Page:VCH Northamptonshire 1.djvu/191

 EARLY MAN saws arc equilateral. Nails, adzes, sickles, a chisel, a gouge, spud-like objects, a key similar to one found by General Pitt-Rivers in researches at Mount Cabourn in Sussex, which is a Late Celtic camp ; rings, and a complete and perfect pothook of twisted iron. There were also some articles like large flat spoons with long handles ; similar ones have been found at Castle Yard in Farthingstone parish ; and several iron articles the use of which can only be conjectured : of these the most curious are figured in plate 7 of Sir Henry's paper. He suggests there that they might be brands for branding cattle ; they bear the characteristic pattern of the period ; the shaft of one of these is moulded and has gilt bands. In addition to the above there were portions of the tyres of chariot wheels, and a bridle with a bronze centre bit ; three shield bosses, one round, resembling that figured on a wooden shield belonging to the earlier Iron age in Denmark ; the other two at first appeared to be Anglo-Saxon, but on placing them side by side with the shield bosses from certain Anglo-Saxon interments in Northamptonshire the difference can at once be seen, those of the Anglo-Saxons being more angular in shape. Several iron drills were found ; these belonged to the lower half of the quern stone and were for the purpose of holding the upper stone in position. Out of the whole collection of iron articles that came to hand there are but two which cannot be said to belong to the people who made and occupied the camp : one is a short pickaxe of the kind used as a stock-axe for stubbing up wood ; this may have been lost when the camp in after years was cleared of the wood with which it had probably been planted in order to cultivate the soil (for previous to the ironstone operations the site of the camp had for many years been under the plough) ; the other article is a slender bridle-bit like a snaffle, which might be Roman or much later in date. It is very different from the British bridle-bit, nor is it at all like an Anglo-Saxon bridle-bit which came from a burial place about a mile and a half to the east, just outside the village of Hardingstone. The bronze articles consist of two scabbards, four fibuls or brooches, one of which is in perfect working order at the present time, pins, rings, several articles supposed to belong to harness trappings, fragments of tubing which were perhaps used to strengthen the edges or ornament the sides of iron scabbards. One of the gems of the collection is a sword sheath 2 feet 6 inches long. It is ornamented on the upper end or locket with a finely engraved pattern, consisting of a double pair of circles filled with smaller circles and the peculiar trumpet- shaped design which is a characteristic of this Late Celtic art. Most of the smaller circles are plain, but some have a triangle with curved sides filled with cross-hatching ; the chape or termination of this scabbard is heart-shaped like many others of this age.* Among other articles of this period which have been found in the British Isles are remains of mirrors, the backs of which bear engravings of Late Celtic designs. Five of these are known : one ' See C. H. Read, in appendix to vol. Hi. oi Arthttobffa. 149