]62 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF [LECT. 



Denmark ; it has been doubted whether they ever 

 landed in Ireland. Yet, while more than 350 bronze 

 swords have been found in Denmark, and a very large 

 number in Ireland also, 1 I have only been able to 

 hear of about fifty bronze swords found in Italy. The 

 rich museums at Florence, Eome, and Naples, do not 

 appear to contain any of those typical, leaf-shaped 

 bronze swords, which are, comparatively speaking, so 

 common in the North. That bronze swords should 

 have been introduced into Denmark by a people who 

 never occupied that country, and from a part of 

 Europe in which they are so rare, is surely a most 

 untenable hypothesis. It is doubtless true that a few 

 cases are on record in which bronze weapons are said to 

 have been, and very likely w r ere, found in association 

 with Roman remains. Mr. Wright has pointed out 

 three, none of which seem to me clearly established, 

 while one of them is clearly not a case in point. But, 

 under any circumstances, we must expect to meet with 

 some such instances. My only wonder is that so few 

 of them exist. 



As regards Professor Nilsson's theory, according to 

 which the Bronze Age objects are of Phoenician origin, 

 I will only say that the Phoenicians in historical times 

 were well acquainted with iron, and that their favourite 

 ornamentation was of a different character from that of 

 the Bronze Age. If, then, Professor Nilsson be correct, 

 the bronze weapons must belong to an earlier period in 

 Phoenician history than that with which we are partially 

 familiar. 



1 The Museum at Dublin contains 282 swords and daggers : un- 

 luckily, the number of swords is not stated separately. 



