104 Notes on Implements of the Bronze Age found in Wiltshire. 



Spearheads " and " Lanceheads " in Hoare, Stukeley, &c., which, as 

 has been already stated, should be interpreted in all probability 

 for the most part rather as Daggers than Spears. 



Seven of these are small socketed heads with loops half-way up 

 the sockets, and in most cases slender narrow blades (Plate V., 

 Fig. 2) (No. 181), varying from Sin. to 5in. in total length. One 

 from near Beckhampton (IsTo. 184) has a shorter leaf-shaped blade.^ 



Socketed Spearhead. Down S.W. of Beckhampton. \ (No. 184). 



According to Canon Greenwell's classification these Spear and 

 Lance heads with the loops half-way up the socket probably 

 represent the oldest type,^ at present known from the county, though 

 even these are not earlier than the earlier part of Period V. 



Of the next type, where the loops have moved up to the base of 

 the blade, we have the fine example (]^o. 191) from Wilcot, now 

 at Devizes, measuring 14|in. in length, the largest Spearhead found 

 in the county. In this example the loops adjoin the base of the 

 blade, but are not yet incorporated with it. In the two fine 



^ Canon Green well, in his valuable paper in Archoeologia^ LXI., 451, on 

 " The Origin, Evolution, and Classification of the Bronze Spearhead in Great 

 Britain and Ireland," says : — " There can be no doubt whatever that the 

 Spearhead in its origin, progress, and final consummation, was an indigenous 

 product of Great Britain and Ireland, and M'as manufactured within their 

 limits apart from any controlling influence from outside." "The looped 

 type in all its forms is one which originated in and was exclusively used in 

 the United Kingdom, none having been found outside these islands, except 

 a few which have occurred principally in the northern part of France, into 

 which country they were doubtless imported. A few heads with loops on 

 the socket have also been found at Mycenae and in Hungary ; there are also 

 other scattered instances, but these loops probably served some other 

 purpose than that of attaching the head to the shaft." 



^ No examples of what Canon Greenwell regards as the earlier types, the 

 Dagger-like blade with a long rivetted tang, such as those of Arreton Down 

 and Newbury, without a ferrule ; the similar blade with a ferrule, like that 

 at Snowshill ; the blade in which the socket still simulates a ferrule ; or 

 tliat in which the loops occur at the base of the socket, seem to be known 

 from Wiltshire. 



