i04 Proceedings of the Boi/cd Irish Academy. 



Three bronze horns (fig. 6) were foimd at Cork last year, below the old 

 river bottom, in making some works in the park. They are about 9 inches 

 long, and consist of three funnel-shaped straight tubes of bronze ; their points 

 are smooth and neatly rounded. Their mouths have a flange and rivet-holes 

 in it ; two are sloped across at an angle ; the third is straight. They have 

 fine riveting down the back, and one is turned in the figure to show this. 

 When found, the centre one was said to have been joined to one of the 

 others by the small piece seen attached to it. Round the mouths of each is a 

 band of La Tene ornament, the characteristic form of which cannot be 

 mistaken. The absence of any dinding mark or trumpet-end in the space 

 where the curves expand inclines me to place them not later than the first 

 century B.C., if so late. Their exact use is a little uncertain. I have written to 

 some of the most eminent archaeologists in Europe who are well acquainted 

 with the chief collections of La Tene objects; and they suggest that they were 

 the horns of a helmet like those on the helmet found in the Thames (fig. 67, 

 p. 88, in the British Museum Guide to the Iron Age). I agree with this ; 

 it may have been a helmet or head ornament arranged somewhat like fig. 6. 



Fio. 6. — \a TJne homs Tound at Cork. 



The pair of bronze bits and bronze head-stalls — a.s tlie latter are 

 called — from Roscommon present good La Tene ornament. They show the 

 distribution of La T^ne finds throughout the countiy, though many of the 

 horse head-stalls, of which there are numerous examples, seem to be later. 

 Professor Ridgeway, " Origin and Influence of the Thoroughbred Horse," 

 p. 492, has given the best suggestion of the use of these curious objects. He 

 considei-s them to be rein guides for chariots, similar to those attached to the 

 chariot found at Thel)es, and now in the Archaeological Museum at Florence. 



The number of tnimpets found in Ireland is quite astonishing ; but they 

 mostly belong to the end of the Bronze Age. There are, however, three 

 bronze trumpets of the La Tene period : the ornament on the disc of one is 



