An example with a far larger array of vertical ribs than usual is shown in Fig. 134. The ribs are arranged in groups of three, and each terminates in a small pellet. The outer lines are so close to the angles of the celt as almost to merge in them. This instrument was found at Fen Ditton, Cambridge, and is now in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S.
— Fig. 134.—Fen Ditton. ½ – Fig. 135.—Bottisham. ½ – Fig. 136.—Winwick. ½
On some celts there is, besides the row of roundels or pellets at the end of the ribs, a second row a little higher up, as is shown in Fig. 135, which represents a specimen in the British Museum, from Bottisham Lode, Cambridge. The sides of this celt are not flat, but somewhat ridged, so that in its upper part it presents an irregular hexagon in section. There are ribs running down the angles, with indications of terminal pellets.
In the Warrington Museum is a curious variety of the celt with the three vertical ribs ending in pellets, which by the kindness of the trustees of the museum I have engraved as Fig. 136. It will be seen that in addition to the vertical ribs there is a double series of chevrons over the upper part of the blade. The metal is somewhat oxidised, and the pattern is made rather more distinct in the engraving than it is in the original. This celt has already been figured on a smaller scale, and was found at Winwick,[449] near Warrington, Lancashire.
An ornamentation of nearly the same character, but without pellets at the end of the ribs, occurs on a socketed celt from Kiew,[450] Russia.
Fig. 137.—Kingston. ½
Fig. 138.—Cayton Carr. ½
The vertical ribs or lines occasionally end in ring ornaments or circles with a central pellet, like the astronomical symbol for the sun ☉. Next to the cross this ornament is, perhaps, the simplest and most easily made, for a notched flint could be used as a pair of compasses to produce a circle with a well-marked centre on almost any material, however hard. We find these ring ornaments in relief on many of the coins of the Ancient Britons, and in intaglio on numerous articles formed of bone and metal, which belong to the Roman and Saxon periods. On Italian palstaves they are the commonest ornaments. But though so frequent on metallic antiquities of the latter part of the Bronze Age, it is remarkable that the ornament is of very rare occurrence on any of the pottery which is known to belong to that period.