Fig. 50.—Oak case for Lunula found at Newtown, Co. Cavan.Fig. 51.—Gold Lunula found at Valognes, Manche.Two have been found in the West Baltic at Zealand and Funen. They have otherwise hardly penetrated beyond Brittany. One has recently (1912) been found at Hanover, and another some time ago at Fauvillers, Luxembourg. This failure to penetrate far beyond the coasts of England and Brittany may point to early raids; but the copper and tin of Cornwall, as well as the tin deposits of Brittany and the general trade with Brittany, may indicate the early seeking of the Irish gold deposits. We may take as a provisional date for the lunulæ, 1200 to 1000b.c.Fig. 52.—Gold Lunula found in Co. Londonderry.Lunulæ now existing or known to have formerly existed:—IRELAND(62 at least).County.No.Reference.Donegal,2R.I.A. 1889: 20 (1). Trenta, Carrigans. R.I.A. 1909: 6 (1). Naran.Londonderry,2R.I.A. W. 12 (1). R.I.A. (loan 1907: 7) (1).Antrim,3Dublin Penny Journal, vol. iv, p. 295.Down,1Castlereagh, Ulster Journal of Archæology, vol. ix, p. 46.Tyrone,3Trillick, R.I.A. 1884: 495 (1). Carrickmore, R.I.A. 1900: 50 (1). Tartaraghan, Ulster Journal of Archæology, vol. ix, p. 47 (at Cecil, Augher) (1).Mayo,1R.I.A. 1909.Sligo,1Windele’s Miscellanea, p. 206.Fermanagh,1Enniskillen (Day Coll.).Monaghan,1Ballybay (Day Coll.).Galway,1R.I.A. W. 10 (Sirr Coll.).Roscommon,2Athlone, R.I.A. W. 5, and 1893: 4.Cavan,3Newtown, R.I.A. 1884: 494 (1). Bailieborough (British Museum) (1). Lisanover, Bawnboy. 1910: 45 (1).Westmeath,2Ross, R.I.A. 1896: 15 (1). Mullingar, 1884: 7 (1).Kildare,4Dunfierth, R.I.A. W. 4, 8, 9, and 15.Clare,2Porsoon Callan, R.I.A. 1877: 52 (1). Proc. R.I.A., vol. viii, p. 83 (1).Tipperary,1Glengall (British Museum).Kerry,5Banmore, R.I.A. R., 1755, 1756, 1757 (3): R.I.A., Killarney, W. 2 (1). Mangerton (Brit. Mus.) (1).Cork2Ballycotton (Brit. Mus.) (1), and one or perhaps two in Mr. Cliborn’s scrap-book in R.I.A.In addition to the foregoing there are 16 in the collection of the R.I.A. and 5 in the British Museum, and about 6 in private collections, which are known to have been found in Ireland, but of which the localities have not been recorded.ENGLAND(4).Cornwall,4Penzance (1), Padstow (2), Lesnewth (1) (Arch. Journ., vol. xxii, 276).WALES(1).Carnavonshire,1Llanllyfni (British Museum).SCOTLAND(4).Lanarkshire,2Southside near Coulter (Anderson, vol. i, p. 223).Dumfriesshire,1Auchentaggart (Anderson, vol. i, p. 222).Elginshire,1Fochabers (Cat. Nat. Mus., Scot., p. 210).Fig. 53.—Gold Lunula found at Athlone.FRANCE(6).Côtes du Nord,1Saint-Potan (Reinach, Revue Celtique, 1900, p. 95).Manche,3Tourlaville (1), Valognes (1) (Reinach, R. C., 1900, p. 95).Montebourg (1) (Cong. Arch. de France, 1905, p. 301).Vendée,2Bourneau (1), Nesmy (1) (Reinach, R. C., 1900, p. 95).BELGIUM(1).Luxemburg,1Fauvillers (Cong. Arch. de France, 1905, p. 302).DENMARK(2).Zealand,1Grevinge (A. f. Anth. xix, 9).Funen,1Skogshöierup (A. f. Anth. xix, 9).Fig. 54.—Map showing the Distribution of Lunulæ in Ireland and Europe.GERMANY(1).Hanover,1Schulenburg (Leine) Springe (1911).CHAPTER VDaggers and RapiersFig. 55.—Stone celt, Bronze dagger with gold band, and Urn found in Topped Mountain Cairn, Co. Fermanagh.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. Among the most interesting finds of these early daggers may be mentioned that discovered in 1897 at an interment at Topped Mountain Cairn, County Fermanagh. This dagger measures 5⅝ inches, and is covered with a beautiful blue patina. It is decorated with raised lines on each side of the blade, and has two small rivets. It was discovered in a cist in the cairn lying at the right side of the skull of an uncremated body, and in the same place was a smallband of gold which appears to have been half of a band of that metal which was probably round the handle of the dagger (fig.55). Another interesting find is the small bronze dagger discovered with urns and cremated bones in a cist at Annaghkeen Cairn, County Galway, in 1908.Fig. 56.—Dagger and Rapier blades.In course of time the length of the dagger-blade was increased; and later examples are wonderful specimens ofcasting. The earlier daggers were either attached to the handle by rivets, or else notches were left in the base of the blade for the attachment. The manner of hafting them is quite clear, as a few hafted examples have been found. Some had bronze handles cast separately (fig.56); others had handles of horn or wood (fig.57); but the hilts for the most part were made of some perishable substance, and they have consequently not been recovered. The scolloped mark left by the hilt is often quite plainly to be seen on the blade. In later times the handle was sometimes cast in one piece with the blade; but the division between the handle and the blade is always quite clearly marked. The decoration of the later dagger-blades takes the form of a number of triangles at the base of the blade, and the extreme similarity in decoration between the Italian and the early northern and western daggers has led Montelius to consider the latter as derived from the former; and this is enforced in the case of the Irish examples by the series of small hatched-triangles which have been found at the base of two well-known Irish examples (fig.56).The rapiers were evolved quite naturally by lengthening the dagger-blade; and this form was probably influenced also, as will be mentioned later, by contemporary weapons in use in the Mediterranean lands.The longest rapier ever found in Western Europe is the splendid weapon found at Lissane, Co. Derry, in 1867, which measures 30¼ inches in length (fig.59). Another very remarkable Irish example is the short rapier found in Upper Lough Erne, and obtained by Mr. Thomas Plunkett,m.r.i.a., from the finder. This weapon is a wonderfully fine piece of casting. It measures 16¾ inches in length (fig.58).Fig. 57.—Dagger withhorn handle found atBallymoney, Co. Antrim.Fig. 58.—Rapier foundin Upper Lough Erne.Fig. 59.—Rapier found atLissane, Co. Derry.Fig. 60.—Rapiers and Daggers found in Ireland.The rapiers belong to the middle and later portions of the Bronze Age. This type of weapon is common in France, and is described by M. Déchelette as widely spread in the British Islands and the north of France, and as having been introduced from there into South Germany and the region of the MiddleRhine.[16]The rapiers of advanced type he places in the third division of the Bronze Age, as they have been found in Bronze-Age tumuli of that period, as at Staadorf, Haut Palatinat (1600-1300b.c.). Montelius places the rapiers in his fourth period dated at the end of the fifteenth to the middle of the twelfth centuryb.c.,[17]so that his dating of these objects practically coincides with that of M. Déchelette. It is now well recognized that the swords of the Ægean-Mycenæan area were developed on parallel lines to those of Western Europe. We find that the long rapiers or thrusting swords are developed from the tanged Cypriote dagger, and that the true sword is a later evolution from the rapier. It is hardly to be doubted that some of the western forms of daggers and rapiers were influenced by Mycenæan types; and the discovery in Sicily of rapiers of Mycenæan type with pottery dated as recent Minoan III, establishes a direct bond between the Ægean and Western Europe.[18]CHAPTER VIGold GorgetsFig. 61.—Gold Gorget found in Ireland, formerly in the possession of the Earl of Charleville. From Vetusta Monumenta, Vol. v, Pl. xxviii.Plate II.Irish Gold Gorgets.p.62.Among the most striking of the gold ornaments in the National Collection are the five gold gorgets or neck-collars, with the ends decorated with ornamented disks. These are very elaborately decorated, and of great massiveness. Twoothers mentioned as having been found in Ireland, one of which was formerly in the possession of the Earl of Charleville, were figured in “Vetusta Monumenta.” Vallancey states that another was found in the County Longford. A few disks have also been found which may have been portions of these gorgets. 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 small disks at the terminals of the collar are remarkable; they measure about 2⅞ or 3 inches in diameter, and are decorated with a centre and side bosses, surrounded with concentric circles. They much resemble in miniature the round shields or bucklers of the late Bronze Age, but they also show some resemblance to the so-called sun-disks which have been found in Ireland, and which will be described later on. Unfortunately the gorgets have in no case been found with any accompanying objects which would assist in dating them, and in fact in only two cases have details as to their finding been preserved, one found at Ardcroney, near Nenagh, County Tipperary, the other at Tony Hill, Croom, County Limerick. Their ornamentation, however, would seem to place them in the Hallstatt period, first Iron Age, which may be dated at about 700-600b.c.Their form and ornamentation may be compared with that of the splendid gold collar from Cintra, Lisbon, now in the British Museum,[19]and also with the triple bronze collars common in Scandinavia and north Germany, all of which are referred to the Hallstatt period. This period is at present not well represented in Ireland or the British Isles; and it is doubtful whether iron came into general use in Ireland till about the third centuryb.c.One point of much interest must be noticed. In one of the gorgets shown inPlate II, where the disk is attached to thegorget, above the line where the end of the plate passes into the boss, three perpendicular and two cross-stitches can be seen. Some of these sewings are made by means of slight square wire, but in others the fastenings are composed of fine woollen thread, round which is twisted spirally a thin, flat strip of gold. These strips are one of the oldest specimens of woollen cordage now in existence in Ireland.Gold Sun-disksWe have already referred to the flat disks of gold, a number of which have been found in Ireland. There are four in the British Museum, and no less than fifteen in the National Collection at Dublin. In four cases they have been found in pairs—one pair at Ballina, County Mayo, another pair at Tydavnet, County Monaghan, a third at Cloyne, Co. Cork, and the fourth at Castle Martyr, Co. Cork. Some of these disks are ornamented with concentric circles; others have a cruciform ornament which resembles the four-spoked chariot-wheel, and is a well-known sun symbol. When these objects were first discovered, their origin and use were quite unknown; and Mr. Reginald A. Smith, of the British Museum, was the first to point out their resemblance to the gold disk, decorated with spirals, affixed to a bronze sun-chariot, found in Trundholm Moss, Zealand, in 1902. The bronze chariot consisted of a bronze disk mounted on wheels and drawn by a horse, the gold disk being affixed to the bronze one. The ornamentation of the Irish disks is somewhat different, as the spiral does not appear, its place being taken by the concentric circle. The Trundholm sun-chariot is dated by Prof. Sophus Muller at before 1000b.c.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 themarkings 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. The finding of Irish gold lunulæ in Denmark, and the occurrence of Scandinavian amber in Irish finds of the Bronze-Age, have already been mentioned.Plate III.Gold sun-disks.p.64.Gold BallsWe may also mention the large hollow golden balls of which seven are in the National collection, one in the possession of Mr. H. J. B. Clements, and another in the British Museum. Eleven of these golden balls were found in 1834 at Carrick-on-Shannon.[21]There has been much conjecture as to the use these balls were put to, and it has been suggested that as their large size would render them inconvenient as personal ornaments, they were probably used to decorate a horse. If so they may have been attached to the bridle like the large balls shown on the horses’ bridles in the bronze scabbard from Hallstatt, dated La Tène I. See Déchelette, “Manuel d’Archéologie,” vol. ii, p. 770. The Golden Peytrell found at Mold, Flintshire, may be instanced to show that gold was sometimes used to decorate horses; and if the gold balls were really used for this purpose, we may well endorse what the author of the “British Museum Bronze-Age Guide” says when he writes: “A discovery of this kind demonstrates in a striking manner the abundance of gold at the end of our Bronze period.”[22]Clare FindAnother type of neck-ornaments are the thin gold gorgets with funnel-shaped ends, many of which were found in the great Clare find. These gorgets are quite plain, except for alittle ornamentation at the extreme ends near the funnel-shaped extremities. There are five of these objects in the National Collection, and all were found together in the celebrated Clare find. This find—the largest collective one of gold objects ever made in Western Europe—was discovered in making a railway-cutting for the Limerick and Ennis Railway in 1854. A gang of labourers were digging near an old hawthorn-bush, a little distance to the south of the railway bridge in Moghaun north, on the west side of the line of the great fort, and opposite the lough, when they undermined a kind of cist. The fall of one of the containing-stones disclosed a mass of gold ornaments—gorgets, bracelets of all sizes with cup-shaped ends, and a few ingots of gold. The find, from a numerical point of view, far surpassed anything ever made, but none of the objects were highly ornamented or of a special type.The fact of this immense number of gold ornaments being hidden in a cist in this way has given rise to many conjectures; but in the absence of any other explanation, it may be suggested that the objects had been collected together, and hidden purposely, with the idea of returning and regaining possession of them later. The value of the find has been estimated at at least £3,000. Unfortunately, most of the objects were sold to jewellers and melted down, but a large number were exhibited at the Archæological Institute by Dr. Todd and Lord Talbot de Malahide in 1854, and casts of these were taken, and a set is now in the National Collection. There are also a small number of the originals in the Royal Irish Academy’s collection (Plate IV). Otherwise such objects of the find as escaped the melting-pot were scattered, and have found their way into different museums and private collections. As has been mentioned, the objects of this find did not show any remarkable types, and for the most part consisted of very thin bracelets and penannular rings with cup-shaped ends. It is probable that, as well as being ornaments, they served as a kind of currency.Plate IV.Portion of the great Clare find.p.66.Penannular Rings and Ring-MoneyFig. 62.—Gold fibulæ, and other objects found together at Coachford, Co. Cork.Fig. 63.—Sixteenth-century bronze casting from Benin, showing Europeans holding manillas (after Read and Dalton,Antiquities of the City of Benin).The large number of penannular rings with cup-shaped ends which have been found from time to time in the island, brings us on to the general question of the so-called Irish fibulæ. In Ireland penannular rings with cup-shaped ends of copper or bronze are very rare, only about half a dozen being known,while fibulæ of gold are exceedingly common. The Coachford find, in which amber beads, gold fibulæ, and a copper or bronze fibula were all found together, shows that the objects were contemporary; and as this find may be placed at the end of the Bronze Age, it shows that these objects were in use at that period (fig.62). On the other hand, it is likely that their use began earlier and continued for a long period. These objects when made of gold are of two shapes—in the one case the expanded cups are large and flat and the connecting bar is bow-shaped, and is striated. These have been conjectured to have been used as brooches for fastening a garment; and their form was probably influenced by the Scandinavian spectacle-brooches, the bows of the latter having, in some cases, the same decoration. Except for the striations on the connecting link, the Irish so-called mamillary fibulæ are almost always plain; butVallancey has figured two examples, one of which is engraved with triangular, and the other with lozenge, ornaments. There is also the well-known example in Trinity College, Dublin, in which the surfaces of the cups are completely covered with concentric circle ornament, the inside rims of the cups being decorated with hatched triangles, and the neckings of what may be called the handle, with chevron and herring-bone pattern, while along the back of the handle is an ornament of lozenges. In the second type these objects assume the shape of a bracelet; and the expanded ends are sometimes cup-shaped and sometimes plain. From the extreme similarity between the shape of these, whether in gold or bronze, to the so-called Africanmanillas, it has been conjectured the Irish examples, like the African, may have been used as a medium of exchange; and on the whole it seems probable that such was the case, the dividing line between what were used for ornaments and what may have been used for exchange not being at all easily defined (figs.63and64).Plate V.Gold Fibulæ.p.68.Fig. 64.—Sixteenth-century bronze casting from Benin, showing natives holding manillas (after Read and Dalton,Antiquities of the City of Benin).Ring-MoneyThe question of a medium of exchange leads us to mention the very small gold penannular rings, the largest being about an inch in diameter, frequently found in Ireland, which are known as ‘ring-money.’ There are fifty-six in the National Collection; and a find made near Belfast of a socketed bronze celt in association with some of these objects shows they were in use during the late Bronze Age.[23]Attention has been called to the similarity of these Irish gold rings to the penannular copper rings plated with gold often found in early Japanese burials.[24]Many attempts have been made to equate the weights of a series of these rings with some known standard; and in his valuable work “The Origin of Currency and Weight Standards,” Professor Ridgeway devotes several pages of his Appendix C to a discussion of the subject, and gives a table of the weights arrived at by grouping the rings in multiples of 18.While there can be no reasonable doubt that these objects were used as a medium of exchange, we are not inclined, in the absence of literary evidence, to go any further into the question of what standard they may represent. Some of these rings are evidently forgeries of ancient times, as they are composed of bronze rings covered with a thin plate of gold. The rings as a rule are plain; but some are ornamented with small strips of darker metal let into the gold, and two examples are twisted like small torcs.Plate VI.Gold Ring-Money.p.70.CHAPTER VIILeaf-shaped SwordsA 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. The handle is cast in one piece with the blade, and has rivet-holes, and in some cases a slit for the attachment of the hilt, which was no doubt formed of bone or horn plates. The pommel was probably globular, and formed of lead or some heavy material. A bronze sword of this type was found in a house on the Akropolis at Mycenæ by Schliemann, and it can be dated at about 1200b.c.[25]The discovery of this sword may be explained either as the result of a raid, or as showing that invaders from the north had reached Greece as early as this date. 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 use of the notches is not apparent, butit has been thought that the scabbards at that time were made of wood and were liable to shrink from exposure to weather, and that this may have prevented the sword from being thrust home, so that the edge was cut off by the notches slightly below the handle to avoid cutting the hand. The handle end of this latter type very frequently assumes a form like a fish’s tail. These swords develop into the iron swords of the Hallstatt period, of which so far only one Irish example has been found. A bronze sword of the notched type formed part of the Dowris hoard, and is figured in the “British Museum Bronze-Age Guide,” plate ii. Two remarkably fine specimens of this type were found in 1912 with a socketed spear-head at Tempo, County Fermanagh.Fig. 65.—Leaf-shaped bronze swords, found with a spear-head at Tempo, Co. Fermanagh.No moulds for casting leaf-shaped swords of either type have been found in Ireland; and it is therefore probable that at the time they were in use sand-casting had replaced casting from stone moulds. The scabbards of the leaf-shaped swords were made of wood or leather, protected by a ferule or chape of bronze, which was fastened to it by rivets; the point of the weapon does not seem to have reached the end of the sheath. There are several examples of bronze chapes in the Royal Irish Academy’s collection, and they display a considerable variety of design. Some are long and tubular in shape (fig.66), while others are of thewinged 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.ShieldsFig. 68.—Bronze shield, found at Lough Gur, Co. Limerick.Two circular shields or bucklers of bronze have been found in Ireland. There is only one in the National Collection, thefine shield discovered at Lough Gur, County Limerick. There is, however, a small shield of bronze ornamented with large bosses in the British Museum which was found at Athenry, County Galway.[27]These bronze shields have never been found in the British Islands with any objects which would give any definite clue to their date; but they are generally referred to the late Bronze Age. They belong to a common type, being decorated with numerous bands of small bosses separated by concentric circles. They appear to have been hammered out.Fig. 69.—Alder-wood shield, found inCo. Leitrim.Fig. 70.—Front and back of leather shield, found at Clonbrin, Co. Longford.There are two other shields of great interest in the National Collection. One is the remarkable alder-wood shield found 10 feet deep in a bog in 1863 at Annadale, County Leitrim. This shield is oval in shape, and has a central boss and seven raised ribs. It will be noticed that the ribs show an indentation at one side; but too much emphasis must not beplaced on this, as the shield shrank a good deal after its removal from the bog, and the alteration may be due to this. This shield has a handle at the back. It is interesting to note that ‘sciath,’ one of the Irish words for ‘shield,’ denotes ‘alder.’ The next is the leather shield found in 1908 at Clonbrin, County Longford, and presented to the Royal Irish Academy’s collection by Colonel W. H. King-Harman. This truly remarkable shield, the only one of its kind in Europe, is made of a solid piece of leather nearly ¼ of an inch thick, and measures 20½ inches in length by 19½ inches across. It has an oblong centre boss pressed out of the leather and covered with an ornamental cap of fine leather laced on to it. The boss is encircled by three ribs, the inner one being gapped, and the two others having a curious re-entrant angle. The shield has twenty-four small round bosses on it which resemble those on the bronze shields. There is a leather handle which was laced on to the back. 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.The round shield of the late Bronze Age was succeeded by the oval shield which may be taken as partly transitional to the oblong shield of Southern Europe and also of the late Celtic type found in Britain. The date, therefore, of this Irish leather shield is probably to be placed in the Early Iron period.CHAPTER VIIITorcsThere are twenty-four golden torcs of various types in the National Collection and one of bronze; but the Irish provenance of the latter is doubtful.The best known are the two magnificent gold torcs found in the side of one of the raths at Tara, and these belong to a type that has been found in England and France, of which the best known examples are those found at Yeovil, Somerset,[28]and Grunty Fen, Cambridge.[29]A torc of this type was also found by Schliemann in the royal treasury in the second city of Troy. This find has led to a good deal of speculative opinions varying as to whether the model of the torc was imported into Ireland from the south, or whether the Irish gold could have reached the Mediterranean in pre-Mycenæan times.[30]Torcs of this type were made by folding two thin ribbons of gold along the middle at a right angle; they were then attached with some kind of resinous flux, apex to apex, and twisted together. In some cases, instead of two folded ribbons a flat one and two halves of another were used, after being fastened together, the twisting being done in the same way. In some of the Irish examples the body of the torc is plain, or was grooved to simulate the appearance of the twisted torc. A peculiar feature of these torcs is the large hooks with which they are provided. It must be noted that whereas twisted torcs of bronze are fairly common in England and France there is only one bronze torc in the Irish National Collection, and, as mentioned above, the provenance of this is doubtful. Thedating of these twisted torcs is a matter of difficulty, as there are only two instances of their having been found in association with bronze objects, one in the case of the Grunty Fen torc which was discovered with three bronze palstaves, and another found at Fresné la Mère, near Falaise, Normandy, which was found with a bronze razor and other objects of bronze. Such evidence as exists, therefore, would place them in the late Bronze Age, probably somewhere about 1000b.c., but certain varieties of torcs, as we shall see, continued in use as late as the first century. The area of distribution of gold torcs of the Tara type in Ireland, England and France is very limited, none having been found in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Holland, or Spain and Portugal.[31]It has been suggested that the gold of which all these torcs were composed came from the Wicklow Mountains,[32]and in view of the extreme wealth of Ireland in gold, as evinced by the number of gold ornaments which are still constantly found, this may be considered probable.Plate VII.
Fig. 50.—Oak case for Lunula found at Newtown, Co. Cavan.
Fig. 51.—Gold Lunula found at Valognes, Manche.
Two have been found in the West Baltic at Zealand and Funen. They have otherwise hardly penetrated beyond Brittany. One has recently (1912) been found at Hanover, and another some time ago at Fauvillers, Luxembourg. This failure to penetrate far beyond the coasts of England and Brittany may point to early raids; but the copper and tin of Cornwall, as well as the tin deposits of Brittany and the general trade with Brittany, may indicate the early seeking of the Irish gold deposits. We may take as a provisional date for the lunulæ, 1200 to 1000b.c.
Fig. 52.—Gold Lunula found in Co. Londonderry.
Lunulæ now existing or known to have formerly existed:—
IRELAND(62 at least).
County.No.Reference.Donegal,2R.I.A. 1889: 20 (1). Trenta, Carrigans. R.I.A. 1909: 6 (1). Naran.Londonderry,2R.I.A. W. 12 (1). R.I.A. (loan 1907: 7) (1).Antrim,3Dublin Penny Journal, vol. iv, p. 295.Down,1Castlereagh, Ulster Journal of Archæology, vol. ix, p. 46.Tyrone,3Trillick, R.I.A. 1884: 495 (1). Carrickmore, R.I.A. 1900: 50 (1). Tartaraghan, Ulster Journal of Archæology, vol. ix, p. 47 (at Cecil, Augher) (1).Mayo,1R.I.A. 1909.Sligo,1Windele’s Miscellanea, p. 206.Fermanagh,1Enniskillen (Day Coll.).Monaghan,1Ballybay (Day Coll.).Galway,1R.I.A. W. 10 (Sirr Coll.).Roscommon,2Athlone, R.I.A. W. 5, and 1893: 4.Cavan,3Newtown, R.I.A. 1884: 494 (1). Bailieborough (British Museum) (1). Lisanover, Bawnboy. 1910: 45 (1).Westmeath,2Ross, R.I.A. 1896: 15 (1). Mullingar, 1884: 7 (1).Kildare,4Dunfierth, R.I.A. W. 4, 8, 9, and 15.Clare,2Porsoon Callan, R.I.A. 1877: 52 (1). Proc. R.I.A., vol. viii, p. 83 (1).Tipperary,1Glengall (British Museum).Kerry,5Banmore, R.I.A. R., 1755, 1756, 1757 (3): R.I.A., Killarney, W. 2 (1). Mangerton (Brit. Mus.) (1).Cork2Ballycotton (Brit. Mus.) (1), and one or perhaps two in Mr. Cliborn’s scrap-book in R.I.A.
In addition to the foregoing there are 16 in the collection of the R.I.A. and 5 in the British Museum, and about 6 in private collections, which are known to have been found in Ireland, but of which the localities have not been recorded.
ENGLAND(4).
Cornwall,4Penzance (1), Padstow (2), Lesnewth (1) (Arch. Journ., vol. xxii, 276).
WALES(1).
Carnavonshire,1Llanllyfni (British Museum).
SCOTLAND(4).
Lanarkshire,2Southside near Coulter (Anderson, vol. i, p. 223).Dumfriesshire,1Auchentaggart (Anderson, vol. i, p. 222).Elginshire,1Fochabers (Cat. Nat. Mus., Scot., p. 210).
Fig. 53.—Gold Lunula found at Athlone.
FRANCE(6).
Côtes du Nord,1Saint-Potan (Reinach, Revue Celtique, 1900, p. 95).Manche,3Tourlaville (1), Valognes (1) (Reinach, R. C., 1900, p. 95).Montebourg (1) (Cong. Arch. de France, 1905, p. 301).Vendée,2Bourneau (1), Nesmy (1) (Reinach, R. C., 1900, p. 95).
BELGIUM(1).
Luxemburg,1Fauvillers (Cong. Arch. de France, 1905, p. 302).
DENMARK(2).
Zealand,1Grevinge (A. f. Anth. xix, 9).Funen,1Skogshöierup (A. f. Anth. xix, 9).
Fig. 54.—Map showing the Distribution of Lunulæ in Ireland and Europe.
GERMANY(1).
Hanover,1Schulenburg (Leine) Springe (1911).
Daggers and Rapiers
Fig. 55.—Stone celt, Bronze dagger with gold band, and Urn found in Topped Mountain Cairn, Co. Fermanagh.
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. Among the most interesting finds of these early daggers may be mentioned that discovered in 1897 at an interment at Topped Mountain Cairn, County Fermanagh. This dagger measures 5⅝ inches, and is covered with a beautiful blue patina. It is decorated with raised lines on each side of the blade, and has two small rivets. It was discovered in a cist in the cairn lying at the right side of the skull of an uncremated body, and in the same place was a smallband of gold which appears to have been half of a band of that metal which was probably round the handle of the dagger (fig.55). Another interesting find is the small bronze dagger discovered with urns and cremated bones in a cist at Annaghkeen Cairn, County Galway, in 1908.
Fig. 56.—Dagger and Rapier blades.
In course of time the length of the dagger-blade was increased; and later examples are wonderful specimens ofcasting. The earlier daggers were either attached to the handle by rivets, or else notches were left in the base of the blade for the attachment. The manner of hafting them is quite clear, as a few hafted examples have been found. Some had bronze handles cast separately (fig.56); others had handles of horn or wood (fig.57); but the hilts for the most part were made of some perishable substance, and they have consequently not been recovered. The scolloped mark left by the hilt is often quite plainly to be seen on the blade. In later times the handle was sometimes cast in one piece with the blade; but the division between the handle and the blade is always quite clearly marked. The decoration of the later dagger-blades takes the form of a number of triangles at the base of the blade, and the extreme similarity in decoration between the Italian and the early northern and western daggers has led Montelius to consider the latter as derived from the former; and this is enforced in the case of the Irish examples by the series of small hatched-triangles which have been found at the base of two well-known Irish examples (fig.56).
The rapiers were evolved quite naturally by lengthening the dagger-blade; and this form was probably influenced also, as will be mentioned later, by contemporary weapons in use in the Mediterranean lands.
The longest rapier ever found in Western Europe is the splendid weapon found at Lissane, Co. Derry, in 1867, which measures 30¼ inches in length (fig.59). Another very remarkable Irish example is the short rapier found in Upper Lough Erne, and obtained by Mr. Thomas Plunkett,m.r.i.a., from the finder. This weapon is a wonderfully fine piece of casting. It measures 16¾ inches in length (fig.58).
Fig. 57.—Dagger withhorn handle found atBallymoney, Co. Antrim.
Fig. 58.—Rapier foundin Upper Lough Erne.
Fig. 59.—Rapier found atLissane, Co. Derry.
Fig. 60.—Rapiers and Daggers found in Ireland.
The rapiers belong to the middle and later portions of the Bronze Age. This type of weapon is common in France, and is described by M. Déchelette as widely spread in the British Islands and the north of France, and as having been introduced from there into South Germany and the region of the MiddleRhine.[16]The rapiers of advanced type he places in the third division of the Bronze Age, as they have been found in Bronze-Age tumuli of that period, as at Staadorf, Haut Palatinat (1600-1300b.c.). Montelius places the rapiers in his fourth period dated at the end of the fifteenth to the middle of the twelfth centuryb.c.,[17]so that his dating of these objects practically coincides with that of M. Déchelette. It is now well recognized that the swords of the Ægean-Mycenæan area were developed on parallel lines to those of Western Europe. We find that the long rapiers or thrusting swords are developed from the tanged Cypriote dagger, and that the true sword is a later evolution from the rapier. It is hardly to be doubted that some of the western forms of daggers and rapiers were influenced by Mycenæan types; and the discovery in Sicily of rapiers of Mycenæan type with pottery dated as recent Minoan III, establishes a direct bond between the Ægean and Western Europe.[18]
Gold Gorgets
Fig. 61.—Gold Gorget found in Ireland, formerly in the possession of the Earl of Charleville. From Vetusta Monumenta, Vol. v, Pl. xxviii.
Plate II.
Irish Gold Gorgets.p.62.
Among the most striking of the gold ornaments in the National Collection are the five gold gorgets or neck-collars, with the ends decorated with ornamented disks. These are very elaborately decorated, and of great massiveness. Twoothers mentioned as having been found in Ireland, one of which was formerly in the possession of the Earl of Charleville, were figured in “Vetusta Monumenta.” Vallancey states that another was found in the County Longford. A few disks have also been found which may have been portions of these gorgets. 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 small disks at the terminals of the collar are remarkable; they measure about 2⅞ or 3 inches in diameter, and are decorated with a centre and side bosses, surrounded with concentric circles. They much resemble in miniature the round shields or bucklers of the late Bronze Age, but they also show some resemblance to the so-called sun-disks which have been found in Ireland, and which will be described later on. Unfortunately the gorgets have in no case been found with any accompanying objects which would assist in dating them, and in fact in only two cases have details as to their finding been preserved, one found at Ardcroney, near Nenagh, County Tipperary, the other at Tony Hill, Croom, County Limerick. Their ornamentation, however, would seem to place them in the Hallstatt period, first Iron Age, which may be dated at about 700-600b.c.Their form and ornamentation may be compared with that of the splendid gold collar from Cintra, Lisbon, now in the British Museum,[19]and also with the triple bronze collars common in Scandinavia and north Germany, all of which are referred to the Hallstatt period. This period is at present not well represented in Ireland or the British Isles; and it is doubtful whether iron came into general use in Ireland till about the third centuryb.c.
One point of much interest must be noticed. In one of the gorgets shown inPlate II, where the disk is attached to thegorget, above the line where the end of the plate passes into the boss, three perpendicular and two cross-stitches can be seen. Some of these sewings are made by means of slight square wire, but in others the fastenings are composed of fine woollen thread, round which is twisted spirally a thin, flat strip of gold. These strips are one of the oldest specimens of woollen cordage now in existence in Ireland.
Gold Sun-disks
We have already referred to the flat disks of gold, a number of which have been found in Ireland. There are four in the British Museum, and no less than fifteen in the National Collection at Dublin. In four cases they have been found in pairs—one pair at Ballina, County Mayo, another pair at Tydavnet, County Monaghan, a third at Cloyne, Co. Cork, and the fourth at Castle Martyr, Co. Cork. Some of these disks are ornamented with concentric circles; others have a cruciform ornament which resembles the four-spoked chariot-wheel, and is a well-known sun symbol. When these objects were first discovered, their origin and use were quite unknown; and Mr. Reginald A. Smith, of the British Museum, was the first to point out their resemblance to the gold disk, decorated with spirals, affixed to a bronze sun-chariot, found in Trundholm Moss, Zealand, in 1902. The bronze chariot consisted of a bronze disk mounted on wheels and drawn by a horse, the gold disk being affixed to the bronze one. The ornamentation of the Irish disks is somewhat different, as the spiral does not appear, its place being taken by the concentric circle. The Trundholm sun-chariot is dated by Prof. Sophus Muller at before 1000b.c.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 themarkings 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. The finding of Irish gold lunulæ in Denmark, and the occurrence of Scandinavian amber in Irish finds of the Bronze-Age, have already been mentioned.
Plate III.
Gold sun-disks.p.64.
Gold Balls
We may also mention the large hollow golden balls of which seven are in the National collection, one in the possession of Mr. H. J. B. Clements, and another in the British Museum. Eleven of these golden balls were found in 1834 at Carrick-on-Shannon.[21]There has been much conjecture as to the use these balls were put to, and it has been suggested that as their large size would render them inconvenient as personal ornaments, they were probably used to decorate a horse. If so they may have been attached to the bridle like the large balls shown on the horses’ bridles in the bronze scabbard from Hallstatt, dated La Tène I. See Déchelette, “Manuel d’Archéologie,” vol. ii, p. 770. The Golden Peytrell found at Mold, Flintshire, may be instanced to show that gold was sometimes used to decorate horses; and if the gold balls were really used for this purpose, we may well endorse what the author of the “British Museum Bronze-Age Guide” says when he writes: “A discovery of this kind demonstrates in a striking manner the abundance of gold at the end of our Bronze period.”[22]
Clare Find
Another type of neck-ornaments are the thin gold gorgets with funnel-shaped ends, many of which were found in the great Clare find. These gorgets are quite plain, except for alittle ornamentation at the extreme ends near the funnel-shaped extremities. There are five of these objects in the National Collection, and all were found together in the celebrated Clare find. This find—the largest collective one of gold objects ever made in Western Europe—was discovered in making a railway-cutting for the Limerick and Ennis Railway in 1854. A gang of labourers were digging near an old hawthorn-bush, a little distance to the south of the railway bridge in Moghaun north, on the west side of the line of the great fort, and opposite the lough, when they undermined a kind of cist. The fall of one of the containing-stones disclosed a mass of gold ornaments—gorgets, bracelets of all sizes with cup-shaped ends, and a few ingots of gold. The find, from a numerical point of view, far surpassed anything ever made, but none of the objects were highly ornamented or of a special type.
The fact of this immense number of gold ornaments being hidden in a cist in this way has given rise to many conjectures; but in the absence of any other explanation, it may be suggested that the objects had been collected together, and hidden purposely, with the idea of returning and regaining possession of them later. The value of the find has been estimated at at least £3,000. Unfortunately, most of the objects were sold to jewellers and melted down, but a large number were exhibited at the Archæological Institute by Dr. Todd and Lord Talbot de Malahide in 1854, and casts of these were taken, and a set is now in the National Collection. There are also a small number of the originals in the Royal Irish Academy’s collection (Plate IV). Otherwise such objects of the find as escaped the melting-pot were scattered, and have found their way into different museums and private collections. As has been mentioned, the objects of this find did not show any remarkable types, and for the most part consisted of very thin bracelets and penannular rings with cup-shaped ends. It is probable that, as well as being ornaments, they served as a kind of currency.
Plate IV.
Portion of the great Clare find.p.66.
Penannular Rings and Ring-Money
Fig. 62.—Gold fibulæ, and other objects found together at Coachford, Co. Cork.
Fig. 63.—Sixteenth-century bronze casting from Benin, showing Europeans holding manillas (after Read and Dalton,Antiquities of the City of Benin).
The large number of penannular rings with cup-shaped ends which have been found from time to time in the island, brings us on to the general question of the so-called Irish fibulæ. In Ireland penannular rings with cup-shaped ends of copper or bronze are very rare, only about half a dozen being known,while fibulæ of gold are exceedingly common. The Coachford find, in which amber beads, gold fibulæ, and a copper or bronze fibula were all found together, shows that the objects were contemporary; and as this find may be placed at the end of the Bronze Age, it shows that these objects were in use at that period (fig.62). On the other hand, it is likely that their use began earlier and continued for a long period. These objects when made of gold are of two shapes—in the one case the expanded cups are large and flat and the connecting bar is bow-shaped, and is striated. These have been conjectured to have been used as brooches for fastening a garment; and their form was probably influenced by the Scandinavian spectacle-brooches, the bows of the latter having, in some cases, the same decoration. Except for the striations on the connecting link, the Irish so-called mamillary fibulæ are almost always plain; butVallancey has figured two examples, one of which is engraved with triangular, and the other with lozenge, ornaments. There is also the well-known example in Trinity College, Dublin, in which the surfaces of the cups are completely covered with concentric circle ornament, the inside rims of the cups being decorated with hatched triangles, and the neckings of what may be called the handle, with chevron and herring-bone pattern, while along the back of the handle is an ornament of lozenges. In the second type these objects assume the shape of a bracelet; and the expanded ends are sometimes cup-shaped and sometimes plain. From the extreme similarity between the shape of these, whether in gold or bronze, to the so-called Africanmanillas, it has been conjectured the Irish examples, like the African, may have been used as a medium of exchange; and on the whole it seems probable that such was the case, the dividing line between what were used for ornaments and what may have been used for exchange not being at all easily defined (figs.63and64).
Plate V.
Gold Fibulæ.p.68.
Fig. 64.—Sixteenth-century bronze casting from Benin, showing natives holding manillas (after Read and Dalton,Antiquities of the City of Benin).
Ring-Money
The question of a medium of exchange leads us to mention the very small gold penannular rings, the largest being about an inch in diameter, frequently found in Ireland, which are known as ‘ring-money.’ There are fifty-six in the National Collection; and a find made near Belfast of a socketed bronze celt in association with some of these objects shows they were in use during the late Bronze Age.[23]Attention has been called to the similarity of these Irish gold rings to the penannular copper rings plated with gold often found in early Japanese burials.[24]
Many attempts have been made to equate the weights of a series of these rings with some known standard; and in his valuable work “The Origin of Currency and Weight Standards,” Professor Ridgeway devotes several pages of his Appendix C to a discussion of the subject, and gives a table of the weights arrived at by grouping the rings in multiples of 18.
While there can be no reasonable doubt that these objects were used as a medium of exchange, we are not inclined, in the absence of literary evidence, to go any further into the question of what standard they may represent. Some of these rings are evidently forgeries of ancient times, as they are composed of bronze rings covered with a thin plate of gold. The rings as a rule are plain; but some are ornamented with small strips of darker metal let into the gold, and two examples are twisted like small torcs.
Plate VI.
Gold Ring-Money.p.70.
Leaf-shaped Swords
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. The handle is cast in one piece with the blade, and has rivet-holes, and in some cases a slit for the attachment of the hilt, which was no doubt formed of bone or horn plates. The pommel was probably globular, and formed of lead or some heavy material. A bronze sword of this type was found in a house on the Akropolis at Mycenæ by Schliemann, and it can be dated at about 1200b.c.[25]The discovery of this sword may be explained either as the result of a raid, or as showing that invaders from the north had reached Greece as early as this date. 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 use of the notches is not apparent, butit has been thought that the scabbards at that time were made of wood and were liable to shrink from exposure to weather, and that this may have prevented the sword from being thrust home, so that the edge was cut off by the notches slightly below the handle to avoid cutting the hand. The handle end of this latter type very frequently assumes a form like a fish’s tail. These swords develop into the iron swords of the Hallstatt period, of which so far only one Irish example has been found. A bronze sword of the notched type formed part of the Dowris hoard, and is figured in the “British Museum Bronze-Age Guide,” plate ii. Two remarkably fine specimens of this type were found in 1912 with a socketed spear-head at Tempo, County Fermanagh.
Fig. 65.—Leaf-shaped bronze swords, found with a spear-head at Tempo, Co. Fermanagh.
No moulds for casting leaf-shaped swords of either type have been found in Ireland; and it is therefore probable that at the time they were in use sand-casting had replaced casting from stone moulds. The scabbards of the leaf-shaped swords were made of wood or leather, protected by a ferule or chape of bronze, which was fastened to it by rivets; the point of the weapon does not seem to have reached the end of the sheath. There are several examples of bronze chapes in the Royal Irish Academy’s collection, and they display a considerable variety of design. Some are long and tubular in shape (fig.66), while others are of thewinged 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.
Shields
Fig. 68.—Bronze shield, found at Lough Gur, Co. Limerick.
Two circular shields or bucklers of bronze have been found in Ireland. There is only one in the National Collection, thefine shield discovered at Lough Gur, County Limerick. There is, however, a small shield of bronze ornamented with large bosses in the British Museum which was found at Athenry, County Galway.[27]These bronze shields have never been found in the British Islands with any objects which would give any definite clue to their date; but they are generally referred to the late Bronze Age. They belong to a common type, being decorated with numerous bands of small bosses separated by concentric circles. They appear to have been hammered out.
Fig. 69.—Alder-wood shield, found inCo. Leitrim.
Fig. 70.—Front and back of leather shield, found at Clonbrin, Co. Longford.
There are two other shields of great interest in the National Collection. One is the remarkable alder-wood shield found 10 feet deep in a bog in 1863 at Annadale, County Leitrim. This shield is oval in shape, and has a central boss and seven raised ribs. It will be noticed that the ribs show an indentation at one side; but too much emphasis must not beplaced on this, as the shield shrank a good deal after its removal from the bog, and the alteration may be due to this. This shield has a handle at the back. It is interesting to note that ‘sciath,’ one of the Irish words for ‘shield,’ denotes ‘alder.’ The next is the leather shield found in 1908 at Clonbrin, County Longford, and presented to the Royal Irish Academy’s collection by Colonel W. H. King-Harman. This truly remarkable shield, the only one of its kind in Europe, is made of a solid piece of leather nearly ¼ of an inch thick, and measures 20½ inches in length by 19½ inches across. It has an oblong centre boss pressed out of the leather and covered with an ornamental cap of fine leather laced on to it. The boss is encircled by three ribs, the inner one being gapped, and the two others having a curious re-entrant angle. The shield has twenty-four small round bosses on it which resemble those on the bronze shields. There is a leather handle which was laced on to the back. 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.
The round shield of the late Bronze Age was succeeded by the oval shield which may be taken as partly transitional to the oblong shield of Southern Europe and also of the late Celtic type found in Britain. The date, therefore, of this Irish leather shield is probably to be placed in the Early Iron period.
Torcs
There are twenty-four golden torcs of various types in the National Collection and one of bronze; but the Irish provenance of the latter is doubtful.
The best known are the two magnificent gold torcs found in the side of one of the raths at Tara, and these belong to a type that has been found in England and France, of which the best known examples are those found at Yeovil, Somerset,[28]and Grunty Fen, Cambridge.[29]A torc of this type was also found by Schliemann in the royal treasury in the second city of Troy. This find has led to a good deal of speculative opinions varying as to whether the model of the torc was imported into Ireland from the south, or whether the Irish gold could have reached the Mediterranean in pre-Mycenæan times.[30]Torcs of this type were made by folding two thin ribbons of gold along the middle at a right angle; they were then attached with some kind of resinous flux, apex to apex, and twisted together. In some cases, instead of two folded ribbons a flat one and two halves of another were used, after being fastened together, the twisting being done in the same way. In some of the Irish examples the body of the torc is plain, or was grooved to simulate the appearance of the twisted torc. A peculiar feature of these torcs is the large hooks with which they are provided. It must be noted that whereas twisted torcs of bronze are fairly common in England and France there is only one bronze torc in the Irish National Collection, and, as mentioned above, the provenance of this is doubtful. Thedating of these twisted torcs is a matter of difficulty, as there are only two instances of their having been found in association with bronze objects, one in the case of the Grunty Fen torc which was discovered with three bronze palstaves, and another found at Fresné la Mère, near Falaise, Normandy, which was found with a bronze razor and other objects of bronze. Such evidence as exists, therefore, would place them in the late Bronze Age, probably somewhere about 1000b.c., but certain varieties of torcs, as we shall see, continued in use as late as the first century. The area of distribution of gold torcs of the Tara type in Ireland, England and France is very limited, none having been found in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Holland, or Spain and Portugal.[31]It has been suggested that the gold of which all these torcs were composed came from the Wicklow Mountains,[32]and in view of the extreme wealth of Ireland in gold, as evinced by the number of gold ornaments which are still constantly found, this may be considered probable.
Plate VII.