open coffin, buried in a tumulus, is a piece of British workmanship. If it be, it proves that the use of the lathe was known in Britain at the time. It is turned in the lathe, with lines engraved on the handle, and was associated with a perforated hammer-axe made of iron-stone, and a whetstone, as well as a bronze dagger of the usual type.
Bronze-Working.
Fig. 129.—Bronze Celt Mould, Heathery Burn, 12.
The fashioning of bronze in this country into various articles is proved by the discoveries of stocks in trade of bronze-smiths, in which hammers, anvils, cold chisels, pointed awls, and stamps have been met with for working the bronze. Moulds also in stone and in bronze were used for casting, and are sometimes found along with broken implements and ornaments ready for the smelting-pot. The bronze mould (Fig. 129) found in Heathery Burn cave (see p. 347) was discovered along with celts which had been cast in it.[1] It is evident, therefore, that implements were made in this country, as they were in France, Germany, and Scandinavia. The bronze-smiths were acquainted with the art of casting, of hardening the bronze by hammering, of beating it out into thin plates, and
- ↑ For an account of the bronze-working, see Evans, Proceed. Soc. Antiq. 1873, on "The Bronze Period," pp. 20-21.
