Frazer—On Three Bronze Celts from Co. Mayo. 421 
to some extent is beyond question, for the moulds themselves for pre- 
paring such bronze castings are to be found in our Museums. Great 
numbers of beautiful leaf-shaped swords, a shape common to such 
distant lands as Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor, are discovered 
from time to time, those obtained from tombs haying usually been 
broken across before being deposited. This we must assume was a 
special funereal custom, and to it we owe the preservation of many fine 
specimens. The practice of burying sword or dagger with the dead indi- 
cates the estimation these weapons were held in, and points out the 
need that must have arisen for continuous extraneous supplies. 
The principal reason which induced me to bring these three celts 
before the notice of the Academy is to direct the attention of Archo- 
logists to numerous oval, almost linear indentations, or superficial 
markings, noticeable on the surface of all three specimens, and dis- 
played with peculiar distinctness on the one which is best preserved. 
I am led to conjecture we have in these and similar superficial mark- 
ings something equivalent to the trade marks of our British merchants ; 
and when we investigate minutely the great collection of bronze celts 
preserved in our own Museum, I fancy we will recognize other celts 
trom the workshop of the same maker, or, shall I say, possibly referable 
to the same art school. If this supposition could be verified, it would 
afford decided advance towards clearing up the Art History of these 
and similar objects, and we might by their assistance reach a position 
enabling us to trace them backwards along definite trade routes across 
Europe, and possibly discover the commercial centres whence our 
bronzes were originally obtained. 
It becomes indispensable to examine large collections, such as ours, 
to obtain any adequate degree of information respecting the extensive 
variety of superficial markings and ornamentations with which bronzes 
are decorated. We would require to consider, in addition, the varie- 
ties of patterns employed, with their special modifications, such as the 
diversified lines of curvature introduced into them, and the dispositions 
of the secondary ribbings, which are no less important than the decora- 
tive ornamental surface work. All these differences fall into certain 
minor classes of groupings, and suggest to me that the original manu- 
facturers of such articles of bronze did not employ diversified forms 
of ribbings and deviations in patterns after an arbitrary or purposeless 
fashion, or for ornament alone to gratify the whim of the fabricator, 
or the vanity of its future owner, but that we find in those markings, 
provided we could succeed in decyphering their meanings, the record 
of a line of ideas in the mind of their makers, similar and parallel to 
the mason marks employed by the builders of antiquity, in ages so 
remote as the building of the Pyramids, and practised even so late as 
the erection of our British cathedrals; or, to use a familiar illustration, 
analogous to those varieties in pattern and ornamentation placed upon 
different classes of china and pottery throughout all ages and all coun- 
tries, which are still recognizable, and utilized to afford the best avail- 
able means of classifying them. 
