Fig. 534.—Stogursey. ½—Fig. 535.—Stogursey. ½—Fig. 536.—Stogursey. ½The heads and runners, jets or waste pieces, from the castings were reserved for being re-melted, and are frequently found in the bronze-founders’ hoards. They are of course of various sizes, but are usually conical masses, showing the shape of the cup or funnel into which the metal was poured, and having one, two, or more processes from them showing the course of the metal into the mould.Figs. 534, 535 and 536, all from the same hoard, found at Stogursey,[1732]Somersetshire, will give a fair idea of the general character of these waste pieces, or jets. They are shown with their flat face downwards, or in the reverse position to what they occupied when in the molten state, and exhibit one, two, and four runners from them respectively. No less than fifteen of these objects were found with this deposit—six with one runner, three with two, and six with four.Jets of metal, for the most part with two runners, were found with the Westow hoard,[1733]Yorkshire, those of Marden,[1734]Kent; of Kensington;[1735]and of Hounslow. Those from the two latter deposits are in the British Museum.Another waste piece, 1¾ inch long, with two runners, was found in the Heathery Burn Cave,[1736]and is shown in Fig. 537.A very symmetrical jet, circular, with four irregularly conical runners proceeding from it, was in the hoard found at Lanant,[1737]Cornwall, and is now in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries.Another oval head (2 inches long), with four runners from it, has much the appearance of a sword pommel. It was found with socketed celts on Kenidjack Cliff,[1738]Cornwall.Fig. 537.Heathery Burn.A perforated disc, with a collar round the central hole (Fig. 503), which at one time[1739]I regarded as a waste piece from a casting, I have now reason to think was prepared for some special purpose, as at least one object of this class has been found with the runners removed, and in a finished condition. See page 403.The conical lump of metal found with the hoard at Marden,[1740]Kent, and described as “a very rare species of fibula,” may be the head of metal from a casting.Some conical funnels of burnt clay, found in the Lake-dwellings near Laibach, have been regarded as having served to receive the metal in the casting process.Runners of the same character as those already described have been found in different countries, including Denmark[1741]and Sweden.[1742]We must now briefly consider the processes to which the castings were subjected before being finally brought into use. Where the objects had sockets cast over clay cores, those cores had to be removed, probably by means of pointed tools, such as that already described under Fig. 220. Where they were solid they seem in most cases to have undergone a considerable amount of hammering, which both rendered the metal more compact, and to a certain extent removed the asperities resulting from the joints in the mould. With edged tools and weapons, whether socketed or not, the edges especially were drawn down by means of the hammer.These hammers, as has already been shown, were occasionally themselves of bronze, and so also were some of the anvils. It is, however, probable that in most cases both hammers and anvils were stones, either natural pebbles and flat slabs, or occasionally wrought into special shapes. In South Africa at the present day the iron assegais are wrought with hammers and anvils of stone. Judging from the unfinished condition of the tools and weapons in someof the old bronze-founders’ hoards, and from large deposits of socketed celts having been found with the clay cores still in them, it seems not improbable that the founders often bartered away their castings nearly in the state in which they came from the moulds, with only the runners broken off, and that those who acquired them finished their manufacture themselves. Possibly a hammering process upon the surface of the socketed spear-heads and celts would so loosen the cores that they would fall out or could be extracted with merely a pointed stick.Fig. 538.—Kirby Moorside. ½————Fig. 539.—Hove. ½After the hammering, the surface of most weapons and of some tools was further polished, probably by friction with sand, or with a rubbing-stone of grit. I have elsewhere described some of the stone rubbers which appear to have been in use in conjunction with sand, for the purpose of grinding and polishing the faces of different forms of perforated stone axes, which in Britain at all events belonged to the period when bronze was known. It is, therefore, probable that similar rubbers were employed for grinding and polishing the faces of bronze weapons; and the rubber shown in Fig. 538 appears to have been destined for this purpose. It was found with several socketed celts at Keldholm, near Kirby Moorside, North Riding of Yorkshire, and is now in Canon Greenwell’s collection. The material seems to be trap.No doubt many other such rubbing-stones must exist, and it is possible that some of those which I have regarded as used for the grinding and polishing of weapons of stone may have served for those of bronze. Whetstones of various kinds have from time to time been discovered in company with bronze instruments. Near Little Wenlock,[1743]Shropshire, some spear-heads, a socketed celt, and part of a dagger were found in 1835, and with them are recorded to have been three or four small whetstones. In the Dowris hoard[1744]also some rubbers of stone with convex, concave, andflat surfaces were present. In my “Ancient Stone Implements”[1745]I have given an account of a number of whetstones found at various places in company with bronze relics, not unfrequently with interments in barrows, and I need not here repeat the details. I reproduce, however, in Fig. 539 a whetstone found in a barrow at Hove, near Brighton,[1746]with the remains of a skeleton, a stone axe-head, an amber cup, and a small bronze dagger.Another whetstone, shown in Fig. 540, was found with the hoard in the Isle of Harty, and no doubt was employed by the ancient bronze-founder for finishing off the edges of the socketed celts and gouges in which he dealt. It is made from a sort of ragstone.Fig. 540.Harty. ½The decoration of the surfaces of bronze implements by sunk, and in some cases by raised lines appears to have been effected, not as a rule by any method of engraving, but by means of punches, as already described in Chapter III. I have in that chapter accidentally omitted to mention two decorated bronze celts which have been figured and described by Mr. Llewellynn Jewitt, F.S.A.[1747]They were both found at a place called Highlow, in the High Peak of Derbyshire, about two miles from Hathersage, and are in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire. There seems some reason to believe[1748]that the celts were found in a barrow accompanied by burnt bones and pottery. One of them (6¾ inches) is flat and ornamented with lines of slightly impressed chevrons running along it. The other (6¼ inches) is flanged and ornamented with a similar herring-bone pattern, which in this instance ends in a row of triangles near the edge of the celt. In some few cases the patterns may have been engraved, and I find on trial that there is no difficulty in engraving such parallel lines as are frequently seen on dagger blades by means of a flake of flint. Such an instrument suffers but little by wear, and by means of a ruler, either straight or curved, there is no difficulty in engraving lines of the required character in the bronze, though the lines are hardly so smooth as if made with a chisel-edged punch.Notches which would assist in the breaking off of superfluous pieces of metal, such as the runners in the moulds, can readily be made with flint flakes used as saws.For smoothing the surface of bronze instruments flint scraping-tools are not so efficient, as they are liable to “chatter” and to leave an uneven and scratched surface, much inferior to one produced by friction with a gritty rubber.There remains little more to be said with regard to the manufacture of the ancient bronze tools and weapons. It may, however, be observed that the processes of hammering-out and sharpening the edges were employed not only by those who first made the instruments, but also by the subsequent possessors. Many tools, such for instance as palstaves, like Fig. 65, were no doubt originally much longer in the blade than they are at present, and have in the course of use either been broken and again drawn down and sharpened, or have been actually worn away and “stumped up” by constant repetition of these processes. The recurved ends of the lunate cutting edges of many such instruments are also due to repeated hammering-out. In some instances the broken part of one instrument has been converted into another form—as, for example, a fragment of a broken sword into a knife or dagger, or a palstave that has lost its cutting end, into a hammer.
Fig. 534.—Stogursey. ½—Fig. 535.—Stogursey. ½—Fig. 536.—Stogursey. ½The heads and runners, jets or waste pieces, from the castings were reserved for being re-melted, and are frequently found in the bronze-founders’ hoards. They are of course of various sizes, but are usually conical masses, showing the shape of the cup or funnel into which the metal was poured, and having one, two, or more processes from them showing the course of the metal into the mould.Figs. 534, 535 and 536, all from the same hoard, found at Stogursey,[1732]Somersetshire, will give a fair idea of the general character of these waste pieces, or jets. They are shown with their flat face downwards, or in the reverse position to what they occupied when in the molten state, and exhibit one, two, and four runners from them respectively. No less than fifteen of these objects were found with this deposit—six with one runner, three with two, and six with four.Jets of metal, for the most part with two runners, were found with the Westow hoard,[1733]Yorkshire, those of Marden,[1734]Kent; of Kensington;[1735]and of Hounslow. Those from the two latter deposits are in the British Museum.Another waste piece, 1¾ inch long, with two runners, was found in the Heathery Burn Cave,[1736]and is shown in Fig. 537.A very symmetrical jet, circular, with four irregularly conical runners proceeding from it, was in the hoard found at Lanant,[1737]Cornwall, and is now in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries.Another oval head (2 inches long), with four runners from it, has much the appearance of a sword pommel. It was found with socketed celts on Kenidjack Cliff,[1738]Cornwall.Fig. 537.Heathery Burn.A perforated disc, with a collar round the central hole (Fig. 503), which at one time[1739]I regarded as a waste piece from a casting, I have now reason to think was prepared for some special purpose, as at least one object of this class has been found with the runners removed, and in a finished condition. See page 403.The conical lump of metal found with the hoard at Marden,[1740]Kent, and described as “a very rare species of fibula,” may be the head of metal from a casting.Some conical funnels of burnt clay, found in the Lake-dwellings near Laibach, have been regarded as having served to receive the metal in the casting process.Runners of the same character as those already described have been found in different countries, including Denmark[1741]and Sweden.[1742]We must now briefly consider the processes to which the castings were subjected before being finally brought into use. Where the objects had sockets cast over clay cores, those cores had to be removed, probably by means of pointed tools, such as that already described under Fig. 220. Where they were solid they seem in most cases to have undergone a considerable amount of hammering, which both rendered the metal more compact, and to a certain extent removed the asperities resulting from the joints in the mould. With edged tools and weapons, whether socketed or not, the edges especially were drawn down by means of the hammer.These hammers, as has already been shown, were occasionally themselves of bronze, and so also were some of the anvils. It is, however, probable that in most cases both hammers and anvils were stones, either natural pebbles and flat slabs, or occasionally wrought into special shapes. In South Africa at the present day the iron assegais are wrought with hammers and anvils of stone. Judging from the unfinished condition of the tools and weapons in someof the old bronze-founders’ hoards, and from large deposits of socketed celts having been found with the clay cores still in them, it seems not improbable that the founders often bartered away their castings nearly in the state in which they came from the moulds, with only the runners broken off, and that those who acquired them finished their manufacture themselves. Possibly a hammering process upon the surface of the socketed spear-heads and celts would so loosen the cores that they would fall out or could be extracted with merely a pointed stick.Fig. 538.—Kirby Moorside. ½————Fig. 539.—Hove. ½After the hammering, the surface of most weapons and of some tools was further polished, probably by friction with sand, or with a rubbing-stone of grit. I have elsewhere described some of the stone rubbers which appear to have been in use in conjunction with sand, for the purpose of grinding and polishing the faces of different forms of perforated stone axes, which in Britain at all events belonged to the period when bronze was known. It is, therefore, probable that similar rubbers were employed for grinding and polishing the faces of bronze weapons; and the rubber shown in Fig. 538 appears to have been destined for this purpose. It was found with several socketed celts at Keldholm, near Kirby Moorside, North Riding of Yorkshire, and is now in Canon Greenwell’s collection. The material seems to be trap.No doubt many other such rubbing-stones must exist, and it is possible that some of those which I have regarded as used for the grinding and polishing of weapons of stone may have served for those of bronze. Whetstones of various kinds have from time to time been discovered in company with bronze instruments. Near Little Wenlock,[1743]Shropshire, some spear-heads, a socketed celt, and part of a dagger were found in 1835, and with them are recorded to have been three or four small whetstones. In the Dowris hoard[1744]also some rubbers of stone with convex, concave, andflat surfaces were present. In my “Ancient Stone Implements”[1745]I have given an account of a number of whetstones found at various places in company with bronze relics, not unfrequently with interments in barrows, and I need not here repeat the details. I reproduce, however, in Fig. 539 a whetstone found in a barrow at Hove, near Brighton,[1746]with the remains of a skeleton, a stone axe-head, an amber cup, and a small bronze dagger.Another whetstone, shown in Fig. 540, was found with the hoard in the Isle of Harty, and no doubt was employed by the ancient bronze-founder for finishing off the edges of the socketed celts and gouges in which he dealt. It is made from a sort of ragstone.Fig. 540.Harty. ½The decoration of the surfaces of bronze implements by sunk, and in some cases by raised lines appears to have been effected, not as a rule by any method of engraving, but by means of punches, as already described in Chapter III. I have in that chapter accidentally omitted to mention two decorated bronze celts which have been figured and described by Mr. Llewellynn Jewitt, F.S.A.[1747]They were both found at a place called Highlow, in the High Peak of Derbyshire, about two miles from Hathersage, and are in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire. There seems some reason to believe[1748]that the celts were found in a barrow accompanied by burnt bones and pottery. One of them (6¾ inches) is flat and ornamented with lines of slightly impressed chevrons running along it. The other (6¼ inches) is flanged and ornamented with a similar herring-bone pattern, which in this instance ends in a row of triangles near the edge of the celt. In some few cases the patterns may have been engraved, and I find on trial that there is no difficulty in engraving such parallel lines as are frequently seen on dagger blades by means of a flake of flint. Such an instrument suffers but little by wear, and by means of a ruler, either straight or curved, there is no difficulty in engraving lines of the required character in the bronze, though the lines are hardly so smooth as if made with a chisel-edged punch.Notches which would assist in the breaking off of superfluous pieces of metal, such as the runners in the moulds, can readily be made with flint flakes used as saws.For smoothing the surface of bronze instruments flint scraping-tools are not so efficient, as they are liable to “chatter” and to leave an uneven and scratched surface, much inferior to one produced by friction with a gritty rubber.There remains little more to be said with regard to the manufacture of the ancient bronze tools and weapons. It may, however, be observed that the processes of hammering-out and sharpening the edges were employed not only by those who first made the instruments, but also by the subsequent possessors. Many tools, such for instance as palstaves, like Fig. 65, were no doubt originally much longer in the blade than they are at present, and have in the course of use either been broken and again drawn down and sharpened, or have been actually worn away and “stumped up” by constant repetition of these processes. The recurved ends of the lunate cutting edges of many such instruments are also due to repeated hammering-out. In some instances the broken part of one instrument has been converted into another form—as, for example, a fragment of a broken sword into a knife or dagger, or a palstave that has lost its cutting end, into a hammer.
Fig. 534.—Stogursey. ½—Fig. 535.—Stogursey. ½—Fig. 536.—Stogursey. ½
Fig. 534.—Stogursey. ½—Fig. 535.—Stogursey. ½—Fig. 536.—Stogursey. ½
Fig. 534.—Stogursey. ½—Fig. 535.—Stogursey. ½—Fig. 536.—Stogursey. ½
The heads and runners, jets or waste pieces, from the castings were reserved for being re-melted, and are frequently found in the bronze-founders’ hoards. They are of course of various sizes, but are usually conical masses, showing the shape of the cup or funnel into which the metal was poured, and having one, two, or more processes from them showing the course of the metal into the mould.
Figs. 534, 535 and 536, all from the same hoard, found at Stogursey,[1732]Somersetshire, will give a fair idea of the general character of these waste pieces, or jets. They are shown with their flat face downwards, or in the reverse position to what they occupied when in the molten state, and exhibit one, two, and four runners from them respectively. No less than fifteen of these objects were found with this deposit—six with one runner, three with two, and six with four.Jets of metal, for the most part with two runners, were found with the Westow hoard,[1733]Yorkshire, those of Marden,[1734]Kent; of Kensington;[1735]and of Hounslow. Those from the two latter deposits are in the British Museum.Another waste piece, 1¾ inch long, with two runners, was found in the Heathery Burn Cave,[1736]and is shown in Fig. 537.A very symmetrical jet, circular, with four irregularly conical runners proceeding from it, was in the hoard found at Lanant,[1737]Cornwall, and is now in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries.Another oval head (2 inches long), with four runners from it, has much the appearance of a sword pommel. It was found with socketed celts on Kenidjack Cliff,[1738]Cornwall.
Figs. 534, 535 and 536, all from the same hoard, found at Stogursey,[1732]Somersetshire, will give a fair idea of the general character of these waste pieces, or jets. They are shown with their flat face downwards, or in the reverse position to what they occupied when in the molten state, and exhibit one, two, and four runners from them respectively. No less than fifteen of these objects were found with this deposit—six with one runner, three with two, and six with four.
Jets of metal, for the most part with two runners, were found with the Westow hoard,[1733]Yorkshire, those of Marden,[1734]Kent; of Kensington;[1735]and of Hounslow. Those from the two latter deposits are in the British Museum.
Another waste piece, 1¾ inch long, with two runners, was found in the Heathery Burn Cave,[1736]and is shown in Fig. 537.
A very symmetrical jet, circular, with four irregularly conical runners proceeding from it, was in the hoard found at Lanant,[1737]Cornwall, and is now in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries.
Another oval head (2 inches long), with four runners from it, has much the appearance of a sword pommel. It was found with socketed celts on Kenidjack Cliff,[1738]Cornwall.
Fig. 537.Heathery Burn.
Fig. 537.Heathery Burn.
Fig. 537.Heathery Burn.
A perforated disc, with a collar round the central hole (Fig. 503), which at one time[1739]I regarded as a waste piece from a casting, I have now reason to think was prepared for some special purpose, as at least one object of this class has been found with the runners removed, and in a finished condition. See page 403.The conical lump of metal found with the hoard at Marden,[1740]Kent, and described as “a very rare species of fibula,” may be the head of metal from a casting.Some conical funnels of burnt clay, found in the Lake-dwellings near Laibach, have been regarded as having served to receive the metal in the casting process.Runners of the same character as those already described have been found in different countries, including Denmark[1741]and Sweden.[1742]
A perforated disc, with a collar round the central hole (Fig. 503), which at one time[1739]I regarded as a waste piece from a casting, I have now reason to think was prepared for some special purpose, as at least one object of this class has been found with the runners removed, and in a finished condition. See page 403.
The conical lump of metal found with the hoard at Marden,[1740]Kent, and described as “a very rare species of fibula,” may be the head of metal from a casting.
Some conical funnels of burnt clay, found in the Lake-dwellings near Laibach, have been regarded as having served to receive the metal in the casting process.
Runners of the same character as those already described have been found in different countries, including Denmark[1741]and Sweden.[1742]
We must now briefly consider the processes to which the castings were subjected before being finally brought into use. Where the objects had sockets cast over clay cores, those cores had to be removed, probably by means of pointed tools, such as that already described under Fig. 220. Where they were solid they seem in most cases to have undergone a considerable amount of hammering, which both rendered the metal more compact, and to a certain extent removed the asperities resulting from the joints in the mould. With edged tools and weapons, whether socketed or not, the edges especially were drawn down by means of the hammer.
These hammers, as has already been shown, were occasionally themselves of bronze, and so also were some of the anvils. It is, however, probable that in most cases both hammers and anvils were stones, either natural pebbles and flat slabs, or occasionally wrought into special shapes. In South Africa at the present day the iron assegais are wrought with hammers and anvils of stone. Judging from the unfinished condition of the tools and weapons in someof the old bronze-founders’ hoards, and from large deposits of socketed celts having been found with the clay cores still in them, it seems not improbable that the founders often bartered away their castings nearly in the state in which they came from the moulds, with only the runners broken off, and that those who acquired them finished their manufacture themselves. Possibly a hammering process upon the surface of the socketed spear-heads and celts would so loosen the cores that they would fall out or could be extracted with merely a pointed stick.
Fig. 538.—Kirby Moorside. ½————Fig. 539.—Hove. ½
Fig. 538.—Kirby Moorside. ½————Fig. 539.—Hove. ½
Fig. 538.—Kirby Moorside. ½————Fig. 539.—Hove. ½
After the hammering, the surface of most weapons and of some tools was further polished, probably by friction with sand, or with a rubbing-stone of grit. I have elsewhere described some of the stone rubbers which appear to have been in use in conjunction with sand, for the purpose of grinding and polishing the faces of different forms of perforated stone axes, which in Britain at all events belonged to the period when bronze was known. It is, therefore, probable that similar rubbers were employed for grinding and polishing the faces of bronze weapons; and the rubber shown in Fig. 538 appears to have been destined for this purpose. It was found with several socketed celts at Keldholm, near Kirby Moorside, North Riding of Yorkshire, and is now in Canon Greenwell’s collection. The material seems to be trap.
No doubt many other such rubbing-stones must exist, and it is possible that some of those which I have regarded as used for the grinding and polishing of weapons of stone may have served for those of bronze. Whetstones of various kinds have from time to time been discovered in company with bronze instruments. Near Little Wenlock,[1743]Shropshire, some spear-heads, a socketed celt, and part of a dagger were found in 1835, and with them are recorded to have been three or four small whetstones. In the Dowris hoard[1744]also some rubbers of stone with convex, concave, andflat surfaces were present. In my “Ancient Stone Implements”[1745]I have given an account of a number of whetstones found at various places in company with bronze relics, not unfrequently with interments in barrows, and I need not here repeat the details. I reproduce, however, in Fig. 539 a whetstone found in a barrow at Hove, near Brighton,[1746]with the remains of a skeleton, a stone axe-head, an amber cup, and a small bronze dagger.
Another whetstone, shown in Fig. 540, was found with the hoard in the Isle of Harty, and no doubt was employed by the ancient bronze-founder for finishing off the edges of the socketed celts and gouges in which he dealt. It is made from a sort of ragstone.
Fig. 540.Harty. ½
Fig. 540.Harty. ½
Fig. 540.Harty. ½
The decoration of the surfaces of bronze implements by sunk, and in some cases by raised lines appears to have been effected, not as a rule by any method of engraving, but by means of punches, as already described in Chapter III. I have in that chapter accidentally omitted to mention two decorated bronze celts which have been figured and described by Mr. Llewellynn Jewitt, F.S.A.[1747]They were both found at a place called Highlow, in the High Peak of Derbyshire, about two miles from Hathersage, and are in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire. There seems some reason to believe[1748]that the celts were found in a barrow accompanied by burnt bones and pottery. One of them (6¾ inches) is flat and ornamented with lines of slightly impressed chevrons running along it. The other (6¼ inches) is flanged and ornamented with a similar herring-bone pattern, which in this instance ends in a row of triangles near the edge of the celt. In some few cases the patterns may have been engraved, and I find on trial that there is no difficulty in engraving such parallel lines as are frequently seen on dagger blades by means of a flake of flint. Such an instrument suffers but little by wear, and by means of a ruler, either straight or curved, there is no difficulty in engraving lines of the required character in the bronze, though the lines are hardly so smooth as if made with a chisel-edged punch.
Notches which would assist in the breaking off of superfluous pieces of metal, such as the runners in the moulds, can readily be made with flint flakes used as saws.
For smoothing the surface of bronze instruments flint scraping-tools are not so efficient, as they are liable to “chatter” and to leave an uneven and scratched surface, much inferior to one produced by friction with a gritty rubber.
There remains little more to be said with regard to the manufacture of the ancient bronze tools and weapons. It may, however, be observed that the processes of hammering-out and sharpening the edges were employed not only by those who first made the instruments, but also by the subsequent possessors. Many tools, such for instance as palstaves, like Fig. 65, were no doubt originally much longer in the blade than they are at present, and have in the course of use either been broken and again drawn down and sharpened, or have been actually worn away and “stumped up” by constant repetition of these processes. The recurved ends of the lunate cutting edges of many such instruments are also due to repeated hammering-out. In some instances the broken part of one instrument has been converted into another form—as, for example, a fragment of a broken sword into a knife or dagger, or a palstave that has lost its cutting end, into a hammer.