ANTIQUITIES OF ALDERNEY. 157 



would rather denote their having been broken in combat 

 or by violence. The ring may have been for convenience 

 of transport or attachment. The elegant spearhead could 

 scarcely be used as a cutting instrument, but if fixed at the 

 end of a lance would deal a deadly blow." 



On page 80 of the Guide will be found the figure of 

 a socketed sickle from Ireland, which exactly corresponds 

 ^vith the one in the Gaudion collection. The same implements 

 are figured in Evans's Bronze A(jc. The Guide says : " This 

 form belongs to the British Isles, and is different from that in 

 use on the continent." * This seems to suggest that our 

 Alderney manufacturer obtained his patterns, and perhaps his 

 raw material, from Britain. 



It is not easy to decide why Alderney should have been 

 selected as the site of this ancient bronze foundry : the 

 rocks produce neither of the necessary metals, even wood for 

 charcoal was scarce or unobtainable ; yet on this spot over 

 two thousand years ago, spear-heads, axes, rings, nails, &c., 

 were cast in bronze. 



Professor W. Ridgway, of Cambridge, is of opinion that 

 in the early Bronze Age, tin from Cornwall was conveyed 

 to the Isle of Wight, and thence to the Channel Islands. It 

 was afterwards carried either by sea (the Veneti were the 

 great ship-owners of those days) or by land across Armo- 

 rica to Corbilo, at the mouth of the Loire. He strengthens 

 this theory by reference to the coins found along the route. If 

 this were established, Alderney would be the special island at 

 which this transport trade centred, and we should have 

 an explanation of the foundry there. 



In connection with this ancient trade-route. Prof. Ridg- 

 way contends that the Cassiterides were neither the Scilly 

 Islands nor Cornwall. He quotes Diodorus with Posidonius as 

 his authority : " Above the land of the Lusitanians there were 

 many mines of tin along the little islands which lie in front of 

 Iberia in the ocean which are therefore called the Cassiterides. 

 Much is likewise conveyed across from Britain to Gaul 

 which lies opposite, and is carried on horse-back through 

 the interior of Gaul by traders to Masilia and Narbo, the 

 former being the greatest trading centre in these parts. After 

 the Belgffi had conquered the S.E. part of Britain, the trade in 

 tin was carried on from Kent to the mouth of the Seine, and 

 the route through the Channel Islands and Corbilo was no 

 longer used." This question of the ancient trade route has a 

 direct and important bearing upon the condition of the islands 



* The continental ones are not socketed {see diagram,. 



