This page needs to be proofread.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK true the ornament in the form of pellets and ribs on the sides may have been a method of strengthening the implement at the point where it specially required rigidity. Another socketed celt, found at Lakenheath, has on the sides three lines of rather oval pellets, terminating in ring ornaments. Between them are plain ribs terminating in small circular pellets. This speci- men is in the British Museum. The celt from Mildenhall here shown has three curved ribs on each side arranged in a way which suggests survival in form of the bent-over flanges or wings of the earlier types of implements. A palstave found at Honington is ornamented with a kind of shield. In some cases this shield is divided into two halves by a line carried through it from apex to base, but in the Honington example this line is not present. It is a curious feature, but comparative study shows that it is related to the vertical ribs which are found on many palstaves. A fragment of a similar palstave, labelled ' part of a bronze spear-head,' is in the Museum at Ipswich, and presumably it was found in Suffolk. Two leaf-shaped swords found at Barrow,' near Bury St. Edmunds, are of particular value from the fact that they were found under circumstances which indicate, if they do not prove, association with a burial. The discovery was made in 1850 or 1851 by workmen. The swords, one of which measured 26J in. in length, lay two or three feet below the surface. The evidences go to show that the associated burial was unburnt. Of these two swords, one is now in the Museum at Bury St. Edmunds. The bronze swords procured at Barrow show a good deal of refinement of form. There is in the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology a fragment of another fine leaf- shaped sword-blade found at Mildenhall. In the Archaeological Museum in Christchurch Park, Ipswich, there are socketed spear-heads of bronze from Felixstowe and Nacton Heath, and palstaves and socketed celts from Mildenhall (several), Baylham, Bromeswell, Hadleigh, and Stowmarket. One bronze celt in this collection which is of special interest from its thick, unorna- TALSTAVE FOUND AT ,- /I'-i-i ri Honington mented torm (a characteristic of the early part or the Celt found at Lakenheath Celt found at Mildenhall • Proc. Bury and W. Suff. Arch. Inst, vi, 185-6. It is worthy of note that another leaf-shaped bronze sword was found buried about 2 ft. 6 in. deep under similar circumstances, and doubtless in connexion with an inter- ment, at Chippenham (in East>Cambs.), quite close to Barrow. The Rev. Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., to whom this discovery has been referred, feels considerable doubt as to the suggested association of the swords with a burial. 268