Fig. 88.
Bryn Crûg. ½
Another two-looped instrument of a different character was found at Bryn Crûg,[352] near Carnarvon, in company with a tanged knife and a pin with three holes through its flat head (Fig. 450). It is shown in Fig. 88, copied on a reduced scale from the Archæological Journal. It resembles a flanged celt except in having that part of the blade which lies between the side loops raised to the level of the flanges.
In France these double-looped palstaves are of rare occurrence, but I have seen one much like Fig. 86 which was found in the Department of Haute Ariège, and is now in the Toulouse Museum. One from Tarbes[353] was in the Exposition des Sciences Anthropologiques, at Paris in 1878. Another was found at Langoiran (Gironde).
Fig. 89. Andalusia. ½
The form is much more abundant in Spain, but in most cases both the blade and the tang are long and narrow in their proportions. An engraving of one from Andalusia is given in the Archæological Journal,[354] and is here by permission reproduced as Fig. 89. I have one like it from a mine in the Asturias. One rather broader from the Sierra de Baza,[355] Andalusia, has also been figured. A broken and unfinished double-looped palstave from Oviedo, now in the British Museum, has a cup-shaped projection at the butt end which has been filled with lead, possibly in old times, but for what purpose it is impossible to say. An engraving of one much like it has been published.[356] There are several such in the Museums at Madrid, with the head of metal left on the castings.
The forms of celts and palstaves treated of in this chapter are found also in Scotland, though perhaps less frequently than those of the flat and flanged forms described in the previous chapter.
Many so closely resemble English specimens that it is needless to give representations of them, as a reference to the figures in the preceding pages will sufficiently indicate their character.
In the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh is a winged celt 4½ inches long much like Fig. 56, which was found on the top of a hill called Lord Arthur’s Cairn, in the parish of Tullynessle,[357] Aberdeenshire. Another, 6 inches long, with the wings somewhat curved inwards, was found at Kerswell,[358] in the parish of Carnwath, Lanarkshire. Another winged celt, 4 inches long, was ploughed up on the estate of Barcaldine,[359] Argyleshire.