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VIII. 



SOME lEISH BEONZE-AGE FINDS. 

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



[Read May 22 and June 26. Published Avgust 22, ia22.] 



Discoveries of weapons, implements, &c., associated in the same grave, hoard, 

 or deposit, with objects whose age is approximately known, are our only 

 means of placing in a sequence prehistoric antiquities. 



The following finds preserved in the Academy's collection have in some 

 cases been mentioned, but neither figured nor in detail described. Ten 

 are illustrated ; all belong to the latest period of the Irish Bronze Age. 

 Those containing leaf-shaped swords with fish-tail-ended tangs might be 

 thought earlier than those which included socketed axe-heads. But the 

 swords found at Dowris are of this type,^ and there is no doubt of the late 

 date of this great hoard, which seems to belong to a period transitional 

 between the Bronze and Iron Age. 



The first ficd with which it is proposed to deal is the Dowris hoard. 

 Though frequently discussed as a whole," those portions of it in the posses- 

 sion of the Earl of Eosse and in the Academy's collection require complete 

 illustration and description. 



The hoard, which included over 200 pieces, is the largest find of asso- 

 ciated bronze antiquities discovered in Ireland. It was unearthed about 

 1825 by two men trenching potatoes in a part of Whigsborough called 

 Derrens. The spot where the hoard was found is stated to have been under 

 cultivation ; but within the memory of living persons it had been covered 

 with copse and underwood, while the name of the locality, Duhhros, indicates 

 that formerly it had been forest land. A part of the hoard, purchased, 

 shortly after its discovery, for the Earl of Eosse, was preserved at Birr 



' See specimen illustrated, " British Mviseum Bronze-Age Guide," PI. viii. 



'Robinson, Proc. Royal Irish Academy, iv, pp. 237-246 and 423-440; "Dublin 

 Penny Journal," i, p. 376, ii, p. 28; "British Museum Bronze-Age Guide," 1920, 

 pp. 105-107; Evans, "Bronze Implements," 1881, p. 361 ; Montelius, "Archseologia," 

 lii, pp. 153, 154 ; &c. 



