360 



YORKSHIRE. NORTH RIDING. 



of bronze weapons. The handle or haft had been attached either 

 by rivets of some perishable material such as wood *, or by thongs 

 of leather or cord 2 . One of the holes for the attachment of the 

 blade to the handle still remains, and another has perished through 

 the oxidation of the metal. The blade, which is moderately thick, 

 is further strengthened by a central rib, which has on each side of 

 it two incised lines. From the thickness of the blade, and its 

 having apparently terminated in a sharp point, this instrument 

 seems to possess more of the characteristics of the true dagger, 

 than of the knife-dagger, with its thin blade and rounded end, 

 which is the implement most commonly discovered in the barrows ; 

 and perhaps it ought to be designated as a dagger. The flint 

 knife, 4 Jin. long and 2 in. wide at the broadest part, has been 

 removed from the core at one stroke, and that face has not been 

 retouched by the maker; the other is carefully flaked over the 

 whole surface, which has a ridge up the middle, and from the way 

 in which the flakes have been removed it has resulted that the 

 edges are serrated. 



The occurrence of these two implements in conjunction affords 

 a valuable, though by no means an uncommon, illustration of the 

 contemporaneous use of implements of bronze and stone. During 

 even the period of highest cultivation in the Bronze Age, and much 

 more when that metal had only lately become known, it is I think 

 certain that implements and weapons of flint and other stone were 

 still in common use. Bronze, from the nature of its composition 

 and the scarcity of one of its constituents, must always have been 

 an expensive material ; and the poorer members of the community 

 would probably have no other implements besides those of stone, 

 whilst the richer would have some of bronze in addition. All who 

 are acquainted with our early remains will have observed that no 

 bronze arrow-heads have been found in Britain 3 , whilst, on the 



1 In a barrow on Bincombe Down, opened in 1784, a bronze knife-dagger was 

 discovered. ' It had been fixed to a shaft by three wooden pegs, one of which 

 remained in the perforation when found/ Mr. Warne quotes this from some un- 

 published minutes of the Society of Antiquaries, 1784, p. 51. Celtic Tumuli of 

 Dorset Tumuli Opened at Various Periods, p. 7. 



2 In a barrow not far distant from the Three Tremblers Mr. Harland found with 

 the remains of a burnt body a small bronze knife which had still adhering to it some 

 portions of cord partly charred, apparently the remains of what had formed the 

 attachment of the handle. 



3 Sir R. Colt Hoare figures a bronze article which he calls an arrow-head; but 

 judging from the broadness of the blade at the part where the rivet-holes are placed 

 for the purpose of attachment to the shaft or handle, I should rather incline to think 



