98 Proceedings of the Boy at Irish Academy. 



It is, I think; useless to attempt to place the following halberds figured 

 here in a series of development ; and no progression can be claimed for the 

 forms of the halberd further than that there appears to be a movement of 

 development from the smaller straight blades to the larger and curved 

 blades. They may be noted simply as varieties. 



iSTos. 23 and 24 are similar forms, with broad central spaces; the 

 rivet-plates are somewhat shaped and squared at the ends. Xo. 23 was 

 foimd in the County Meath, and Xo. 24 in the King's County. 



^N'o. 26 is unusual in that the plate, which projects slightly as a broad tang, 

 is pierced for six rivets, and has one or two notches in the end of the plate. 

 The blade is straight, a slight inclination to one side more than the other in 

 the line of the mid-rib and edges, and the slope of the butt of the mid-rib, 

 alone suggesting the curved type. The unusual nujnber of rivet-holes may 

 be due, as suggested by Wilde, to some extra rivets having been added 

 subsequently to the original. 



Nos. 27 and 28 are two well-formed examples, with unusually massive 

 rivets; the mid-ribs and edge-ilutings are well-marked. iSTo. 27 shows a 

 slight inclination to the curve. No. 28 is more pointed and straighter in its 

 lines, but shows in the slope of the butt-end of the mid-rib its connexion 

 with the halberd-type of blade. 



In one or two cases the mid-rib has been brought to a slight roof-ridge 

 (like " Bronze Implements," fig. 337); and a fine example of the curved form 

 in Sir John Evans' collection ("Bronze Implements," fig. 331) shows a well- 

 marked bead down the mid-rib ; but in most cases the mid-rib is a plain, 

 rounded curve in section. 



A^'ALYSES. 



The halberd blades presented some difiiculty to analyse properly. They 

 are too thin to allow of the metal being taken by borings at the sides, as may 

 be done in the case of the celts. The examples selected were therefore some- 

 what restricted to already defective specimens. 



J. W. MaUet analysed one specimen in 1853.^ An ordinary scythe- 

 shaped blade, 10 inches long by 3 inches broad, stated to be from Eoscommon. 

 The tin in this blade is returned as 2-78 per cent. This high percentage of 

 tin inclined me to expect that a rising percentage of tin might be found in 

 the specimens now analysed, indicating a gradual transition to bronze. 

 Analysis has not confirmed this supposition ; and, as I shall presently show, 

 there is reason to believe that some error must have crept into Mallet's 



1 Trans. E.I. A., vol. xxii. J. W. Mallet, ph. d., f.c.s., Professor of Chemistry in the Medical 



College of Alabama, 1860. 



