163 



:, TWO PREHISTORIC WEAPONS RECENTLY 

 I FOUND NEAR EPPING. 



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T d nieelino; of the British Archasologiail Association on the 4th of April, 

 i*>q4 oin esteemed member, Mr. Benjamin Winstone, M.D., F.S.A., 

 exhibited two interesting prehistoric implements, and 

 read some notes on the same, which have since been 

 puLiIished in the "Archaeological Journal." Mr. AVin- 

 sione has kindl)' lent the blocks of the engravings of 

 these implements and allowed us to make the following 

 extracts from his paper : 



The bronze weapon illustrated by Fig. i was taken 

 by Mr. Francis Hart off a heap of old iron gathered 

 on Caines or Cannes Farm, in North Weald, near 

 Epping. " Unfortunately there is no procurable informa- 

 tion as to when or on what part of the farm it was 

 found ; Ijut as it had been carelessly thrown on the heap 

 of metal, there is trustworthy circumstantial evidence 

 of its having been turned up during some agricultural 

 operations." The total length of the weapon is ijf inches, 

 the blade tapers to a fine point and is I3j inches long and 

 1 1 in width at the base. " The arrangement for fixing the 

 handle differs from that in the bronze instruments usually 

 found. They have the butt-end prolonged like scythes, 

 sickles, chisels, etc., of the present time, so as to go 

 through the length of the handle, whilst the specimen 

 now described has the butt-end flattened out. The 

 handle must have been formed of two pieces of wood, 

 through which passed the rivets, which were then bound 

 or riveted together to fit the handle to the hand ; or a 

 groove cut in a piece of wood properly shaped, so as to 

 admit of the insertion of the fiat end and made fast by 

 the rivets." Cannes Farm is not more than six miles 

 from Fyfield, where, according to Gough in his edition of 

 "Camden," were found in 1749 a "great number of 

 celts, with a large quantity of metal for casting them, 

 fifty pound of which, with several of the instruments, 

 the late Earl Tilney gave to Mr. LethieuUier." Mr. 

 Winstone thinks that the evidence points to a manu- 

 factory of such implements at Fyfield, the bronze 

 being imported in lumps as stated by Sir John Evans, 

 and that the implement here figured may have been 

 one from this manufactory. In the British Museum 

 are some daggers of similar description and one is 

 figured by Evans, found at Covene}', near Downham 

 Hithe, in Cambridgeshire, so like the one from North 

 Weald as to give rise to the supposition in Mr. Winstones' 

 mind that they came out of the same manufactory, more 

 especially as Fyfield is not very far from Cambridgeshire. 



BRONiCE Implement fgu.nd on Cains or Cannes Farm, North Weald 

 Bassett, Essex, by Mr. Francis Hart. 



