First and Later Periods of the Bronze Age

Even during the copper period an evolution can be traced in the celt. The cutting-edge has been expanded; and the thickest part of the celt has been moved up from just above the cutting-edge to the centre. Until, however, we get into the Bronze Age, there has been no trace of a stop-ridge. When we get into the true Bronze Age, we find a complete and probably fairly rapid evolution of type from the flat celt to the final socketed form. Analyses of Irish celts on a large scale have not been made; but such analyses as have been done do not indicate an experimental stage of small additions of tin, but rather show that the bronze from the first contained a fairly large proportion of tin. Where the tin came from is at present uncertain. The illustrations will make the evolution of the celt clear. The first step was the broadening of the cutting-edge, and moving the thickest part up to the centre of the blade; the next step was hammering the sides to make flanges to grip the handle more securely; a stop-ridge was then added to prevent the handle slipping down over the blade; and the latter forms are reached by increasing the flanges and broadening the stop-ridge; in its last forms the wings are increased at the expense of the stop-ridge; and the final socketed form is reached by leaving out the centre division between the wings. Figure 20 may be noticed, as it is very similar to certain Continental forms.

Plate I.

Some of the earlier flat bronze celts may have been hafted like the stone celts, by merely fixing the smaller end into a stick with a thick head; but this method must soon have been abandoned, as after a certain number of blows had been delivered, the axe-head would be forced back into the shaft. A more practical method was to place the head in a handle having a forked head, and the origin of the stop-ridge was to prevent the two sides coming down too low on to the blade. The side flanges and palstave-form developed naturally from this. The manner of hafting the socketed celts is well shown by a handled socketed celt found at Edenderry, King’s Co., and formerly in the Murray collection. This object is now in the Ethnological and ArchÆological Museum at Cambridge; and it is to be regretted that so rare and important a find should have left the country.

Some of the flat bronze celts are very finely decorated with incised chevrons, triangles, cross-hatchings, and other Bronze-Age linear ornament. One example has a kind of herring-bone pattern, somewhat resembling the well-known leaf-marking at New Grange. Some examples show a kind of cable-pattern on the side flanges; and the size of a few specimens is remarkable. A flat celt, with a remarkable ornamentation from the Greenwell collection found near Connor, County Antrim, is figured by Sir John Evans, op. cit., p. 64. It has a border of chevrons along the edge of the side; and this is carried across the celt in the centre and at the commencement of the cutting-edge. This border is joined by a similar centre band of ornament.

Several of the Irish palstaves have a shield-shaped ornament below the stop-ridge. The socketed celts are, as a rule, unornamented; but there are a few which have been found in Ireland which are ornamented with ribs ending in pellets.

The question is often asked as to whether the bronze celts were used as weapons or tools; and the probability is that they were used as either as occasion demanded. The celts do not show any marked difference of type which would enable us to differentiate a weapon from a tool, as is possible in the later iron axes of the Norman and Danish period when we can distinguish a heavy axe and a lighter keen blade. The Bayeux tapestry shows the two types in use, the heavy type being used to fell trees and the lighter for fighting.

There is one palstave, with double loops, in the National Collection; and another was found in Ireland at Ballincollig, County Cork, and is in the Evans collection. These double-looped palstaves are of much interest, as the type is characteristic of the Iberian peninsula. A few have been found in the west of France, and some in the south-west of England, but on the route which one would expect to have been followed if they are due to intercourse with Spain. These probably belong to the Middle Bronze Age, though they have not as yet been found associated with objects which would give much information as to their date.

Fig. 19.—Winged Celt. Fig. 20.—Winged Celt.
Fig. 21.—Palstave with Double-loops.

Anvil and Hammers

Among objects that may undoubtedly be classed as tools are the small bronze anvil (fig. 22), and the bronze socketed hammers (fig. 23).

The anvil appears to be the only specimen which has been found in the British Islands, though examples are not uncommon in France. It resembles the small anvils used by jewellers, and it is interesting to note that, as M. DÉchelette points out, these small bronze anvils correspond to those mentioned by Homer, which were also portable and used by goldsmiths.[13] Socketed bronze hammers resembling the Irish examples are fairly common in England and on the Continent. One well-known Irish specimen was found in the Douris hoard and is figured in Evans’s “Bronze Implements,” p. 179. Of the specimens illustrated, the largest was found at Abbeyshrule, Co. Longford, the exact locality of the others, further than that they were found in Ireland, is not known.

Spear-Heads

Even as early as the Copper Period small weak knife-daggers were in use, and these continued into the Bronze Age, becoming the parent of the spear-head as well as of the rapier and sword. The spear-head was evolved by decreasing the width of the base of the dagger-blade, and adding a narrow tang with a peg-hole to fix into the shaft. The addition of a ferule was the next step; and the omission of the tang, and amalgamation of the ferule with the blade, gave rise to the socketed spear-head.

The Irish spear-heads may be divided into two well-defined groups, looped and riveted; and it will be found that the separation of the types extends farther than the mode of attachment. The form of the blade of each class is quite distinct. Taking the looped spear-heads first, we can follow the development of the spear-head from the dagger-blade. The adaptation is shown in fig. 24 (the centre spear-head), which is, in fact, a dagger-blade placed on a socket. The socket does not enter the blade, but is stopped at the shoulders. The V-shaped base of the blade is derived from the dagger, and disappears as the true character of the spear form is developed. A feature of special interest is the survival of the rivet-heads of the dagger in the form of ornamental bosses at the base of the blade. The rivet-holes appear to have been drilled, and not formed in casting. No examples of this form of spear-head have been found in England; and but one is recorded from the Isle of Man and two from Scotland. In the last example (in fig. 24), the imitative rivets are reduced to a single boss, and completely disappear in the next stage (fig. 25).

In the subsequent figures we see the blade developed at the expense of the socket; and the transition to the fully developed spear-head begins. The derivation of this form of spear-head from the so-called Arreton Down type of tanged blade is now admitted. Though tanged spear-heads of the Arreton Down type are fairly represented in Irish finds, no socket has been so far recovered with any of them; but an early form of nondescript tanged blade with a socket was found at Lough Ruadh bog near Tullamore, King’s County, in 1910, and shows the socket was known in Ireland.

Another very early type of spear-head, nearly all the known examples of which were found in Ireland, was derived by mounting the rapier on a socket (fig. 27). There are six of these spear-heads in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy, and one in the collection of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. One of these spear-heads, found at Taplow on the Thames, has gold studs at the base of the blade which, no doubt, represent the rivets. The derivation of the spear-head by gradually rounding off the corners of the blade can be easily followed.

We will now turn to the spear-heads with rivet-holes in the sockets, but without loops or openings in the blades (figs. 28 and 30). These spear-heads are almost invariably leaf-shaped and devoid of ribs. The pins or rivets used to attach this class to the shaft were probably of wood, horn, or bone. Two examples formerly in Mr. Day’s collection have rivets of bronze, and others with bronze rivets have been found in England. The leaf-shaped spear-head is associated by form with the leaf-shaped sword; the looped type with the older type of weapons, the dagger and rapier forms. The records of the finds are very incomplete; but the association of leaf-shaped spears and swords to the exclusion of the looped form is sufficiently marked to be noted as an additional piece of evidence.

Fig. 33.—Ornamental Spear-heads
with openings in the blade.

Fig. 34.—Portion of Spear-head
with studs at the base of the wings.

There are in the Academy’s collection a number of spear-heads with rivet-holes in the sockets and ornamental side-apertures (figs. 33 and 34). These spear-heads are very highly decorated, and form an attractive class. They may be derived from the spear-heads in which the loops are joined to the base of the blade (fig. 31), and in which, by a process of evolution, the loop has been incorporated as part of the wing, or they may also have been influenced by the early type of tanged spear-heads from the Greek islands, in which the openings in the blade were functional, being used for binding the head into a split shaft. These ornamental spear-heads belong, as a type, to the British Islands, where the socketed spear-head itself appears to have been evolved. Several of these spear-heads have, as well as the wings, small holes in the blades, the purpose of which is not clear. They are very finely cast; and even in Ireland, where Bronze-Age casting reached its highest point, these are amongst its best products.

Fig. 36.—Spear-heads with
ornamental openings in the
blades.

Fig. 37.—Spear-head found
at Tempo, Co. Fermanagh.

Another very rare type of spear-head, in which the loops are formed by the extension of the small ribs on each side of the mid rib, must be mentioned. These spear-heads are very seldom met with. We only know of the existence of four, of which one is in the Greenwell collection, two in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy, and one in the Municipal Museum at Belfast. The Academy was fortunate enough to secure a very fine specimen in 1912. It was found with two leaf-shaped bronze swords at Tempo, County Fermanagh,[14] and measures 15½ inches long (fig. 37). Judging from the associated swords, this spear-head may be dated about the ninth century b.c.

Moulds

The most important moulds for casting spear-heads found in Ireland are a series for casting early tanged spear-heads which were found about thirty years ago at Omagh, County Tyrone, and are now in the possession of Mr. M. J. Sullivan. These moulds are of the greatest importance in the history of the development of the bronze spear-head, as they show the evolution of the tanged blade to the socketed form, and also that the tanged and socketed forms were in contemporary use in Ireland. The form of the moulds for the socketed spear-heads shows them to be at the very commencement of this type; and it was probable that the tanged type was rapidly superseded by the improved socketed form.

These moulds are made of sandstone; and the illustrations will show them sufficiently. For a full description see the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. xxxvii, 1907, p. 181.

Another very important find of moulds was made in 1910 at Killymeddy, near Ballymoney, County Antrim. This find included two complete moulds and a half mould for casting looped socketed spear-heads. Of the other moulds for casting spear-heads found in Ireland, nearly all are for the looped type; and the few that have been found for casting the leaf-shaped type are small and indeterminate in character. It is most probable that, with the introduction of the leaf-shaped spear-heads, moulds of clay or sand were introduced; and these have naturally perished. Fragments of a clay mould for casting a spear-head and a sword were found at Whitepark Bay, and portions of clay moulds for spear-heads have been found in Brittany, the Lake of Bienne, and other places. The discoveries of moulds enforce the distinction of type between the looped and leaf-shaped spear-heads, and the moulds from Killymeddy (figs. 38-40 and 43) may probably be placed at the end of the period when stone moulds were in use, and assigned to about 1500-1200 b.c.

Spear-ferules

Fig. 44.—Bronze spear ferules.

Fig. 45.—Bronze spear
ferule with La TÈne
ornament.

From time to time objects of bronze have been found in Ireland of a curious shape, somewhat like the handle of a door; and their use was considered uncertain; it is, however, clear that they were the ferules of spears; and in some cases the remains of the wooden shafts have been found inside them. The finding, moreover, of one in the Lisnacroghera Crannog with the whole of the shaft, measuring 8 feet in length, attached to it, places the matter beyond dispute.[15] It also shows that these objects were in use down to the early Iron Age, as most of the objects of the Lisnacroghera find belong to the La TÈne period.

Other ferules assume a long and graceful shape, and one is decorated with La TÈne motives (fig. 45).

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