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

by John Evans

Any account of the various forms of celts and palstaves which have been discovered in this country, such as that attempted in the preceding chapters, would be incomplete without some observations as to the manner in which they were probably hafted or mounted for use, and some account of the discoveries which throw light upon that subject.

In a previous chapter I have cited numerous opinions of the older school of antiquaries as to the nature of these instruments or weapons, and the uses which they were intended to serve. Many of these opinions are so palpably absurd that it is needless again to refer to them. Others which regard the instruments as having been mounted in such a manner as to serve for axes or adzes, for chisels, or for spud-like tools or weapons, have an evident foundation in the necessities of the case. There can, in the first place, be no doubt that celts and palstaves were cutting tools or weapons. There can, in the second place, be but little doubt that they were not destined for direct use in the hand without the addition of any shaft or handle. In fact, with the palstave and socketed forms, it is evident that special provisions are made for a haft of some kind. In the third place, this haft, whether long or short, must either have been straight or crooked. If straight, a kind of chisel or spud must have resulted; if crooked or L-shaped, an axe, hatchet, or adze.

It is possible that the same form of bronze instruments may have been mounted both with straight and with L-shaped handles; but, as will subsequently be seen, the probability, judging from what few ancient handles have been discovered, is that the great majority were mounted with elbowed handles as axes. At the same time, from the form and small size of some celts, especially of some of those of the socketed variety, it is probable that they were used as chisels. Indeed, judging from the analogy of some other forms, and from the discovery at Everley, mentioned at p. 163, this may be regarded as certain.

As the discoveries of the original hafts of bronze celts have principally been made upon the Continent, I shall, in treating of this part of my subject, be compelled to have recourse to foreign rather than British illustrations. It will also, in speaking of the method of hafting, be desirable to make an attempt to trace the successive stages of development of the socketed celts; and, in connection with this part of the subject also, foreign examples will become of service.

And first, in illustration of the use of bronze blades as axes, rather than as spuds, or chisels of any kind, I may mention an instrument not uncommon in Hungary, and occasionally occurring in other parts of Southern Europe, which is perforated and similar in general form to our modern axe-heads of iron and steel. In Scandinavia also other varieties of these perforated axe-heads have been found. The common axe-like type has also been discovered among Assyrian antiquities. Another and distinct form which has been found in Egypt mounted as an axe or hatchet, with a wooden handle, is a flat blade not unlike the ordinary flat celt, except that instead of tapering at the butt-end it expands so as to have two more or less projecting horns, by which it was bound against the haft in a shallow socket provided for it. Egyptian axes mounted in this manner may be seen in many museums, and have been frequently figured in works on Egyptian antiquities.[528] The blade of an axe of this kind, formerly in the collection of the Rev. Sparrow Simpson, D.D., F.S.A.,[529] and by him presented to the British Museum, bears an inscription in hieroglyphics upon it, with cartouches probably containing the name of a shepherd king of the sixteenth or seventeenth dynasty. In my own collection is another bronze blade of the same shape and size, and with the same inscription, except that the names in the cartouches are different. Unfortunately this part of the blade is corroded, but Dr. S. Birch thinks that the cartouches contain the name either of Ramses I. or of a subordinate Ramses of the eighteenth dynasty. The hieroglyphics are the same on both faces of the blade, but on one run from right to left, and on the other from left to right. A hatchet of the same form, still bound to its haft, was found in the tomb of Queen Aah-Hotep,[530] of the eighteenth dynasty.

Some of the stone hatchets from Ecuador, in South America, are also provided with projecting ears, and were tied against their helves in the same manner.

The stone axe, said to be that of Montezuma II., preserved in the Ambras Museum at Vienna, and shown in Fig. 180, may also be of this kind. Copper or bronze blades of this crescent or cheese-cutter form, with two projecting lugs at the top of the narrow part of the blade, have been found in Peru.

Fig. 180.—Stone Axe of Montezuma II.

Broad blades of bronze, in form more like the ordinary flat celts, but with the projections at the top, have been found in the same country. I have one about 5 inches long and 3 inches wide, with strong lugs at the top 2 inches long. It came from Eastern Peru.