Fig. 8. Looped Celt with Original Handle.
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The Socketed Celt.—In tracing the development of these celts, with specimens, it will be noted that the flanges grow bolder and more projecting, and in time curve inwards, and that the stop becomes more prominent. By merging it, as we have said, into the wings, and gradually removing the decreasing shank, the socket was formed. There was a marked advance here in casting, as provision had to be made for a core to form the socket. ‘The lip of the socket,’ says Wilde, ‘is generally ornamented, and very frequently by one or more raised bands or fillets; sometimes by a very well-cast roped ornament, evidently made to represent a cord of twisted gut. A special description of cast ornament, consisting of longitudinal raised bars, generally ending in annular or button-like projections, sometimes occupies the side of this implement; ... but in no case is the ornamentation produced either by the hammer, punch, or graver, as in the flat simple celt.’[97] There are several varieties of the socketed celt, as the illustrations show. Figures 9 and 10 are 4 inches and 4¼ inches in length respectively, and are characteristic of the plain class of Irish socketed celt, though differing materially from each other in particulars of shape, breadth, position of the loop, and ornament. Of the same variety are figures 11 and 12, drawn one-fourth the actual size. Fig. 13 represents a small and well-decorated celt, and is drawn one-half the size of the object. Fig. 14 represents a flat celt 4½ inches long, with oval socket internally, and a small raised linear ornament. Fig. 15 shows a type of celt rare in Ireland. It is a good example of the axe-shaped implement; it is 3¾ inches long, and about the same across the cutting edge. Fig. 16 is a fine specimen of the long narrow quadrangular celt: it is 5⅜ inches in length and 1⅜ inches in breadth. It is very rare in Ireland, and but a few specimens have been found in the country. Some of these socketed celts are so diminutive that they could not have served for chopping of any kind. Fixed at the end of a wooden handle, they might, no doubt, well answer the purpose of chisels. The process of development here indicated must, as Sir John Evans points out, have taken a considerable period of time.[98]
Fig. 9. Fig. 10. Fig. 11. Fig. 12.
Fig. 13. Fig. 14. Fig. 15. Fig. 16.
Varieties of Looped, Socketed Celts.
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Fig. 1.