520 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



source. The deposits of tin in Spain are plentiful and have been known 

 from early times.' 



The amount of native tin in Ireland is small.= If known at that period it 

 can hardly have been sufficient to supply enough of the metal to alloy the 

 copper used in making the weapons and implements of the early Bronze Age. 

 England, on the other hand, with its rich deposits of tin situated in Cornw-all, 

 must in later times have been a source of supply for a large part of Europe. 

 There are, however, indications that the English tin mines were not worked 

 during the earliest portion of the Metal Period. No objects of tin have been 

 found in the Cornish megaUthic graves, nor in the later long barrows of the 

 neighbouring counties of Wiltshire or Dorset.' Schmidt,* who calls attention 

 to the non-discovery of any metal objects in the megalithic graves of the 

 British Islands, points out that the tin of Britain was probably not worked 

 at so early a period ; if so, the importance of the export of the metal from Spain 

 would be increased. After the tin deposits of Cornwall became known, the 

 metal may have been imported from England, or possibly the bronze may 

 ha\^e been brought to Ireland already alloyed. 



It is unfortunate that so few Irish celts have been analysed. Professor 

 J. W. Mallet,* PH.D., F.C.S., chemically examined a number of antiquities from 

 the Academy's collection, among them four celts— two flat, and two socketed. 

 One of the flat celts (W. 16) which was shown to contain 98-74 per cent, of 

 copper, and only 1"09 per cent, of tin, with small amounts of silver, iron, and a 

 trace of gold, has been included by Coffey^ in his paper on Irish copper celts. 

 Presumably the small amount of tin it contains is to be considered as due 

 to that metal being an impurity in the copper ore, and not an intentional 

 addition. Professor W. Gowland, F.K.S., F.S.A., analysed, with some English 

 examples, one Irish flat celt' ; ilr. Donovan analysed a socketed celt from the 



' Cartailhac, op. cit., pp. 206-209. (The theory that the PhoeDicians were the 

 distributors of tin in Nortliern Europe was formerly widely held. It must be remembered, 

 however, that "Marseilles was only founded in 600 B.C. ; Carthage in 800 B.C. ; and 

 Utica, according to Strabo and Pliny, about 300 years earlier ; . . . the Bronze Age 

 commenced long before these dates" (Avebmy, Prehistoric Times, seventh edition, 1913, 

 pp. 65, 66). See also on this subject Montelius, op. cIt., p. Ill; Gowlnud, Journal 

 Royal Anthropoloiiical histitnU, xlii, p. 251 ; and Dechelette, op. cit., i, pp. 29-30.) 



- Wilde, op. cit., p. 3o8 ; and Appendix ii, pp. 524, 525. 



^ Jonntal Royal Anthropological Institnte, xlii, p. 248. 



* Op. cit., p. 131 ; see also Thiirnam (Ancient British Barrows), Archaeologia, xlii, 

 p. 229 ; also Montelius, Der Orient und Europa, p. 86. 



" Transactions Royal h-ish Academy, xxii, pp. 322, 325. 



" Journal Royal Anthropological Institute, xxxi, p. 267. 



' Joxirnal Royal Anthropological Institute, xxxvi, p. -4. 



