Chapter 4
Part 4
The ordinary form, though apparently of most frequent occurrence in the East Anglian counties, is not by any means confined to that district. One, 8 1∕2 inches long, the sides very slightly flattened; and three others, 6 inches and 5 inches long, with the sides more rounded, all found in the Thames, at London, are in the British Museum. I have one from the Thames, at Teddington (6 inches), and three, 5 1∕4 to 6 inches long, found together in[329] Temple Mills Lane, Stratford, Essex, in 1882. In the Greenwell Collection is one 7 1∕2 inches long, found at Holme, on Spalding Moor, Yorkshire.
A flint celt of this form (6 1∕2 inches), from Reigate,[330] is in the British Museum, as well as another (6 1∕4 inches), rather oblique at the edge, found in a barrow in Hampshire, engraved in the _Archæologia_.[331] |101| Another, 7 inches long, was found near Egham,[332] Surrey. Two from Ash[333] near Farnham, and Wisley in the same county have been figured. I have a short, thick specimen (4 1∕2 inches) found at Eynsham, Oxfordshire. It sometimes happens that celts of this general character have one side much curved while the other is nearly straight, so that in outline they resemble Fig. 86. One such, 5 inches long and 2 inches broad in the middle, found at Bishopstow, is in the Blackmore Museum. Another (6 1∕2 inches) with the sides less curved, from Stanton Fitzwarren, Wilts, has been engraved by the Archæological Institute.[334] Two, 7 1∕4 and 5 1∕4 inches long, were found at Jarrow.[335]
The same type as Fig. 43 occasionally occurs in other materials than flint. The late Mr. James Wyatt, F.G.S., had a celt of greenstone 9 3∕4 inches long, 3 1∕2 inches wide at the edge, which is slightly oblique, found many years ago in Miller’s Bog, Pavenham, Beds. There is an engraving of it, on which it is described as of flint, but such is not the fact. The form is also sometimes found in France and Belgium. I have specimens from both countries; and one from Périgord, 8 inches long, is in the Museum at Le Puy.
[Illustration: Fig. 44.—Coton, Cambridge. 1∕2]
Allied to this form, but usually more rounded at the sides, and flatter on the faces, are the implements of which an example is given in Fig. 44. The original was found at Coton, Cambridgeshire, in 1863. The type is the same as that of Fig. 35; but in this case the celt is polished all over. The butt-end is ground to a semicircular outline, but is, like the sides, rounded. The same is the case with some of the thicker celts of the form last described. A celt of much the same character, but with the sides apparently rather flatter (7 1∕3 inches), was found at Panshanger, Herts.[336] One (5 inches), from the Isle of Wight, is in the British Museum. The edge is oblique, as is that of another of the same length found on the South Downs, and now in the Museum at Lewes. Another of grey flint, 7 inches long, tapering from 2 inches at edge to 1 inch at butt, 7∕8 inch thick, semicircular at the butt and edge, the faces polished nearly all over, but the sides sharp and left unground, was found during the Main Drainage Works for London, and is also in the British Museum. Others have been described from Playford,[337] Suffolk (6 7∕8 inches) and Chalvey Grove,[338] Eton Wick, Bucks (7 3∕8 inches), and part of one from Croydon.[339] |102|
I have seen specimens of the same kind, with the sides straight and sharp though slightly rounded, tapering towards the butt which is semicircular, and varying in length from 5 1∕4 inches to 7 1∕4 inches, found at Alderton, Suffolk; Thorn Marsh, Yorkshire; Norton, near Malton; Westacre Hall, Norfolk; and elsewhere. The late Mr. J. Brent, F.S.A., showed me a drawing of one about 7 inches long, found at Bigborough Wood, Tunford, Canterbury.
[Illustration: Fig. 45.—Reach Fen, Cambridge. 1∕2]
[Illustration: Fig. 46—Great Bedwin, Wilts. 1∕2]
The celt shown in Fig. 45 belongs to the same class, though it is rather flatter at the sides. It is polished over the greater part of its surface, but is on one face quite unpolished at the edge. I have engraved it as an example of the manner in which, after the edge of a hatchet of this kind had become damaged by use, a fresh edge was obtained by chipping, which, in some instances, the owner of the implement was not at the pains to sharpen by grinding.
Fig. 46 gives another variety of the flint celts with sharp or slightly rounded sides. It is slightly ridged along each face, and the faces instead of being uniformly convex to the edge have at the lower part a nearly flat facet of triangular form, the base of which forms the edge. This specimen was found at Great Bedwin, Wilts, and is in the Greenwell Collection.
I have a nearly similar specimen (6 1∕4 inches) from Northwood, Harefield, Middlesex, and another of the same length, found at Hepworth, |103| Suffolk, but the facet at the edge is not quite so distinct. A third from Abingdon is only 4 1∕2 inches long.
A long narrow chisel-like celt of this pointed oval section (8 inches) from Aberdeenshire[340] has been figured. A flint celt from Chiriqui,[341] found with a sort of flint punch and some burnishing pebbles in a grave, presumed to be that of one of the native workers in gold, is remarkably like Fig. 46 in form.
[Illustration: Fig. 47.—Burradon, Northumberland. 1∕2]
In the Fitch Collection is a large thick specimen (9 5∕8 inches) found at Heckingham Common, Norfolk, and a shorter, broader one with a faceted edge, from Pentney. Another of flint (6 1∕2 inches) with the sides much rounded, but with a similar facet at the edge, was found at Histon, Cambs, and belonged to the late Rev. S. Banks.
It seems probable that these instruments when first made did not exhibit the facet at the edge, but that it has resulted from repeated grinding as the edge became injured by wear.
A celt, apparently of this section, but more truncated at the butt, and with a narrow facet running along the centre of the face, was found in Llangwyllog,[342] Anglesey. It is not of flint but of “white magnesian stone.”
Fig. 47 exhibits a beautiful implement of a different character, and of a very rare form, inasmuch as it expands towards the edge. It is of ochreous-coloured flint polished all over, and is in the Greenwell Collection. It was found at Burradon, Northumberland, and in outline much resembles that from Gilmerton, Fig. 76, but this latter has the sides flat and a cutting edge at each end.
A celt of similar form, but only 6 1∕2 inches long, found at Cliff Hill, is in the Museum at Leicester. Four flint hatchets, found at Bexley, Kent, seem from the description given of them to be nearly of this type.[343] |104|
A few specimens of this form, both unground and ground merely at the edge, have already been mentioned, and specimens engraved, as Figs. 21 and 36. Hatchets expanding towards the edge are of more common occurrence in Denmark than in this country, though even there they are rather rare when the expansion is well-defined.
In the British Museum is a magnificent celt of this section, but in outline like Fig. 77. It is ground over nearly the whole of its surface, but the edge at each end has only been chipped out. It is made of some felspathic rock, and is no less than 14 5∕8 inches in length. It was found near Conishead Priory, Lancashire.
The next specimens that I shall describe are also principally made of other materials than flint.
Fig. 48, in my own collection, is of porphyritic greenstone, and was found at Coton, Cambridgeshire. It is polished all over, equally convex on both faces, and has the sides rather more rounded than most of those of nearly similar section in flint. The butt is rather sharper than the sides. I have an analogous implement, found at Nunnington, Yorkshire, but with the sides straighter and rather more converging towards the butt. Others have been found in the same district.
[Illustration: Fig. 48.—Coton, Cambridge. 1∕2]
Other specimens made of greenstone have been found in the Fens, some of which are in the Museum of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society.
Some “stone” celts from Kate’s Bridge[344] and Digby Fen have been figured in Miller and Skertchly’s “Fenland.” One (7 inches) of greenstone, and apparently of this type, was found at Hartford,[345] Hunts, and is now in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.
In the Newcastle Museum is a compact greenstone celt of this character (5 3∕4 inches) with the edge slightly oblique, found at Penrith Beacon, Cumberland. Some celts of the same general character have been found in Anglesea.
Implements of this class are frequently more tapering at the butt than the one shown in the figure. I have several such from the Cambridge Fens, and have seen an example from Towcester. One of flint (4 inches), so much rounded at the edge as to be almost oval in outline, found near Mildenhall, is in the Christy Collection. One of greenstone (4 1∕4 inches) was found at Wormhill, Buxton, Derbyshire.
Fig. 49, of dark-grey whin-stone, is of much the same character, but has an oblique cutting edge. The butt-end is ground to a blunted |105| curve. The original is in the Greenwell Collection, and was dug up in draining at Ponteland, Northumberland. Another, in the same collection, similar, but much rougher (6 inches) was found at Halton Chesters, in the same county. I have one of the same kind (6 5∕8 inches) found near Raby Castle, Durham.
A flint hatchet of nearly the same form, 4 1∕2 inches long, was found at Kempston, near Bedford. The Earl of Ducie, F.R.S., has another of flint (5 inches) from Bembridge, Isle of Wight. A celt, from Andalusia, of this character, but with the edge straighter, has been figured.[346]
[Illustration: Fig. 49.—Ponteland, Northumberland. 1∕2]
[Illustration: Fig. 50.—Fridaythorpe, Yorkshire. 1∕2]
The celt engraved in Fig. 50 is likewise in the Greenwell Collection, and was found at Fridaythorpe, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It is formed of green hone-stone. Another, similar but thicker, and having the sides more convergent and the edge less oblique, was found at the same place and is in the same collection, in which also is the fragment of a larger implement of the same class from Amotherby, near Malton, Yorkshire. With these is another (4 3∕4 inches) which was found in a barrow with a burnt interment on Seamer Moor, Yorkshire. It is apparently of clay-slate which has become red by burning with the body.
Messrs. Mortimer have one of this form in greenstone (5 3∕8 inches) found near Malton, and also one in flint (4 1∕8 inches) found near Fimber. |106|
I have a well-finished celt of hone-stone, rather thicker proportionally than that figured (5 5∕8 inches), probably found in Cumberland, it having formed part of the Crosthwaite Collection at Keswick. In the Greenwell Collection is another of basalt, with straight sides, tapering from 2 3∕4 inches at edge to 1 3∕4 at butt, 9 1∕2 in length, and 1 3∕4 thick, from a peat moss at Cowshill-in-Weardale, Durham.
A thin, flat form of celt, still presenting the same character of section, is represented in Fig. 51. The original is formed of a hard, nearly black clay-slate, and was found at Oulston, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Like many others which I have described, it is in the Greenwell Collection.
[Illustration: Fig. 51.—Oulston. 1∕2]
One of flint like Fig. 51 (5 inches) was found at Shelley,[347] Suffolk.
A celt of greenstone (4 3∕4 inches), of the same character but thicker and with straighter sides, from Newton, Aberdeenshire, is in the National Museum at Edinburgh, where is also another, in outline more like the figure, but broader at the butt-end, and with one side somewhat flattened. It is 4 3∕8 long, and was found at Redhall, near Edinburgh.
Some Irish celts, formed of different metamorphic rocks, present the same forms as those of Figs. 48 to 51. As a rule, however, the sides of Irish specimens are more rounded.
Fig. 52 represents an exquisitely polished celt, of a mottled, pale |107| green colour, found in Burwell Fen, Cambridge, and, through the kindness of Mr. Marlborough Pryor, now in my own collection. The material appears to be a very hard diorite; and as both faces are highly polished all over, the labour bestowed in the manufacture of such an instrument must have been immense. It is somewhat curved lengthways, and on the inner face is a slight depression, as if, in chipping it out, one of the lines of fracture had run in too far; but even this depression is polished, and no trace of the original chipped surface remains. The point is quite sharp, and the sides are only in the slightest degree rounded.
[Illustration: Fig. 52.—Burwell Fen. 1∕2]
A beautiful example of the kind is said to have been found in a barrow near Stonehenge.[348] Another of a green-grey colour (6 1∕2 inches) was found at Lopham Ford, near the source of the Waveney, and was submitted to me in 1884, by the late Mr. T. E. Amyot, of Diss.
The late Mr. J. W. Flower, F.G.S., bequeathed to me a somewhat larger specimen of the same character, found at Daviot, Inverness. It is slightly broken at the pointed butt, but must have been about 8 inches long and 3 5∕8 broad. The material may be a diorite, but perhaps more nearly approaches what the French term jadeite. In the Truro Museum is another highly polished celt of the same form, and similar material, found near Falmouth.
Mr. J. W. Brooke has a beautifully polished specimen, made of a green transparent stone, from Breamore, Salisbury. It has lost a small piece at the butt-end, but is still 8 inches long. It is only 2 5∕8 inches broad at the cutting end.
Another celt, 7 3∕4 inches long, “the edges thin, rising gradually to about the thickness of half an inch in the middle,” was found in 1791 near Hopton, Derbyshire.[349] The material is described as appearing “to be marble, of a light colour tinged with yellow, and a mixture of pale red and green veins.”
In the collection of the late Mr. J. F. Lucas was a celt of this type |108| 5 1∕2 inches long, slightly unsymmetrical in outline, owing to the cleavage of the stone. It is said to have been found near Brierlow, Buxton. The material is a green jade-like stone, but so fibrous in appearance as to resemble fibrolite.
Another, of “a fine granite stone, highly polished, 9 inches long, 4 1∕4 broad at one end, tapering to the other, its thickness in the middle 3∕4 of an inch, and quite sharp at the edges all round,” was found at Mains,[350] near Dumfries, in 1779. It was discovered in blowing up some large stones, possibly those of a dolmen, and is now in the possession of Sir R. S. Riddell, Bart., of Strontian.
[Illustration: Fig. 52A.—Berwickshire. 1∕2]
Several other specimens have been found in Scotland. A beautiful celt from Berwickshire[351] is, through the kindness of the Society of |109| Antiquaries of Scotland, shown in Fig. 52A. It is made of green quartz and has the edge intentionally blunted. A smaller celt (7 1∕2 inches) was found at Cunzierton near Jedburgh[352]; another (8 inches) at Rattray,[353] Perthshire; another (8 1∕4 inches), only 3∕4 inch thick at most, near Glenluce,[354] Wigtownshire; and others (8 inches) at Aberfeldy,[355] Perthshire, and Dunfermline.[356]
Several of these highly polished jadeite celts have been found in dolmens in Brittany and there are some fine specimens in the museum at Vannes. Some of them[357] have small holes bored through them. The various types of Brittany celts have been classified by the Société Polymathique du Morbihan.[358] In the Musée de St. Germain is a specimen (unbored) 9 inches long, found near Paris,[359] as also a hoard of fifteen, originally seventeen, mostly of jadeite and fibrolite, some perforated, found at Bernon,[360] near Arzon, Morbihan, in 1893. I have one 7 1∕2 inches long from St. Jean, Châteaudun, and others 5 3∕8 to 7 inches in length, of beautiful varieties of jade-like stone, found at Eu (Seine Inférieure), Miannay, near Abbeville (Somme), and Breteuil (Oise). The two latter are rounded and not sharp at the sides. One about 6 1∕2 inches long, from the environs of Soissons, is in the museum at Lyons.
One of jade, of analogous form to these, and found near Brussels, is engraved by Le Hon.[361] Another was found at Maffles.[362]
Five specimens of the same character, of different sizes, the longest about 9 1∕2 inches in length, and the shortest about 4 inches, are said to have been found with Roman remains at Kästrich, near Gonsenheim,[363] and are preserved in the museum at Mainz. The smallest is of greenstone, and the others of chloritic albite. They are said to have been buried in a sort of leather case, arranged alternately with the pointed and broad ends downwards, and in accordance with their size.
Eight specimens from museums at Weimar, Rudolstadt, and Leipzig were exhibited at Berlin.[364] in 1880. One from Wesseling,[365] on the Rhine (8 inches), is thought to have been associated with Roman remains.
Both with the English and Continental specimens, there appears to be considerable doubt as to the exact localities whence the materials were derived from which these celts are formed.
Instruments for which such beautiful and intractable materials were selected, can hardly have been in common use; but we have not sufficient ground for arriving at any trustworthy conclusion as to the purpose for which they were intended. I have, however, a short celt, 3 1∕2 inches long, from Burwell Fen, and made of this jade-like material, which has evidently been much in use, and was once considerably longer. It appears, indeed, to be the butt-end of an instrument like Fig. 52.
A detailed account of the jade and jadeite celts in the British Museum is given in the _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_.[366] |110|
It was formerly supposed that the jade of which many hatchets found in Switzerland and other European countries are made, came of necessity from the East, and theories as to the early migrations of mankind have been based upon this supposition. As a fact, jade has now been found in Europe, and notably in Styria[367] and Silesia.[368] Below[369] are given some references to comments on the sources of jade. An account of the method of working jade in Western Yun-nan is given in Anderson’s Report[370] on the Expedition to that country; and a complete and well-illustrated catalogue of objects in jade and nephrite, by Dr. A. B. Meyer, forms part of the publications of the Royal Ethnographical Museum, at Dresden, for 1883.
* * * * *
I now come to the second of the subdivisions under which I have arranged this class of implements, viz., those having the sides flattened. The flat sides, of course, taper away to a point at the cutting edge of the celts, and usually diminish much in width toward the butt-end, which is commonly ground to a semicircular blunted edge. The implements of this kind are generally very symmetrical in form.
* * * * *
I have selected a large specimen for engraving in Fig. 53. It is of grey mottled flint, ground all over to such an extent, that hardly any traces of the original chipping remain. It was found at Botesdale, Suffolk, and was formerly in the collection of Mr. Warren, of Ixworth, but is now in my own. I have another (4 3∕4 inches) from Redgrave, Suffolk, and a third (5 1∕2 inches) from Bottisham Lode, Cambs.
One of the same form, found near Stowmarket, is engraved in the _Archæologia_.[371] If the account there given be correct, it was 12 3∕4 inches long. A specimen from Cardiff, now in the British Museum (4 1∕2 inches), has lost a considerable portion of its original length by use, and is ground so that the edge bounds a facet on the face. The sides at the butt-end are somewhat rounded, but near the edge they are flat and 1∕4 inch wide.
A fine specimen of this character, formed of ochreous flint (9 inches), found in Swaffham Fen, Cambridgeshire, is in the Christy Collection, as well as one from Mildenhall (5 1∕2 inches), the butt-end of which is sharper than is usual.
In the Fitch Collection is a flint celt of this type, 7 1∕2 inches long and 2 1∕2 broad at the edge, which however, has been broken off. It is said to have been found in a tumulus at Swannington, Norfolk, in 1855. In the Northampton Museum is a specimen (6 inches) of ochreous flint, found at Gilsborough, Northamptonshire. The late Mr. James Wyatt, F.G.S., had a beautiful implement of this type, but narrower in proportion to its length, being 7 inches long and only 1 3∕4 wide at the edge, found in the Thames at Coway Stakes, near Egham. I have one (6 inches) from the Thames at Hampton Court. A fine specimen, 9 1∕2 inches long, and 3 wide at the edge, with the sides quite flat, but |111| less than 1∕4 inch wide, of ochreous flint, polished all over, was found at Crudwell, Wilts.
[Illustration: Fig. 53.—Botesdale, Suffolk. 1∕2]
Others, in flint, have been found at Sutton, Suffolk (8 inches); Wishford, Great Bedwin, Wilts[372] (7 inches); Portsmouth;[373] Cherbury Camp, Pusey, Faringdon[374] (5 1∕2 inches long, edge faceted), and Rampton, Cambridge.[375] I have seen one (5 1∕2 inches) that was found near Loughborough. Mr. G. F. Lawrence has a fine specimen (7 5∕8 inches) from the Lea Marshes. |112|
In the National Museum at Edinburgh is one of white flint (10 inches) from Fochabers,[376] Elginshire, and another from the same place (7 1∕4 inches). They are in shape much like Fig. 61. There is another of grey flint, from Skye (7 1∕2 inches). One 5 1∕2 inches long, in the same museum, from Roxburghshire, has the middle part of the faces ground flat, so that the section is a sort of compressed octagon; the edge is nearly straight.
[Illustration: Fig. 54.—Lackford, Suffolk. 1∕2]
Much the same form occurs in other materials than flint. I have a specimen, formed of flinty clay-slate, with one side less flat than the other, 10 1∕4 inches long, 3 wide, and 1 5∕8 thick, said to have been found with four others in a cairn on Druim-a-shi, Culloden, Inverness. I have another of whin-stone (9 1∕4 inches) from Kirkcaldy, Fife.
The fine celt from Gilmerton, Fig. 76, is of the same class, but has a cutting edge at each end. Some Cumberland and Westmorland specimens partake much of this character. |113|
Implements of nearly similar form to that last described, but having the edge oblique, are also met with. That engraved in Fig. 54 was found at Lackford, Suffolk, and was formerly in the collection of Mr. Warren, of Ixworth, but is now in mine. It is of grey flint. I have another, of white flint, of the same length but a trifle narrower, and with the grinding for the edge forming more of a facet with the body of the celt. It was found in the Isle of Portland. The obliquity of the edge was no doubt intentional, and may have originated in the manner in which these hatchets were mounted with hafts. Professor Nilsson[377] has suggested that the obliquity is due to the front part of the blade being worn away in use more quickly than the back.
[Illustration: Fig. 55.—Dalmeny, Linlithgow. 1∕2]
To this class, though very different in appearance, belongs a beautifully made celt of grey flint, in the British Museum. It is probably of English origin, though the place of finding is unknown. The sides are straight and flat, but only about 1∕16 of an inch wide, the faces equally convex and polished all over. It is 9 inches long, and tapers from 1 1∕2 inches wide at the edge, which is broken, to 5∕8 at the butt. Its greatest thickness is 1∕2 an inch. It is engraved in the _Archæological Journal_.[378]
Flint celts of the type of both Fig. 53 and 54 are not uncommon in France and Belgium. They are also found, though rarely, in Ireland.
The cutting end of one formed of nearly transparent quartz, and found in Egypt, is in the Museum at Geneva.
Celts with the sides flattened are of not unfrequent occurrence in other materials than flint. That figured as No. 55 is of ochreous-coloured quartzite, and was found at Dalmeny, Linlithgow. It is preserved in the National Museum at Edinburgh. The form is remarkable, as being so broad in proportion to the length. The sides are flat, but the angles they make with the faces are slightly rounded. The butt-end is rounded in both directions, and appears to have been worked with a pointed tool or pick.
Another celt, of greenstone, of much the same form but with the |114| sides more tapering, 6 inches long and 3 1∕4 wide, which was found in Lochleven[379] in 1860, is in the same museum. This latter more nearly resembles Fig. 51 in outline. A small highly-polished celt of flinty slate (2 5∕8 inches), found near Dundee,[380] has been figured. Another, more triangular in outline, 6 1∕2 inches long, was found at Barugh, Yorkshire, and is in the Greenwell Collection. I have a celt of rather narrower proportions that was found between Hitchin and Pirton, Herts. It is made of a kind of _lapis lydius_.
Many of the Danish greenstone celts, which are perforated at the butt, present much the same outline and section.
[Illustration: Fig. 56.—Sprouston, near Kelso. 1∕2]
Stone hatchets of this character occur, though rarely, in France. I have seen one in the collection of the late M. Aymard, at Le Puy. Dr. Finlay, of Athens, had a thin, flat hatchet of this form made of heliotrope, 3 1∕2 inches long, with flat sides, found in Greece. The form occurs also in Sicily.[381]
Several celts of this type have been brought from different parts of Asia. One, of basalt, 2 inches long, wedge-shaped, found at Muquier,[382] in Southern Babylonia, is in the British Museum; and several of jade, 3 to 4 inches long, procured by Major Sladen from the province of Yun-nan in Southern China, are in the Christy Collection. By Major Sladen’s kindness, I have also a specimen. Mr. Joseph Edkins has published some notes on “Stone Hatchets in China.”[383] Others from Perak[384] have also been described.
The same form, also in jade, has been found in Assam.[385] Some from Java, in the museum at Leyden, formed of flint, present the same section, but the sides expand towards the edge. A nearly similar form occurs in Japan.[386]
Fig. 56 is of the same character as Fig. 55, but narrower at the |115| butt-end. The original is in the Greenwell Collection, and is formed of Lydian stone. It was found at Sprouston, near Kelso, Roxburghshire. Though flat at the sides along most of the blade, the section becomes oval near the butt-end.
I have a smaller example of this type in clay-slate, 3 1∕2 inches long and 1 3∕4 wide at the edge, found at Carnaby, near Bridlington. The butt-end is in this case rectangular in section. It closely resembles the flat-sided hatchets so commonly found in France. I have an Irish celt of the same form found near Armagh, and made of clay-slate. Flat-sided celts are, however, rare in Ireland.
[Illustration: Fig. 57.—Nunnington, Yorkshire. 1∕2]
A celt of grey flint, 4 1∕2 inches long, of much the same outline, but having the sides rounded and not flat, and the butt brought to a straight sharp edge, was found in Burwell Fen, and is now in the Christy Collection.
A celt of the same section, but of peculiar form, with the sides curved slightly inwards, and tapering considerably to the butt, is shown in Fig. 57. The sides are flat, but have the angles slightly rounded; a narrow flattened face is carried round the butt-end. It would appear to have been made from a calcareous nodule found in some argillaceous bed, like the septaria in the London clay. Both of |116| its faces present a series of diverging cracks, of slight depth, apparently resulting from the dissolution of calcareous veins in the stone. It was found at Nunnington, Yorkshire, and now forms part of the Greenwell Collection.
The original of Fig. 58 was discovered at Burradon, Northumberland, where also the fine flint celt, Fig. 47, was found. This likewise is in the Greenwell Collection. It is of porphyritic stone, and has the angles of the flat sides slightly rounded. Another, in the same collection, 4 inches long, from Doddington, in the same county, is of similar character. Celts of much the same shape and size have been found in the Shetland Isles; one of these, 5 1∕2 inches long, from West Burrafirth, is in the British Museum. A similar form is found in Japan.[387]
[Illustration: Fig. 58.—Burradon, Northumberland. 1∕2]
[Illustration: Fig. 59.—Livermere, Suffolk. 1∕2]
Fig. 59 shows a celt of much the same kind, found at Livermere, near Bury St. Edmunds. It is formed of a close-grained greenstone, and is in my own collection. The angles at the sides are slightly rounded. I have others of nearly the same size and of similar material, found near Cirencester, and at Soham and Bottisham, Cambs. Greenstone celts of about this size, and with the sides more or less flat, so as to range between Figs. 48 and 58, are of not uncommon occurrence in the Fen country. Mr. Fisher, of Ely, has one, found near Manea, and several from Bottisham. I have one, of felstone, 3 1∕2 inches long, found at Coton, Cambs., one side of which presents a flat surface 3∕8 inch wide, while the other is but slightly flattened. One (4 3∕10 inches) was found near Torquay, Devon.[388]
A still more triangular form, more convex on the faces, and having |117| the flat sides much narrower, is shown in Fig. 60, from a specimen in the Greenwell Collection, found at Ilderton, Northumberland. It is formed of a hard, slaty rock or hone-stone. The angles of the sides are rounded.
In the National Museum at Edinburgh are two implements of greenstone (2 3∕4 and 3 inches) of nearly similar form to Fig. 60, but having the sides sharp. They were found in the Isle of Skye.[389]
[Illustration: Fig. 60.—Ilderton, Northumberland.]
A smaller celt of the same character, 2 1∕2 inches long, found in a cairn at Brindy Hill, Aberdeenshire,[390] is in the British Museum.
One 2 5∕8 inches long, from Sardis,[391] in Lydia, and in the same collection, is of much the same form, but rounder at the sides and less pointed at the butt.
Implements of the form represented in Fig. 61 occur most frequently in the northern part of Britain, especially in Cumberland and Westmorland, in consequence, it may be supposed, of the felspathic rocks, of which they are usually formed, being there found in the greatest abundance. That here figured is in the British Museum. It is of mottled close-grained stone, beautifully finished, and was found in a turf pit on Windy Harbour Farm, near Pendle, Lancashire.[392] It is more slender than the generality of the implements of this class, which in outline usually more closely resemble Fig. 77, which, however, has a cutting edge at each end. They sometimes slightly expand towards the butt-end.
I have a more roughly-finished implement of this class, with the two faces faceted longitudinally, found near Wigton, Cumberland, and formerly in the Crosthwaite Museum, at Keswick. It is of felspathic ash, much decomposed on the surface, and 9 inches long. I have also a small example of the type (7 1∕2 inches) made of whin-stone, and found by Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S., near Sudbury, Suffolk, in 1873. Some larger specimens of similar character are in the Christy Collection. One of them is 13 3∕4 inches in length.
In the Greenwell Collection is an implement of this type, but with the sides straighter, and the angles rounded, found at Holme, on Spalding Moor, Yorkshire. It is of hone-stone, 7 inches long, 2 1∕2 inches broad at the edge, but tapering to 1 1∕4 inches at the butt. There is also another of felstone, 12 3∕4 long, found at Great Salkeld, Cumberland.
There is a celt of this type in the Blackmore Museum (13 1∕8 inches), the butt-end round and sharpened, though the edge has been removed by grinding. It is said to have been found, 5 or 6 feet deep in gravel, |118| at Shaw Hall,[393] near Flixton, Lancashire. Another, in the same collection (8 inches), was found near Keswick.
[Illustration: Fig. 61.—Near Pendle, Lancashire. 1∕2]
What from the engraving would appear to be a large implement of this kind, has been described by Mr. Cuming[394] as a club. “It is wrought of fawn-coloured hone-slate, much like that obtained in the neighbourhood of Snowdon. It weighs 6 1∕4 pounds, and measures 17 5∕8 inches in length, nearly 3 3∕4 inches across its greatest breadth, and nearly 2 1∕8 inches in its greatest thickness. The faces are convex, the edges blunt and thinning off at both of the rounded extremities.” It was found near Newton, Lancashire. Another so-called club is mentioned as having been found near Keswick.[395]
Clumsy and unwieldy as implements of such a length appear to be if mounted as axes, there can be no doubt of their having been intended for use as cutting tools; and though, from their size, they might be considered to be clubs, yet their form is but ill-adapted for such a weapon, even if we assume that, as is said to be the case with the New Zealand _mere_, they were sometimes employed for thrusting as well as for striking, and, therefore, had the broad end sharpened. The Stirlingshire specimen, Fig. 77, which is 13 1∕4 inches long, is, however, sharp at both ends. There have been, moreover, discovered in Denmark what are indubitably celts, longer than the Newton so-called club. They are sometimes more than 18 inches long, and I have myself such an implement from Jutland, of ochreous flint, 16 inches long and 3 inches broad at the edge, which is carefully sharpened. I have another roughly-chipped Danish celt of flint, 14 1∕2 inches long, which weighs 6 lbs. 14 oz., or more than that from Newton. |119|
The celt found in Solway Moss, with its handle still preserved, as will subsequently be mentioned, is of the form of Fig. 61. It is of felspathic rock, 9 1∕2 inches long and 2 1∕4 inches broad, the edge slightly oblique.
[Illustration: Fig. 62.—Ness. 1∕2]
One of felstone (15 1∕2 inches), was found at Drumour,[396] in Glenshee, Forfarshire, with another 13 inches long. This latter widens out suddenly at the butt. The larger of these two presents on its surface a transverse mark, not unlike that on the Solway Moss specimen, such as may have resulted from that portion of the surface having been protected for a time by a wooden handle, which eventually decayed and perished.
Another from Lempitlaw, in the Kelso Museum, is 13 inches long.
The flattening of the sides and faces of celts is sometimes, though rarely, carried to such an extent that they become almost rectangular in section.
That shown in Fig. 62 was found near the Rye bank, at Ness,[397] in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and is formed of a dark, much altered slaty rock, containing a good deal of iron. The butt-end, though brought to an edge, is not so sharp as the broader or cutting end. The surface is somewhat decomposed. It is in the Greenwell Collection, in which also is the somewhat analogous implement shown in Fig. 63.
This also is from the same part of Yorkshire, having been found, in 1868, at Gilling,[398] in the Vale of Mowbray, 4 ft. deep in peaty clay. It |120| is formed of clay iron-stone, and has the angles somewhat rounded. The edge is oblique and slightly chipped away. Another celt of close-grained schist (5 3∕4 inches), found in the same parish, and preserved in the same collection, more resembles in outline that from Ness, though not sharp at the butt, and having an oblique edge. In the Greenwell Collection is a thinner celt of the same type, found at Heslerton Carr.
[Illustration: Fig. 63.—Gilling. 1∕2]
I have a specimen (5 1∕4 inches) of hone-stone, rather flatter on one face than the other, from Kirkcaldy, Fife.
An Italian celt, of much the same character as Fig. 62, but of greenstone, has been figured by Gastaldi.[399]
The next celt which I have to describe is even more chisel-like in |121| appearance, both the faces and sides being almost flat and nearly parallel. This peculiarity of form is no doubt mainly due to the schistose character of the rock from which the implement is made; which, in the case of the original of Fig. 64, is a close-grained slate or hone-stone. It was found at Swinton, near Malton, Yorkshire, and was given to me by the late Mr. C. Monkman. The angles are slightly rounded, and the butt-end is tapered off as if to an edge, which, however, is now broken away.
Long, narrow celts of this rectangular section are of very rare occurrence both in Britain and Ireland, and, so far as I am aware, have never been found of flint. In Denmark, on the contrary, they are common in flint, but generally of a larger size than the specimen here engraved. The faces also are usually rather more convex.
[Illustration: Fig. 64.—Swinton, near Malton. 1∕2]
[Illustration: Fig. 65.—Scamridge Dykes, Yorkshire. 1∕2]
They are to be found among the North American[400] forms, sometimes with a hole towards the butt-end, as if for suspension.
Somewhat the same form occurs in Siam and in the Malay Peninsula.
The next specimen, shown in Fig. 65, is of the same material as the last, and was found in the same neighbourhood, at the Dykes, Scamridge, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Owing to the irregular fissure of the stone, it is considerably thicker at one side than the other. The broader side is flat with the angles chamfered, and the narrower side is rounded. The faces taper at the butt-end, which is ground to a |122| regular curve and blunted. This also was given to me by the late Mr. C. Monkman, of Malton.
[Illustration: Fig. 66.—Whitwell, Yorkshire. 1∕2]
A curious variety of celt is shown in Fig. 66, the original of which was found at Whitwell, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and forms part of the Greenwell Collection. It is made of a hard, shelly limestone, apparently of Oolitic age, the surface of which has been partially eroded. It is nearly flat on one face, and seems to have been intended for mounting as an adze. Other celts of similar material have been found in the same district, and Canon Greenwell has kindly presented me with one of much the same character as this, though far broader in proportion to its thickness. This specimen, which was found at Osgodby, closely resembles in section that from Truro, Fig. 84.
A specimen of the type of Fig. 66 (7 1∕4 inches) is in the British Museum. It was found at Creekmoor, near Poole, Dorset.
Some of the large celts from the Shetland Isles present the same peculiarity of being flat on one face, but, as the sides are much rounded, I shall include them among those of oval section.
* * * * *
These, of oval section, form the third subdivision of polished celts, which I now proceed to describe.
* * * * *
It will be observed that implements of this character, formed of flint, are extremely rare. The reason for this appears to be, that from the method in which, in this country, flint celts were chipped out, the sides were in all cases originally sharp, and they had a pointed oval, or _vesica piscis_, section. In polishing, this form was to a great extent preserved, though the edges were, as has been seen, sometimes ground flat and sometimes rounded. It rarely happens, however, that the rounding is carried to so great an extent as to produce such a contour that it is impossible to say within a little where the faces end and the sides begin; though this is often the case with celts of greenstone and other materials, which were shaped out in a somewhat different manner, and in the formation of which grinding played a more important part. It is almost needless to say that I use the word oval in its popular sense, and not as significant of a mathematically true ellipse. At the part where the edge of the celts commences, the section is of course a _vesica piscis_.
The first specimen engraved, Fig. 67, is in my own collection, and was found in the Thames at London. It is of dark greenstone, and, owing to a defect in the piece of stone of which it was made, there is a hollow place in one of the faces. General Pitt Rivers has a similar but more symmetrical celt, of the same material, also found in the Thames. Another, smaller, from the same source, is in the British |123| Museum; and another (8 inches) from the collection of the late Rev. T. Hugo, F.S.A.,[401] is now mine. Its edge is rather oblique. I have another from the Thames (7 1∕2 inches) with a symmetrical edge.
[Illustration: Fig. 67.—Thames, London. 1∕2]
Large implements of this form are of not uncommon occurrence in Scotland and in the Shetland Isles. There are several in the National Museum at Edinburgh, and also in the British Museum, and in that of Newcastle. The butt-end is occasionally pointed, and the faces in broad specimens, flatter than in Fig. 67. Several of these celts |124| in the British Museum were found in the middle of the last century, in Shetland. The largest is 11 inches long, 3 inches wide at the edge, and 1 3∕4 inches thick. It was found in Selter,[402] parish of Walls. Others are from 8 inches to 9 inches long. In the case of one, 12 inches long, from Shetland, and in the Edinburgh Museum, the edge is oblique.
[Illustration: Fig. 68.—Near Bridlington. 1∕2]
Mr. J. W. Cursiter, of Kirkwall, has a beautiful, long, narrow celt of oval section, from Lunnasting, Shetland. It is formed of spherulitic felstone, and is 9 1∕4 inches long, but only 2 1∕8 inches wide at the broadest part. Another, 12 inches long, from Trondra, is of felstone, and slightly curved longitudinally, so that it was probably an adze.
Others[403] (14, 11, 10 1∕2, and 9 inches) have been figured.
In the Greenwell Collection is a celt of this kind formed of porphyritic greenstone, 13 inches long, from Sandsting, Shetland.
A celt of greenstone (8 inches), in outline much resembling Fig. 72, was found, in 1758, at Tresta, in the parish of Aithsting, Shetland, and is now in the British Museum. It is flat on one face, the other being convex, so that the section is an oval with a segment removed. Such an instrument must, in all probability, have been mounted as an adze, though the flat face may have originally been due to the cleavage of the material, which is a porphyritic greenstone.
Another celt (6 1∕4 inches), flat on one face, so that the section presents little more than half an oval, was found in the island of Yell, and is now in the Newcastle Museum.
I have a large heavy celt less tapering at the butt than Fig. 67, 8 1∕2 inches long, 3 1∕2 inches wide, and 2 1∕4 inches thick, said to have been found at Spalding, Lincolnshire. One of flint (7 inches) nearly oval in section, and found at Northampton, is in the museum at that town.
Celts of the same form and character as Fig. 67 are found both in Ireland and in France.
Fig. 68 shows another variety of this type, which becomes almost conical at the butt. The original was found near Bridlington, and is |125| now in my own collection. The material is greenstone. Implements of this form, but rarely expanding at the edge, are of common occurrence in that part of Yorkshire. Some of them have been made of a variety of greenstone liable to decomposition from atmospheric or other causes, and the celts when found present a surface so excessively eroded that their form can with difficulty be recognized. In the Greenwell Collection are celts of the type of Fig. 68, from Willerby, in the East Riding (6 1∕4 inches and 5 1∕2 inches), and Crambe, in the North Riding of Yorkshire (6 1∕4 inches), as well as another (5 3∕4 inches) from Sherburn, Durham. I have one nearly 8 inches long, from Speeton, near Bridlington, and several (5 1∕2 to 6 inches) from the Cambridge Fens. The surface of one of them is for the most part decomposed, but along a vein of harder material the original polish is preserved.
Mr. F. Spalding has found one (8 inches), with a sideways curve, on the shore at Walton-on-the-Naze.
[Illustration: Fig. 69.—Lakenheath, Suffolk. 1∕2]
A greenstone celt of this form (8 1∕2 inches) was found at Minley Manor,[404] Blackwater, Hants.
In the Fitch Collection is one of serpentine (6 1∕4 inches), from Dull’s Lane, near Loddon, Norfolk, and the late Mr. J. W. Flower had one of greenstone (4 1∕4 inches), found at Melyn Works, Neath. The greenstone celt found in Grime’s Graves,[405] Norfolk, was of this form, but rather longer in its proportions, being 7 1∕2 inches long and 2 1∕4 inches broad at the edge, which is oblique. The late Mr. H. Durden, of Blandford, had a greenstone celt of this type (5 inches), found at Langton, near Blandford, the butt-end of which is roughened by picking, probably for insertion in a socket; and the late Rev. E. Duke, of Lake, near Salisbury, had a celt of this character, found in a tumulus in that parish. I have both French and Danish specimens of the same form at the butt, though narrower at the edge.
Another variety, in which the butt-end is less pointed and more oval, is given in Fig. 69. The original is of dark green hornblende schist, and was found at Lakenheath, Suffolk. I have a large implement of similar form and material (5 1∕2 inches), with the edge slightly oblique, from Swaffham, Cambridgeshire; another of serpentine (3 1∕4 inches), from Coldham’s Common, Cambridge; others of greenstone (4 and 3 3∕4 inches), from Kempston, Bedford, and Burwell Fen, Cambs.; as well as one of greenstone (4 3∕8 inches), from Standlake, Oxon. A celt of this type, of porphyritic stone (5 1∕2 inches), found |126| at Branton, Northumberland, is in the Greenwell Collection. It is slightly oblique at the edge. Another of the same character, of greenstone (6 3∕4 inches), found at Sproughton, Suffolk, is in the Fitch Collection. Another, 5 inches long, found at Kingston-on-Thames, is in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries.
Another of green serpentine, faceted to form the edge, and rounded at butt, 4 inches long, was found in a cairn in Fifeshire, and is preserved in the National Museum at Edinburgh.
In the Blackmore Museum is a celt of granite tapering to the rounded point at the butt, 6 1∕2 inches long, which has been roughened at the upper end, and is polished towards the edge. It was found in the River Lambourn, Berks.
I have seen another of this form, but of flint (4 1∕2 inches), with the sides much rounded, so as to be almost oval, found near Eastbourne, where also this form has occurred in greenstone. The late Mr. H. Durden, of Blandford, had a celt of greenstone of this form 4 3∕8 inches long, found at Tarrant Launceston, Dorset. Many of the celts found in India are of this type.
[Illustration: Fig. 70.—Seamer, Yorkshire. 1∕2]
A shorter form, which also seems to be most prevalent in Yorkshire, is represented in Fig. 70. The specimen figured is from Seamer, formed of greenstone, and belongs to the Greenwell Collection. In the same collection is another (4 inches), rather larger and thicker, from Scampston. Another of quartzite (5 inches), polished all over, but showing traces of having been worked with a pick, was found at Birdsall, near Malton, and is in the collection of Messrs. Mortimer, of Driffield. I have one of greenstone (4 1∕2 inches), also from Seamer.
A celt of greenstone, of the same section, but broader and more truncated at the butt, 3 inches long, and found near Bellingham, North Tyne, is in the Newcastle Museum. Another (4 inches), in outline more like Fig. 60, was found in a sepulchral cave at Rhos Digre,[406] Denbighshire.
Some of the stone celts from Italy, Greece, Asia Minor[407] and India, are of much the same form, but usually rather longer in their proportions. I have some Greek specimens more like Fig. 71—kindly given to me by Captain H. Thurburn, F.G.S. Celts of this character are said to have been in use among the North American Indians[408] as fleshing |127| instruments, employed by the women in the preparation of skins. They were not hafted, but held in the hand like chisels. I have a celt almost identical in form and material with Fig. 70, but from Central India.
[Illustration: Fig. 71.—Guernsey. 1∕2]
The form shown in Fig. 71 is inserted among those of Britain, though geographically it may be regarded as French rather than British, having been found in Guernsey. I have engraved it from a cast presented to the Society of Antiquaries by the late Mr. F. C. Lukis, F.S.A. The form occurs in various materials—rarely flint—and is common through the whole of France. A specimen from Surrey is in the British Museum. I have seen one which was said to have been found in the neighbourhood of London, but it was not improbably an imported specimen.
Should authenticated instances of the finding of celts of this class in our southern counties be adduced, they will be of interest as affording _primâ facie_ evidence of intercourse with the Continent at an early period.
Small hatchets, both oval and circular in section, have been found at Accra,[409] West Africa, and others, larger, on the Gold Coast.[410] The same form is not uncommon in Greece and Asia Minor.
[Illustration: Fig. 72.—Wareham. 1∕2]
Major Sladen brought several small jade celts of this form, but flatter at the sides, from Yun-nan, in Southern China. Through his liberality several are in the Christy Collection, and one in my own. Some hæmatite celts found in North America[411] are of much the same size and form.
The specimen engraved as Fig. 72 was found in the neighbourhood of Wareham, Dorsetshire, and is in my own collection. It is formed of syenite, and, unlike the instruments previously described, is narrower at the edge than in the middle of the blade; the section shows that the faces are nearly flat. I have another celt, in which these peculiarities are exaggerated, the |128| faces being flatter, the blade thinner, and also wider in the middle in proportion to the edge, it being 5 1∕2 inches long, 2 1∕4 inches wide in the middle, and 1 1∕2 inches at the edge, and rather less than an inch in thickness. The material is a _Serpula_ limestone, and the celt was no doubt formed from a travelled block, as it was found in a Boulder-clay district at Troston, near Bury St. Edmunds. I have a much heavier implement from the same locality, and formed of the same kind of stone. It is 10 inches long, and rather wider in proportion than Fig. 72. It does not narrow towards the edge, but in section and general form may be classed with the specimen there figured.
A large celt, 10 inches long, of the same section, but thinner proportionally, and with straighter and more parallel sides, in outline more like Fig. 79, was found at Pilmoor, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and forms part of the Greenwell Collection. It is of clay-slate. Another in the same collection, and from North Holme, in the same Riding (10 inches), is broader and flatter, with the sides somewhat more square, and the edge more curved. One face is somewhat hollowed towards one side, possibly to grind out the trace of a too deep chip. A third is from Barmston, in the East Riding (10 1∕2 inches), and a beautiful celt of hornblendic serpentine (10 5∕8 inches), oval in section and pointed at the butt, was found at Cunningsburgh,[412] Shetland, and another of diorite (10 1∕8 inches), rather broader in its proportions than Fig. 72, on Ambrisbeg Hill,[413] Island of Bute. An analogous form from Japan is in the museum at Leyden.
[Illustration: Fig. 73.—Forfarshire. 1∕2]
A long narrow chisel-like celt, with an oval section, is given in Fig. 73. The original is of dark greenstone, and was found in Forfarshire. It is in the National Museum at Edinburgh. I have a larger celt of the same form (5 1∕2 inches), formed of a close-grained grit, and found at Sherburn, Yorkshire. Messrs. Mortimer have another of schist (4 1∕2 inches), from Thixendale, Yorkshire. This form occurs, though rarely, in Ireland.
A much larger celt, of metamorphic rock, 8 1∕2 inches long, 3 inches broad at the edge, and 1 3∕4 inches at the butt, 1 3∕8 inches thick, was found on Throckley Fell, Northumberland, and is in the Museum at Newcastle.
Fig. 74 gives a shorter form of implement truncated at the butt. The original, which is in my own collection, is formed of greenstone, and was found at Easton, near Bridlington. It is carefully polished towards the edge, but at the butt it is roughened, apparently with the intention of rendering it more capable of adhesion to its socket. The celt from Malton, Fig. 81, is roughened in a similar manner, and the same is the case with many of the hatchets from the Swiss lake-dwellings, which have been frequently found still fixed in their sockets of stag’s horn. |129|
I have another specimen, from South Back Lane, Bridlington, which, however, is not roughened at the butt, and the sides of which have had a narrow flat facet ground along them. It is 6 inches long, and 3 1∕2 inches wide at the edge. Mr. W. Tucker has shown me a broken specimen like Fig. 74, found near Loughborough.
[Illustration: Fig. 74.—Bridlington. 1∕2]
[Illustration: Fig. 75.—Caithness. 1∕2]
Another form presents a rather pointed, and unusually elongated oval in section, and is pointed at the butt. Fig. 75 represents a highly-finished celt of this kind made of light green, almost jade-like stone, preserved in the National Museum at Edinburgh, and said to have been found in Caithness. It is so thoroughly Carib in character, and so closely resembles specimens I possess from the West Indian Islands, that for some time I hesitated to engrave it. There are, however, sufficiently numerous instances of other implements of the same form having been found in this country for the type to be accepted as British. The celt found at Glasgow,[414] in a canoe at a depth of twenty-five feet below the surface, was of this kind. In the Greenwell Collection is one of porphyritic greenstone (7 inches), and of nearly this form, found at Grantchester, Cambridge. Two celts of this character, the one from Jamaica and the other from the North of Italy, are engraved in the _Archæologia_.[415] Both are in the British Museum.
A celt like Fig. 75 (4 1∕2 inches), of a material like jadeite, is said to |130| have been found about 60 years ago at King’s Sutton,[416] Northamptonshire. It has much the appearance of being Carib.
Four greenstone celts of this type, one of them rather crooked laterally, were found in 1869 at Bochym,[417] Cury, Cornwall.
Another of aphanite (11 1∕2 inches) from Cornwall[418] is in the Edinburgh Museum, where is also one of the same material and form (10 1∕2 inches) from Berwickshire,[419] two others of grey porphyritic stone (9 inches) from Aberdeenshire,[420] and another of porphyrite (10 inches) found near Lerwick,[421] Shetland.
I have specimens of the same type from various parts of France. In the Greenwell Collection is a Spanish celt of the same form found near Cadiz.
The bulk of the celts found in Ireland, and formed of other materials than flint, approximate in form to Figs. 69 to 75, though usually rather thinner in their proportion. They range, however, widely in shape, and vary much in their degree of finish.
* * * * *
I now come to the fourth of the subdivisions under which, mainly for the sake of having some basis for classification, I have arranged the polished celts. In it, I have placed those which present any abnormal peculiarities; and the first of these which I shall notice are such as do not materially affect the outline of the celts; as, for instance, the existence of a second cutting edge at the butt-end, at a part where, though the blade is usually tapered away and ground, yet it very rarely happens that it has been left sharp. Indeed, in almost all cases, if in shaping and polishing the celt the butt-end has at one time been sharpened, the edge has been afterwards carefully removed by grinding it away.
* * * * *
The beautifully-formed implement of ochreously-stained flint represented in Fig. 76, was found at Gilmerton, in East Lothian, and is preserved in the National Museum at Edinburgh. The sides are flat with the angles rounded off, and the blade expands slightly at the ends, both of which are sharpened. It is carefully polished all over, so as to show no traces of its having been chipped out, except a slight depression on one face, and this is polished like the rest of the blade. It is upwards of a century since this instrument was turned up by the plough, as described in the _Minutes of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_[422] for April 2, 1782, where it is mentioned as the “head of a hatchet of polished yellow marble, sharpened at both ends.”
Another from Shetland[423] (11 1∕2 inches) is made of serpentine and has both ends “formed to a rounded cutting edge.” |131|
A celt from Kirklauchline, Wigtownshire, mentioned at page 135, is much like Fig. 76 in outline.
[Illustration: Fig. 76.—Gilmerton, East Lothian]
A somewhat similar instrument, but narrower at the butt, formed of jade (?) and 11 inches long, found at Nougaroulet, is engraved in the _Revue de Gascogne_.[424]
[Illustration: Fig. 77.—Stirlingshire. 1∕2]
Fig. 77 represents another celt, in the Edinburgh Museum, of similar section, but expanding only at the butt-end, which is sharpened, |133| and contracting from the middle towards the broader end, which, as usual, seems to have been the principal cutting end. It is formed of compact greenstone, and was found in Stirlingshire. In general outline, it closely resembles a common Cumberland form, of which, however, the butt is not sharp. Several such were found in Ehenside Tarn,[425] Cumberland, varying in length from 6 to 14 1∕2 inches. One of them was in its original haft. The whole are now in the British Museum. Another celt (10 3∕4 inches), made of a fine volcanic ash, was found in 1873 near Loughrigg Tarn,[426] Westmorland. Two celts of much the same form from Drumour,[427] Glenshee, Forfarshire, in 1870, are mentioned on page 119.
Celts with an edge at each end are rare on the Continent, though they are of more frequent occurrence in Ireland. One of this character, found in Dauphiné, France,[428] has been engraved by M. Chantre.
Another from Portugal[429] has been described by myself elsewhere.
[Illustration: Fig. 78.—Harome. 1∕2]
A celt of shorter proportions, but also provided with a cutting edge at each end, is shown in Fig. 78. It is in the Greenwell Collection, and was found at Harome, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, where several stone implements of rare form have been discovered. The material is a hard clay-slate. The tool seems quite as well adapted for being used in the hand without any mounting, as for attachment to a haft. |135|
[Illustration: Fig. 79.—Daviot, near Inverness.]
Another of these implements, with a cutting edge at either end, is shown in Fig. 79.
As will be observed, it is curved longitudinally, so that if attached to a handle, it must have been after the manner of an adze and not of an axe. The sides curve slightly inwards, which would render any attachment to a handle more secure.
The material of which it is formed is a dark green porphyry. It was found in a cairn at Daviot,[430] near Inverness, in company with a celt of oval section, and pointed at the butt (9 1∕2 inches); and also with a greenstone pestle (?) (10 1∕4 inches), rounded at each end. This latter was probably formed from a long pebble. They are all preserved in the National Museum at Edinburgh. A curved celt of this character but pointed at the butt-end (14 inches), formed of indurated clay-stone, was found in Shetland.[431] A straighter celt of felstone (13 inches), blunt at the butt-end, was found at Kirklauchline,[432] Wigtownshire.
The next peculiarity which I have to notice, is that of the tapering sides of the celt being curved inwards, as if for the purpose of being more securely fixed either to a handle or in a socket. In the last implement described, the reduction in width towards the middle of the blade would appear to have been intended to assist in fastening it at the end of a handle, as an adze cutting at each end. In Fig. 80 the reduction in width is more abrupt, and the blade would appear to have been mounted as an axe. It is formed of a compact light grey metamorphic rock, and was formerly in the collection of the Rev. S. Banks, of Cottenham, Cambridgeshire. I have a greenstone celt found at Carnac, Brittany, with shoulders of the same character about the middle of the blade. A form of celt expanding into a kind of knob at the butt-end is peculiar to the Lower Loire.[433] It is known as the “_hâche à bouton_,” or “_hâche à tête_.”
[Illustration: Fig. 80.—Near Cottenham. 1∕2]
[Illustration: Fig. 81.—Near Malton. 1∕2]
The original of Fig. 81 was found in a gravel-pit near Malton, Yorkshire. It was at first supposed to have been found in undisturbed |136| drift, and some correspondence upon the subject appeared in the Times newspaper.[434] The gravel, however, in which it was found seems to belong to the series of Glacial deposits, and if so, is of considerably greater antiquity than any of the old River-gravels, in which the unpolished flint implements have been discovered. This celt is of greenstone, carefully polished at the edge, and towards the butt slightly roughened by being picked with a sharp pointed tool. This roughening is in character similar to that which has been observed on many of the celts from the Swiss Lake-dwellings and from France,[435] and was no doubt intended in their case to make the stone adhere more firmly in the socket of stag’s horn in which it was inserted. The object in this case would appear to be the same; and, like other polished celts, it belongs to the Neolithic Period. The expansion of the blade towards the edge is very remarkable.
A celt of the same type as that from Malton, but somewhat oblique at the edge, and formed of quartz containing pyrites, found at Soden, is in the Museum at Bonn.
A flat form of stone hatchet, expanding rapidly from a slightly tapering butt about half the entire length of the blade, so as to form a semicircular cutting-edge, has been found in South Carolina.[436] There is a small perforation in the centre, as if for a pin, to assist in securing it in its handle.
Another form, with the blade reduced for about half its length, so as to form a sort of tang, is engraved by Squier and Davis.[437]
[Illustration: Fig. 82.—Mennithorpe, Yorkshire. 1∕2]
The celt engraved in Fig. 82 presents an abrupt shoulder on one side only, which, however, is in this case probably due to the form of the pebble from which it was made, a portion of which had split off along a line of natural cleavage. It is formed of a reddish, close-grained porphyritic rock, and is subquadrate in section at the butt. It was found at Mennithorpe, Yorkshire, and is in the Greenwell Collection. In the same collection is a thin celt of clay-slate, 4 3∕4 inches long, of much the same form, but rounded at the shoulder. It was found at Ryedale, in the North Riding of Yorkshire.
Some of the shouldered implements may have been intended for use in the hand, without hafting. This appears to be the case with the greenstone celt shown in Fig. 83. It was found on Middleton Moor, Derbyshire, and was in the collection of the late Mr. J. F. Lucas. The shallow grooves at the sides seem intended to receive the fingers much in the same manner as the grooves in the handles of some of |137| the tools of the Eskimos or the handles of the bronze sickles of the Swiss Lake-dwellers.[438] An Irish celt, 8 inches long, and now in the Blackmore Museum, has two notches on one side only, and more distinctly formed, “seemingly to receive the fingers and give a firmer hold when used in the hand without a haft.”
Another peculiar instrument adapted for being held in the hand is shown in Fig. 83A. It was found at Keystone, Huntingdonshire,[439] and is now in the British Museum. It is made of greenstone, and in form resembles the sharp end of a celt with flat sides let into a spherical handle. Some hand-hatchets from Australia are of much the same character, but in their case the knob is distinct from the blade, and formed of hard _xanthorrhæa_ gum. |138|
[Illustration: Fig. 83.—Middleton Moor.]
[Illustration: Fig. 83A.—Keystone. 1∕2]
The original of Fig. 84 is in the Greenwell Collection, and was found near Truro. It is of serpentine, with an oblique edge, and seems to have been formed from a pebble with little labour beyond that of sharpening one end. Though much flatter on one face than the other, it would appear, from the slanting edge, to have been used as an axe and not as an adze, unless indeed it were a hand-tool.
A beautiful adze formed of chalcedonic flint is shown in Fig. 84A. kindly lent by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. The original was found at Fernie Brae,[440] Slains, Aberdeenshire. It is 7 inches long, and of nearly triangular section. A somewhat similar adze of greenstone was found at Little Barras,[441] Drumlithie, Kincardineshire. I have a flint adze (5 inches) of much the same character, but not so flat and blunt at the butt-end, and ground at the edge only, which was found in Reach Fen, Cambs. It is shown in Fig. 35A at page 92.
[Illustration: Fig. 84.—Near Truro.]
[Illustration: Fig. 84A.—Slains (7 inches long).]
Another peculiarity of form is where the edge, instead of being as usual nearly in the centre of the blade, is almost in the same plane as one of the faces, like that of a joiner’s chisel. An implement of this character, from a “Pict’s castle,” Clickemin, near Lerwick, Shetland, is shown in Fig. 85.
It was presented to me by the late Rev. Dr. Knowles, F.S.A. The material appears to be a hard clay-slate. The form is well adapted for being mounted as an adze, much in the same manner as the nearly similar implements in use by the South Sea Islanders. A New Zealand[442] adze of precisely the same character has been figured.
Sometimes the edge of a celt, instead of being sharp, has been carefully removed by grinding, so as to present a flat or rounded surface. |139| In Fig. 86 is represented a singular implement of this kind in flint. It is polished all over; one side is straight, and the other curved; both ends are curved, but one is rounded at the edge and the other flat. It is difficult to understand for what purpose such an instrument can have been intended. There is no reason for supposing that the grinding at the ends was later in date than the formation of the other parts. I have others like Fig. 30 with the edge also flattened, one of these I found, as already mentioned, at Abbot’s Langley; and I have seen another flint celt of much the same form, found at Chesterford, Cambs., with a somewhat flat edge, but rounded and worn away, as if by scraping some soft substance. Small transverse _striæ_, such as might have been caused by particles of sand, are visible on the worn edge. In the Greenwell Collection is a portion of a celt of greenstone, the fractured face ground flat and a portion of the edge also ground away.
[Illustration: Fig. 85.—Near Lerwick. 1∕2]
[Illustration: Fig. 86.—Weston, Norfolk. 1∕2]
A small flint celt, with a round polished edge instead of a cutting one as usual, was found, with other objects, in a barrow on Elton Moor, Derbyshire.[443] I have seen a small flint celt like Fig. 33, with the edge perfectly rounded by grinding. It was found between Deal and Dover, near Kingsdown, by Mr. Hazzeldine Warren, of Waltham Cross.
It is hard to say for what purpose the edge was thus made blunt. In some cases, however, the instruments may have been used as battle-axes, the edges of which when of the perforated forms are usually flattened or rounded, probably with the view of preventing accidental injury to those who carried them. In some celts, however, the broad end is so much rounded that they can hardly be said to have an edge, and they have more the appearance of having-been burnishing or |140| calendering tools. I have observed this rounding of the end in some Irish and French specimens, not made of flint, as well as in one from India.
Occasionally, but very seldom, a circular concave recess is worked on each face of the celt, apparently for the purpose of preventing it from slipping when held in the hand and used either as a chopping or cutting instrument. That engraved as Fig. 87 was kindly lent me by Mr. J. R. Mortimer, who found it on Acklam Wold, Yorkshire. It is of greenstone, and has been polished over almost the entire surface. The butt-end is nearly flat transversely, and ground in the other direction to a sweep, so as to fit beneath the forefinger, when held by the thumb and middle-finger placed in the recesses on the faces. Such recesses are by no means uncommon on the stones intended for use as hammers, and farther on (p. 242) I have engraved a hammer-stone of this class which would seem to have been originally a celt such as this, but which has entirely lost any approach to an edge by continual battering. In Mr. Mortimer’s specimen the edge is fairly sharp, though it has lost some splinters from it in ancient times.
[Illustration: Fig. 87.—Acklam Wold. 1∕2]
[Illustration: Fig. 88.—Fimber. 1∕2]
In the same collection is another specimen, found near Fimber, formed of a green metamorphic rock. The butt-end is ground flat, and the sides nearly so. There is a slight depression worked on each face. The edge is slightly rounded, and shows longitudinal _striæ_. By the owner’s kindness I am able to engrave it as Fig. 88.
In General Pitt Rivers’s Collection is a celt from Hindostan, with a cup-shaped depression on one of its faces. A celt of basalt from Portugal[444] has such a depression on each face.
In the fine and extensive Greenwell Collection, so often referred to, is another remarkable celt, Fig. 89, which, though entirely different in character from those last described, may also have been intended for holding in the hand. It is of greenstone, the surface of which is considerably decomposed, and was found at Duggleby, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. On each side is an elongated concavity, well adapted for receiving the end of the forefinger when the instrument is held in the hand with the thumb on one face and the middle finger on the other. At first sight it might appear that the depressions had been made |141| with the view of perforating the blade, so as to make it like Fig. 133. It is, however, too thin for such a purpose, and as the depressions can hardly be connected with any method of hafting, it appears probable that they are merely for the purpose of giving the hand a secure grip, when using the instrument as a cutting tool. This form is not uncommon in India.
Some of the stone hatchets from British Guiana[445] have a notch on either side, apparently to assist in fastening them to their haft. A form with projecting lugs half-way down the blade has been found in Armenia.[446]
[Illustration: Fig. 89.—Duggleby. 1∕2]
[Illustration: Fig. 90.—Guernsey. 1∕2]
The last peculiarity I have to notice is when the blade of the celt assumes an ornamental character, by being fluted or otherwise ornamented. That represented in Fig. 90 is deeply fluted on either face. I have engraved the figure from a cast in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries, the original of which was in the possession of F. C. Lukis, Esq., M.D. It was found at St. Sampson, Guernsey. Assuming the figure given by M. Brouillet to be correct, a somewhat similar celt of red flint was found with skeletons in the Tombelle de Brioux, Poitou.[447] Another with three hollow facets on the lower parts of one face was found in Finistère.[448] I have a small celt of nearly similar form, but not so hollow on the faces, from Costa Rica. Such specimens are extremely rare, and I cannot at present point to any other examples. Indeed, it may be questioned how far the implements found in the Channel Islands come within the scope of the present work. The |142| grooves in the faces of the celt found at Trinity, near Edinburgh,[449] can hardly have been intended for ornament.
A kind of celt, not uncommon in Denmark, like Fig. 55, but with a small hole drilled through it at the butt-end, as if for suspension, like a sailor’s knife, has very rarely been found in England, but I have a broken specimen from Cavenham, Suffolk, formed of greenstone. When perfect the celt must have been in outline like Fig. 69, but thinner.
[Illustration: Fig. 90A.—Wereham. 1∕2]
A perfect example is shown in Fig. 90A. It is formed of whin-stone and was found in 1896 at Wereham, near Stoke Ferry, Norfolk. It is in the collection of Mr. E. M. Beloe, F.S.A., who has kindly permitted me to figure it. It is curiously striated towards the butt-end, possibly from friction in a socket. One from Thetford, perforated through the centre of the face, is in the National Museum at Edinburgh. Another of felstone (11 1∕4 inches), oval in section, found at Melness, Sutherlandshire, was exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in March, 1897. Bored celts, though rare in Britain, occur in Brittany[450] and other parts of France, as well as in Italy.[451] A few have also been found in Ireland.[452] A stone hatchet from Quito in the Christy Collection, though of somewhat different form, is perforated at the end in this manner.
A vastly greater number of instances of the discovery in Britain of stone hatchets or celts might have been cited; but inasmuch as in most cases where mention is made of celts, no particulars are given of their form, and as they occur in all parts of the country, it seems needless to encumber my pages with references. As an instance of |143| their abundance, I may mention that the late Mr. Bateman[453] records the discovery of upwards of thirty, at fourteen different localities within a small district of Derbyshire. Numerous discoveries in Yorkshire are cited by Mr. C. Monkman.[454]
Dr. Joseph Stevens has recorded several from the Thames near Reading,[455] and a very large number of those in my own and various public collections I have had to leave unnoticed for want of space.
* * * * *
The circumstances under which stone celts of various forms have been discovered must now be considered, with a view of throwing some light on their antiquity, and the length of time they have remained in use. And it must at the outset be confessed that we have but little to guide us on these points. We have already seen that they have been found with objects of bronze; for in the barrow on Upton Lovel Down,[456] examined by Sir R. Colt Hoare, flint celts, both rough and polished, were discovered in company with a perforated stone axe, and a bronze pin, though in this instance there were two interments. The Ravenhill tumulus, near Scarborough,[457] is more conclusive; for in it was an urn containing burnt bones, a broken flint celt, flint arrow-heads, and a beautiful bronze pin one and a-half inches long. The evidence of other recorded cases is but weak. Near Tynewydd, in the parish of Llansilin, Denbighshire,[458] a greenstone celt and a bronze socketed celt were found together in moving an accumulation of stones, which did not, however, appear to have been a cairn. In another instance,[459] three stone celts, one roughly chipped, the others polished, are stated to have been found with a bronze socketed celt in the parish of Southend, Kintyre, Argyllshire. At Campbelton, in the same district,[460] were found two polished stone celts, and with them, on the same spot, two stone moulds for casting looped spear-heads of bronze.
* * * * *
Though there may be doubts as to the true association of stone celts with instruments of bronze in some of these cases, the presumptive evidence is strong of their having remained in use, as might indeed have been reasonably expected, after the introduction of bronze for cutting-tools. By the time bronze knife-daggers had become common, perforated battle-axes had also come to form part of a warrior’s ordinary equipment. These are often found with the daggers in graves, and there can be no doubt of the ordinary form of stone hatchet having preceded that with a shaft-hole. There are, however, a number of facts in connection with the occurrence of the ordinary |144| stone celt that must not be passed over, inasmuch as at first sight they tend to raise a presumption of celts having remained in use even during the period of the Roman occupation of this country. I will shortly recapitulate the principal facts to which I allude.
In excavating a Roman building at Ickleton,[461] Cambs., the late Lord Braybrooke found a greenstone celt; and another is said to have been found with Roman remains at Alchester, Oxfordshire.[462] A flint celt is also described as having been found with Roman antiquities at Eastbourne.[463]
Among the relics discovered by Samuel Lysons, F.R.S., in the Roman villa at Great Witcombe,[464] Gloucestershire, is described “a British hatchet of flint.” Another flint celt was found close by a Roman villa at Titsey.[465] Flint celts and scrapers were found in the Romano-British village in Woodcuts Common,[466] Dorset, by General Pitt Rivers.
A stone celt, like Fig. 70, has been engraved by Artis[467] as a polishing stone used in the manufactory of Roman earthen vessels, but no evidence is given as to the cause of its being thus regarded.
At Leicester, a fragment of a flint celt was found at a depth of twelve feet from the surface on an old “ground line,” and accompanied by bone objects which Sir Wollaston Franks assigned to a late Roman or even possibly to an early Saxon period.[468]
In the Saxon burial-place at Ash, in Kent, were found a polished flint celt, “a circular flint stone,” and a Roman fibula.[469]
In 1868, a fibrolite hatchet was found within a building at Mont Beuvray, the ancient Bibracte,[470] with three Gaulish coins of the time of Augustus.
Others of flint were found in a Merovingian cemetery at Labruyère, in the Côte d’Or.[471]
The occurrence at Gonsenheim, near Mainz, of a series of thin polished celts with remains presumably Roman, has already been mentioned. In two, if not more, instances in Denmark,[472] fragments of iron have been found in tumuli, and apparently in association with polished hatchets and other instruments of flint and stone. It seems doubtful, however, whether in these cases the iron was not subsequently introduced.
* * * * *
The association of these stone implements with Roman, and even Post-Roman, remains in so many different places, would at first sight appear to argue their contemporaneity; but in the case of the celts being found on the sites of Roman villas, two things are to be remarked—First, that sites once occupied may, and constantly do, continue in occupation for an indefinite length of time, so that the imperishable relics of one age, such as those in |145| stone, may become mixed in the soil with those of a long subsequent date; and second, that had these stone implements been in common use in Roman times, their presence among Roman remains would have been the rule and not the exception, and we should have found them mentioned by Latin authors. Moreover, if their use had survived in this manner into Roman times, we should expect to find them still more abundantly associated with tools of the Bronze Age. We have, however, seen how rarely this class of stone instruments is found with bronze.