Coffey — Spear-heads of the Bronze Age found in Ireland. 507 



speaks incidentally of moulds for leaf-shaped swords (p. 481), but 

 does not give the reference. At page 435 he mentions a mould for a 

 short leaf-shaped sword found in Ireland. The reference is to a 

 mould in the Academy's collection, which has been figured by 

 "Worsaae.^ It cannot, I think, be strictly called leaf-shaped. It 

 partakes rather of the straight-edged form of the rapier types. As 

 far as I am aware no characteristic example of a stone mould for leaf- 

 shaped swords has been found, and certainly not in Ireland. 



The evidence from the moulds indicates that, with the introduction 

 of the leaf -shaped spear, the older method of casting in stone moulds 

 was abandoned. 



Finds. — The leaf -shaped spear is associated by form with the leaf- 

 shaped sword ; the looped spear with the older types of weapons, the 

 dagger and rapier forms. The records of "finds" are very incomplete ;. 

 but the association of leaf-shaped spears and swords, to the exclusion of 

 the looped form, is in several instances sufficiently marked to be noted 

 as an additional piece of evidence.* 



The particulars of Irish " finds " are even more scanty than those 

 published from England and Scotland. Looped and leaf-shaped spear- 

 heads have been noted in Ireland in company with leaf-shaped swords, 

 but there are not materials to frame a numerical summary.^ 



The remarkable find of bronze antiquities at Dowris, in the 

 King's County, may be instanced, however, as marking a more than 

 accidental separation of the looped and the riveted spear-heads. It 

 is much to be regretted that this find has been scattered. The dis- 

 tinctive quality of the bronze and general character of the objects 

 render it more than probable that they were of contemporary manu- 

 facture, and the large number of objects found — it is said a horse- 

 load* — would, if kept together, have afforded important evidence 

 as to the period of the associated articles. I have not been able to 

 trace, so far, whether any swords were included in the find. But 

 many of the objects — caldrons, socketed leaf-shaped blades, horns, 

 crotals, &c. — belong to the latter part of the Bronze Age. 



A large number of spear -heads were included in the find. They 

 appear to have been wholly of the riveted class. IS^o example of the 

 looped form was, as far as I can ascertain, included in the find. Of 



1 Mem. des Ant. du Nord, 1873-4, p. 142. 



2 See Evans, pp. 312-20, and list of "hoards." 



3 See Wilde's " Catalogue." 



* Proc. R.I. A., vol. iv., p. 424. 



