SICKLES.
Sickles are the only undoubtedly agricultural implements in bronze with which we are acquainted in this country. Already in the Stone Period the cultivation of cereals for food appears to have been practised, and I have elsewhere[695] pointed out a form of flint instrument which may possibly have supplied the place of sickles or reaping hooks in those early times. The rarity of bronze sickles in this country, as compared with their abundance in some parts of Southern Europe, is, however, somewhat striking, and may, perhaps, point to a considerably less cultivation of grain crops in Britain than in countries with a warmer climate, while the inhabitants were otherwise in much the same stage of civilisation.
The traditions of the use of bronze sickles survived to a comparatively late period in Greece and Italy, and Medea is described by Sophocles[696] as cutting her magic herbs with such instruments (?a?????s?? ?a d?ep????? t???), and by Ovid[697] as doing it “curvamine falcis ahenÆ.” Elissa is by Virgil[698] represented as using a bronze sickle for similar purposes—
“Falcibus et messÆ ad lunam quÆruntur aËnis
Pubentes herbÆ nigri cum lacte veneni.”
When bronze sickles were used for reaping corn it seems to have been a common custom merely to cut the ears of corn from off the straw, after the manner of the Gaulish reaping machine described by Pliny,[699] and not to cut and carry away straw and ear together from the field. This practice will probably account for the small size of the sickles which have come down to us, unless we are to reverse the argument, and derive the custom of cutting off the ears only from the diminutive size of the instruments employed for reaping.
Bronze sickles were hafted in different ways, sometimes being fastened to the handle by a pin, either attached to the stem of the blade or passing through a hole in it, combined with some system of binding; and sometimes being provided with a socket into which the haft was driven, and then secured by a transverse pin or rivet.
The sickles with a socket to receive the handle appear to be peculiar to Britain and the North of France. The other form occurs over the greater part of Europe, including Scandinavia, and the blades, as has been observed by Dr. Keller, are always adapted for use in the right hand. Dr. Gross, of Neuveville, on the Lake of Bienne, has been so fortunate as to discover at Moerigen, the site of one of the ancient pile-villages on the lake, two or three handles for sickles of this kind. A figure showing three views of one of these handles has been published by the Royal ArchÆological Institute,[700] and is here by permission reproduced as Fig. 231. This handle is formed of yew, curiously carved so as to receive the thumb and fingers, and has a flat place at the end against which the blade was fastened. In this place there are two grooves to receive the slightly projecting ribs with which the stem of the sickle-blade is usually strengthened. Dr. Keller[701] has suggested that the blade of the sickle was made fast to the handle by means of a kind of ferrule which passed over it, and was secured in its place by two pins or nails.
The end of the handle forms a ridge, through which are two holes that would admit a small cord for the suspension of the sickle, and thus prevent its being lost either on land or water. We find this sailor-like habit prevailing among the Lake-dwellers in the case of their flint knives also, the handles of which were often perforated.
There is a remarkable resemblance in character between this handle and some of those in use among the Esquimaux[702] for their planes and knives, which are recessed in the same manner for the reception of the fingers and the thumb.
Some iron sickles, of nearly the same form as those in bronze with the flat stem, were present in the great Danish find of the Early Iron Age at Vimose,[703] described by Mr. C. Engelhardt. The chord of the curved blades is from 6 to 7 inches in length, and one of the instruments still retained its original wooden handle. This is between 9 and 10 inches long, and is curved at the part intended to receive the hand. The end is conical, like the head of a screw, and is evidently thus made in order to give a secure hold to the reaper when drawing the sickle towards him. Sickles with nearly similar handles were in use in Smaaland,[704] in the South of Sweden, until recent days.
Fig. 231.—Three views of a handle for a sickle, Moerigen.
Of sickles without a socket but few have been found in Britain, and those mostly in our Western Counties. In a remarkable hoard found in a turbary at Edington Burtle,[705] near Glastonbury, Somersetshire, were four of these flat sickles. One of these had never been finished, but had been left rough as it came from the mould, into which the metal had been run through a channel near the point of the sickle. A projection still marks the place where the jet was broken off. As will be seen from Fig. 232, this blade is provided with two projecting pins for the purpose of attaching it to the handle. In this respect it differs from the sickles of the ordinary continental type, which, when of this character, have usually but a single knob.
Fig. 232.—Edington Burtle. ½
Another of the Edington sickles with a single projection is shown in Fig. 233. This blade is more highly ornamented, and has a rib along the middle in addition to that along the back, no doubt for the purpose of increasing stiffness while diminishing weight. Of the other two sickles found at Edington, one is imperfect and the other much worn. Both are provided with the two projecting pins.
Fig. 233.—Edington Burtle. ½
Two other sickles found on Sparkford Hill,[706] also in Somersetshire, present the same peculiarity. One of these much resembles Fig. 233, though nearly straight along the back. The other is flat on both faces. Each has lost its point. A chisel-like tool was found with them.
With the Edington sickles were found a broad fluted penannular armlet and what may have been a finger-ring of the same pattern, a plain penannular armlet of square section, part of a light funicular torque like Fig. 467, part of a ribbon torque like Fig. 469, and four penannular rings, some of them apparently made from fragments of torques.
Two other sickles of the same character, each with two projecting pins, were found in Taunton[707] itself in association with twelve palstaves, a socketed celt, a hammer (Fig. 214), a fragment of a spear-head, a double-edged knife, a funicular torque (Fig. 468), a pin (Fig. 451), some fragments of other pins, and several penannular rings of various sizes.
All the objects found at Edington, Sparkford Hill, and Taunton are now in the museum in Taunton Castle.
A thinner form of flat sickle, if such it be, has been found in Kent. Among a number of bronze objects which were discovered at Marden,[708] near Staplehurst, there is a slightly curved blade with a rivet at one end, which appears to present a sickle-like character. I have not seen the original, and as it is described as a knife-blade it may prove to have been one, or possibly, what is of far rarer occurrence, a saw.
Of socketed sickles a few have at different times been dredged up from the Thames. One of these, found in 1859, is in my own collection, and is shown in Fig. 234. The blade, which is almost as sharp at the back as at the edge, is not quite central with the socket, but so placed as to make the instrument better adapted for use in the right hand than in the left. The socket tapers considerably, and is closed at the end.
In another sickle found in the Thames, near Bray, Berks[709] (Fig. 235), the socket dies into the blade instead of forming a distinct feature. A third, found near Windsor, and engraved in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries,[710] closely resembles Fig. 234, but the end of the socket, instead of being closed, is open. The blade of this also is sharp on both edges.
One from Stretham Fen, in the Museum of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society (about 5½ inches), is of the same character. It has two rivet-holes in the socket. Another from Downham Fen (5¾ inches) is sharp on both edges.
In the Norwich Museum is a sickle of somewhat the same character as Fig. 235, but the socket instead of being oval is oblong, and is placed at a less angle to the blade, which in this case also is double-edged. The socket is 11/16 by 7/16 inch, and has one rivet-hole through it. The curved knife from Wicken Fen, to be described in the next chapter, much resembles this Norwich example in outline. Another sickle from Norfolk[711] was exhibited to the ArchÆological Institute in 1851. Mr. Franks has shown me a sketch of another found at Dereham which has the external edge of the blade extending across the end of the socket. Both edges of the blade are sharp.
But few sickles have been found in Scotland. That shown in Fig. 236 was found in the Tay,[712] near Errol, Perthshire, in 1840, and has been described by Dr. J. Alexander Smith. The block, which has been kindly lent me by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, is engraved on the scale of two-thirds linear, instead of my usual scale of one-half. The main difference between this specimen and mine from the Thames (Fig. 234) consists in the blade being fluted. Another more rudely made sickle, found at Edengerach,[713] Premnay, Aberdeenshire, has also been engraved. This has a single central rib along the blade and no rivet-hole through the socket. Perhaps it is an unfinished casting.
Fig. 236.—Near Errol, Perthshire. ?
In Sinclair’s “Statistical Account of Scotland”[714] it is stated that an instrument of this class was found at Ledbeg, Sutherlandshire, and was pronounced by the Earl of Bristol, then Bishop of Derry, to whom it was presented, to be a Druidical pruning hook similar to several found in England.
In Ireland these instruments are much more abundant. Eleven specimens are mentioned by Wilde[715] as being in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, and there are three in the British Museum, as well as one in that at Edinburgh.
Fig. 237.—Garvagh, Derry. ½
That engraved as Fig. 237 is in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., and was found at Garvagh, county Derry. The blade is fluted somewhat like that of the Tay specimen. In one of those engraved by Wilde (Fig. 405) it is more highly ornamented. In another the socket is not closed at the end, but resembles that of the Windsor example already mentioned. This appears to be the one engraved by Vallancey[716] who observes that it was “called by the Irish a Seare,” and that it was used “to cut herbs, acorns, misletoe, &c.” In another[717] the blade forms a direct continuation of the socket as in Fig. 238, which is engraved from a specimen in the British Museum, found near Athlone, county Westmeath.
Vallancey, in his “Collectanea,” has figured another. In the collection of Mr. J. Holmes is another example of this type. Another sickle of the same character as Fig. 237, found near Ballygawley,[718] Tyrone, has also been figured. This specimen is among those in the British Museum.
A socketed sickle, double-edged, and with a concavity on each side at the angle between the blade and the socket so deep as to meet and form a hole, was found in Alderney, and is engraved in the ArchÆological Association Journal.[719] With it were found socketed celts, spear-heads, and broken swords and daggers. This may be regarded as a French rather than an English example.
In my own collection is another, from the Seine at Paris, about 7 inches in length along the outer edge of the blade, which extends past the end of the socket. This still contains a part of the wooden handle, which has been secured in its place by two rivets, apparently of bronze. In general outline this sickle is much like Fig. 234, but the blade is narrower and more curved and the socket more flattened. In the museum at Amiens is another sickle, in form closely resembling Fig. 234, but with a loop at the back of the socket. M. Chantre in his magnificent work, “L’Age du Bronze,” does not specify this socketed type, though he divides the form without socket into five different varieties. The socketed form appears to be quite unknown in the South of France, as it also is in Switzerland.
These three are the only instances I can cite of socketed sickles having been found outside the British Isles, so that this type of instrument appears to be peculiarly our own. The existence of a socket shows that the form does not belong to an early period in the Bronze Age, and the same is to be inferred from the character of the other bronze objects with which the Alderney sickle was found associated.
Inasmuch as the continental forms are as a rule different from the British, and as they are, moreover, well known, it will suffice to indicate some few of the works in which descriptions of them will be found. Some from Camenz, in Saxony, have been engraved in illustration of a paper by myself in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries.[720]
Others from Germany, some of which are said to have Roman numerals upon them, have been figured by Lindenschmit.[721]
Examples from Italy have been given by Strobel,[722] Gastaldi,[723] Lindenschmit,[724] and others.
They have been found in great abundance in some of the settlements on the lakes of Switzerland and Savoy. It has been thought that the Lake-dwellers did not cut off merely the ears of their corn,[725] but “that the straw was taken with it, otherwise there would not have been the seeds of so many weeds in the corn.” Diodorus Siculus, however, who wrote in the first century b.c., tells us distinctly that the Britons gathered in their harvest by cutting off the ears of corn and storing them in subterraneous repositories. From these they picked the oldest day by day for their food. Whether for threshing they made use of the tribulum,[726] that “sharp threshing instrument having teeth,” before Roman times, is doubtful; but that so primitive an instrument, armed with flakes of flint or other stone, should have remained in use in some Mediterranean countries until the present day, is a remarkable instance of the power of survival of ancient customs. Such an instance of persistence in a primitive form much reduces the extreme improbability of the use of bronze sickles in Germany having lasted until a time when Roman numerals might appear upon them. If every St. Andrew’s cross and every straight line found upon ancient instruments is to be regarded as a Roman numeral, and the objects bearing them are to be referred to Roman times as their earliest possible date, the range of Roman antiquities will be much enlarged, and will be found to contain, among other objects, a large number of the bronze knives from the Swiss Lake-dwellings; for one of the most common ornaments on the backs of these knives consists of a repetition of the pattern XIIIIIXIIIIIXIIIII.
Even were it proved that in some part of Europe the use of bronze sickles survived to so late a date as supposed by Dr. Lindenschmit, their great scarcity in the British Isles affords a conclusive argument against their being assigned to the period of the Roman occupation, of which other remains have come down to us in such abundance.
