Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/182

 152 TRE-HISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY OF EAST DEVON. Wliilst, then, these consiclerations tciul to remove the difficulty that meets us in Vniiiiic wlicn wc have to account for the general use of a compound metal, as is bronze, before tliat of so common a metal as iron, ^Ye may gather direct evidence that the use of bronze j)receded that of iron, from the fact that, whilst iron is unknown in association with ju-imitive interments, implements of bronze arc not un- common. Among the implements which are of most frequent occur- rence, and which are characteristic of the Bronze Age, are the palstaves, of which a large collection was found in a harrow on a hill adjoining Inroad Down about a century ago.^ I have lately obtained another example of this t^-'pe of im- plement, which I chanced to observe lying in a heap of old metal, and which had been brought to Exeter from the neighbourhood of Drewsteignton. Its extreme length is five an<l a half inches ; the width of the cutting edge is one and three (piartcr inches. On cither side is a groove terminating in a stop-ridge, which is two inches from the cutting-edge. The weight of this imj)lement is fourteen ounces. It belongs to the type without any projecting sidedoop or ear. Asso- ciated with it in the heai) was a fragment of bronze, ju-o- bahly intendetl for casting purposes, weighing five and a half ounces, similar in appearance and character to other fragments of the same composite metal found in a barrow on Gittisham Hill in the year 1809.'^ I have deposited both these specimens in the Albert Memorial Museum, at Kxeter. ]Juring my investigations of the barrows in the neighbour- liood of Thorverton* in the year 18G8. T was induced to (•xamine the locality that lay between K;iddon Hill and Exeter, with results that ukimately led to the discovery of several barrows scattered at intervals among the fields, and which hitherto had been imnoliced. Thi'oiigh the kindness of tin- Kiiiht I loll. Sir Stall'ord Northcote, Bart., I was <'iiablt;(l in the autumn of 187<> to e.xivivate one of these i)arrows, situate- in the pari.sh of Upton I'yne, forming one of a gnjup <»f three rangen«liin' Am ' Tiiin»uiolionH, vi'I. iv. ]i. lil»S. fficintion, vdl. iL p. 047; ArcL. Journal, ' TruiMactiutiN, vul. iii. ]>. -lUti. vol. XXV. p. «)10.