i 511 ] 



XVI. 



ox SOME ASSOCIATED FINDS OF BEONZE CELTS DISCOVEEED 



IN lEELAND. 



By E. C. E. AEMSTEONG, M.E.I.A., F.S.A. 

 Plates XLVI-XLVII. 



Rend Januaky 22. Published Makch 23, 1917. 



The number of recorded Irish " finds " of antiquities of Bronze-Age date 

 in which two or more bronze celts have been found in association is small. A 

 " find " for the purposes of this paper may be described as consisting of 

 antiquities discovered in such circumstances that they can be fairly regarded 

 as having been buried or deposited at one and the same time.' In the jDresent 

 state of archfeological knowledge it is almost superfluous to insist upon the 

 value of such finds. They are our most certain means of inferring what 

 weapons and implements were in use at approximately the same period ; they 

 make it possible for some general scheme of the succession of objects to be 

 evolved, and thus enable a chronology to be formulated for the prehistoric 

 ages. 



It is proposed to describe the finds known to the writer in which two or 

 more bronze celts have been discovered in association, and to add some 

 general remarks on the subject of early metal working in Ireland. The finds 

 of copper celts, having previously been published;- are omitted from the 

 present discussion. 



In Ireland, as in Great Britain, the bronze celt underwent a well-marked 

 series of improvements, evolving from a perfectly plain, flat, wedge-shaped 

 piece of metal to the final elaborate sociceted form. It has been commonly 

 used by archseologists as a convenient standard for dating antiquities which 

 have been found in conjunction with celts ; that is to say, if a plain flat 

 celt is discovered in association with other antiquities, the whole find is 

 considered to belong to the earliest portion of the Bronze Age. If, on the 



' Montelius, Die cilteren Kulturperioden im Orient und in Europa, p. 3. 

 - Coffey, Journal Royal Atdhropological Institute, xxxi, pp. 270, 277 ; and The Bronze 

 Aye, in Ireland, pp. 7-12. 



K.I. A. PROC, VOL. XXXIII, SECT. C. [72] 



