140 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



The origin of the cast-bronze trumpets, of which such a number were 

 found at Dowris, presents difficulty. Evans' mentioned them as one of the 

 types that found their way into Ireland in the early Iron Age. Coffey- 

 eompared one type to the Eomau lituus, a form of trumpet the Eomans are 

 believed to have adopted from the Etruscans, who, it may be recalled, were 

 in early contact with the Celtic peoples of Gaul. He suggested that if 

 the Irish trumpets were connected with those used by the Celts, the great 

 number found in Ireland, their form, and almost complete absence from 

 Britain, might indicate a movement of Celtic people from Northern Italy by 

 the Rhone Valley across Gaul to the South and East of Ireland. 



But the cast-bronze trumpets belong to the end of the Bronze Age, 

 while the Celtic peoples of Northern Italy were at that period in the Iron 

 Age. 



Trumpets were also used by the Iberians.' Their form appears to have 

 resembled that of the large Scandinavian trumpets, which are dated to the 

 later portion of the Northern Bronze Age. 



There are objections to deriving the cast-bronze trumpets from foreign 

 sources, for, though they are not confined to Ireland, they occur only excep- 

 tionally in Scotland and England.* The Irish National Museum contains 

 no less than thirty-three complete, or portions of, trumpets, not including 

 the thirteen obtained by Lord Eosse with his portion of the Dowris find. 

 Specimens from Ireland are preserved in the British Museum. Others are 

 known to be in private hands in Ireland. 



Trumpets have been frequently found together in Ireland, as at Moyarta, 

 where three, one in two parts, were discovered in association. These, not 

 previously published, were found, in 1902 or 1903, seven or eight feet below 

 the stu-face of a bog in the barony of Moyarta, Co. Clare. They were acquired 

 by the Academy in 1907. Two are of the cow's-horn variety, blown from the 

 end ; they measure respectively 27'5, and 2.3 inches, in exterior curve. A 

 central tubular portion, of the usual form, 24:-7 inches in length, fits into and 

 appears to belong to the larger of the above specimens. The thii-d trumpet, 

 closed by a cap at the smaller end, was sounded by an aperture at the side ; 

 its external curve is 28'7 inches. Six trumpets found in a bog near Chute 

 Hall, Clogher, Tralee, Co. Kerry, were acquired by the Academy in 1886. 

 They include four blown from the end, one having a central tube fitting into 



' Proc. Society of Antiquaries of London, xxii, p. 128. 

 - Proc. Royal Irish Academy, xsviii, Sec. C, pp. 105, 106. 

 ^ Sandars, " Archaeologia," Ixiv, pp. 286, 287. 



* Evans, " Bronze Implements," 1881, pp.362, 363, "British Museum Bronze-Age 

 Guide," 1920, p. 107. 



