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

by John Evans

Taking Scandinavia to begin with, and Mr. Worsaae’s types as giving the characteristics of that region, what do we find? The perforated axe-hammers and axes of bronze are here entirely wanting; the tanged swords and the majority of those with decorated hilts are also unknown. There is hardly a type of dagger common to this country and Scandinavia. The saws, knives, and razors are of quite another character, but there is a resemblance in the sickles to a rare British type. The flat and flanged celts of the two regions are of nearly the same kind, and in one rare instance there is a similar decoration on a reputedly Danish and on an Irish celt. The palstaves, however, are of an entirely different character, with the exception of the form with semicircular wings, which is not essentially British. The socketed celts are nearly all unlike those of this country; and though the leaf-shaped spear-heads present close analogies, the looped and eyed kinds are absent. The shields are of a different character from ours. The tutuli and diadems are here unknown. There is but one form of torque common to this country and Denmark. Brooches, combs, and small hanging vases are never met with in Britain; and the spiral, whether formed of wire or engraved as an ornament, is conspicuous by its absence.

If we take the Hungarian region, we are driven to much the same conclusions. The perforated axes and pick-axes, principally formed of copper, the semicircular sickles, the spiral ornaments, the swords with engraved hilts of bronze, and several forms of minor importance are absent in Britain, while the socketed celts and the majority of the palstaves are of markedly different types, though that with the semicircular wings hammered over is of common occurrence in Hungary.

In Northern Germany the types of bronze may be regarded as intermediate between those of Hungary and Scandinavia, though in some few respects presenting closer analogies with those of Britain, with which, as will subsequently be seen, there may have been some commercial intercourse. The connection between British and German types is, however, but small, and on the whole I think that the evidence here brought forward is sufficient to prove that the British Isles can hardly be properly classified as forming part of any Danubian province of bronze.

The connection between France and Britain during the Bronze Period cannot be denied, and in many respects there is an identity of character between the bronze antiquities of the North of France and those of the South of England. The North of France cannot, however, at any time since the first discovery of bronze, have been absolutely shut out from all communication with the South and East. The East must always have been affected by the habits of those who occupied what is now Western Germany; and the South can hardly have been exempt from the influence of Italy, if not, indeed, of other Mediterranean countries. I am inclined to think that these external influences acted also on the bronze industry of Britain, not so much directly as indirectly, and that some of the types in this country may be traced to an Italian or German origin as readily as to a French.

It is, I think, a fact that as close a resemblance in type, so far as regards our earliest bronze instruments, may be found among Italian examples as among French. Many of the slightly flanged celts of Italy can hardly be distinguished from those of Britain, except by the faces of the latter being more frequently decorated; and there is also a great similarity between the dagger-blades of the two countries. In the later forms, such as palstaves and socketed celts, the difference between British and Italian examples is sufficiently striking. May it not be the case that at the time when first the commerce between Britain and the Mediterranean countries originated, always assuming that such a commerce took place, the flanged celt was the most advanced type of hatchet known by those who came hither to trade, and the palstave and socketed form were subsequently developed? At a later period it was the German influence that was felt in Britain, rather than the Italian, for our socketed celts appear, as already stated, to have had the cradle of their family in Western Germany; and the few flat sickles that have been found in Britain, as well as the more numerous torques, show a closer connection in type with those of Germany than with those of France or any other country. Whether this introduction of what appear to be North German types can in any way be attributed to commercial relations between the two countries, and especially to a trade in amber, is worth consideration. The abundance of amber ornaments in some of the graves of our Bronze Period shows how much that substance was in use. At the same time, the eastern shores of England might have furnished it in sufficient quantity to supply the demand, without having recourse to foreign sources. I have known amber thrown up on the beach so far south as Deal.

A curious feature in the comparison of the later bronze antiquities of Britain and those of France, is the marked absence of many of the forms which abound in the remains of the Lake-dwellings of Savoy, as well as in those of Switzerland. A glance through “Rabut’s Album”[1768] or “Keller’s Lake-dwellings,” will at once show how few of the specimens there figured could pass as having been discovered in the British Isles. The large proportion of ornaments to tools and weapons is also striking. There is, indeed, as M. Chantre has pointed out, a closer connection between the bronze antiquities of the South of France and those of Switzerland and Northern Italy, than with those of Northern France.

Even the character of the ornaments is in many cases essentially different. The hollowed form of bronze bracelet, made from a thin plate bent in such a manner as to show a semicircular section, is entirely wanting in Britain, and is very rarely found in the North of France.

Enough has, however, now been said in favour of regarding Britain as one of those centres into which a knowledge of the use of bronze was introduced at a comparatively early date, and where a special development of the bronze industry arose, extending over a lengthened period, and modified from time to time by foreign influences. On the transition from bronze to iron, it is not necessary here further to enlarge. I have, in treating of the different forms of tools and weapons, pointed out those which I considered to belong to the close of the Bronze Period; and it is probable that these forms for some time continued in use, side by side with those made of the more serviceable metal, iron, which ultimately drove bronze from the field, except for ornamental purposes or for those uses for which a fusible metal was best adapted. It seems probable that, as was the case in Mediterranean countries, some of the socketed weapons, such as spear-heads, which were more easily cast than forged, may for some time have been made of bronze in preference to iron; but at present our knowledge of any transitional period is slight, and this question would be best treated of in a work on the Late Celtic or Early Iron Period of Britain.

Among the ornaments in use in this country during the Bronze Period, are some, the history of which, if it could be traced, might throw light upon the foreign intercourse of that time, for glass and ivory were probably not of native production.[1769] Glass beads have occasionally been found in barrows of the Bronze Age, nearly always in our southern counties, and with burnt interments. They are usually small tubes of opaque glass of a light blue or green colour, with the outer surface divided into rounded segments, so as to give the appearance of a number of spheroidal beads side by side. I am not aware of any having been discovered with interments of the Bronze Age on the Continent, but it seems probable that such beads have been found, and they may eventually assist in marking out the lines of ancient commerce with this country. A few larger beads, with spiral serpent-like ornaments upon them, have likewise been found; but these, also, I am unable to compare with any Continental examples. The finding of glass, however, in tombs belonging to the early portion of our Bronze Age is suggestive of some method of intercourse, direct or indirect, with Mediterranean countries. The small quoit-like pendants, formed of a greenish vitrified material, which have been found in Sussex[1770] with burnt interments of the Bronze Age, closely resemble Egyptian porcelain, and their presence in this country corroborates this suggestion.