Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/437

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ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE.
323

ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE. 323 dagger-blade, resembling those found in burrows in North Wilts, discovered by Sir Richard Hoare*^. Another specimen, found near Blandford, of nearly the same dimensions as that given by Col. Darner, is represented in the Journal of the Archaeological Association, vol. ii. p. 98. The manner in which these blades were hafted is best shewn in the plates given in the Transactions of the Antiquaries of Zurich by M. Keller : the specimens found in Switzerland have mostly handles of bronze distinct from the blade, and attached by rivets ; those discovered in our own country were probably hafted with bone, horn or wood. The other two blades, here represented, are likewise of the class of short-handled weapons ; they had suffered much by corrosion : one is of singularly small dimensions, the entire length in its present state being only l| in. and the width upwards of an inch. A small bronze blade found in a tumulus in Berksliire, and bearing much resem- blance to this, has been described in a memoir by the Rev. John Wilson, in a previous jiage. Mr. Bingham sent also a sketch of a small vase of very dark ware, lately found under the house of John Floyer, Esq., M.P., at Frome Billet, and presented by him to the Dorset museum. It is ap- parently of Anglo-Roman fabrication. The museum of Dr. Mantell, containing numerous antiquities discovered in the neighbourhood of Lewes and other parts of Sussex, many of which, by his kind permission, have been exhibited during the meeting of the In- stitute at York, as also at subsequent meetings of the Society, in London. Amongst the most interesting of the discoveries which contributed to his collection, a deposit of remains of the *' Age of Bronze" deserves especial notice ; and we are indebted to Dr. Mantell for the following statement, as also for permission to give representation of these I'emarkable relics of the early age. " The four armillse, celt, and torque with two spiral rings, were dug up in 1825, within the earth- work, termed HoUingbury Hill, situated on the sum- mit of the down between Brighton and Stanmer Park, on the left of the road and railway, going towards Lewes. These ancient relics were all dis- covered at the same time by a labourer occupied in digging for flints, of whom I purchased them a few days after they were dug up. They were found, according to the man's statement, deposited in the manner repre- sented in my ' Day"s Ramble in and about Lewes .' With the exception of cinerary urns with burnt human bones and ashes, no other antiquities were met with by any of the labourers employed during that year in flint- digging on that part of the South Downs ; for I kept all the men in my pay, and often rode to the spot to stimulate their search, and secure any relics that might be found. "The amiouncement of the discovery in the Lewes papers (Febr. 1825) brought me several letters from persons who had obtained antiquities from « Ancient "Wilts, ])1. xiv., xv., xxiii., gular discovery is likewise given in the xxvii., xxviii. See also tlie dagger found catalogue of Dr. Mantell's museum, for- iu Derbyshire, Batemau's Vestiges, p. DO. merly attached to the Sussex Literary In- "^ P. 12. A representalioa of this sin- stitution at Brighton, 1836, p. 39.