( xvi ) 



semblance between the ornaments and certain bronze objects found at 

 Halstadt, in Upper Austria, while they are unlike any of the orna- 

 ments of Greek art, which is embossed and chased, and sometimes 

 decorated with what is called granulated work, i.e., grains of gold, 

 separately soldered on to the ornament. 



They are ruder than any of the ornaments of Greek, or Phoenician, 

 or Assyrian, or Egyptian time. But we should not be justified in form- 

 ing conclusions as to their great antiquity merely from their rudeness. 

 There is the rudeness of archaic art and there is the rudeness of bar- 

 baric art, which latter may belong to any time ; and so with the self-re- 

 straint and patient spirit of investigation which belong to the true 

 archaeologist, Mr. !N^ewton remarks, " We must not rely at present on 

 any such arguments as those derived from their character, or even 

 from their affinity to those remains whose antiquity seems so much 

 more fully established ; " and he points out as our further duty to 

 push forward investigations elsewhere, till we have the means of 

 comparing these Schliemann antiquities with some of those collections 

 of pre-historic and barbarous remains which have, in recent years, 

 been so diligently formed and intelligently classified in continental 

 museums. 



And here I would remind you that, in the pre-historic, or at all 

 events in the un-historic, antiquities of Ireland, preserved in the 

 museum of this Academy, in the great collection of pottery, in the or- 

 namental discs, or so-called spindle whorls, and in the gold and silver 

 ornaments, of which we have so large a number, resemblance may or 

 may not occur with these in this Schliemann collection, the absence 

 or presence of which would, either way, be an important fact to 

 establish. 



Again, the fact that in Ireland, as Ave learn from many communi- 

 cations of Sir William Wilde on the subject in our Proceedings, 

 copper implements have been found to such an extent as to lead some 

 learned archaeologists to suggest that the use of bronze weapons was 

 preceded by that of copper, is a subject which may give additional in- 

 terest to the fact asserted by Schliemann, that many of these pre-Hel- 

 lenic weapons discovered by him were of cojDper, and I should rejoice 

 to see a paper on the subject of the copper finds of Europe from the 

 author of our Catalogue, which is the most complete and learned 

 account that has yet appeared of the antiquities of this country ; 



