Colonel A. Lane-Fox has summarised the four principal theories[1017] concerning the source of bronze in Great Britain. Dr. Evans[1018] prudently finds ‘a certain amount of truth embodied in each of those opinions’; but he also concludes that No. 4 must commend itself to all archæologists. I quite agree with this view, provided that the common centre be Egypt, and that Western Asia be held only a line of transit. We have full proof of the immense antiquity of bronze in the Nile region, whence the art would radiate through the world. But the almost identical proportions of the alloy (nine copper to one tin) and the persistent forms suggest that a wandering race of metal-workers, somewhat like the Gypsies of a later age, are the originators of the Stations, the Fonderies, and the Trésors. The first step from Egypt would be to Khita-land and Phœnicia; and these ‘Englishmen of Antiquity’ would carry the art far and wide. Sir J. Lubbock opines that the Phœnicians were acquainted with the mineral fields of Cornwall between b.c. 1500–1200; somewhat niggard measure, for the Bronze Age in Switzerland is dated from b.c. 3000. On the other hand, Professor Rhys absolutely denies that there are any traces of Phœnician art in England.
Dr. Evans[1019] assumes the total duration of the Bronze Period in Britain at between eight and ten centuries. He would divide this sum into three several stages,[1020] and to the last, which produced the bronze Sword, he assigns a minimum duration of four hundred to five hundred years. This was followed by the Early Iron Age, or later Keltic Period. The metal may have been used in southern Britain, peopled long before Cæsar’s time by immigrant Belgii, not later than the fourth or fifth century b.c., the approximate date of the earliest iron Swords in Gaul.[1021] Lastly, by the second or third century b.c. the exclusive use of bronze for cutting implements had practically ceased in Belgic Britain; the Roman historians do not lead us to suppose that the weapons, even of the northern Britons, were anything but iron.
It has been suggested that the bronze Swords found in Britain were either Roman, or at all events of Roman date. The discussion began as early as 1751,[1022] on the occasion of some bronze blades, a spear-head, and other objects being discovered near Gannat, in the Bourbonnais. It opened with greater vigour between the German and Scandinavian antiquaries in 1860, and the late Thomas Wright was an ardent advocate of the ‘Italian view.’[1023] Dr. Evans, who has carefully considered the question, concludes:[1024] ‘The whole weight of the argument is in favour of a pre-Roman origin for these swords in western and northern Europe.’ And he notices, apparently with scant respect, the three provinces to which the bronze antiques of Europe have been assigned. These are the Mediterranean with Græco-Italic and Helveto-Gallic subdivisions; the Danubian, including Hungary, Scandinavia, Germany, and Britain; and the Uralian, comprising the Russian, Siberian, and Finn regions. Finally he quotes the bronze socketed sickle, the tanged razor, the two forms of Sword, the shield with numerous concentric rings, with sundry other articles specially British, to show that Britain was one of the great centres of the bronze industry.
Lead-bronze, well known in ancient Egypt, is found extensively in Ireland, where some specimens of ‘Dowris metal’ have as much as 9·11 parts in 99·32.[1025] The Phœnicians would certainly teach the use of an article which takes a fine golden lustre. Dr. Evans[1026] notes the remarkable prevalence of lead in the small (votive) socketed celts supplied by Brittany. Professor Pelligot found some of them containing 28·50 per cent. and even 32·50 per cent. of lead, with only 1·5 per cent., or a smaller proportion, of tin. In others, with a large percentage of tin there was from eight to sixteen per cent. of lead. Some of the bronze ornaments of the opening Iron Period also contain a considerable proportion of lead; in the early Roman As and its parts the figures are from twenty to thirty per cent. A socketed celt from Yorkshire gives, copper 81·15, tin 12·30, and lead 2·63 per cent. In this case, Mr. J. A. Phillips expresses an opinion that ‘the lead is, no doubt, an intentional ingredient.’[1027]
Apparently the Roman invaders unduly depreciated the ancient Britons. Strabo[1028] declares them to be cannibals; yet he includes amongst their produce gold, silver, iron, and corn. Cæsar[1029] makes them use the ring money of Egypt, but Dr. Evans[1030] has proved that England had a gold coinage in the first century b.c. It is an old remark that a people can hardly be savages when they employ the currus falcatus or scythe war-car, the griom carbad or ‘Carbad scarrda’ of the Irish, the Welsh kerbyd, borrowed from the Gallic Kelts.[1031] Pomponius Mela also assures us that they had cavalry, besides bigæ and currus.[1032] Their works in glass, ivory, and jet, and their incense cups suggest extensive intercourse, commercial and social, with the Continent. During the ninety years which separated Julius Cæsar and Claudius, the Britons had made progress in letters, and had built important towns. The amount of Latin blood introduced into England has, perhaps, been undervalued by our writers; but the discovery of Roman ruins, which rapidly proceeds and succeeds, will draw the attention of the statistician, and that ‘new man, the anthropologist,’ to a highly interesting subject.[1033]
The bronze Swords of the ancient Britons are of two kinds: the leaf-blade and the Rapier, both well cast. The total length of the former is about two feet, the extremes being sixteen inches to thirty, and in rare cases more. The blades are uniformly rounded, but with the part next the edge slightly drawn down so as to form a shallow fluting. The breadth appears greatest at the third near the point, and this would add to the facility of unsheathing. In almost all cases they are strengthened by a rounded mid-rib more or less bold; or they show ridges, with and without beading, or parallel lines that run along the whole blade or the greater part near the edges. Some combine mid-rib and ridges. The shoulders are either plain, notched, or flanged. In rare instances the outer part of the hilt is of bronze: Dr. Evans engraves[1034] a specimen of this kind. The total length of the weapon is twenty-one inches, of which the globular pommel and the grip, made for a large hand, occupy five. The hilt has the appearance of being cast upon the blade: it seems to have been formed of bronze of the same character, and there are no rivets by which the two castings could be attached. The shallow crescent, whose hollow faces the mid-rib (fig. 293), is a characteristic feature, and endures for ages in the northern bronzes.
Fig. 293.—British Sword, Bronze. (Tower.)
The handle of the leaf-blade usually consisted of plates of horn, bone, or wood, riveted on either side of the hilt plate. The latter differs considerably in form, and in the number and arrangement of the rivets, by which the covering material was attached. Some have as many as thirteen piercings; they seldom, however, exceed seven. The apertures are either round holes or longitudinal slots of greater or lesser extent. There is a pronounced swelling in the grip when the tang is of full length. At the end it expands, evidently for the purpose of receiving a pommel formed by the material of the hilt. This tang end is a fish-tail more or less pronounced. One illustrated by Dr. Evans[1035] has two spirals attached to the base of the hilt, a rare form in England, but common in Scandinavia. Another[1036] pommel-end has a distinct casting, ‘and is very remarkable on account of the two curved horns extending from it, which are somewhat trumpet-mouthed, with a projecting cone in the centre of each.’ This manilla-end appears to me Irish.
We have seen the rapier in Mycenæ and Etruria.[1037] It reappears in northern Europe, England, and France, perfectly shaped; and, though of rare occurrence in hoards, it seems to belong to the period when socketed celts were in use. There is no difficulty in tracing the intermediate steps between the leaf-shaped dagger and the rapier. The latter measures from twenty to twenty-three and a half, and even thirty and a quarter inches, with a breadth of five-eighths inch, widening at the base to two and three-eighths to two and nine-sixteenths inches. The largest have a strong projecting mid-rib, while their weight is diminished by flutings along either side. Another form of blade is more like a bayonet, showing a section nearly square; while a third has a flat surface where the mid-rib would be, a form not yet obsolete. Few are tanged;[1038] mostly we find the base or shoulders of the blade provided with drill-holes or with notches, to admit the nails; and in some the wings are broadened for this purpose.[1039]