A HISTORY OF ESSEX travelled the land, carrying their material and casting it into weapons as required. Though isolated celts have occasionally been found, it is mainly to the hoards of the workers that we are indebted for the finds of bronze weapons in Essex, a county devoid of traces of such burial mounds of that age as have in other counties yielded a harvest of anti- quities. Some of the hoards may have been the property of dealers or merchants rather than founders, but when we discover lumps of raw metal and broken weapons (with or without the finished articles), there can be little doubt that they were the stock-in-trade of a bronze founder. The founder's hoard discovered on Lord Rookwood's estate in Hat- field Broad Oak parish in 1893 included not only the metal for fusing FIG. i 8. PENANNULAR ARMLET FROM SnoEBURY. 1 FIG. 19. PALSTAVE FROM SnoEBURY. 1 but the remains of the earthen pot in which the hoard was contained. In addition to perfect socketed celts, broken weapons, cauldron handles, etc., a noticeable socketed hammer and the rim of a vessel decorated with line-ornament were discovered (figs. 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33). This valuable hoard was presented by Lord Rookwood to the Essex Archaeological Society, and is exhibited in the museum at Colchester, where may also be seen a smaller hoard found at Southchurch, including a handle with rivet-holes (possibly of a sickle). Shoebury was the source of discovery in 1891 of a hoard which is now exhibited in the British Museum, consisting of socketed celts, pal- staves, part of a sword blade, etc. A penannular armlet decorated with diagonal hatching is of exceptional interest from the rarity of such dis- coveries, and is illustrated, together with a palstave showing details not usual on British examples (figs. 18, 19). 1 Cast from blocks kindly lent by the Society of Antiquaries. 266
