Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/392

 

Weapons and Warfare.

Fig. 130—Bronze sword, Thurston, Whittingham, Northumberland, 1/4.

Fig. 131—Bronze sword, River Witham, Lincoln, 1/6.

The principal weapons for close combat, introduced by the Bronze folk into Britain, were the bronze axe and the dagger (Figs. 114 to 121), to which must be added in the later Bronze age, short, pointed, double-edged swords (Figs. 130, 131), sometimes leaf-shaped, and with small handles made of wood; more rarely the last had handles of bronze, adorned with spirals or chevrons. For fighting at a distance flint arrows were used, and in the early Bronze age javelins of various sizes tipped with flint. A set of four of these was found in the stone chamber at Winterbourne Stoke^[1] (Figs. 132, 133). These were afterwards replaced by bronze-headed spears and javelins (Figs. 134, 135, 136). Axe-hammers (Fig. 140) or stone maces, sometimes beautifully polished and ornamented with various patterns, were employed in the early Bronze age, and have been imitated in

1. Way, Archæol. Journ. 1867. Owen Stanley, Memoirs on Ancient Dwellings in Holyhead Island. 8vo. 1871.