The Bronze Age in Ireland

er Periods of

scale have not been made; but such analyses as have been done do not indicate an experimental stage of small additions of tin, but rather show that the bronze from the first contained a fairly large proportion of tin. Where the tin came from is at present uncertain. The illustrations will make the evolution of the celt clear. The first step was the broadening of the cutting-edge, and moving the thickest part up to the centre of the blade; the next step was hammering t

namented Br

at

s in the order of

2

the shaft. A more practical method was to place the head in a handle having a forked head, and the origin of the stop-ridge was to prevent the two sides coming down too low on to the blade. The side flanges and palstave-form developed naturally from this. The manner of hafting the socke

namented Br

New Grange. Some examples show a kind of cable-pattern on the side flanges; and the size of a few specimens is remarkable. A flat celt, with a remarkable ornamentation from the Greenwell collection found near Connor, County Antrim, is figured b

dge. The socketed celts are, as a rule, unornamented; but there are a few whic

namented Br

do not show any marked difference of type which would enable us to differentiate a weapon from a tool, as is possible in the later iron axes of the Norman and Danish period wh

nterest, as the type is characteristic of the Iberian peninsula. A few have been found in the west of France, and some in the south-west of England, but on the route which one would expect to have been follow

d Celt. Fig. 2

stave with D

and

as tools are the small bronze anvil (fig. 22

.-Bronz

all bronze anvils correspond to those mentioned by Homer, which were also portable and used by goldsmiths.[13] Socketed bronze hammers resembling the Irish examples are fairly common in England and on the Continent. One well-known Irish specimen was fou

-Bronze

ar-

f the rapier and sword. The spear-head was evolved by decreasing the width of the base of the dagger-blade, and adding a narrow tang with a peg-hole to fix into the

g.

g.

24 (the centre spear-head), which is, in fact, a dagger-blade placed on a socket. The socket does not enter the blade, but is stopped at the shoulders. The V-shaped base of the blade is derived from the dagger, and disappears as the true character of the spear form is developed. A feature of special interest is the survival of the rivet-heads of the dagger in the form of ornamen

26. F

the so-called Arreton Down type of tanged blade is now admitted. Though tanged spear-heads of the Arreton Down type are fairly represented in Irish finds, no socket has been so far recovere

af-shaped S

g.

ar-heads in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy, and one in the collection of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. One of these spear-heads, found at Taplow on the Thames,

heads found together at the

31. F

were probably of wood, horn, or bone. Two examples formerly in Mr. Day's collection have rivets of bronze, and others with bronze rivets have been found in England. The leaf-shaped spear-head is associated by form with the leaf-shaped sword; the looped type with

rnamental

ings in t

ortion of

t the base o

g.

by a process of evolution, the loop has been incorporated as part of the wing, or they may also have been influenced by the early type of tanged spear-heads from the Greek islands, in which the openings in the blade were functional, being used for binding the head into a split shaft. These ornamental spear-heads belong, as a type, to the

-Spear-h

al openi

ad

-Spear-h

, Co. Fe

casting a socketed spear-he

tence of four, of which one is in the Greenwell collection, two in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy, and one in the Municipal Museum at Belfast. The Academy was fortunate enough to secure a very fine specimen i

ul

casting a spear-head and da

van. These moulds are of the greatest importance in the history of the development of the bronze spear-head, as they show the evolution of the tanged blade to the socketed form, and also that the tanged and socketed forms were in

or casting spear

ddy, Co

w them sufficiently. For a full description see the Journal of the

mitive Spear-heads foun

ournal of the Royal So

n the County Tyrone. (Reproduced from the Journal

leaf-shaped type are small and indeterminate in character. It is most probable that, with the introduction of the leaf-shaped spear-heads, moulds of clay or sand were introduced; and these have naturally perished. Fragments of a clay mould for casting a spear-head and a sword were found at Whitepark Bay, and portions of clay moulds for spear-

casting spear-head and dagg

r-fe

ronze spea

.-Bronz

with

ame

s of spears; and in some cases the remains of the wooden shafts have been found inside them. The finding, moreover, of one in the Lisnacroghera Crannog with the whole of the shaft, measuring 8 feet in lengt

raceful shape, and one is decorat