34 
tions; a small sharp variety was used by the Romans for cutting 
out the dead wood from the trunks of Jheir vines, and another of 
the same form* was employed to stir the soil around the roots. 
The Icelanders still use an implement closely resembling the celt 
(palstab) in the cultivation of their fields and gardens, and for 
breaking the ice, as other instances of persistence in form of celts 
and palstabs of iron of comparatively modern date may be seen in 
the Copenhagen Museum, whilst in the central parts of Sweden the 
short iron hoe or pick, used for grubbing up roots of trees, is not 
much larger than and greatly resembles some varieties of the 
ancient bronze celts. 
Some antiquarians claim bronze celts as British implements, 
others as decidedly assert that they are to be attributed to the 
Roman period. Perhaps the correct view is that they were not 
exclusively used by any one people. Typical peculiarities exist in 
many of these celts, and antiquarians can name the country in 
which these types occur with tolerable accuracy. If bronze celts 
were used exclusively by the Romans this difference in local type 
would not exist. Added to this bronze celts are rarely found in 
Italy, which seems strange if they were characteristic Roman tools. 
The wedge-shaped celts, such as Nos. 1 to 5, were fastened, for 
the most part, doubtless, at right angles to their handles—the modern 
savage mounts his hatchet, adze, or tomahawk in a similar way. 
Plate 6, fig. 1 and 2, represent ancient stone hatchets thus mounted 
in handles, made from antlers of the red deer. Plate 14, fig. 4, is 
the representation of a handled celt of this type carved on one of 
the roofing stones of a very ancient sepulchral monument at Lok- 
maria-ker, in Brittany. This implement is not only mounted 
at a right angle to the handle, but the handle is provided with 
a guard, which tends to show that it was used as an offensive 
weapon. Plate 14, fig. 1 to 5, are further examples. Still bronze 
celts of this type have been found mounted in a straight handle ; 
one was discovered in a tumulus at Everley, Wilts. The celt was 
of small size, and the handle was of stag’s horn. It is represented 
Plate 14, fig. 6. 
Plate 13, fig. 1, is the representation of a Spanish celt now in 
the British Museum, which when found was firmly attached by 
means of thongs passing through the metal loops to a straight 
handle of wood. 
Again, it has been contended that the Assyrian sculptures 
exhibit the chisel-shaped type of celt mounted as a chisel , in a 
straight line with its handle, and, further, that the use of it by the 
Romans and others as a chisel necessitates a straight handle ; yet 
Plate 14, fig. 5, exhibits an ancient bronze chisel-shaped celt in its 
original handle, which was found in the bed of the River Boyne, 
near Edenderry, and which is now in the Museum of the Royal 
Irish Acadamy, and this is not in a straight line with the handle 
but is mounted like an adze. Without doubt no rule was observed, 
but according to the nature of the work to be done so would the 
implement have been mounted. 
