George Coffey

“ The Trundholm disk is admittedly connected with sun-worship, as is also the cruciform ornament on the Irish disks. The spoked-wheel is a well-known solar symbol; and similar designs have been found on the bases of some Irish food-vessels, and may also be compared with some of the [Pg 65] markings at Dowth. [20] The prevalence of sun-worship in the Bronze Age need not be further gone into here; but the gold disks are of great interest, as furnishing another point of contact between Ireland and Scandinavia in the Bronze Age. ”

“ Irish copper celts agree among themselves, and substantially with those from other countries, the small quantities of tin, antimony, arsenic, &c., which are found being due to impurities in the ore. The celts may be taken to be of copper, and not of poor bronze. [9] The earliest copper celts resemble the stone celts from which they are derived; some of them are small. A development takes place throughout the series, the celts becoming larger and the edges thinner as they approach the bronze forms. No trace of a stop-ridge is ever found on copper celts. ”

“ A number of leaf-shaped bronze swords have been found in Ireland. They may be roughly divided into two types, those with notches just below the blade and above the handle, and those that are plain. The latter are the earlier, and belong to the late Bronze Age; the former correspond to the Continental swords of the Hallstatt period. The leaf-shaped type was the typical Bronze-Age sword of western and northern Europe. It was developed from the dagger, and, like it, was a thrusting rather than a cutting weapon. ”

“ A leaf-shaped sword has been noticed on one of the clay tablets dated as late Minoan II, and in one of the stone slabs from over the fifth shaft grave at Mycenæ, which represents a figure in a chariot attacking a man on foot, the latter is armed with a leaf-shaped sword. [26] In any case it gives us a date for the period when these swords were in common use in western Europe. The type with notches below the blade has a tendency to become straighter at the sides, and to lose its leaf-shaped form. ”

“ The Chronology of the Irish Bronze Age
Some discussion as to the absolute chronology of the Bronze Age in Ireland will, no doubt, be expected, though any attempts to give actual dates can only be approximate; the succession of types is really of considerably more importance than the actual date, as such a succession enables objects, finds, and interments to be arranged in a progressive series, and shows the general trend of advance and culture. ”

“ An increasing percentage of tin was not found in any of the copper celts, or, contrary to expectation, in the copper halberds; but, judging from the widespread [Pg 21] use of copper implements in Ireland, from which it may be inferred that copper remained in use for a considerable time, it seems probable that bronze was introduced as an alloy of a known percentage of tin. As relatively few analyses of Irish bronze implements have been made, it is not possible at present to come to any fixed conclusions on the subject of the introduction of bronze into Ireland. ”

“ Oscar Montelius, of Stockholm, has been the pioneer of the study of the prehistoric chronology of Europe, his chronology of the Bronze Age in Scandinavia having been published as far back as 1885. Since then he has published the results of his studies of the Bronze-Age chronologies of Greece and Italy, and of France, Belgium, South Germany, and Switzerland. ”

“ The ornament of the Bronze Age in Ireland consists of chevrons, hatched triangles, lozenges, etc., combined with some wavy patterns, and later in some instances with the spirals introduced from Scandinavia, [53] where this motive had penetrated early from the Ægean along the amber route. This early type of ornament can be seen on some of the bronze celts, and also on the pottery, notably the food-vessels, which are often most tastefully decorated. The ornamentation, however, can be most fully studied on the inscribed stones in the great monuments of the New Grange group. ”

“ Until, however, we get into the Bronze Age, there has been no trace of a stop-ridge. When we get into the true Bronze Age, we find a complete and probably fairly rapid evolution of type from the flat celt to the final socketed form. Analyses of Irish celts on a large scale have not been made ”

“ Even as early as the Copper Period small weak knife-daggers were in use, and these continued into the Bronze Age, becoming the parent of the spear-head as well as of 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 shaft. ”

“ The fifth division—also a long one—would go from 900 to about 350 b.c., at which time iron weapons were probably coming into general use in Ireland. In this period would fall the socketed celts, including the latest type, which takes a form not uncommon among iron or steel axes, the later bronze swords with notches below the blades, bronze sword-chapes, the socketed sickles, probably some of the more highly ornamented bronze spears with apertures in the blades, the bronze trumpets, the gold fibulæ, and gold gorgets. ”

“ The twisted torc appears to have been replaced in Ireland about the second century b.c. by the plain torc, which was probably introduced from Gaul. The fine gold torc from Clonmacnois (Plate IX) , with La Tène decoration, is a good example of these torcs, and is almost identical with one from the Marne district now preserved in the St. Germain Museum. Probably the finest La Tène torc in existence is that found in the celebrated Broighter find, which is richly decorated with La Tène ornament (Plate IX, the inner torc) . ”

“ Large find of objects, formerly in St. Columba’s College Collection, all stated to have been found together, in 1830, in a bog at Derryhall, County Antrim. The find comprises fourteen disk-headed bronze pins of late Bronze-Age type, and two bronze pins, with cup-shaped heads, a bronze dagger and two bronze knives (one of the latter being socketed) , a socketed celt, nine bronze rings, a bronze ring with side perforations and a double ring, a bronze fibula with three beads ”

“ As has been mentioned, as well as being parent to the spear-head, the small weak knife-dagger frequently found in early Bronze-Age burials also developed into the true dagger-blade, and in course of time into the sword. Bronze daggers have often been found in Ireland; there are about forty in the National Collection. ”

“ Copper ores are, however, very rarely found in a pure state, and the small impurities of antimony, arsenic, &c., combine in the smelting with the copper, and lend a hardness and ductibility which would enable it to be cast in closed moulds. ”

“ It is to be hoped that now—with a concentrating of Irish interests on Irish affairs a new impetus will be given to the study of the history of our country, and that many workers may be found in the fields of archæology and of all subjects connected with our past. ”

“ The face becomes stylized by the substitution of a mere arched line for the eyebrows, and concentric circles for the eyes, the tattooing marks becoming a conventional pattern of regular chevrons. In the Irish examples the spiral replaces the concentric circles for the eyes, and the pattern below is further enriched by lozenges, and finally we arrive at a form in which the spiral has an eyebrow above and a single lozenge below, [Pg 103] and this form M. Déchelette compares to the engravings on the slabs at New Grange. ”

“ It is further stated that gold was first smelted for Tighearnmas, one of the earliest of the Milesian kings, in the forests standing on the east side of the River Liffey, by Iuchadan, a native of that district. ”

“ Some are long and tubular in shape (fig. 66) , while others are of the [Pg 73] winged or boat-shaped type which is found on the Continent (fig. 67) . Others again are of a small and simple type. The rivet-holes for the attachment of the sheaths can be seen in nearly all the Irish specimens. The casting of these objects shows a good deal of skill, as the metal is very thin. The winged variety are probably the latest, as they have been found with iron swords of Hallstatt type on the Continent.
Fig. 66.—Bronze chapes.
Fig. 67.—Winged chapes.
[Pg 74] Shields
Fig. ”

“ This shield appears to be complete as it stands, as there is no sign of any wooden supports at the back, nor is it easy to see how such supports could have been attached to it. According to Polybius round shields of bulls’ hide were used by the Roman equites in the early days of Roman history. ”

“ These spear-heads are very seldom met with. We only know of the existence 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 in 1912. It was found with two leaf-shaped bronze swords at Tempo, County Fermanagh, [14] and measures 151⁄2 inches long (fig. 37) . Judging from the associated swords, this spear-head may be dated about the ninth century b.c.
[Pg 39] Moulds
Fig. ”

“ The neck-portion of the gorgets is arranged in three rows of raised ridges, and these are ornamented with rows of small bosses, the depressions of the ridges being occupied with a narrow rope-shaped fillet. In some cases the ridges are left plain. ”

“ The development from the Neolithic bowl can be clearly traced in the Irish series. The earliest are flat, almost saucer-shaped bowls, which [Pg 96] are generally covered all over with ornament, and often have a cruciform pattern on the base which has been thought to indicate that the vessels were turned mouth downwards when not in use. [50]
Fig. ”

“ It is possible that gold—which, on account of its colour and appearance on the surface of the ground, must have been one of the metals first noticed and made use of in prehistoric times—was used for making ornaments at this period, or possibly, as Prof. ”

“ Bronze-age finds; List of well-authenticated Irish finds.
Chapter X, 88
Bronze trumpets; Types and derivation of Irish trumpets; Sickles; Discussion of types; Importance of, with regard to date of agriculture; Disk-headed pins.
Chapter XI, 94
Bronze-age pottery; Food-vessels; Derivation of, from Neolithic type; Cinerary urns; Incense cups.
Chapter XII, 101
Bronze-age ornamentation in Ireland; Discussion of the ornamentation at New Grange; M. Déchelette’s views as to its origin compared with those of the author. ”