498 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Continental examples.^ But, if we except the Athenry example, 

 tlie ornament on whicli I do not think is strictly characteristic, 

 none of the spear-heads of this class in the large collection of the 

 Academy shows ornamentation of the distinctive triangular or hatched 

 character referred to ; nor am I aware of any Irish examples to the 

 contrary. 



Although, as already stated, ornament is rare on all classes of spear- 

 heads, the evidence in regard to the types, as far as it goes, seems to be 

 reversed in England. In the latter country the peculiar ornamentation 

 associated with the Bronze Period is found on the leaf-shaped and riveted 

 examples rather than on the looped. This fact is not, I think, without 

 significance ; and may be explained by the conjecture that the looped 

 form reached Britain from Ireland at a time when that form had been 

 fully developed and had ceased to bear ornament in the latter country, 

 whereas the leaf-shaped form spread to Biitain from the Continent. 

 The number of decorated specimens is too Kmited to draw a positive 

 conclusion from, but the explanation suggested gains some support 

 from the absence of the early decorated forms of the looped class in 

 England. 



Classes III. and lY. may now be considered. Class III. furnishes a 

 transitional form between the looped and rivet-holed examples. The 

 blade of the looped form (Class II.) being abrupt in its return on the 

 socket precludes the attachment of the loop to the blade. But in the 

 case of the leaf-shaped blade the curved flow of the line of the blade is 

 readily carried on into the loop. If, then, the leaf-shaped type were 

 introduced as a new form, and copied by a people accustomed to the loop 

 as a means of attachment, we can readily understand the moving up of 

 the loop on the socket and juncture with the blade. In figure 23 we 

 have an example in which the form of the loop may be still identified, 

 though merged in the blade. This class may therefore be considered as 

 marking the transition from the true looped form to the leaf-shaped and 

 riveted spear-head. In some of the larger specimens the blade is 

 stopped square at the base, and the loop forms a continuation of the 

 line of flutiag of the blade, as in figure 26. 



Sir John Evans suggests that the reason for adopting loops at the 

 base of the blade connecting it with the socket, " appears to be that 

 they were, when thus attached to the blade, less liable to be broken off 

 or damaged than when they formed isolated projections fi'om the 



1 See for instance a spear-head from Laudelles, Brittany, in Pitt Kivers Collec- 

 tion, Oxford. 



