CHAPTER IV. WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS. THE works of the Bronze Period possess an entirely new and distinct source of interest from those which preceded them, in so far as they exhibit not only the skill and ingenuity which is prompted by necessity, but also the graceful varieties of form and decoration which give evidence of the pleasurable exercise of thought and fancy. Were we indeed to select the most perfect and highly finished productions resulting from the knowledge of working in metals, and to place these alongside of the best works of the Stone Period, we could hardly avoid the conclusion, already adopted by northern archæologists, that the works in metal belong to an entirely new and distinct race. A more careful investigation, however, tends to modify such a conclusion in regard to the British bronze remains. Independently of the presence of Allophylian races in Britain prior to the earliest arrival of the Celta,—which 1 Mr. Worsaae remarks (Primeval Antiquities, p. 24), "We must not by any means believe that the Bronze Period developed itself among the aborigines gradually or step by step out of the Stone Period. On the contrary, instead of the simple and uniform implements and ornaments of stone, bone, and amber, we meet suddenly with a number and variety of splendid weapons, implements, and jewels of bronze, and sometimes indeed with jewels of gold. The transition is so abrupt that from the antiquities we are enabled to conclude that the Bronze Period must have commenced with the irruption of a new race of people, possessing a higher degree of cultivation than the early inhabitants." the evidence already adduced of the very remote period to which the existence of a human population must be assigned, seems alone sufficient to determine in the affirmative; there can be no doubt that stone implements were in use even within the Celtic era; and that it was not by an abrupt substitution, but by a gradual transition that they were entirely displaced by those of metal. Reference has already been made to some striking indications of this in the various moulds which have been discovered from time to time in the British Isles. It is still more obvious in the numerous examples of weapons and tools. When classified on the same simple and natural principle which induces us to recognise the Stone Period as prior to that of Bronze, we detect the evidences of a slow and very gradual change, and discover the links which unite the two periods. In the earliest axes of pure copper and of bronze, the form of their prototype in stone is repeated with little or no variation. Both are equally deficient in any stop-ridge, loop, or perforation to facilitate the securing of them to a handle; and we cannot avoid recognising in the latter the new materials in the hands of the old worker in stone; while another class of illustrative examples of the same transition-period may be detected in stone implements occasionally discovered, obviously made in imita tion of bronze weapons. In these we probably see evidence of the scarcity of the metals compelling the primitive workman, while adopting the newer models, to reproduce them in the only material at his command. Much learned but profitless controversy has been carried on respecting the weapons of the Bronze Period. Archæological works of last century, and of the early years of the present century, abound with elaborate demonstrations of the correspondence of celts and spear heads to the Roman securis, hasta, and pilum. It may be doubted if more recent attempts to determine the exact purpose for which each variety of bronze implement was designed tend to more satisfactory results. When it is considered that the most expert and sagacious archeologist would probably be puzzled to determine the purpose of one-half the tools of a modern carpenter or lock-smith: it is surely assuming too much, when he stumbles on the hoarded weapons and implements of the old Briton, who has reposed underneath his monumental tumulus, with all the secrets of his craft buried with him, for fully two thousand years, to pretend to more than a very general determination of their uses. Much mischief indeed is done in the present stage of the science by such attempts at "being wise above that which is written." Those relics are our written records of the old ages, and it is well that we should avoid bringing their chroniclings into discredit by forced interpretations which they will not legitimately sustain. The capabilities of the new material introduced to the old workers in stone, were pregnant with all the elements of progress; and one of the most interesting features belonging to the Archaic Period is the gradual development of skill, inventive ingenuity, and artistic decorative fancy, in the series of bronze weapons and implements, in which every additional improvement, and every indication of intelligent refinement of form or ornamentation, may be assumed as evidence of progress, and therefore of work of a later date. The most primitive indices of the new art are the simple axe-heads of pure copper, differing only in material from the bronze implements made apparently in imitation of those of stone. To this class belonged the axes cast in the open stone moulds already described : in which they were fashioned merely by pouring the melted metal into the exposed indentation in the stone, after which it was hammered or ground to an edge. Others, such as one specimen in the Scottish Museum, found in the Moss of Cree, near Wigton, in Galloway, consisting of a rudely-fashioned blade of yellow bronze full of air-holes, appear to have been cast in sand. This simple form, illustrated in Fig. 53, increases in size and assumes better proportions; exhibiting manifest evidence of the growing experience of the workman. The axeblade is sometimes finished with a broad flange along the sides, thereby securing economy of material with FIG. 53. lightness and strength. Other improvements are introduced for the purpose of more securely fastening it to the handle, as in one with a cross limb, Fig. 54, found with other bronze relics at Strachur, Argyleshire. Examples also more frequently occur of axes, than of any other bronze implements, decorated with incised ornamental patterns corresponding to those which occur on the early pottery. This kind of ornament, though executed with considerable taste, as shown in an axeblade, Fig. 55, found on the Moor of Sluie, near the river Findhorn, Morayshire,-presents a striking con trast to the graceful mouldings and perforations of the later bronze weapons. It appears to have been produced in the simplest manner by striking the surface with a punch; and is sometimes wrought over the surface with no marked attempt at a definite pattern. The latter examples--of which there is one in the Scottish Museum, confirm the probability of their introduction for other purposes than mere ornament. Allusions by some of the oldest Irish writers to the employment of poisoned weapons, have been referred to in proof even of the Celtic practice of arts common to many barbarian nations; and it is accordingly suggested as the most probable solution of the practice of thus indenting the axe-blade, that it may have been designed to retain poison with which the weapon was anointed. Other devices of more frequent occurrence on different forms of weapon are hereafter referred to, which may have answered the same barbarous and deadly purpose. Archæologists now generally concur in applying the old Scandinavian term paalstab, or its English synonyme palstave, to the next class of implements, figured above. They consist of wedges, more or less axe-shaped, having |