A more common form has a circular socket and moulded top, below which the neck of the blade is an almost regular octagon. That shown in Fig. 150 is in my own collection, and was found at Wallingford,[457] Berks, in company with a socketed gouge, a tanged chisel (Fig. 193), a socketed knife, and a two-edged cutting tool or razor (Fig. 269).
One nearly similar, supposed to have been found in Yorkshire, together with the mould in which it was cast, is engraved in the Archæologia.[458] The mould was regarded as a case in which the instrument was kept. Another of the same kind seems to have been found, with other celts and fragments of swords and spears, at Bilton,[459] Yorkshire. I have seen another, 4 inches long, from the hoard found at Martlesham, Suffolk, already mentioned. A broken specimen, found with a socketed gouge and an article like Fig. 493, at Roseberry Topping,[460] in Cleveland, Yorkshire, appears to be of this kind. Another (5 inches long), found at Minster, Kent, is in the Mayer Collection at Liverpool. I have also one from the Cambridge Fens.
Fig. 151.—Newham. ½
In the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., are three socketed celts with octagonal necks, which were found with others, both plain and having three ribs on the face, together with a looped palstave, at Haxey, Lincolnshire. Two of these are of the usual type, but the third (3½ inches) is shorter and broader, resembling in outline the common Irish form, Fig. 167. A celt apparently of the type of Fig. 150, but with a double bead round the top, was found in the Severn, at Holt,[461] Worcestershire. In the Faussett Collection, now at Liverpool, is a celt of this kind, with the angles engrailed or “milled.” This was probably found in Kent.
A celt of this type, found at Orgelet, Jura, is figured by Chantre,[462] as well as one from the Lac du Bourget.[463] They have also been found in the Department of La Manche.[464] I have one from the hoard found at Dreuil, near Amiens, the neck of which is decagonal.
Nearly the same form has been found in Sweden.[465]
Another example, more trumpet-mouthed, is shown in Fig. 151, from the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S. It was found in 1868 in draining at Newham, Northumberland. I have another of nearly the same form (4¾ inches), from Coveney, in the Isle of Ely. Another, found at Stanhope,[466] Durham, without loop, and with two holes near the top, was regarded as an instrument for sharpening spear-heads.
Occasionally the neck of the blade is hexagonal instead of octagonal. In one found at Ty-Mawr,[467] on Holyhead Mountain, Anglesea, the hexagonal character is continued to the mouth. The socket is of an irregularly square form. It was found with a socketed knife, a tanged chisel, spear-heads, &c., which are now in the British Museum. This form occurs more frequently in Ireland. A nearly similar celt has been found in the Lake of Geneva.[468]