quently termed, pinzetten, of the form here figured, together with needles, which were quadrangular at one end, and at the other pointed, and stuck like awls in handles of wood or bronze; and lastly knives, which were somewhat small, and with bent handles, and occasionally had some very beautifully engraved ornaments on one side.
|
|
|
These last-mentioned objects appear to have been partly used in sewing, and are usually found together[1].
In considering the various antiquities of the bronze-period, our attention cannot but be struck by the manner in which they are wrought, and the very considerable degree of skill displayed in their construction. The greater part of the objects are cast, but the casting is neither rude nor common. In this point of view a very remarkable battle-axe of bronze requires particular mention. It is sixteen inches in length, and is ten inches broad at the edge. At the end of the neck there is a very handsome knob, and one of similar kind surmounts the hole made to the handle, and in which the remains of the wooden shaft still exist. Along the broad sides are circular cavities, with a raised knob in the middle of them, into part of
- ↑ The bronze instrument here represented, which appears to be a kind of falx or pruning-hook, is now deposited in the British Museum. It measures four inches from the extremity of the blade to the back of the socket, into which the handle was inserted and fixed by a rivet. It was found at the depth of six feet, in a bog, in the vicinity of the mountain range two miles east from Ballygawley, in the county of Tyrone. A woodcut representing "one of the ancient bronze reaping-hooks, so frequently found in Ireland, and which from its material must be of the most remote antiquity," which bears a general resemblance to the foregoing object, is given in the Dublin Penny Journal, vol. i. p. 108, in illustration of Mr. John O'Donavan's remarks on the Antiquity of Corn in Ireland.—T.
