EARLY MAN may be mentioned here perhaps more conveniently than elsewhere. The first is the accumulation which has been found in the bed of the river Wandle near its mouth. The bronze objects comprise a sword, a spearhead, a palstave, a pin, and many miscellaneous objects of bronze. Another more important collection of bronze objects has been made from the bed of the river Thames near the following places in Surrey : Battersea, three swords, two spearheads, a gouge and a caul- dron, all of bronze ; Kingston, two palstaves, one socketed celt, three rapier blades, a leaf-shaped sword, a spearhead, and a knife with broad tang ; Lambeth, a bronze spearhead ; Richmond, a broad knife-dagger; Runnymede, a spearhead ; Vauxhall, a long rapier blade and a leaf-shaped sword ; Wandsworth, a remarkable socketed and looped celt, with the loop placed in the same direction as the socket (see illustration). The distribution of antiquities of the bronze age over the surface of Surrey will be seen by a glance at the archae- ological map in which the various discoveries are noted. The positions in which hoards of bronze are found do not necessarily indicate settlements or places of permanent occupation, because, as a hoard was essentially a deposit of a secret character, it is quite conceivable that the most unlikely and inaccessible situations would be chosen for such purposes. Flat bronze celts of the early type have been found at Albury and Godal- ming, whilst in addition to the socketed celts and palstaves mentioned in connec- tion with hoards of bronze, specimens have been found at the following places in Surrey : Bagshot, Chertsey, Farnham, Godalming,Guildford, Riddlesdown, Roth- erhithe, Wanborough, Wonersh ; and at Kingston some remarkable specimens of socketed and looped celts bearing some interesting ornamentation consisting of vertical ribs or lines ending in a kind of ring ornament or circle with a central pellet (see illustrations, p. 245).
- This ornament,' as Sir John Evans 1
has pointed out, ' is perhaps the simplest and most easily made, for a notched flint could b e usec i as a pa j r O f com p asses to . . r produce a circle with a well marked centre on almost any material however hard.' This device is also found on other objects of the bronze age, notably 1 Ancient Bronze Implements, etc. p. 124. 243 BRONZE SWORD, BATTERSEA. BRONZE SOCKETED CELT, WANDSWORTH.
