, which was unfortunately thrown away. This was described by the man at work on the spot as “like a bit of a buckle.” The discovery was quite accidental, and no notice seems to have been taken as to whether there were any traces of an interment at the spot, though the earth in contact with the articles is described as having been “of an artificial character.”
It is a celt of this kind which is engraved by Plot[163] as found near St. Bertram’s Well, Ilam, Staffordshire. He describes it as “somewhat like, only larger than, a lath-hammer at the edge end, but not so on the other,” and regards it as a Roman sacrificial axe.
One (4⅛ inches) was found on Bevere Island, Worcestershire.[164]