A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE
It may be added that antiquaries have been able to identify three distinct kinds of hoards, viz.: (1) those which appear to consist of the treasured property of some individual, who having buried his treasures in the earth for safety, failed for some reason to regain possession of them; (2) those which comprised the property of a trader, and included new implements in considerable numbers fit for use; and (3) those which represented the stock-in-trade of a bronze-founder, containing often fragments of implements, worn-out implements and lumps of rough metal. To the last class belongs the important hoard found at Yattendon.
The following are brief particulars of some of the other more important Bronze Age discoveries in Berkshire.
A circular buckler or shield of great interest was found in the bed of the river Isis in 1836, and is now in the British Museum. An account[1] of the discovery written by Mr. John Gage, F.R.S., Director of the Society of Antiquaries, gives the following precise details as to the place where the discovery was made. The buckler was found 'on the lower margin of the pool of the Little Wittenham or Day's lock upon the river Isis, about half a mile above the junction of that river with the Thame stream, midway between Little Wittenham bridge and the weir connected with the lock, about one mile to the westward of Dorchester, in Oxfordshire, a hundred and fifty or two hundred yards from the western end of an earthwork called Dyke hills, and three-quarters of a mile from the intrenchment upon Sinodun or Little Wittenham hill.' The chief point about this is that the buckler was found on the ancient bed of the river Isis, very near if not absolutely upon a spot where it was fordable.
The buckler is about 13 inches in diameter, and nearly, but not quite, circular in form. In the centre is a large hemispherical boss or umbo giving room for the hand to grasp the handle at the back. This boss is surrounded by twin projecting rings. A circular series of fourteen convex bosses, and an outer series of twenty-three bosses fill up the surface, the two series of bosses being separated by a raised ring.
The age of this shield is uncertain, but it may belong to the later part of this period.
Sir John Evans[2] writes: 'The raised bosses have all been wrought in the metal with the exception of four, two of which form the rivets for the handle across the umbo, and two others serve as the rivets or pivots for two small straps or buttons of bronze on the inner side of the buckler. Such buttons occur on several other examples, but it is difficult to determine the exact purpose which they served. From the pains taken in this instance to conceal the heads of these pivots on the outside, by making them take the form and place of bosses, it would appear that they were necessary adjuncts of the shield, and possibly in some way connected with a lining for it. Such a lining can hardly have been of wood, or many rivet or pin-holes would have been
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