216 RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN CORNWALL. 



Celts§ :— Palstave ... Bronze (flanged, with ^ 

 rib and single loop). 



5|-in long. )■ Dug up in Bodmin, 



f to 2^ -in. wide, and j 



fairly thick. J 



„ Socket-Celt Bronze (2 sides pierced ^ 



for rivets, at about | From tin Streamwork 



| of length, no loop). j. across river, opposite 



About 5-in. long. ; Cotton Wood, 1 mile 



1 to lj-in. wide, and | from camp, 



fairly thick. J 



§ Both of these were exhibited at Somerset House, London, January, 1873, 

 (Soc. of Antiq. Proceedings, 2nd Ser., Vol. v, p. 390, 392-5-6, 422, Bronze 

 Exhibition), on which occasion Mr. Evans remarked : — "The best known form of 

 tool met with in bronze is termed a celt. I use celt in preference to kelt because 

 celt has nothing to do with the great Keltic or Celtic people, but is simply- 

 derived from the rather barbarous Latin, celtis, a chisel ;...a simple tool. There 

 are various classes : 



I. Flat or plain celts. 

 II. Flanged celts, — palstaves (from an Icelandic word) battering tools, 



axes, or spuds. 

 III. Socket-celts." 



All three sorts here classed by Mr. Evans are found in Cornwall. 



Sir J. Liibbock calls the 2nd form of celt, paalstab or paalstave. (Prehist. 

 Times, p. 29). 



Double-looped palstaves and socket-celts are very rare ; 2 of the former have 

 occurred in Cornwall, and one of them is now in the British Museum, (Proc. Soc. 

 Antiq. 2nd S. Vol. v, pp. 398, 400, 430, pi. 1, fig. 2). From the existence of 

 copper and tin in Britain, and from the discovery of numerous moulds, &c, it 

 seems that bronze implements were manufactured locally (see Thurnam and other 

 writers). Celts were used during the Roman occupation (and perhaps much 

 earlier), in Britain, both for peaceful and warklike purposes. They are found in 

 mines, quarries, cultivated lands, burial places, and camps. They were not 

 confined to Europe. 



From Nineveh, destroyed 2500 years ago (7th cent. B.C.), a sculptured tablet 

 has been brought displaying helmed-warriors digging down a city wall with 

 bronze celts fixed on poles about 4-feet long (Yates, Archasol. Journ. Dec. '42 ; 

 Bonomi's Nineveh, '52, p. 234), picks and crow-bars not being available. Some 

 celts could be used without handles, others were attached to horn or v. ood in 

 various positions for different purposes. 



In Latin they are classed with axes and mattocks under the term dolabra, 

 dolabella, (dolo) ; compare also the following : — celtis or celtes, old Latin for 

 chisel, (cselo coelo) ; kello (Gr.), cello, (celer), to urge, impel; and culter (colo, 

 root kol), — whence coulter, couteau ; cut, cultivate, &c. " Si levaveris cultrum" 

 (Deut. xx, 25) ; "celte sculpantur" (Job xix, 24, Vulgate) ; "malleolo et celte 

 literatus silex" (Gruter p. 329, anct. inscr. from Pola) ; " celtis,— caelum sculp- 

 torum (laxuterion, Gr.), instrumentum aptum ad sculpendum, cisel Gallice dictum 

 a celando " (Ducange, &c). 



The spreading curve of a celt resembles a lily in outline ; the lotus was taken 

 as a model for column capitals in Egypt, and Pliny (13, 17, 32) calls an African 

 lotus " celtis," (see also colocasia). It is stated in Smith's Die. Antiq. (p. 420) 

 that celts were employed in making and destroying forts. 



