J l
'
104 CRANIA BEITANNIOA. [CHAP. V.
regarded, like the objects found with them, as of the aUoyed metal, bronze; bnt Mi-. Pranks has
pointed out that they yery frequently are of pure copper, and suggests that the founders may
have niked in the tin as required Hitherto, howcTer, no tin or other aUoy has been found
with these deposits, which caU to mind what Pliny says of the practice of mixing second-hand
metal, "ses ex usu coemptum," with copper, though to complete this bronze, the addition of tin
and lead was stUl requisite f. Altogether, the cu-cumstanecs under which they are usiially
found lead to the conclusion that these deposits had been the stock of itinerant founders, who
traveUed about with a certain quantity of material, to which was added the broken bronze taken
in part-payment at the places where they stopped to work J.
With such hoards have sometimes been discovered the very moulds in which the articles were
cast. In Eoss-shire, two pau-s of stone moulds were found near a rude building of stone,
containing a bed of scorise and ashes, the forge no doubt of some primitive metaUm-gist §. Such
moulds have been discovered in neai-ly every part of the British Islands. They are either of
stone or bronze. The former are probably the more ancient, and are of serpentme, granite,
honestone, micaceous schist, or coarse sandstone. In some cases they consist of rude blocks with
indented cavities, for casting celts of the simplest wedge-form; the melted metal having been
poured into the exposed mould and afterwards hammered into shape. More frequently, the
mould consists of two symmetrical halves, which are notched or perforated, so as to allow of
being tied together before reoei^ong the melted metal, which was pom-ed m at the end, and
socketed celts and palstaves in this way obtained. Other stone moulds for casting spear-heads
and the long thin blades of missiles measuring even twenty-four inches in length, are of more
rare occm-rence. The bronze moulds display great ingenuity and perfection in technical
contrivance, the details of which have been clearly explained by Mi-. Du Noyer||. N^ mould
has been foimd for casting bronze swords; or for the leaf-like spear-heads, -nith tangs and rivets,
such as are found in the barrows.
Of a knowledge of hammered metal works, by the Britons, there appears proof in a coin of
Cnnobelia, having on the reverse a flgm-e seated, forging a vase or, as some think, a helmet,
with a hammer f . The plain parts of the large GaUo-British shields consist of simple plates of
sodation, vol. i. p. 51 ; vol. iii. p. 58 (Westow, Yorkshire).
This and the Carleton deposits were remarkable for the mechanical
tools, chisels, gouges, &c. found with different kinds
of celts.
* Archseological Journal, vol. si. p. 24. Lumps of copper
found under these circumstances, from Essex, Herts, and
Surrey, may be seen in the British Museum. That copper
was the metal, in many such cases, had previously been
asserted. Archaeologia, vol. v. p. Ilo (1750 " Two masses of
native copper found with celts in Norfolk") ; vol. ix. p. 99 ;
vol.sT.pp. 118,120 (" Heavy lumps of fine copper," with celts,
entire and broken, and pieces of swords, at Lanant near Mount's
Bay; a similar deposit weighing 80 lbs. at St. Hilary, an adjacent
place in Cornwall, some of the lumps of copper weighing 14 or
15 lbs. each) ; vol. xvi. p. 363 (" Three lumps of raw copper
apparently very pure," with two socketed celts, three palstaves
and part of a sword, atBeachy Head, Sussex). With the hoard
found at Rosebnry Topping, iorkshire (a beautiful series of
which, including a celt-mould, is in the Bateman Collection),
was a "mass of metal resembling copper, 3 lbs. in weight and
very soft." Archieologia jEliana, vol. ii. p. 213. pi. 4.
t Pliny, hb. xxxiv. § 20.
X Wright, " Celt, Roman and Saxon," pp. 73, 240. Proceedings
of the Yorkshire Geological and Polytechnic Society
of the West Riding, 18,i6-57. The opinion that these metallurgic
pedlars were Roman is not well sustained.
§ Wilson, Archseology of Scotland, p. 223. At Eaton near
Norwich, a perfect metal celt-mould, eleven celts and fragments
of weapons, were dug up. Archaeologia, vol. xxii. p. 424.
There is probably an error in the statement that each of a
bushel of celts was found in a brass mould or "case," at
Brough on the Humber, in 1719. Archieologia, vol. v. p. 1 lU.
II Archaeological Journal, Tol. iv. p. 336. Also Mr. Yates,
in vol. vi. p. 384 ; and other papers and notices, vol. ix. p. 185 ;
vol. X. p. 2 ; vol. xiii. p. 201. Archteologia, vol. xv. p. 394.
pi. 34 ; vol. xxviii. pp. 419, 451. Proceedings of the Society
of Antiquaries, vol. iii. p. 159. Proceedings of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 34. It is to be desired that
the exact circumstances under which such moulds are found,
should in all cases be recorded.
1]" Mon. Hist. Brit, plate 1. fig. 21. Akcrman, Coins of
Britannia, &c. plate 24. No. 4.
CHAP. V.] HISTORICAL ETHNOLOGY OP BEITAIN. 105
hammered bronze. The ornamented bosses and other projecting parts were probably produced
by the skilful hammering of sheet metal. In order, however, that the metal, as is the ease in
these objects, should be equally distributed, and as thick in the raised as in the ilat portions, the
bronze plates must first have been hammered up with great judgement to an increased thickness,
in those parts where the i-eKef was to be produced. When the complexity and symmetry of the
patterns is considered, the skill of the artificers will be allowed to be most remarkable*. Some of
these shields and sword-sheaths are also chased; being ornamented most skilfully by the graver's
art, in running patterns of less size, but of the same form with those in relief, obtained by
hammering. It is observable of these and of the large trumpets, as of aU other objects of
Celtic manufacture in bronze, that their several parts are united by rivets, and not by solder.
This is well seen in the large vases or caldrons, formed of plates of metal skilfully put together,
occasionally found in both Britain and Irelandf, in which the heads of the rivets serve for
ornaments. They resemble probably the brazen vessels of the Gauls, spoken of by Livy, and
also those sacred ones of the Cimbri, twice referred to by Strabo, one of which was sent as a
present to Augustus J.
It is probable that, in the age of Caesar and in that which succeeded, the people of Gaul
were more skilled in metallm-gic arts than the insular and less eivUized Britons. Pliny says
even that in Gaul was discovered the art of covering objects of bronze with tin, so that they
could scarcely be distinguished from silver. The people of Alesia applied this invention to the
silvering, and the Bitui-iges to that of gilding, the bronze ornaments and staticula of horsetrappings,
yokes and carriages, among which the essedum, or British war-chariot, and the fourwheeled
oar, or petoritiim, are named. Such plated bronze articles, whether tinned, silvered or
gilded, were termed incoctilia §. The Gauls also, if not inventors of the art, appear to be the first
western people who learned to fix coloured enamels on metallic surfaces. Philostratus,
describing the picture of a boar-hunt, speaks of the horses as having silver bridles ornamented
with colours and with plialercB for, he goes on to say, "the barbarians who inhabit the
Ocean are skilled, it is said, in fusing colom-s upon heated bronze, which adhere and become as
hard as stone, and so produce a durable ornament||." It has been questioned whether the
people here referred to are to be regarded as the Gauls or the insular Britons^. The former
* Some of the best judges suppose that these peculiar
raised ornaments have been produced by casting. Mr. M.
Digby Wyatt, whose views of the mode of fabrication are followed
in the text, observes " that they can hardly have been
cast, as neither their face, back nor edges show any of the
minute granulations almost inevitable to casting. It would,
moreover, have been impossible to cast them so uniformly
thin." A thick cake of bronze has been found near Alnwick, engraved
with patterns at one end. This may have been a matrix,
on which to hammer small plates of metal for such embossed
works as we have described. (Mr. X. W. Franks, Gentleman's
Magazine, February 1858, p. 185.) The discovery of this object
seems to show that ornamental metal work of this kind
was fabricated in Britain.
+ Wilson, Archseology of Scotland, pp. 243, 274 (fig.).
Archicological Journal, vol. iii. p. 95.
I Livy, lib. xxxvi. c. 40. Strabo, lib. vii. c. 2. § 1, 3.
§ Pliny, lib. xxxiv. § 48. Pliny calls these arts " inventum
Galliarnm"—"gloria Biturigum." For the decoration
of brazen armour with mountings of red coral, see pages
94, 95, ante. It is curious that the accuracy of Pliny, in this
particular, should now, apparently for the first time, be
pointed out, and that the confirmation is due to the discovery
of a shield, not in Gaul, but in Britain.
II Imagines, lib. i. c. 28. Philostratus wrote at the beginning
of the third century, but seems to have described an invention
of a mueh earlier age. See p. 95. Silver bridles,
dpyvpo)(n\tv(ii, are named in a second place by Philostratus, as
either Celtic or Phrygian. (Vit. Soph. lib. i. § xxxv. Polemou,
2.) Arrian, a century earlier than Philostratus, speaks of
the Celtic bridles in a manner which shows their celebrity in
his day. (Indie, c. xvi. p. 331. Gronov.) Elaborately ornamented
bronze bridle-bits are often found in the British Islands,
especially Ireland. Archseological Journal, vol. iii. p. 9o.
Journal of the British Archseological Association, vol. x.p. 1/0.
^ In the passage from Philostratus e;' U}K€UV(^ may fairly be
rendered, on or near the ocean. See Herod, i. /U. Sinope
a town ¿I- EiJ^etvy ttoitw." " Ubi de loco agitnr, kv non sohun