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The Socketed Bronze Sickles of the British Isles; with special reference to an unpublished specimen from Norwich

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

Cyril Fox
Cyril Fox
Affiliation:
Director, National Museum of Wales
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Extract

In 1934 a schoolboy found ‘under a rubbish heap, but practically on the surface’ within the boundaries of the city of Norwich a socketed sickle (fig. 1, and pl. xxv, 14). The type is familiar to students of the Bronze Age since Wilde published an Irish example in his Catalogue of Antiquities in the National Museum at Dublin.

The present handsome and perfect specimen, which I publish by courtesy of the Corporation of Norwich, and of the Curator of the Norwich Museum, Miss G. V. Barnard, measures 5.9 inches in greatest length, and 3.0 inches in height. The blade is double-edged: its bold curved outline is emphasized by raised beads defining a central rounded rib which expands towards the socket. On the socket, above a moulded necking from which the lower edge of the blade springs, is a decorative pattern in the form of an M, the upper angles of which extend to form outward-curving scrolls on which the headings of the blade are aligned more or less tangentially. The outer scroll, which is more complete than the inner, forms a moulded rim to a large circular hole. The hole was probably a loop for a thong; the sickle then may have dangled from the owner's waist.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , December 1939 , pp. 222 - 248
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1939

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References

page 222 note 1 Part II, 1861, fig. 405, 6.

page 222 note 2 Dr E. Estyn Evans, F.S.A., had intended to publish this sickle, and at the same time to review the bronze sickles of the British Isles. Other commitments hindered this project, and when Dr Evans learnt that I was interested in the subject, he very generously handed over to me his list of specimens, his sketches and notes thereon, references to the literature, and correspondence. Moreover, he was good enough to read and comment on the present paper in draft, and to assist me in obtaining photographs of sickles.

page 223 note 1 Wilde, loc. cit., pp. 526–7. Frazer, , Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad., 1891–1893, pp. 385–6Google Scholar. This author grouped the sickles into three classes according to outstanding morphological features. Four lines and a footnote written by Dr R. E. M. Wheeler in 1921 contain a valuable hint, fully confirmed by my researches: see Arch. 71, p. 135, and fig. 2Google Scholar.

page 223 note 2 See Breuil, , L'Anthropologie, XII, 1901, p. 296Google Scholar ‘pour la faucille à douille, c'est plutôt un type anglais’ and fig. 4, p. 291: and Evans, , Bronze, 201, 202Google Scholar, Cf. Childe, , The Bronze Age, p. 102Google Scholar.

page 223 note 3 The List, Appendix I, totals 63. One of these, No. 22, is a contemporary iron copy of a bronze original.

page 223 note 4 For its probable influence on the decoration of certain socketed sickles, see p. 226.

page 224 note 1 It is to be noted that large holes, presumably for wooden pegs, occur in many of these early sickles (see fig. 2): in the more developed examples smaller holes, which are suitable for metal rivets, are normal.

page 224 note 2 This detail is well shown in the figure published by DrMahr, Adolf, Proc. Prehist. Soc., 1937, p. 384Google Scholar, fig. 24.

page 224 note 3 These are the only looped sickles in our insular series. One example is known from northern France, see Breuil, loc. cit. fig. 4, No. 38, p. 291; and Evans, , Bronze, p. 201–2Google Scholar.

page 224 note 4 The Figure shows accurately where the blade ends on the top of the socket as does the back-view in the photographic series. Beyond is a lumpy casting-knob, filed over, which is of no morphological significance.

page 225 note 1 The socketed sickles provide a bewildering variety of blade mouldings; I do not think that the character if present, or the absence of such, is of primary morphological importance.

page 226 note 1 This ‘V’ ornament provides the only hint that ‘button’ or riveted sickles of continental origin influenced the British socketed sickle. ‘V’ mouldings occur as strengthening ribs in certain of these sickles, in a similar position to that on No. 36; an example from a hoard at Edington Burtle is figured (pl. XXIV, o).

page 226 note 2 Archaeology of the Channel Islands, Vol. I, p. 64Google Scholar. See also p. 239 of this paper.

I remarked to Mr Colin Matheson, Keeper of Zoology in the Museum, that the Alderney sickle was very bird-like. He sent me the following note:— ‘The shape of the blade is undoubtedly like a bird's head and beak, and the resemblance is strengthened by the eyelike appearance of the hole. Trying to think what bird it most resembled, the sacred Egyptian Ibis came to mind, and on looking up this bird in Newton's ‘Dictionary of Birds’ I find that ‘in Lower Egypt it bears the name of Abou-mengel, or ‘Father of the Sickle’ from the form of its bill.’

page 227 note 1 The original account of 1859 is in the Cambridge Antiquarian Society's Communications, Vol. III, pp. 361–2Google Scholar. ‘It (the sickle) was accompanied by a bronze celt or palstave … and a short bronze sword.’ The writer, Professor Charles Babington, F.R.S., was a careful and competent antiquary. All three objects, which are now in the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, are, Miss O'Reilly assures me, closely similar in condition and colour and there seems no reason to doubt the association.

page 227 note 2 Fox, and Hyde, , ‘A second Cauldron and an iron Sword from the Llyn Fawr hoard,’ Ant. J., 1939, esp. pp. 369–391Google Scholar.

page 235 note 1 Including No. 45 ‘possibly from Ireland’ which has a close Irish parallel and can be accepted on that account, and No. 61 ‘probably Ireland’ of which the same may be said.

page 235 note 2 As the List shows, Nos. 3 and 4 are ‘Believed R. Thames’—but their close relative No. 2 is definitely from the river and the attribution of the former pair is therefore acceptable. Similarly No. 1 is from the ‘River Thames (?)’; but No. 8, its fellow, is securely provenanced in the river. All these come from riverside Museums or collections and I see no reason for doubting the attributions.

page 235 note 3 Of the forms similar to, or more developed than, the Winterbourne Monkton sickle, 18 come from Ireland. 5 from the Highland Zone of Britain (2 from Scotland and 3 from South Wales), one from a Channel Island, and 2 from Lowland Britain.

page 235 note 4 But see footnote 2, p. 237.

page 235 note 5 Six out of nine; Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 8 are smooth-bladed; Nos. 3, 7, 16 show ribs or mouldings.

page 237 note 1 It is possible that such a tool as sickle No. 6 from the Thames (pl. XXIV) represents a type influenced by the vertical-socketed sickle.

page 237 note 2 I regard it as possible that No. 55 (p. 235 and fig. 4) is not a ‘Thames’ type but a derivative from the vertical-socketed group; the curious chamfer at the top of the blade would then be the last trace of a moulding which originally extended down to the junction of socket and blade. This sickle should be studied with No. 60 (pl. XXIV).

page 238 note 1 See Vouga, La Téne, Pl. xxv, 1. Cf. Petrie, Tools and Weapons, Pl. LIV, for Egyptian and European forms generally of the iron sickle.

page 238 note 2 There are four specimens mapped, by an appropriate symbol, of which the County of origin alone is known. A similar symbol is used for the 4 sickles derived probably or certainly from the ‘river Thames’ (see footnote 2 above, p. 235).

page 238 note 3 Close parallels are No. 34 (fig. 8) from Ireland and the broken blade No. 24 from South Wales.

page 238 note 4 Fox and Hyde, loc. cit., pp. 385 ff. The importance of the iron copy of the developed bronze sickle type included in the Llyn Fawr hoard is here stressed. It is not discussed in the present survey, but it is included in the List (No. 22).

page 239 note 1 Fourteen out of seventeen Lowland Zone examples provenanced sufficiently for the present purpose are thus situated.

page 239 note 2 The inhabitants of the Chalk countryside may have continued to use the flint sickle, or the sickle constructed of flint flakes set in a wooden frame, throughout the Bronze Age or even later.

page 241 note 1 Or, in one case, Rosebury Topping (No. 19) on the margin thereof.

page 241 note 2 Nat. Hist., XVI, 249Google Scholar: ‘Sacerdos Candida veste cultus arborem scandit, falce aurea (viscum) demetit, candido id excipıtur sago.’

page 242 note 1 See Ant. J., XIX, p. 195Google Scholar.

page 242 note 2 This accords with Julius Pokorny's view of the origin of Druidism. He thinks that the cult originated in Northern Ireland. Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst., 1910, pp. 583–97, esp. p. 597Google Scholar.

page 242 note 3 Who very kindly sent sickles to me for study, in addition to help already acknowledged.

page 242 note * The Museums starred generously provided me with photographs free of charge.

page 242 note 4 No. 22 is a contemporary iron copy of a bronze original.

page 242 note 5 If the sickle has previously been figured in a printed record, this reference is omitted.

page 244 note 1 Found with cauldrons, iron sword and spearhead, bronze socketed gouges and axes, chapes, discs, belt-hook, razor.

page 244 note 2 Found with socketed axe, chisels, razors, cap of chariot pole, etc.

page 245 note 1 The outline drawing in the Card Index is very bad, but the rib points to a structural differentiation between socket and blade, and the sickle has therefore been placed in Group II. Mr H. W. Ricketts has kindly looked into the matter for me, but the sickle cannot now be found at the Leeds City Museum or Art Gallery.

page 246 note 1 Information for Mr T. S. F. Paterson, Curator of Armagh County Museum.

page 246 note 2 Undoubtedly the specimen illustrated, before tip was broken off, in Dublin Penny Journal, I, 108.

page 247 note 1 Mr T. S. F. Paterson, Curator, informs me that the sickle was found at ‘Aughnacloy,’ and that there are two townships of that name near Armagh, one being in Co. Tyrone.

page 247 note 2 Journ. Roy. Soc. Ant. Ireland, Vol. 37, 1907, p. 86Google Scholar.