A curious instance of the survival of the bronze celt as an ornament or amulet is afforded by that which was found in a barrow at Arras, or Hessleskew,[490] near Market Weighton, Yorkshire. It is only an inch in length, and is shown full-size in Fig. 161. With it was a pin which connected it with a small light-blue glass bead. It accompanied the contracted body of a woman laid in a grave, and having with it a necklace of glass beads, a large amber bead, and a brooch, bracelets, ring, tweezers, and pin, apparently of bronze, some of them ornamented with a kind of paste or enamel. The majority of the objects found in the group of barrows at Arras, of which this was one, seem to belong to what Mr. Franks has termed the “Late-Celtic” period, or approximately to the time of the Roman invasion of this country.
Fig. 162.
Bell’s Mills. ½
Socketed celts not more than ¾ of an inch in length have been found in Ireland, but with sockets large enough for serviceable handles, so that they might possibly have been used as chisels. The diminutive celts, about 2 inches in length, which have been found in large numbers in Brittany, and have been regarded by French antiquaries as votive offerings, might also by some possibility have served as tools; but this can hardly have been the case with the Arras specimen. A golden celt found in Cornwall is said to have been in the possession of the Earl of Falmouth,[491] but nothing is known of it by the present Viscount Falmouth, and the statement in the “Barrow Diggers” is probably erroneous.
It will be well to postpone the account of the different hoards of bronze objects, in which socketed celts have been found with other tools and weapons, until I come to treat of such ancient deposits, though some of them have already been mentioned.
Turning now to the socketed celts which have been discovered in Scotland, we find them to present a considerable variety of types, though hardly so great as that exhibited by those from England, and the recorded instances of their finding are comparatively few in number.
In Fig. 162 is shown a socketed celt of the plain kind which was found at Bell’s Mills,[492] on the Water of Leith, Edinburgh, in company with those given as Figs. 164 and 165.
A celt found in a bog between Stranraer and Portpatrick, Wigtonshire,[493] like Fig. 162, but with a bead at the level of the top of the loop, has been figured.
The nearly square-necked celt shown in Fig. 163 is of a broader type than usual, and was found at North Knapdale,[494] Argyleshire.