Such sharp-edged weapons entailed the necessity of caution when carried about the person, and accordingly sheaths were used, probably in the first place made of wood and tipped with bronze. Objects supposed to be these tips have been found at various places, as Moeringen, Auvernier, Champreveyères, Luissel ([Fig. 19], No. 4), Bourget, etc. ([Fig. 21], No. 20).
Fig. 186.—Bronze Weapons and Copper Celt.
Nos. 10 and 11 = 1⁄6, and all the rest = 1⁄3 real size.
While daggers were riveted to handles of solid bronze, horn, or other materials ([Fig. 186], No. 8), a form which they retained during the whole Bronze Age, lance-heads were from the earliest times made with sockets. Arrow-points were subject to greater variations, as we find them tanged, socketed, or merely triangularly-shaped flat pieces. The latter had generally two or four small holes by means of which they were fastened to the stem by a wire or thread ([Fig. 21], Nos. 22 to 26). Hatchets display a series of evolutionary improvements, the various stages of which can be readily traced. Thus the primitive stone form, which was alone adhered to in the few copper examples hitherto found, was also continued in bronze, and in this form the bronze axe spread largely over Europe. But it gradually gave way to that with flaps, or wings, with or without loops for fixing the instrument more firmly to its handle. Finally we have the socketed hatchet, which appears to have been considered the best form in use during the Bronze Age. It was only when iron superseded bronze in the use of cutting implements that the modern type, i.e. with a transverse hole for the handle, came into general use, although the principle was well known in previous ages, and, indeed, acted upon, as in the perforated stone hammers and axes. Bronze saws ([Fig. 6], No. 7) appear to have been used to an extremely limited extent, as only some half-a-dozen examples have been found on the whole lake-dwelling area of Central Europe. Their rarity in comparison with the superabundance of flint saws in the Stone Age may be accounted for by the large number of sharp cutting instruments that were now prevalent, and which were better adapted for many of the purposes to which the saws were formerly put, such as the making of arrow-stems, wooden handles, etc. The ordinary knives of the palafittes are extremely elegant in form, the blade being always more or less curved, and frequently ornamented with parallel or wavy lines and running patterns of concentric circles and dots. They were generally hafted by means of a tang or socket, but sometimes the blade and handle were made in one solid casting. Numerous examples of all these different forms are given in our illustrations.
It is interesting to note that the socketed knives are very rare in Eastern Switzerland, not a single example being recorded from the great find at Wollishofen, while, as we move westward, they increase relatively, till in Lake Bourget they become the rule and not the exception.
The blades which go under the name of razors, though of diversified forms, may be divided into two kinds, according as they are single-or double-bladed. The former have a ridged back, which generally projects at one end, so as to become a short handle, often assuming the form of a terminal ring, as shown in [Fig. 20], Nos. 22 and 23. One in the Gross collection has a handle of staghorn. The latter, or double-bladed, have the handle placed intermediately between the blades, and are common in the terremare and the palatfitte of Peschiera ([Fig. 63]), but they do not occur in Lake Bourget. The small pincers supposed to be for epilation, so common in La Tène and in Gallo-Roman times, appear to have come into use towards the close of the Bronze Age, as they are extremely rare in the palafittes of Central Switzerland, but more common in those of Lake Bourget. One is figured by Dr. Gross, from Moeringen, similar to the one here represented from Lake Bourget ([Fig. 20], No. 24).
Sickles were also widely distributed over the lake-dwelling area of the Bronze Age, including the terremare. They are flat on the under side, but on the upper side they have two or more ridges running lengthways, the object of which was to strengthen the implement. By means of a raised knob, or rivet-hole, and sometimes a projecting spur, it was firmly fixed into a wooden handle, as seen in [Fig. 187]. That represented here was found at Moeringen, and is adroitly fashioned by hollows and rounding ridges, adapted for the right hand. That this was the normal condition of these handles is probable from the fact that other two similar objects were found at Corcelettes, which are now preserved in the Museum at Lausanne.
As regards hammers, chisels, gouges, punches, awls, needles, hooks, and spears for fishing, etc., it is unnecessary to add to the descriptive details already given, and their general characters are sufficiently patent from the illustrations.