Sí
102 CEANIA BEITANNIOA. [CHAP. V.
•vvitli the, no doubt, miicli earlier notice, preserved by Strabo, as to bronze wares being among
the chief commodities \vith which the Phoenicians traded in the Cassiterides. It has been
thought that the Britons may have obtained copper from Cornwall, where its ores are very
abundant. But this ore is an impure sulphuret in a matrix of quartz, which, it is said, "renders
the production of pm-e copper one of the most refined operations in smelting." There is indeed
no proof that the copper of Cornwall was worked at all imtil the latter end of the 15th, nor
extensively until the beginning of the 18th centiu-y*. In North Wales, however, curious
evidence has been obtained of the mining of copper in probably pre-Homan times. In the mines
of Llandudno, on the north coast of Caernarvon, old workings were laid open in 1849, in which
many large stone hammers, mards and axes, and parts of two bronze picks, were found t ,
justifying the conclusion that those who had used these primitive tools were of the native
population. The Ordovices retained their independence rmtil 78 A.D. t, and it is not improbable
that they commenced mining for copper, subseqxient to the invasion of Julius, but before
their subjugation by Agricola §. That the Eomans derived copper from these very mines,
appears from the circular ingot, found near Conway, weighiag forty-two pounds, and bearing
the impress of Socio Roi i^ NAT. SOL. ||.
Iron was worked in the maritime districts of Britain, in the time of Caisar, but in such small
quantities, that he seems to assign its scarcity as a reason for the prevailing use of bronzet-
Strabo, wi-iting at least fifty years later, names iron among the exports to the continent** ; but
the quantity, if any, must have been small, as that made can hardly have exceeded what must
have been required for the tires of the chariot wheels, which we know were of this metal. It
is highly probable that the smelting of iron was introduced into south-east Britain by the
more civilized settlers from Belgic Gaul a century or two before om- era f t - By the maritime
region producing iron, Csesar no doubt intends the country of the Regni, Sussex, where iron
was mam-ifactured down to a very recent period. The iron of this district, however, is of a
very brittle kind, not making good steel, the metal for which, until the discovery of improved
processes in our o-»vn times, was always imported from the continent i J.
Bronze was clearly the material of which the implements and weapons of the Britons up to
the time of the Eoman conquest, were in great measure formed. The articles of this metal, by
which the primitive implements of stone and bone had been slowly superseded, were no doubt
obtained from the Phosnician merchants. The earliest types of these, the spear-heads and
dagger-blades found in the barrows, have an elegance of form and beauty of finish, which forbid
our regarding them as the first attempts of the natives in the founder's art. This can still less
be thought of the bronze swords and circular bucklers, to which, though of later date, a foreign
ingots of copper or bronze, or manufactured brazen goods, is by
no means clear. All three may have been imported in his
time : the latter only, are named by Strabo, lib. iii.
c. 5. § 11.
• PhilUps, lb. p. 87. Borlase, Cornwall, 1758, p. 205.
Memoirs of the Geological Survey, vol. i. p. 510.
t Arehieological Journal, vol. vii. p. G8.
t Tacitus, Vit. Agric. c. 18.
§ Copper was mined and doubtless smelted in Gaul at least
as early as the time of Julius (B. G. lib. iii. c. 21 ; comp. Pliny,
lib. sssiv. § 2, 20). Pliny has preserved a notice which throws
some light on the rudeness of the processes in these Celtic
copper-works in his day. The ore was melted between redhot
stones, by which, he says, the metal was scorched and rendered
black and brittle : it was only twice melted.
II Camden, vol. iii. p. 190. pi. ix. fig. 13. Pennant's
Wales, vol. i. p. 63. This ingot is preserved at Mostyn Hall,
Flintshire.
^ B. G. lib. V. c. 12. "In maritimis ferrum nascitur, sed
ejus exigua est copia : Eere utuntur importato."
** Strabo, lib. iv. c. 5. § 2.
t t B. G. lib. V. c. 12, 14.
J t Camden, vol. i. p. 267. Mr. M. A. Lower, Journal of the
British Archajological Association, vol. iv. p. 265. See also
Mr. Lower's papers in the Sussex Archicological Journal, anil
in his " Antiquarian, &c. Contributions."
;; li
C n A P . V . ] HISTORICAL ETHNOLOGY OP BEITAIN. 103
origin must probably also be assigned. These, with insignificant pins of bronze, such as are
often found in the barrows, appear to have constituted the " brazen wares " of Strabo.^ Where
these were fabricated — whether in Phoenicia itself (where, in Homeric times, Sidon was
celebrated as " abounding in works of brass * "), in its colonies in Spain or in the Mediterranean
islands—as in Cyprus with its rich mines of copperf, or in the Greek island of Delos or iEgina,
both famous for manufactm-es of bronze Í,—can perhaps harcUy be determined, though their
beauty seems to point to the East. With the settlements of the Belgic and Armorican Gauls in
South Britain and the establishment of the Gaulish trade under the supremacy of the Veneti,
brazen goods of Gaulish fabrication seem more or less to have superseded those of the earlier
Phoenician trade. To this source at least axe to be attributed the long shields, and the sheaths
and hilts of swords, also of bronze and richly ornamented, described in the preceding section.
Many analyses have been made of ancient British bronze, and chemical research, properly
conducted, may assist in determining its place of fabrication. It is usual to insist on the
uniformity of composition of ancient bronze wherever found, and this is said to be 88 or 90 parts
of copper to 10 or 12 of tin. In the analyses of Dr. Pearson and others, the absence of other
metals seems to have been assumed, and copper and tin alone sought for§. But according to
Pliny, lead no less than tin was an essential constituent of ancient bronze, and appears in each
of the five kinds, the composition of which he describes. In four of these the lead equals the
tin, and varies from one and a half to six and a quarter parts each to one hundred of copper. In
the "formalis," or mould bronze, the lead is very much in excess, there being twelve and a half
parts of this metal, and only two and a half of tin, to one hundred of copper!]. The general
accuracy of these statements of Pliny derives much confirmation from some recent analyses of
British bronze, by Dr. George Wüson; in all of which, being six in number, there was a notable
proportion of lead, which, in the case of two caldrons, exceeded that of the tin. In a sword and
two celts, the tin was very decidedly in excess of the lead, though the latter was in too large a
proportion to be regarded as an accidental ingredient^.
To an acquaintance with minmg and the art of reducing metals from their ores, must soon
have succeeded that of foundmg them into articles for use in the peaceful arts or in war. Of
such knowledge there is suflicient proof, in the hoards of broken or damaged bronze swords,
spear-heads and celts, so often found in England, along with ashes, scoriai, charred wood and
other traces of fire, and which had evidently been collected for the purpose of being recast**.
Implements and weapons imperfectly cast, having ragged seams as if fresh from the mould,
found with lumps of metal, apparently the residuum of the melting-pot, further show that
the place of discovery was that of manufacture t t - These crude masses have generaUy been
* Odyssey, xv. 424.
t Pliny, lib. xxxiv. § 2.
t Ilj- § 4. 5.
§ Philosophical Transactions for 1796, p. 395. Archteologia,
vol. xviii. p. 343 ; vol. xix. p. 59. Proceedings of the
Cambridge Antiquarian Society, 1847, p. 12. Transactions of
the Royal Irish Academy for 1848-9.
II Pliny, lib. xxxiv. 20. In none of these instances does
Pliny name "plumbum album," tin, but only "plumbum
nigrum" lead, and "plumbum argentarium." That this latter
consisted of equal parts of tin and lead is, however, clear from
a subsequent section (lib. xxxiv. § 48). A passage, on the
composition of the bronze of Capua, has been recently added
by Sillig to the text of Pliny, from the Bamberg MS., which
is supported by one in Isidorus (Orig. lib. xvi. c. 20. § 9).
II Wilson, Archteology of Scotland, 1851, p. 245.
** As at Yearsley, Yorkshire, in 1735, and at Bilton in the
same county iu 1848. Archajologia, vol. v. p. 114. Journal
of the British Archaeological Association, vol. v. p. 349. For
other examples. Hid. vol. iii. p. 9 (Aldemey) ; Archaeologia,
vol. xxvi. p. 464 (Wrekin, Shropshire) ; Borlase, "Cornwall"
(at Fitfield), p. 284.
t t Archaiologia, vol.xxxi. p. 494 (Carleton, Norfolk). Proceedings
of the Society of Antiquaries, vol. iii. p. 127 (near
Croydon, Surrey). Archaeological Journal, vol. ix. p. 303
(Romford, Essex). Journal of the British Archajological Asp
2