Armstrong — Associated Finds of Brome Celts. 519 



Halberds are not the only evidence of Spanish influence in Ireland. If 

 we go back to the Neolithic Period, we find that many Irish flint arrowheads 

 are ground on their faces, " an apparently useless refinement " ;' in Portugal 

 the arrowheads are ground in exactly the same way ; the Irish dolmens 

 resemble those of Spain and Portugal more closely than those of France. In 

 the later Bronze Age the connexion appears to have continued, as bronze 

 palstaves with double loops and a mould for casting them have been found in 

 Ireland.- Such palstaves are characteristic of the Iberian peninsula, and the 

 Irish examples should be compared with those illustrated by Cartailhac.^ 



A reason for an early connexion between Spain and Ireland may be found 

 in Ireland's wealth in gold during the Bronze Age.^ A greater number and 

 variety of gold antiquities have been found in Ireland than in any other 

 country in Europe. The Irish gold ornaments at present known can only 

 represent a small part of the original wealth of the country in this metal, 

 but even the amount known " would probably exceed that of any ancient 

 period in any country, except perhaps the republic of Colombia in South 

 America."^ 



Gold, on account of its brilliant colour and wide distribution, was probably 

 the first metal which attracted the notice of prehistoric man." The numbers 

 of Irish gold lunulae of early Bronze Age date that have been discovered 

 indicate that the Irish gold deposits were known at a remote period. The 

 prehistoric gold was probably derived from Wicklow, where it has been 

 obtained in modern times in considerable quantities. The total amount of 

 gold procured from Croghan Kinshelagh, on the borders of Cos. Wicklow and 

 Wexford, from 1795 to 1879 may be estimated at between 9,390 ounces and 

 7,440 ounces, of a value of between £36,185 and £28,855.' 



If the knowledge of smelting copper from its ores was derived from the 

 Spanish peninsula, it is not improbable that the further knowledge of the art 

 of hardening copper by the addition of tin may have come from the same 



' Sir C. H. Read, Encyclopaedia Britaimica, 11th ed., ii, p. 353. 



^ Cofl'ey, Bronze Age in Ireland, p. 27 ; and Evans, Bronze Implements, pp. 104, 431. 



3 Op. cit., pp. 230-32, iigs. 324 to 328. 



'' See Kossinna, Mmms, vi, p. 2. (He considers that during tlie early portion of the 

 Bronze Age Ireland supplied West Europe, Great Britain, France, and perhaps Spain 

 with gold.) 



^ Sir 0. H. Read, op. cit., p. 353. 



^ Gold ornaments belonging to the Copper Period have been found on the Continent. 

 See Montelius, Die Chronologic, p. 183. 



" Kinahan, Journal Itoyal Geological Society of Ireland, xvi, p. 147. See also on this 

 subject a paper entitled " On the Gold Nuggets hitherto found in the County Wicklow," 

 by Dr. V. Ball, in the Proc. of the Royal Dublin Society, viii, N.S., p. 311. 



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