A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE 



BRONZE KNIFE OR RAZOR FROM COTHILL. 



Examples of this type are in the Reading Museum from Cholsey and 

 Wallingford ; and a flat palstave from Pamber forest is also in this 

 Museum. Socketed celts have been found at Wallingford. Palstaves 



are recorded from 

 Newbury, Sun- 

 ningwell, Want- 

 age, Beenham, 

 and Reading 

 (Kennet). Sock- 

 eted spear- heads 



have been found at Ashdown, Fyfield, Hagbourne Hill, Speen, Mouls- 

 ford, Windsor, Mortimer, Reading (2), and Cookham. 



Among objects of peculiar form and rare occurrence may be 

 mentioned a loop of jet, probably intended as a slider for a belt or for 

 fastening some part of the dress, found at Newbury, the knife or razor 

 with elongated perforation found at Cothill, near Abingdon, and the 

 bronze sickles found in the Thames at Reading, Windsor and Bray. 

 The last-named objects belong to a rare type of implement ; the Bray 

 example, moreover, is somewhat peculiar in form, the socket dying 

 into the blade. 



Many isolated examples of the Bronze Age have been recovered 

 from the bed of the Thames in the process of dredging ; and a few 

 years ago a considerable number of objects were found together in 

 or near the Thames at Cookham. Among them were twenty spear- 

 heads of the same general type, a sword and part of another, a bronze 

 fillet or armlet, parts of a bracelet, and the ferrule or butt-end of 

 a spear. Some of the above are in the possession of Mr. L. Treacher 

 of Twyford, who has presented two spear-heads to the Reading 

 Museum. 



Among the bronze antiquities of this county there are two hoards 

 the contents of which have been described by Sir John Evans. 

 That at Yattendon, 2 a village some 8 or 9 miles to the north-east of 

 Newbury, was discovered in the spring of 1878 in digging for the 

 foundation of a new house. The objects were found lying about 1 8 inches 

 below the surface of 

 the ground, in a mass 

 of gravel that had been 

 turned red, purple and 

 black by the action of 

 fire. The bronze ob- 

 jects were not en- 

 closed in any kind of 

 vessel, but lay in con- 

 tact with the earth, to 

 which they had imparted a greenish colour. Close by were found two 

 balks of oak, which were probably connected with a beacon formerly 



1 Evans, Bronze Imp. (1881), 167, 169. a Pnc. Sac. 4ntiq. (ser. 2), vii. 480-1. 



182 



BRONZE SICKLE FROM THE THAMES AT WINDSOR. 



