Page:VCH Surrey 1.djvu/290

A HISTORY OF SURREY At first the metal would doubtless be very scarce, but when native metallic ores were found and worked it would be a natural desire to produce in metal the heavy celts which had hitherto been the common form of large weapon in use. For this purpose it was natural to use an actual stone celt to serve as the model for a mould for the bronze cast- ing ; and as some knowledge of casting was already possessed, it would be a comparatively easy task to produce metal celts of this kind. The remains of the bronze age comprise celts of metal which have evidently been cast in this way from stone originals, and they have been con- sidered to represent. the earliest form in which metal celts were made. 1 The objection to such a theory is that they would require a large amount of metal at a time when it was scarce, and one feels inclined rather to regard them as indications of a period when bronze was procurable in some quantity. Prehistoric objects formed of bronze are sometimes found singly on the surface of the ground or slightly below the surface, but more usually they occur in the form of hoards comprising many different implements, worn or unworn, and cakes or portions of cakes of copper. Hoards of bronze are among the most suggestive and important as they are also the most characteristic of the remains of the bronze age. They may be conveniently divided into three groups. First, there are the collections of broken, damaged and worn-out implements, formed perhaps by an individual for the purpose of barter with a worker in bronze. The second group, comprising worn-out implements and cakes of copper, represents the stock of a worker in bronze. The third group consists of new and unworn tools. From the fact that these implements sometimes have not been freed from the irregularities and excrescences arising from the operation of casting it is obvious that the hoards of this kind represent the stock of a worker in bronze. The occurrence of bronze hoards of these three classes is of considerable importance as showing, first, that the metal was of great value, and when an imple- ment was damaged or worn out it was saved in order to be melted down again ; secondly, it shows that the founding of articles of bronze was the special trade of certain individuals ; and, lastly, it indicates that no suffi- ciently strong building existed in which the metal could be safely stored, and that as a consequence the possessor was compelled to hide it in a secret place underground. The various discoveries of bronze age antiquities in Surrey com- prise the following hoards : Albury, Farley Heath. A hoard of bronze objects, comprising two spearheads, two palstaves, and part of a copper cake was discovered here, and presented in 1853 by Mr. Henry Drummond to the British Museum, where it is now deposited. Beddington. This hoard was found in Beddington Park about the year 1870, and comprised a gouge, two broken spearheads, half of a celt-mould, six celts, and three lumps of bronze or copper. 1 Wilde, Catalogue of the Museum of the Roy. Irish Acad. p. 3 66 ; Evans, Ancient Bronze Implements, p. 40. 240