EARLY MAN
EARLY MAN necessary for securing the metal to it. It may be that a lining of hide was moulded while wet to the form of the shield, and that these buttons served to keep it in place when dry. In one case it is said that some fibrous particles resembling leather still remain attached to the inside of the shield. In general the metal is so thin that without some lining these bucklers would have afforded but a poor defence against the stroke of a sword, spear or arrow. In this Little Wittenham example, and possibly in some others, it is probable that the shield itself was larger than the bronze plate. Another view is that these buttons fastened a strap for carrying the shield either in or out of use.' The bed of the river Thames near Taplow, which, although close to the boundary of Buckinghamshire, is actually in Berkshire, has fur- nished a remarkable group of Bronze Age objects. These include a collection of fine socketed spear-heads and two broken swords, presented in 1898 by Mrs. Ada Benson to the British Museum. One of the spear-heads is noteworthy on account of the excellence of its workman- ship and its ornamentation, produced by a series of punctured dots. Another spear-head of fine proportions and workmanship, and exhibiting the same species of punctured ornament, was discovered in the river at Taplow in March 1903, and is now in the British Museum. It bears on each face of the wings two gold studs, and in its present condition, in spite of the fact that a portion of the socket has been broken off and lost, the length is j inches. There are further points of interest about this weapon which have been described by Mr. Charles H. Read, F.S.A., 1 from which the following account has, by permission of the author, been taken : ' The bronze spear-head now before the Society is one of unusual character in all respects. As a type of spear-head it is up to the present unique in this country, and even in Ireland the only example figured by Sir John Evans (fig. 400) 3 makes no pretensions to the same artistic qualities. This specimen was recently found in a creek near Taplow, at the same spot where some ordinary leaf-shaped spear-heads were dis- covered some years ago, and presented to the British Museum by Mrs. Benson. The socket of the spear, which is filled with the remains of the wood-shaft, has unfortunately been damaged, so that it is impossible to ascertain the original length, but the present length is j inches, the blade alone measuring 15! inches in length. It has been cast with considerable skill, and the edge of the upper curve has apparently been hammered, as is customary, which both hardens the metal and produces at the same time a keen edge. The lower part of the wings has also been hammered so as to produce a furrow or channel near the edge, and the edge itself is not only beaten up to produce a flange, but is also ornamented with a herringbone design. On each side of the broad mid-rib is a row of dots which continues on the inner side of the channel on the wings. On each face of the wings are two gold studs, conical in form, and apparently of nearly pure metal. How these are 1 Proc. Soc. Antiq. (ser. 2) xix. 287-9. * Evans, op. cit. I 185 24
