SIR JOHN EVANS — THE BRONZE AGE. 7 



We have evidence that the people at that time -were acquainted 

 "with some kind of f;Tain, and that they reaped it in the manner which 

 Pliny describes as practised by the ancient Gauls, namely, cutting off 

 the ears only. In Switzerland a wooden handle designed for a 

 bronze sickle has been found. It has recesses cut in it for the four 

 fingers as well as for the thumb, thus giving a perfect grasp. A 

 socketed sickle from the Thames is shown in Fig. 13. Buttons of 

 bronze are frequently found, and fish-hooks have turned up very 

 similar to those in use at the present day. Among the earliest 

 forms of weapons which were used in the Bronze Age are small 

 daggers, of which it is hard to say whether they were knives or 

 daggers, and to which the term knife-daggers has been applied. 

 They were sometimes socketed and sometimes tanged, but were 

 usually fixed to their handles by two or three rivets. An example 

 from a Yorkshire barrow is shown in Fig. 14. One found in one 

 of the Wiltshire barrows had the handle decorated by driving 

 in tiny gold plus so as to form a delicate pattern, which it 

 would be very hard to reproduce at the present day. A copy 

 of Hoare's figure of it is given in Fig. 15. 



Passing to weapons of a more purely warlike character, I will 

 commence with the sword. The bronze swords have been generally 

 regarded as Homan, but long before the Romans appeared in 

 England the Britons were well acquainted with iron, and did not 

 use bronze swords. As a matter of fact they must belong to a 

 much earlier period, being distinctly pre-Roman. They were 

 hafted in various ways, the hilt usually being perforated for the 

 reception of rivets, by means of which handles of stag-horn, cow- 

 horn, or wood were fastened to them. Fig. 16 represents a 

 specimen from the Thames. Occasionally they are found with 

 bronze hilts. Others were smaller, of rapier-like form, with two 

 rivet holes at the base, and these were used more for thrusting 

 than cutting. Many were only fitted for piercing, like the modern 

 bayonet. 



There is one curious feature about the bronze swords which has 

 led to much speculation. Many of them have such small handles 

 that the ordinary hand of a modem Englishman is barely capable of 

 grasping them, whereas the thin, wiry hand of a Hindoo or other 

 Eastern is still able to go between tlte hilt and the pommel. 

 From that circumstance it has been inferred that the bronze- 

 using people were of small stature with very delicate hands, and 

 resembled what some people term " our Aryan ancestors." But 

 this view cannot be thoroughly substantiated. The large swords 

 usually had large handles, into which large hands could go, while 

 small swords had but small handles. The handle seems to have been 

 adapted to the size of the weapon, just as in these days the whole 

 hand can go into the handle of a hand-saw, whereas only two 

 fingers will pass into that of a small key-hole saw. The swords were 

 apparently kept in wooden sheaths provided with plain bronze chapes, 

 which were riveted to the wood. In others the bronze ends for 

 the sheaths were provided with two long projections like the flukes 



