Another, expanding rather more at the edge, from a barrow in Devonshire,[1] was in the Meyrick Collection.
A somewhat similar axe-head, more rounded at the butt and rather more expanded at the cutting edge, was found in Annandale in 1870, and was described to me by the late Mr. Joseph Clarke, F.S.A.
One of granite, much like Fig. 126, came to light in a cairn at Breckigoe,[2] Caithness.
In the same barrow at Rudstone,[3] near Bridlington, as that in which the block of pyrites and flint scraper, subsequently to be described (Fig. 223), were found, but with a different interment, Canon Greenwell discovered the beautifully formed axe-hammer shown in Fig. 127. It is of very close-grained, slightly micaceous grit, and presents the peculiarity of having the rounded faces slightly chamfered all round the flat sides. The edge is carefully rounded, and
Fig. 127.—Rudstone. 12
broad end somewhat flattened. It lay behind the shoulders of the skeleton of an old man lying on his left side, with his right hand on his head, and his left to his face. Before the face, was a bronze knife 4 inches long, with a single rivet to fasten it to its handle, and close to the axe-hammer lay a pointed flint flake re-chipped on both faces. In a barrow at Sledmere[4] with burnt bones lay a weapon of this kind battered at the blunt end.
An axe-head (614 inches), with convex faces, rounded at the butt, and with an oval shaft-hole, was dredged from the Thames at London,[5] and is now in the British Museum.
It seems almost indisputable that these elegantly formed axe-heads belong to the period when bronze was in use, and from their occurrence in the graves they appear to have formed part of the equipment of warriors.
