[ 257 ] 



XIY. 



SOME MONUMENTS OF THE LA T^NE PERIOD RECENTLY 

 DISCOVERED IN IRELAND. 



By GEORGE COFFEY. 



Read November 9, 1903. 



[Plates XVIII.-XXIL] 



The late Sir A. W. Franks was the first to distinguish in a definite 

 manner the antiquities of what he called the Late Celtic Period. 

 The term "Late Celtic" was introduced by Franks with reference 

 to Britain, to denote the period preceding the permanent occupation of 

 that island by the Romans, dating from about 200 b.c. to the middle of 

 the first century a.d. It cannot be strictly applied to the Continent 

 or to Ireland. Franks' conclusions were published in Kemble's 

 "Horse Ferales" in 1863. He then wrote that in this class of 

 antiquities "the British Islands stand unrivalled; a few ancient 

 objects, analogous in design, may be found in various parts of the 

 Continent, and more extended researches in local Museums may bring 

 others to light, but the foreign contributions to this section ai'e 

 scanty when compared with those in our own country."^ 



Since that was written our knowledge of the antiquities of the 

 period has been greatly extended, especially on the Continent. The 

 "foreign contributions" are no longer scanty; and although the 

 magnificent Late Celtic shields found in the rivers Witham and 

 Thames are still unrivalled, the foreign finds far exceed in number 

 those of Britain. This we should naturally expect to be the case, for, 

 speaking generally, the style may be described as Gaulish, and repre- 

 sents on the Continent the period of the historical Celts dating fi'om 

 about 400 B.C. to the Roman conquest of Gaul. 



On the Continent the period is known as "La Tene," so called 

 from the site of a Helvetian oppidum on the Lake of Neuchatel — L:i 



1 " Horae Ferales," p. 172. Franks took a wider view of the subject in a later 

 paper, Archseologia, vol. xlv., p. 265. 



