408 HOLMES : DISCOVERIES OF BRONZE IMPLEMENTS. 
out on each side, leaving a sort of wedge in the centre, which would 
tend to fix and steady it in the handle. They measure from 5^ to 
7£ inches in length, and weigh from 12 to 17 ounces. The range 
of such palstaves is very extensive, perhaps most numerous in 
Sweden and Denmark, very numerous in Ireland, and frequent in 
both Scotland and England. Mr. Evans figures many such at 
pp. 88-9, 90-1, &c. 
The Socketed Celt has nothing very especial in it, except that 
it is larger than the average, being 4J inches in length, and weighs 
10 ounces. It has a V shaped ornament in the casting, from the 
collar of the socket, to the cutting edge ; and others thus figured 
are given by Mr. Evans at p. 128. The range of such Celts is like 
the palstave widely spread ; and France shews a considerable variety. 
In Great Britain they are frequent, but perhaps not so numerous 
as the palstave form, upon which it appears to be a later advance, 
obviating any tendency to splitting the handle by use. Mr. Evans 
figures the mode of their handling in Nos. 184, 5, 6 and 7, and such 
like handling may be seen in use upon the Egyptian pictures in the 
tombs near the pyramids, and at Beni Hassan and Thebes. 
The large palstave found at Morley, and the six or eight, 
including the spear heads, found at Churwell in the Railway 
cutting, deserve a more careful examination. Some are just rough 
cast, with the fringe edge of the metal left, as it escaped into the 
imperfectly closed edge of the core or mould, in which they were 
cast. Some are hammered and finished, and the spears have 
evidently undergone a slight process of hammering at the edges, to 
make them ductile, tough, and sharp. 
The range of this form of implement is very extensive. Exam- 
ples are numerous in Norway and Sweden, and Ireland, as well as 
in England and Scotland. Mr. Holmes is of opinion that the Sock- 
eted Celt may perhaps be associated with the Semetic tribes recorded 
in history, and of the long-skulled prehistoric people, and concluded 
with a number of speculations as to the character and state of 
civilization of the early tribes using bronze implements in Britain. 
