CHAPTER X.

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DAGGERS AND THEIR HILTS.—RAPIER-SHAPED BLADES.

Among all uncivilised, if not indeed among all civilised nations, arms of offence take a far higher rank than mere tools and implements; and on the first introduction of the use of metal into any country, there is great antecedent probability that the primary service to which it was applied was for the manufacture of weapons. So far as there are means of judging, a small knife or knife-dagger appears to have been among the earliest objects to which bronze was applied in Britain. Possibly, like the Highland dirk, the early form may have served for both peaceful and warlike purposes; but there are other and apparently later forms made for piercing rather than for cutting, and which are unmistakably weapons. The distinction which can be drawn between knives, such as some of those described in the last chapter, and the daggers to be described in this, is no doubt to a great extent arbitrary, and mainly dependent upon size. In the same way the distinction between a large dagger and a small sword, such as some of those to be described in the next chapter, is one for which no hard and fast rule can be laid down.

Nor in treating of daggers can any trustworthy chronological arrangement be adopted, though it is probable, as already observed, that the thin flat blades are earliest in date. The late Dr. Thurnam, in the paper already frequently cited, has pointed out that of bronze blades without sockets there are two distinct types. These are the tanged, which he regards as perhaps the more modern, and those provided with rivet-holes in the base of the blade, which seem to be the most ancient. I purpose mainly to follow this classification; and, inasmuch as the tanged blades are most closely connected with the smaller examples of the same character, described in the last chapter, I take them first in order, though possibly they are not the earliest in date.

Fig. 277.—Roundway. ½

But for its size, the blade shown in Fig. 277 might have been regarded as a knife for ordinary use. The original was found in a barrow at Roundway,[786] Wilts, covered with a layer of black powder, probably the remains of a wooden sheath and handle, the upper outline of which latter is marked upon the blade. It lay near the left hand of a contracted skeleton, with its point towards the feet. Between the bones of the left fore-arm was a bracer,[787] or arm-guard, of chlorite slate, and part of the blade and the tang of some small instrument, perhaps a knife. Near the head was a barbed flint arrow-head.

A smaller blade[788] (5½ inches), of nearly the same shape and character, was found in one of the barrows near Winterslow, Wilts, as well as one more tapering in form.

Another, from Sutton Courtney, Berks (6¼ inches by 1? inches), is in the British Museum.

Another (5½ inches) was found by Mr. Fenton in a barrow at Mere Down,[789] Wilts. In this case also there was a stone bracer near the left side of the contracted skeleton. Another, imperfect, and narrower in the tang, was found at Bryn CrÛg,[790] Carnarvon, with interments. The double-looped celt (Fig. 88) was found at the same place.

Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., has what appears to be a tanged dagger (6 inches) from Sherburn Wold, Yorkshire.

A blade of this character (10 inches) was found by M. Cazalis de Fondouce in the cave of Bounias,[791] near Fonvielle (Bouches du RhÔne), associated with instruments of flint.

Smaller tanged blades, of which it is hard to say whether they are knives or daggers, are not uncommon in France. Two are engraved in the “MatÉriaux.”[792] I have specimens from Lyons, and also from Brittany.

Another form, which appears to be a dagger rather than a knife, has the tang nearly as wide as the blade, and towards its base there is a single rivet-hole. A dagger of this kind was found with a contracted interment in a barrow near Driffield, Yorkshire, and an engraving of it is given in the ArchÆologia[793] from which Fig. 278 is reproduced. It had a wooden sheath as well as the wooden handle, of which a part is shown. On the arm of the skeleton was a stone bracer.

Another, rather narrower in the tang and about 4¼ inches long, was found, with a stone axe-hammer, and bones, in an urn within a barrow at Winwick,[794] near Warrington, Lancashire. One (2? inches) with a rivet-hole in its broad tang was found in an urn on Lancaster Moor.[795]

A dagger of nearly the same form but having two rivet-holes was found by the late Rev. R. Kirwan in a barrow at Upton Pyne,[796] Devon.

Fig. 278.—Driffield. ½

One, only 3¼ inches long, and much like Fig. 278 in form, was found in an urn with burnt bones in Moot Low,[797] near Middleton, Derbyshire.

Another was found with burnt bones in a barrow at Lady Low,[798] near Blore, Staffordshire. The end of the handle in this instance was straight, and not hollowed. One (5? inches) with a broad tang, through which passes a single rivet, was found in the Thames.[799] It is now in the British Museum.

What Sir R. C. Hoare terms a lance-head (3 inches), found with amber beads in the Golden Barrow,[800] Upton Lovel, appears to have been a knife-dagger of this character.

A knife, 1 inch wide, which had been fastened to its haft of ox-horn by a single rivet, was found by Canon Greenwell in a barrow at Rudstone, Yorkshire.[801] With the same interment was an axe-hammer of stone and a flint tool. A blade like Fig. 278 (3 inches), from the sand-hills near Glenluce,[802] Wigtonshire, has been figured.

Daggers, or possibly spear-heads, with a broad tang, as well as the moulds in which they were cast, were discovered by Dr. Schliemann on the presumed site of Troy.[803]

The more ordinary form of instrument is that of which the blade was secured to the handle by two or more rivets at its broad base. These may be subdivided into knife-daggers with thin flat blades, and daggers which as a rule have a thick midrib and more or less ornamentation on the surface of the blade. The former variety is now generally accepted as being the more ancient of the two, and may probably have served as a cutting instrument for all purposes, and not have been intended for a weapon.

Fig. 279, representing a knife-dagger from a barrow at Butterwick,[804] Yorkshire, E.R., explored by Canon Greenwell, will give a good idea of the usual form, though these instruments are not unfrequently more acutely pointed. This specimen was found with the body of a young man, and had been encased in a wooden sheath. The haft had been of ox-horn, which has perished, though leaving marks of its texture on the oxidized blade. In the same grave were a flat bronze celt (Fig. 2), a bronze pricker or awl (Fig. 225), a flint knife, and some jet buttons. Another blade of the same character, but rather narrower in its proportions, was found in a barrow at Rudstone,[805] Yorkshire. The handle had in this instance also been of ox-horn. In the same grave were a whetstone, a ring and an ornamental button of jet, and a half-nodule of pyrites and a flint for striking a light. Of the shape of the handles I shall subsequently speak; I will only here remark that at their upper part, where they clasped the blade, there was usually a semicircular or horseshoe-shaped notch, in some instances very wide and in others but narrow. This notch is more rarely somewhat V-shaped in form.

Fig. 279.—Butterwick. ½

A blade of nearly the same form as Fig. 279, but with only two rivet holes, found in a barrow at Blewbury,[806] Berks, is preserved in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. Another, also with two rivets, was found by the late Mr. Bateman in a barrow near Minning Low,[807] Derbyshire. Its handle appears to have been of horn. Its owner, wrapped in a skin, had been buried enveloped in fern-leaves, and with him was also a flat bronze celt, a flat bead of jet, and a flint scraper. Dr. Thurnam mentions eighteen[808] other blades, varying from 2½ inches to 6¾ inches in length, as having been found during the Bateman excavations, as well as one 7¾ inches long and sharply pointed, found at Lett Low,[809] near Warslow, Staffordshire. Of these twenty, sixteen were found with unburnt bodies and four with burnt. Some of these were, however, of the tanged variety, and some fluted or ribbed. At Carder Low a small axe-hammer of basalt, as well as a knife-dagger of this kind, with the edges worn hollow by use, had been placed with the body. The same was the case in a barrow at Parcelly Hay, near Hartington, Derbyshire.

At End Low, near Hartington, there was a rudely formed “spear-head” of flint beside the knife-dagger, and at Thorncliff,[810] on Calton Moor, Staffordshire, “a neat instrument of flint.”

In some cases, though there were holes in the blade, there were no rivets[811] in them, which led Mr. Bateman to think that they were attached to their handles by ligatures. In a barrow in Yorkshire,[812] Mr. Harland found, with remains of a burnt body, a small bronze knife which still had adhering to it some portions of cord partly charred, apparently the remains of what had formed the attachment to the handle. Pins of wood, bone, or horn were no doubt frequently used instead of metal rivets. Such pins seem to have been commonly employed for securing spear-heads to their shafts. “An instrument of brass,[813] formed like a spear-head, but flat and thin,” was found in a barrow on Bincombe Down, Dorsetshire. “It had been fixed to a shaft by means of three wooden pegs, one of which remained in the perforation when found, but on being exposed to the air fell immediately into dust.” In certain dagger blades with four or more rivet-holes some are devoid of rivets, while there are metal rivets in the others.

A remarkably small blade, only 1¾ inches long, with two rivet-holes, was found in a tumulus in Dorsetshire.[814] Another (4? inches) lay with burnt bones, in what was regarded as a cleft and hollowed trunk of a tree, in a barrow near Yatesbury,[815] Wilts. Another, more triangular in shape, and also with two rivet-holes, was found in a barrow near Stonehenge.[816]

Another (2½ inches) of the same character was found with burnt bones, a needle of wood, and a broken flint pebble, in an urn at Tomen-y-Mur,[817] near Festiniog, Merionethshire.

Of knife-daggers with three rivet-holes found in our southern counties, may be mentioned one (5½ inches) found with a drinking cup and a perforated stone axe, accompanying an unburnt interment, in a barrow at East Kennett,[818] Wilts. Another (4¼ inches), also accompanied by a stone axe-hammer, was found in a barrow called Jack’s Castle,[819] near Stourton. The body had in this instance been burnt. Another knife-dagger, also with burnt bones, in a barrow at Wilsford,[820] was accompanied by two flint arrow-heads, some whetstones, and some instruments of stag’s-horn. Another, protected by a wooden scabbard, was found in a barrow at Brigmilston.[821]

What appear to have been blades of the same kind were found with burnt bones in the barrows near Priddy,[822] Somerset, and Ashey Down,[823] Isle of Wight (6 inches). The latter is tapering in form. One (7? inches) which shows no rivets was found at Culter,[824] Lanarkshire.

An unfinished blade without rivet-holes was also found, with castings of palstaves and flanged celts, at Rhosnesney,[825] near Wrexham.

From Derbyshire may be cited that from Carder Low,[826] already described, and one from Brier Low.[827] Another from Lett Low,[828] Staffordshire, has already been mentioned, as have been others described by Bateman.[829] One from a barrow at Middleton[830] was regarded by Pegge as a spear-head.

Fig. 280.—Helperthorpe. ½

From Yorkshire Mr. Bateman describes one (4½ inches) with a crescent-shaped mark showing the form of the handle, found with an extended skeleton at Cawthorn.[831] Another (6 or 7 inches), from a barrow near Pickering,[832] had a V-shaped notch in the handle, to which had been attached a small bone pommel. One from Bishop Wilton,[833] belonging to Mr. Mortimer, has been engraved by Dr. Thurnam.

The mention of this pommel suggests that it is time to consider the manner in which these blades were hafted, as to which the discoveries of Sir Richard Colt Hoare in the Wiltshire barrows, and of Canon Greenwell in those of Yorkshire, leave no doubt. The hafts appear in nearly all cases to have consisted of ox-horn, bone, or wood, sometimes in a single piece with a notch for receiving the blade, and sometimes formed of a pair of similar pieces riveted together, one on each side of the blade. The lower end of the haft was often inserted in a hollow pommel usually of bone.

Fig. 281.—Helperthorpe. ½

The nature of the arrangement of the haft when formed of two pieces will be readily understood on reference to Fig. 280, in which the presumed outline of the original ox-horn haft is shown by dotted lines, and the rivets by which the two plates of horn were bound together are in the position they originally occupied along the centre of the haft. The outline of the upper part of this handle, where it was secured by two rivets to the blade, is still visible, and is shown by darker shading. The pommel at the lower end was attached by pins of horn or of wood, and not by metal rivets. A separate view and section of the pommel is shown in Fig. 281. The original was found by Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., with a contracted interment in a barrow at Helperthorpe,[834] Yorkshire, at the opening of which I was present. As will be seen, the blade has all the appearance of having been much worn by use and repeated whetting.

Bone pommels of the same kind have been frequently met with in barrows, but their purpose was not known to some of the earlier explorers. One from a barrow on Brassington Moor[835] is described by Mr. Bateman as a bone stud perforated with six holes, and was thought to have been intended for being sown on to some article of dress or ornament. Another was found in a barrow at Narrowdale Hill,[836] near Alstonefield, and is also described as a bone button. In both these instances the dagger itself seems to have entirely perished.

In a barrow subsequently opened by Mr. Ruddock near Pickering,[837] the butt end of a dagger handle was recognised in one of these objects. In this instance the pommel was made of three pieces of bone fastened together by two bronze rivets, and having two holes for the pegs by which it was secured to the handle.

———— Fig. 282.—Garton. —————— Fig. 283.—Wilmslow.

Two others in solid bone from barrows at Garton[838] and Bishop Wilton, Yorkshire, have been figured by Dr. Thurnam. The former is here by permission reproduced. That from the well-known Gristhorpe tumulus,[839] near Scarborough, in which the body lay in the hollowed trunk of an oak-tree, is more neatly made, being of oval outline with a projecting bead round the base. It has holes for three pins.

Another pommel of an ornamental character was found with burnt bones in an urn at Wilmslow, Cheshire, and is engraved in the Journal of the British ArchÆological Association,[840] from which Fig. 283 is here reproduced. The receptacle is so small that the haft to which it was attached probably consisted of but a single piece of ox-horn or wood. It appears as if the mortise had been made by drilling three holes side by side.

A very remarkable and beautiful hilt of a sword or dagger, formed of amber of a rich red colour and inlaid with pins of gold, was found in a barrow on Hammeldon Down,[841] Devonshire. By the kindness of the Committee of the Plymouth AthenÆum I am enabled to give two views and a section of this unique object in Fig. 284. Instead of a socket or mortise, there is in this instance a tenon, or projection, which entered into a mortise or hole in the handle. On each side of this tenon is a small mortise of the same length, and through the tenon have been drilled two small holes, one from each side, for pins to attach the pommel to the handle. A small part of the pommel which was broken off in old times seems to have been united to the main body by a series of minute gold rivets or clips, but this piece has again been severed, though the pins round the margin of the fracture remain. This pommel seems disproportionately large for the slightly fluted blade, of which a fragment was found in the same barrow.

Fig. 284.—Hammeldon Down. 1/1

A small object of amber, apparently the pommel of a diminutive dagger, was found in a barrow at Winterbourn Stoke,[842] Wilts. A small knife or scraper, mounted in a handle formed of two pieces of amber, secured by two rivets and bound with four strips of gold, is also preserved at Stourhead.[843] The blade is at the side like that of a hatchet.

Amber was used for inlaying some of the ivory hilts of iron swords at Hallstatt.

The bronze object shown full size in Fig. 285 may not improbably be the pommel of the hilt of a dagger or sword. The hole through the base is irregular in form, and may be accidental. It was found in the hoard at Reach Fen, Cambridge, in which were also the tip of a scabbard and some fragments of swords, as well as two large double-edged knives.

A somewhat similar object is in the MusÉe de l’Oratoire, at Nantes. Another, found at GrÉsine,[844] Savoy, has been regarded as the tip for a scabbard. Another was found in the department of La Manche.[845]

Fig. 285.—Reach Fen. 1/1 ———— Fig. 286.—Allhallows, Hoo. 1/1 ————

What appears to be the hilt of either a sword or dagger was found in a hoard of bronze objects at Allhallows,[846] Hoo, Kent. By the kindness of Mr. Humphrey Wickham I am able to engrave it as Fig. 286. It consisted originally of a rectangular socketed ferrule with a rivet-hole through it, and attached to a semicircular end like the half of a grooved pulley. The socket itself extends for some distance into this semicircular part. From portions of a sword having been found with it, Mr. Wickham has regarded it as a kind of pommel. It may, however, have been the end of a scabbard or a chape, and, if so, should have been described in Chapter XIII. The knife, Fig. 261, was found in the same hoard.

To return, however, to undoubted examples. The most remarkable of all dagger handles discovered in the British Isles are those obtained by Sir R. Colt Hoare from the barrows of Wiltshire.

One of these, from a barrow at Brigmilston,[847] is here reproduced in Fig. 287, taken from the engraving in “Ancient Wiltshire.” It is thus described by the late Dr. Thurnam: “It is of the thin broad-bladed variety. The handle is of wood, held together by thirty rivets of bronze, and strengthened at the end by an oblong bone pommel fastened with two pegs. It is decorated by dots incised in the surface of the wood, forming a border of double lines and circles between the heads of the rivets.” He goes on to say that a similar dagger of the broad variety, having exactly the same number of rivets, was found in one of the Derbyshire[848] barrows. Two buttons of polished shale accompanied this interment. Another, from Garton,[849] Yorkshire, in the collection of Mr. Mortimer, has thirty-seven rivets and two strips of bronze at the sides of the handle, in addition to the four rivets for securing the blade. The bone pommel is shown in Fig. 282.

Another dagger, of somewhat the same character, was found at Leicester, and is preserved in the museum of that town. For the sketch from which Fig. 288 is engraved I am indebted to Mr. C. Read. In this instance the pommel consists of two pieces of bone riveted on either side of a bronze plate, which, however, does not appear to have been continuous with the blade. From the length of the rivets remaining in the blade, the handle appears to have been somewhat thicker in the middle than at the sides.

Fig. 287.—Brigmilston. ½ ———— Fig. 288.—Leicester. ½

In the British Museum is a dagger from a barrow at Standlow, Derbyshire, with a bone pommel of nearly the same character as that from Leicester.

Perhaps the most highly ornamented dagger handle ever discovered is that which was found by Sir R. Colt Hoare in the Bush Barrow,[850] near Normanton, the lower part of which, copied from the engraving in “Ancient Wiltshire,” is shown in Fig. 289. A drawing of the whole dagger with its handle restored has been published by Dr. Thurnam.[851] The blade is 10½ inches long and slightly fluted at the sides, so that it is not, strictly speaking, a knife-dagger such as those hitherto described. It appears, however, best to call attention to it in this place. It lay with a skeleton placed north and south, with which were some rivets and thin plates of bronze, supposed to be traces of a shield.

Fig. 289.—Normanton.

At the shoulders was a flanged bronze celt, like Fig. 9. Near the right arm was the dagger and “a spear-head” of bronze. These were accompanied by a nearly square plate of thin gold, with a projecting flat tongue or hook, which was thought to have decorated the sheath of the dagger. Over the breast lay another lozenge-shaped plate of gold, 7 inches by 6 inches, the edges lapped over a piece of wood. On the right side of the skeleton was a stone hammer,[852] some articles of bone, many small rings of the same material, and another gold lozenge much smaller than that on the breast. As to the handle, I may repeat Sir Richard’s words: “It exceeds anything we have yet seen, both in design and execution, and could not be surpassed (if, indeed, equalled) by the most able workman of modern times. By the annexed engraving you will immediately recognise the British zigzag or the modern Vandyke pattern, which was formed, with a labour and exactness almost unaccountable, by thousands of gold rivets smaller than the smallest pin. The head of the handle, though exhibiting no variety of pattern, was also formed by the same kind of studding.

Fig. 290.—Roke Down. ½

So very minute, indeed, were these pins, that our labourers had thrown out thousands of them with their shovels and scattered them in every direction before, by the necessary aid of a magnifying glass, we could discover what they were, but fortunately enough remained attached to the wood to enable us to develop the pattern.” Some of the pins are shown in the figure below the hilt.

As Dr. Thurnam has pointed out, the ornamentation on a thin piece of metal (said to have been gilt), which apparently decorated the hilt of a bronze dagger, found in a barrow in Dorsetshire,[853] is of the same character, though produced in a different manner. This dagger is said by Douglas to have been “incisted” into wood. It is uncertain whether this refers to the hilt or to the sheath; but in several instances remains of sheaths have been found upon the blades of daggers, some of which have been already adduced, and others will hereafter be mentioned. Sir R. Colt Hoare, in a barrow near Amesbury,[854] found an interment of burnt bones, and with it a bronze dagger which had been “secured by a sheath of wood lined with linen cloth.” A small lance-head, a pair of ivory nippers, and an ivory pin accompanied the interment. In one instance the wood of the sheath was “apparently willow.”[855]

I am unable to guarantee the accuracy of the representation of a large dagger with its handle given in Fig. 290, the original having unfortunately been destroyed in a fire. I have, however, copied it from Dr. Thurnam’s[856] engraving, which was taken from a drawing by the late Mr. S. Solly, F.S.A.[857] It was found in 1845, in a barrow on Roke Down, near Blandford, Dorsetshire, and is thus described by Mr. Shipp:[858] “The blade is exquisitely finished, and the handle, which is ivory, as perfect and as highly polished as any of more recent date. It was found with two small bronze spear-heads at the bottom of a cist cut in the chalk, and covered with burnt bones and ashes; and over it was an inverted urn of the coarsest make, unburnt and unornamented.” In Mr. Shipp’s drawing the handle expands gradually to the base like the mouth of a trumpet. In a subsequent communication[859] Mr. Shipp describes the two spear-heads as of iron.

Mr. Solly[860] says that with it was a second small blade, also of bronze, which may have been a knife, and makes no mention of iron spear-heads. He also says that it lay beneath a stone more than a ton in weight. Mr. C. Warne, F.S.A., has informed me that the spear-heads—if, indeed, such they were—were of bronze and not of iron. He has engraved the dagger in his Plate X.,[861] not from the original, but from the figure in the Journal of the ArchÆological Association.

Hilts made of bronze, though of frequent occurrence in Scandinavia, the South of France, and Italy, are rarely discovered in England or Scotland. That said to have been found at Bere Hill, near Andover, cast in one piece with the blade and with a raised rim round the margin, and studs like rivet-heads in the middle, has been kindly submitted to me by Mr. Samuel Shaw, its owner, and I believe it to be of Eastern and probably Chinese origin. Near Little Wenlock,[862] however, a portion of a dagger was found with part of the handle, in form like that of the sword from Lincoln (Fig. 350), attached by four rivets. With it were a socketed celt, some spear-heads, and whetstones.

A beautiful Egyptian[863] bronze dagger from Thebes is in the Berlin Museum. It has a narrow rapier-like blade and a broad flat hilt of ivory.

Others of nearly the same character are in the British Museum. The end of the hilt is often hollowed, like that of Fig. 277, and the attachment to the blade is by means of three rivets.

In Ireland a few daggers have been found with bronze hilts still attached.

In the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy is a fine example, which has frequently been published, and which I have here reproduced as Fig. 291, from the engraving given by Wilde,[864] but on the scale of one-half. Both blade and handle are “highly ornamented, both in casting and also by the punch or graver.”

A portion of a blade with a bronze hilt still attached was found near Belleek, Co. Fermanagh, and has been engraved in the Proceedings of the Royal Historical and ArchÆological Association of Ireland.[865] The cut is by their kindness here reproduced as Fig. 292. The handle is hollow, and the blade appears to have been originally attached by four pins or rivets, of which but two now remain. Possibly the other two were of horn.

—— Fig. 291.—Ireland. —— Fig. 292.—Belleek. Fig. 293.—Ireland. ½

Another Irish form of hafted dagger has also been frequently published.[866] It is shown in Fig. 293. Vallancey describes this specimen as cast in one piece, the rivets being either ornamental or intended to stop against the top of the scabbard. No doubt these imitation rivets are mere “survivals” from those of the daggers, which were thus fastened to their handles before it was found that it saved trouble to cast the whole in one piece. The hole in the handle, the sides of which are left rough, was probably filled by two slightly overlapping plates of wood or horn riveted together.

Fig. 294.—Woodyates. ½

Another[867] (14½ inches) was thought to have the “loop-fashioned” handle for suspending the weapon to a thong or the belt. I think, however, that when the daggers were in use the handles were to all appearance solid. In one found in Dunshaughlin[868] crannoge, Co. Meath, there is a second oval hole at the end of the hilt, which may have been used for suspension.

There is a good example of this type of dagger in the Blackmore Museum at Salisbury.

A small dagger (7? inches), found near Ballinamore,[869] Co. Leitrim, has an extension of the blade in the form of a thin plate with a button at the bottom so as to form the body of the handle. In this part are two rivet-holes for the attachment of the plates of wood or horn to form the handle.

Some handles of bronze knives found in Scandinavia and Switzerland[870] are formed with similar openings. Daggers with the blade and handle cast in one piece have been found in the Italian terramare.[871] I have a dagger of the same kind from Hungary.

I must now return, from this digression as to the hafting of daggers, to the thin blades or knife-daggers of which I was speaking.

Of those with four rivets but few can be cited. One of unusually large size is shown in Fig. 294. The original was found by Sir R. C. Hoare in a barrow at Woodyates.[872] It was protected by a wooden scabbard. A perforated ring and two buttons of jet, four barbed flint arrow-heads, and a bronze pin were found with the same skeleton. This blade, like many others, is described as having been gilt, but this can hardly have been the case. Dr. Thurnam[873] has tested such brilliantly polished surfaces for gold, but found no traces of that metal.

A blade of this form is engraved in the “Barrow Diggers,”[874] but is described as a stone celt split in two.

A nearly similar blade from Oefeli[875] (Lac de Bienne) is said to be of copper.

In Fig. 295 is shown a blade with, five rivets, from an interment at Homington,[876] near Salisbury, which, is now in the British Museum. One side is still highly polished, with an almost mirror-like lustre. The mark of the hilt is very distinct upon it.

—— Fig. 295.—Homington. ½ ————— Fig. 296.—Idmiston. ½

One of more pointed form, and with a more V-shaped notch in the hilt, was found with an unburnt body in a cairn at North Charlton, Northumberland, and is in the Greenwell Collection in the British Museum. The portion is broken off in which were the rivets.

Occasionally the surface of these thin blades is ornamented by engraved or punched patterns. The decoration usually consists of converging bands of parallel lines. The example given as Fig. 296 was found in a barrow at Idmiston, near Salisbury, and is now preserved in the Blackmore Museum. In one found in Dow Low,[877] Derbyshire, shown in Fig. 297, there are three parallel lines on either side which meet in chevron. This blade has two rivets.

In a barrow near Maiden Castle,[878] Dorchester, opened by Mr. Sydenham, there lay in the midst of the ashes two bronze daggers. One (4 inches) has two lines engraved on it, forming a chevron parallel with the edges; the other (5½ inches) is described as “curiously wrought, chased, and gilt.” This latter, to judge from Mr. Warne’s engraving, has a slight projecting rib along the middle of the blade, between two others converging to meet it near the point. The space on each side of the central rib appears to be decorated by small circular indentations.

One from another barrow in Dorsetshire[879] has a treble chevron on the blade and a straight transverse groove between two ridges just above the hilt.

A small blade found in an urn at Wilmslow,[880] Cheshire, seems to have a single chevron upon it.

A dagger from a tumulus at Hewelinghen (Pas de Calais), and now in the museum at Boulogne, is of this character. It has double lines to the chevron and four rivet-holes.

Another was found with an interment at Rame[881] (Hautes Alpes) in company with other articles of bronze. It has six rivet-holes. A narrower blade and more of the rapier shape, with four rivet-holes, was found in the Marais de Donges[882] (Loire InfÉrieure).

A dagger much like Fig. 296, but with a double row of rivets, has been found at Moerigen,[883] in the Lac de Bienne.

A dagger with a pointed blade having two parallel grooves just within each edge was found with other dagger blades, flat celts, flint arrow-heads, &c., in the tumulus of KerhuÉ-Bras, FinistÈre.[884] It has a plain wooden handle, to which the blade is attached by six rivets. The character of some of the other blades is peculiar.

A beautifully patinated dagger (7¼ inches) from the Seine at Paris, now in my own collection, has six rivet-holes at the base, as in Fig. 296, and is of nearly the same shape, though rather more sharply pointed. One of the rivets which remains is ? inch long. The blade has upon it a small low rib on either side running parallel with the edge. On the inner side of the rib there is a groove, on the outer side the blade is flat. The edge itself is fluted.

I have a small thin blade (4? inches), like Fig. 298, found in the Palatinate, which has four rivet-holes at the base. There is a band of five parallel lines running along each edge, and in the centre of the blade a chevron with the sides slightly curved inwards formed of two similar bands. The lines seem to have been punched in. The mark left by the hilt is like that on Fig. 296.

What appear to be knife-daggers, some of them with notches at the side for the reception of rivets, have been found with interments in Spain, and have been described by Don Gongora y Martinez[885] as lance-heads.

Knife-daggers of much the same character as the English have occasionally been found in Scotland.

That shown in Fig. 298 was found in a stone cist in a cairn at Cleigh,[886] Loch Nell, Argyleshire. Along the margin of the original handle is a line of small indentations made with a pointed punch.

—— Fig. 297.—Dow Low. ————— Fig. 298.—Cleigh. ½

Another (4¼ inches) was found in a cairn at Linlathen,[887] Forfarshire, together with a “drinking cup.” Particulars of the finding of several others, with interments in sepulchral cairns, have been given by Mr. Joseph Anderson[888] in an interesting paper, to which the reader is referred.

Fig. 299.—Collessie. 1/1

Three others, from Drumlanrick,[889] near Callander, Perth (4½ inches, two rivets), Crossmichael, Kirkcudbrightshire, and Callachally, Island of Mull, are in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh. Another, apparently of the same type, was found in a cairn at Collessie,[890] Fife, the handle of which appears to have been encircled by the gold fillet shown in Fig. 299. The sheath seems to have been of wood covered with cow-hide, the hairs on the outside.

In Ireland the thin flat blades are of rare occurrence. Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., has one from Co. Antrim (4¾ inches) with three rivet-holes, and with a V-shaped notch in the mark of the handle.

There is a form of blade which appears to be intermediate between the flat knife-daggers and those to which the name of dagger may more properly be applied, which are either considerably thicker at the centre than towards the edges, or else have a certain number of strengthening ribs running along the blade. This intermediate form has a single narrow rounded rib running along the centre of the blade. That shown in Fig. 300 is an example of the short and broad variety of this kind. It was found in a barrow at Musdin,[891] Staffordshire, and has a splendid patina, rivalling malachite in colour. The relation of the dagger to any interment is uncertain.

Fig. 300.—Musdin. ½ Fig. 301.—Plymstock. ? Fig. 302.—Winterbourne Stoke. ½

A dagger of this class, but more pointed and with two parallel lines engraved on each side of the midrib, was found by Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., in one of the barrows called the Three Tremblers,[892] Yorkshire. It showed traces of both its handle and sheath. With it was a beautifully flaked large flint knife.

A more pointed blade, with the central rib much less pronounced, and the notch in the hilt more distinct, was found with a skeleton in a cist near Cheswick,[893] Northumberland, and is now in the Greenwell Collection in the British Museum. It has been carefully polished.

Another, with a small, well-defined central midrib and two rivets, was found by Canon Greenwell in a barrow at Aldbourn, Wilts. It accompanied a burnt body.

Some of the Italian dagger blades are provided with similar midribs.

Of the English weapons just described some closely resemble in character the much larger blades of which I shall subsequently have to speak, and which not improbably were those of some form of halberd or battle-axe.

A much longer and narrower form, in which the central rib is partly the result of two long lateral grooves along the sides of the blade, is shown in Fig. 301. This was found with two others at Plymstock,[894] Devon, in company with flanged celts, a chisel, and a tanged spear-head or dagger, Fig. 327, and is now in the British Museum.

I have a much smaller blade, of somewhat the same character (4? inches), but imperfect at the base, found in a barrow near Cirencester; and one smaller still (4¼ inches), from a small barrow near Ablington, Cirencester, Gloucestershire. This latter appears to have had two rivet-holes.

A beautiful example of the form of dagger of which Sir Richard C. Hoare found numerous examples in the Wiltshire barrows is shown in Fig. 302. It lay with burnt bones in a wooden cist in a barrow near Winterbourn Stoke.[895] With it was another, which was, however, broken, an ivory pin and tweezers, and two small pieces of ivory with bronze rivets, which were supposed to have appertained to the tips of a bow. They may more probably have formed part of the hilt of the dagger. The blade is ornamented with parallel lines as usual, but it also has a series of fine dotted lines.

Two other blades (8½ and 8 inches), less highly ornamented, and one of them straighter at the edges, were found with a skeleton buried in the hollowed trunk of an elm-tree in the King Barrow,[896] Winterbourn Stoke. With one of these at the breast of the skeleton were traces of a wooden scabbard, with indentations which were thought to have been gilt. The handle is described as having been of box-wood, and rounded somewhat like that of a large knife. The other dagger was at the thigh. On the breast was also a bronze awl with what is said to have been an ivory handle (Fig. 227).

Dr. Thurnam[897] thinks it not improbable that one of the blades may have been a spear-head for use in the chase. In writing of these blades he observes, “Where two are found with the same interment they are not exactly of one type, but one is light and thin and of greater breadth, the other strengthened by a stout midrib relatively heavier and of more pointed or leaf-like form; the rivets also are larger. In such cases the former may, perhaps, be supposed to be the dagger, the latter the spear.” Sir Richard Hoare in some cases discriminates between the spear and the dagger when two blades were found; and Mr. Cunnington observed in a barrow at Roundway,[898] Wilts, that a pointed blade only 3 inches long with three rivets had a wooden shaft about a foot in length, which, as Dr. Thurnam remarks, could not have been the haft of a dagger.

The fact that many of these blades bore traces of having had a sheath is in favour of their being daggers rather than spear-heads, though it must not be forgotten that Homer[899] describes Achilles as drawing the spear which had belonged to his father from its sheath—

?? d? ??a s??????? pat????? ?sp?sat? ?????

Though Sir Richard Colt Hoare at first regarded all these blades as spear-heads, he observes, about two-thirds of the way through his first volume,[900] “daily experience convinces me that those implements we supposed to be spear-heads, may more properly be denominated daggers, or knives, worn by the side, or in a girdle, and not affixed to long shafts like the modern lance.” Further on, however, he mentions a “spear-head” from a barrow near Fovant,[901] having the greater part of the wooden handle adhering to it, so that the mode by which it was fastened was clearly seen. From the figure given in the ArchÆologia, and in an unpublished plate of Hoare, this seems, however, to have been a dagger rather than a spear.

Other blades of much the same character, found at Everley and Lake, Wilts, and West Cranmore, Somerset, are figured by Dr. Thurnam.[902] This latter was found by my friend the late Mr. J. W. Flower, F.G.S. It is straight at the bottom of the blade, which went only ¼ inch into the handle at the part where the usual semicircular notch was formed. There was a single rivet on either side. The one preserved is ½ inch long. Another, from Lake,[903] is given by Hoare. It was found with burnt bones and was accompanied by a whetstone.

Others have been found in a barrow at Ablington,[904] near Amesbury, Wilts, and at Rowcroft,[905] Yattendon, Berks (7½ inches).

A fine blade of this character (9¼ inches long), with three rivets, was found near Leeds. The midrib ends in a square base. It is not unlike the blade of a halberd.

A hafted blade of the same kind,[906] from Bere Regis, Dorsetshire, has already been mentioned; as well as the decoration of the hilt of one of the same form. One (9 inches) was found in a barrow at Came,[907] and exhibited to the ArchÆological Institute. Mr. Warne,[908] however, records the finding of two at that place. One seems to have the midrib dotted over with small indentations.

That shown in Fig. 303 (which is copied from Dr. Thurnam’s[909] engraving) is from Camerton, Somerset. It is remarkable as having a kind of second midrib beyond the parallel grooves which border the first. As usual it has but two rivets.

Fig. 303.—Camerton. ½ Fig. 304.—Cambridge. ½

A bronze dagger (5½ inches) of the Wiltshire type was found in the well-known barrow at Hove,[910] near Brighton, in which the interment had been made in an oak coffin. An amber cup, a perforated stone axe-hammer, and a whetstone had also been deposited with the body.

In a blade of this class (7 inches), found with burnt bones and chippings of flint in a barrow at Teddington,[911] the midrib appears to be formed of three beads.

Another (9 inches) formed part of the Arreton Down[912] find, of which more will hereafter be said. The blade is ornamented with delicate flutings and curves, and the midrib ends in a crescented hollow exactly opposite to the usual notch in the handle. This specimen is now in the British Museum.

A bronze dagger (6¾ inches) with three rivets, of which the blade has much suffered from decomposition, was found with a lump of iron pyrites within an urn in a barrow at Angrowse Mullion,[913] Cornwall. A dagger blade of nearly the same kind, but with six rivets, found in a barrow at CarnÖel,[914] FinistÈre, is in the museum at the HÔtel Cluny, Paris.

I have a dagger (9 inches) much like Fig. 302, only somewhat more taper, found in the Seine at Paris. It has had three rivet-holes, and on the blade are two bands of four lines parallel with the edge.

The strengthening of the blade is sometimes effected by forming it with three or more projecting ribs instead of a single midrib. In Fig. 304 is shown a dagger blade in my own collection, found not far from Cambridge. On either side of the central rib and along the outer margin of the two other ribs are lines of minute punctures by way of ornament.

A somewhat larger blade (8? inches), from Little Cressingham,[915] Norfolk, has two deep furrows, one on each side of the broad central midrib, and beyond these again two lateral ribs. This was secured to its hilt by six rivets, three on each side. It was found with a contracted male skeleton, accompanied by a necklace of amber beads and some articles made of thin gold plate.

A dagger with a central rounded midrib, and apparently two lateral ribs like those on Fig. 304, was found in a barrow near Torrington,[916] Devon. It has three rivets, by which it was attached to a wooden handle, and the blade showed traces of a wooden sheath, which like the handle had perished.

A very small dagger or knife, with apparently a well-marked central rib, found near Magherafelt,[917] Co. Londonderry, is shown in Fig. 305. It has a haft of oak attached, which is thought to be original. Any pins or rivets that may have existed are now lost, and possibly what were used may have been formed of wood or horn. Some thin wedges of oak appear to have been used for steadying the blade in the haft, the upper part of which has somewhat suffered from fire.

One of the daggers from the great find at Arreton Down,[918] Isle of Wight (9? inches), has the blade strengthened by three raised ribs. It is shown in Fig. 306. It was found with several tanged blades like Fig. 324, some flanged celts, and other objects. In a blade (9 inches) in Canon Greenwell’s collection, and found at Ford, Northumberland, there are two slight ribs about ? inch from the edges and parallel to them. There are punctures along the sides of the ribs.

Possibly some of these weapons may have been halberd blades, such as those hereafter described.

Another form of dagger widens out considerably at the base, so as to give the edges an ogival outline, and this form passes into what have been termed rapier-like blades. As is the case with the leaf-shaped blades, which will presently be described, some of these latter are so long that it is hard to say whether they ought to be classed as swords or as daggers.

The example engraved as Fig. 307 is from Scotland, and not England, the original being in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh. It was found in 1828 upon the farm of Kilrie, near Kinghorn, Fifeshire. The blade, as is usually the case, shows a central ridge upon it, but is also ornamented with parallel lines engraved on either side, which is a feature of far less common occurrence.

A plain blade of the same character (7½ inches), but narrower in its proportions, was found at Bracklesham,[919] Sussex. It has as usual two rivets only.

I have another (7? inches), showing four facets on the blade, from Soham Fen; the two rivet-holes cut through the margin of the base, as in Fig. 304.

I have seen others from the Cambridge Fens.

Another (13½ inches) with four rivets, and more nearly approaching the rapier form, was found in the Thames at Ditton,[920] Surrey, and was presented to the British Museum by the Earl of Lovelace. Another of the same character (7 inches) was found in the Thames near Maidenhead,[921] and another (8 inches) at Battersea.[922]

Fig. 305.—Magherafelt. ½ Fig. 306.—Arreton Down. ½ Fig. 307.—Kinghorn. ½

One (9¾ inches) with two rivets, and the base forming half a hexagon, was found at New Bilton,[923] near Rugby. I have another of nearly the same form (7¾ inches) from Waterbeach Fen, Cambridge.

In some the blade is ornamented by ribs cast in relief and by engraving. A good example of the kind from the collection of Mr. Robert Day, F.S.A., is shown in Fig. 308. It was found in the old castle of Colloony,[924] Co. Sligo. One of much the same form as the Wiltshire dagger (Fig. 302), found in the Thames,[925] near Richmond (7-9/10 inches), has at the base a vandyke border and hatched diagonal bands. The blade is slightly ridged but not otherwise ornamented. It is now in the British Museum. One (5½ inches), ornamented at the base in a similar manner, but with a short broad tang and one rivet-hole, was found on Helsington Peat Moss,[926] Westmoreland.

Fig. 308.—Colloony. ½ ———— Fig. 309.—Ireland. 1/1 ——

A blade (7 inches) also ornamented at the base with a vandyke pattern was found at Pitkaithly, Perthshire, and is now in the museum at Edinburgh.

Many blades of daggers from Germany are ornamented. One of the most beautiful that I have seen is that in the museum at Laibach, Carniola. Another (11½ inches), with the hilt complete, and the blade and pommel-plate beautifully ornamented, was found near Vienna.[927] Von Sacken points out that from the shortness of the hilt it is probable that these daggers were held in the same manner as among the Peruvians of the present day, with the two first fingers not round the hilt, but stretched along the blade.

In the museum of the Royal Irish Academy[928] is a broad dagger blade 6? inches long, and engraved with a kind of vandyke pattern at the base. The ornamented portion is shown full size in Fig. 309, kindly lent me by the Academy. It is rather remarkable that the ornaments should extend to so near the base, as they must have been intended to be free of the hilt, in which, in consequence, it would appear that only a small part of the blade can have been inserted. The sides of the socket in the hilt may, however, have extended some distance up the sloping part of the base of the blade.

Fig. 310.
Kilrea. ¼
Fig. 311.
Thames. ¼
Fig. 312.
Thatcham. ¼

An ornamented blade of more elongated form (16½ inches) is engraved on the scale of one-fourth in Fig. 310. It was found at Kilrea, Co. Sligo, and is in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S. There is a vandyke pattern near the base, which is not shown in the cut.

I have a plain blade (14 inches) with merely a central ridge, and with two rivet-holes, which is also from Ireland, and of much the same form.

In a small English blade (5 inches) of the same character there are no rivet-holes at the base.

A blade from the Thames[929] of an ordinary rapier shape is shown on the scale of one-fourth in Fig. 311. It is provided with two rivets, and there are notches at the side of the base as if to allow of two others being passed through the hilt to steady the blade.

A blade of the same form (10 inches), but with only two rivet-holes at the base, was found at the foot of “the Castle Tump,” Newchurch,[930] Radnorshire.

Rapier-shaped blades from 8½ inches to 12½ inches long, found at Auchtermuchty, Fife; at Fairholm, Dumfriesshire; and near Ardoch, Perthshire, are preserved in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh.

Fig. 312 represents a small blade of this character dredged up from the Kennet and Avon Canal, between Theale and Thatcham, Berks, and given me by Mr. W. Whitaker, F.G.S. The two little notches at the side of the base are peculiar.

A number of blades of this character, but without these small notches, have been found in the Cambridgeshire Fens. Mr. Fisher, of Ely, has four, varying in length from 8 inches to 9 inches, about 2 inches wide at the base and 1 inch in the middle of the blade. They all have two rivet-holes, in some of which are rivets ? inch long.

Two blades found at South Kyme,[931] Lincolnshire, seem to have been of this character. Another (13½ inches) was found at Corbridge,[932] Northumberland, in company with a leaf-shaped spear-head. One from Burwell Fen, in my own collection, has three rivet-holes, in which are still two of the rivets, of which one is formed from a nearly square piece of metal. A long blade of this kind (16½ inches), but with the blade tapering more gradually from a rounded base, was dredged from the Thames[933] near Vauxhall. Other rapier-shaped blades (18? inches and 14-3/10 inches) have been found in the Thames near Kingston.[934]

The base of these blades appears sometimes to be disproportionately broad with regard to the blades themselves. An example from Coveney, near Downham Hithe, Cambridgeshire, is in the collection of Mr. Fisher, of Ely, and is shown in Fig. 313. This widening was no doubt intended to aid in steadying the blade in its hilt.

I have a dagger of the same form (8 inches), but with a more tapering blade, found in Waterbeach Fen, Cambridge. Another (11½ inches), from Harlech, Merionethshire, is even narrower in the blade than the Coveney example, but it has lost its edges by corrosion.

Some blades, from 12½ inches to 15½ inches long, and rapier-like in character, from Maentwrog in the same county, are engraved in the ArchÆologia,[935] and are now in the British Museum. The rivet arrangements vary. A spear-head, with loops attached to the blade, was found with them. One of them has notches at the sides of the base, as in Fig. 311.

One 14¾ inches long, and of much the same outline, but flat in the centre instead of ridged, was found at Fisherton,[936] near Salisbury, and is in the Blackmore Museum. Another of the same character, but broad in the blade (16½ inches), was found in the Thames.[937]

Canon Greenwell has two rapier-like blades from the Thames, 17½ inches and 15? inches long, from Sandford. With the latter was found a leaf-shaped blade (19 inches) with two rivet-holes in the base.

Such blades are almost long enough to be regarded as swords.

A weapon of this form (16? inches), with the blade reduced in thickness towards the edges, and with two large rivets, one of them still in situ, was found in the Thames, and is now in the British Museum. Another in the same collection (12? inches), from the Thames at Kingston, is much narrower at the base.

A blade of this character from Blair Drummond Moss was exhibited in the museum at Edinburgh, and is preserved at Blair Drummond House.

The type occurs in France. One found at Auxonne,[938] Haute SaÔne, is in the St. Germain Museum.

Another, rather shorter and broader, with two rivets and two notches in the sides of the base, was found in the bay of PenhouËt[939] (Loire InfÉrieure).

Fig. 313.—Coveney. ½ Fig. 314.—Thames. ½

I have examples from the Seine at Paris, and also from the neighbourhood of Amiens.

In some cases the rivet-holes cut through the margin of the metal as in Fig. 304.

Blades appear sometimes to have been cast with deep rounded notches in the base to receive the rivets instead of having holes drilled or cast in them. That shown in Fig. 314 is of this character, and was found in the Thames at London. It was given to me by Mr. C. Roach Smith, F.S.A. Others of the same character have also been found in the Thames. One of these (16? inches), of nearly the same type but more rounded at the lower part of the wings, is in the British Museum.

Canon Greenwell has a blade of this type (8¾ inches), found near Methwold, Norfolk.

A specimen of this form (11 inches) from Edington Burtle, Somerset, is in the Museum at Taunton.

A blade from Inchigecla,[940] Co. Cork, figured in the ArchÆological Journal, seems to be notched in a similar manner. Another of different form, but apparently notched after the same fashion, is engraved by Vallancey.[941]

Some of the rapier-shaped blades, and especially those of larger size, such as seem intermediate between swords and daggers, are ornamented as well as strengthened by a projecting midrib, while their weight is diminished by flutings along either side. A beautiful example of this kind, found at the bottom of an old canoe, between the peat and clay, near Chatteris, Cambs, is shown one-quarter size in Fig. 315. I have another (14 inches) with the midrib not quite so prominent, and with the rivet-holes cutting the margin of the base, found at Aston Ingham, Herefordshire. A portion of another was found near Waterbeach,[942] Cambs.

A broader blade of the same character (12¾ inches), with two very large rivets, was found in the Thames at Kingston, and is now in the British Museum. A narrower blade (12 inches) with the rivet-holes cutting through the base, was found at CÆsar’s Camp, Farnham, Surrey, and is in the same collection.

A long blade of this character from the Thames (21 inches long and 2? inches wide at the base), with central ridge and slight flutings at the edges, may more properly be regarded as a sword. It is in the British Museum.

Six blades, all of the rapier character, but varying in details, and from 12 inches to 22 inches in length, were found at Talaton, Devonshire.[943] Some moulds of stone for blades of the same kind were found at Hennock in the same county, and will subsequently be described. Another blade (17 inches) was found at Winkleigh,[944] near Crediton, Devon.

A blade of the same character from Ireland is given by Vallancey.[945] A fine specimen from the same country (18 inches) is in the British Museum.[946] What appears to be a part of a blade[947] of the same kind has been regarded as a kind of “steel” for sharpening other blades.

A rapier-shaped blade (21 inches) with two rivet-holes was found, with socketed celts and a palstave, at Mawgan,[948] Cornwall.

Blades of this character are also found in France. Two from the departments of Aisne and Somme,[949] have been figured. One (20 inches long) is in the Museum at Nantes.

A rapier blade from the ChaussÉe Brunehault, and now in the Boulogne Museum, is almost like a trefoil in outline at the hilt end.

A still longer blade of this character, which perhaps ought with greater propriety to have been classed among swords, is shown in Fig. 316 on the scale of one-fourth. It has unfortunately lost its point, but is still 17¾ inches long. It would appear to have been originally about 20½ inches long, as shown in the figure. The blade in this case has three projecting ribs between which and again towards the edges it is fluted. It was found in the River Ouse, near Thetford. The imperfect rivet-holes at the base appear to have been cast in the blade, and the means of steadying it in its hilt must have been but inadequate. Such weapons, however, can only have been intended for stabbing, and not for striking.

Another blade of similar form, but with perfect rivet-holes, was found in the fine earthwork of Badbury, Dorsetshire, and is in the collection of Mr. Durden, of Blandford. It is 23½ inches long and 2-9/16 inches wide at the base above the rivet-holes.

Blades of this kind are occasionally found in Ireland. In the British Museum is one (9 inches) with deep notches for the rivets, found in Rathkennan Bog, Co. Tipperary.

Fig. 315.—Chatteris. ¼ Fig. 316.—Thetford. ¼ Fig. 317.—Londonderry. ¼

Fig. 318. Lissane. 1/5

Nearly all the rapier-shaped blades which have still to be noticed may be regarded as probably those of swords rather than of daggers. That shown in Fig. 317 is in my own collection, and was found near Londonderry. The method of attachment to the hilt by two rivets fitting into notches at the sides of the base of the blade is the same as in some of the shorter weapons already mentioned.

Another (19 inches), found at Killeshandra,[950] Co. Cavan, has similar notches at the sides, but the base is somewhat differently shaped. Many of these rapier-shaped blades have been found in Ireland, and Canon Greenwell has one (27¼ inches) which was bought in Scotland, and probably found in that country.

A blade (14 inches) found in the Loire, and now in the Nantes Museum, has side notches of nearly the same character as those in Fig. 317.

The finest example of the rapier kind ever found in Ireland is that shown in Fig. 318, which by the kindness of the Royal Irish Academy I here reproduce from Sir W. Wilde’s Catalogue. It is no less than 30¼ inches long, and is only ? inch in width at the centre of the blade, which has a strong midrib. It was found in a bog at Lissane, Co. Derry. I have a blade, found at Noailles, near Beauvais, Oise, France, identical in form and character, but only 23¼ inches long. Were it not that the rivets are wanting, Fig. 318 might have been taken from the French instead of the Irish specimen.

Another narrow blade, with a heavy rounded midrib (22? inches long and 1¾ inch broad at the base), was found in a bog at Galbally, Co. Tyrone, and had at the time of its discovery the original hilt attached. There also appear to have been some remains of a scabbard, but this is uncertain. The hilt has been engraved in the Proceedings of the Royal Historical and ArchÆological Society of Ireland,[951] and is here by their kindness reproduced as Fig. 319.

Mr. Wakeman, of Enniskillen, in his interesting account of the discovery, describes the material of which the hilt is formed as bone, or rather whalebone. Both blade and haft are, however, now in my own collection, and I think there can be no doubt that the material of the hilt is in reality a dark-coloured ox-horn. On some Danish blades I have seen the fibrous texture of this substance still shown by the oxide or salt of the metal, forming as it were a cast of its surface, which has outlasted the horn against which it was originally formed. There are no traces of the rivets in the Galbally hilt, so that probably pins of hard wood served to secure it to the blade.

Some Scandinavian daggers have been found with their handles of horn still attached. One from a barrow in HasslÖf,[952] South Halland, Sweden, had its leather sheath with a long rectangular end of bronze still preserved. The length of the sheath is about twice that of the blade of the dagger.

The bronze hilts for the long rapier-like blades are rare, but not unknown.

One of these blades, found in the Co. Tipperary,[953] has its hilt still attached by metal rivets, as shown in Fig. 320. The hilt is hollow and is now open at the end, though probably, as Wilde suggests, originally closed by a bone stud.

Fig. 319.—Galbally. 1/1

The hilt of a sword in the museum at Tours is joined to the blade in much the same fashion, but has a mere indentation instead of the central semicircular notch. The body of the hilt is engraved with bands of triangles and circles.

Fig. 320.—Tipperary. ½

A rapier-shaped blade, with a bronze hilt of nearly the same form, but with six rivets, is in the museum at Narbonne.[954] Another nearly similar was found at Cheylounet,[955] Haute Loire.

Some Egyptian bronze daggers have the hilts formed in the same style.

In another form, the blade of which is more leaf-shaped, like the ordinary bronze sword, the means of attachment to the haft are merely slight notches at the sides. That shown in Fig. 321 is only 11 inches long, but the edge has been removed for about 1½ inch from the base, showing the portion which presumably was inserted in the hilt. The original was found near Ely, and is in the collection of Mr. M. Fisher, of that town.

I have a small specimen of the same kind (6¾ inches) from Fordham, Cambs.

A more leaf-shaped blade (14 inches), with rivet notches at the side of the base, was found, with leaf-shaped spear-heads, at Worth,[956] Washfield, Devon. Possibly this, as suggested by Mr. Tucker, F.S.A., was originally a sword from which the hilt was broken.

A blade more like Fig. 321 (15¼ inches long and 1 inch broad) was found in the Mardyke, near Grays Thurrock,[957] Essex. Some of the weapons of this kind, like one from the Thames at Kingston (11½ inches), appear to have been made from broken sword or rapier-like blades.

A long-tanged form, of which it is sometimes difficult to say whether it is a sword, a knife, or a dagger, is of not unfrequent occurrence in Ireland. That shown in Fig. 322 is in my own collection.

I have another found near Armagh (8½ inches), which is rather broader in its proportions. It has a diagonal row of circular indentations across each side of the blade just above the shoulders. Not improbably these and other specimens originally existed in a somewhat different form, but having been injured at their base were refitted with a tang for attachment to the haft instead of being secured by rivets at the sides like those last mentioned.

Some Danish daggers are provided with merely a slight tang like that of a modern chisel.

Fig. 321.—Ely. ½ Fig. 322.—North of Ireland.½ Fig. 323.—Raphoe. ¼

Another form of blade is more of the nature of a bayonet than of a rapier, yet this would appear to be the proper place in which to notice it. The example shown in Fig. 323 is in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., and was found at Raphoe, Co. Donegal.

The section of the blade is nearly square, and the faces are ornamented with parallel engraved lines. It ends in a tang with a single hole through it, and with it was found a ferrule of bronze for receiving the end of the handle.

In the Royal Irish Academy Museum is another blade of the same character, 33 inches long and nearly square in section, but having the faces fluted. With it was a ferrule, 3¾ inches long, having four ribs at the base, with hollows between. It has one rivet-hole through it. This specimen was found in a bog near Glenarm, Co. Antrim.

From the ferrules and general form of the blades it is probable that they were lance or pike heads rather than of the nature of swords or daggers. The “javelin with loop” found in Monaghan, and engraved in the ArchÆological Journal[958] seems to be somewhat of the same nature.

It may possibly be the case that some of the other blades described in this chapter have served as the points of spear-like weapons, though, from the hilts being discovered with so many of them, there can be no doubt that the majority must be regarded as having been the blades of daggers or rapiers. Among modern weapons we have, however, some which, like the sword-bayonet, are intended to serve a double purpose; and though there can be little doubt as to the true character of the knife-daggers, it is hardly safe to assert that all the dagger-like blades were without exception mounted with short hilts as poniards, and that none were provided with straight shafts as pikes, or placed transversely on a handle to serve as halberds or battle-axes.

The weapons described in this chapter probably range over the whole of the Bronze Period of Britain. The knife-daggers, which have almost exclusively been found in barrows, often associated with other weapons formed of stone, may be regarded as among the earliest of our bronze antiquities; while the rapier-shaped blades, though of rare occurrence in hoards, appear to belong to a period when socketed celts were already in use. Of the dagger-like blades, in whatever manner they were mounted, a considerable number belong to an early period. The analogies of the different forms with those found upon the Continent have already from time to time been noted in the preceding pages.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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