The Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments, of Great Britain and Ireland.

by John Evans

The methods of casting were various. Objects were cast—

1. In a single mould formed of loam, sand, stone, or metal, the upper surface of the casting exhibiting the flat surface of the molten metal, which was left open to the air. In the case of loam or sand castings a pattern or model would be used, which might be an object already in use, or made of the desired form in wood or other soft substance.

2. In double moulds of similar materials. The castings produced in this manner when in unfinished condition show the joints of the moulds. When sand was employed a frame or flask of some kind must have been used to retain the material in place when the upper half of the mould was lifted off the pattern. The loam moulds were probably burnt hard before being used. In many cases cores for producing hollows in the casting were employed in conjunction with these moulds.

3. In what may be termed solid moulds. For this process the model was made of wax, wood, or some combustible material which was encased in a mass of loam, possibly mixed with cow-dung or vegetable matter, which on exposure to heat left the loam or clay in a porous condition. This exposure to fire also burnt out the wax or wood model and left a cavity for the reception of the metal, which was probably poured in while the mould was still hot.

Sir John Lubbock[1664] regards this as the commonest mode of casting during the Bronze Age, but so far as this country is concerned it appears to me to have been very seldom, if ever, in use. Except in highly complicated castings, such as ring within ring, no advantage would be gained by adopting the process, as the same result could usually be obtained by the use of a mould in two halves, while the pattern would then be preserved. In comparing a number of objects together, though, like the six hundred and eighty-eight specimens of celts in the Dublin Museum, no two may appear to have been cast in the same mould, it does not follow that this was actually the case, for allowance must be made for hammering, polishing, and ornamenting, which were subsequent processes, and also for wear at the edge. Even in castings from the same metal mould there will be considerable variations, from differences in the amount of coating used to prevent the hot metal from adhering to mould, and the length stopped off by the core. But of this I shall shortly speak.

The moulds formed of burnt clay have but rarely lasted to our times, though some have been found on the continent of Europe.

One for a perforated axe found among the remains of Lake-dwellings near Laibach, in Carniola, is in the museum of that town. Others will subsequently be mentioned.

The single moulds found within the United Kingdom are all of stone, and are adapted for the production of flat celts, rings, knives, and small chisels. In some cases it is hard to say whether a mould was intended to be used alone or in conjunction with another of the same kind, so as in fact to be only the half of a mould.

The single mould, which I have engraved as Fig. 515, was found near Ballymena, Co. Antrim, and, as will be seen, is for a flat celt of the ordinary form. The material is a micaceous sandstone, which a recent possessor of the mould has thought so well adapted for use as a whetstone, that the mould is in places scored with the marks where apparently a cobbler’s awl has been sharpened. A celt cast in such a mould would be flatter on one face than the other, and be blunt at the ends, though much thinner there than in the middle. Before being used it would be submitted to a hammering process, which would render the two faces nearly symmetrical, and at the same time condense the metal and render it harder and fitter for cutting purposes, especially at the edge which was drawn out. In an Irish specimen in my collection there is in one face a deep conical depression, apparently caused by the contraction of the metal in cooling. It was probably necessary to add a little molten metal to the casting while cooling in order to avoid such defects. The sides as well as the faces of these plain celts have usually been wrought with the hammer, and it seems probable that some even of the flanged celts were originally plain castings in an open mould.