CoKFEY — Irish Copper Halberds. 



101 



1881, 196. All of these are figured, and are indicated by the letter " S " added 

 below the figures. 



As the method does not claim to be more than a close approximation, 

 though with care it may be a very close one, I think we can say that the 

 tin in these specimens is certainly below 1 per cent., most probably below 

 0-5 per cent., as Mr. PoUok assures me he has no reason to doubt. 



North Germany (Montelius, figs. 73, 70). 



Sweden (Montelius, figs. 216, 217). 



This finally removes the doubt expressed by Sir John Evans, 

 in " Bronze Implements " (p. 265), that, though " many of these 

 blades have the appearance of being made of copper, but the 

 absence of tin in their composition has not as yet been proved " 

 — a statement which was probably in part influenced by Mallet's 

 analysis, quoted in a later part of the work (p. 421j. 



Mode in which Halberd -Blades were mounted on Shafts. 



The manner in which the halberd-blades were attached to their shafts 

 is explained by the bronze halberds with bronze shafts — the blade and upper 

 part of the shaft often in one piece — from North Germany and from Sweden, 

 fig. 1.^ These halberds are referred to in an early stage of the Bronze 

 Age. But they are of bronze, and in casting and other features show a 

 considerable advance on a primitive type ; the large imitation rivets cast 

 in the head of the shaft no doubt represent an earlier form in which the 

 shaft was of wood and the rivets real. 



Ten bronze halberd-blades were found together near Stendal in Prussian 



1 MoTitelius gives a list of thirty-one finds (two from Sweden) in " Die Chronologie," p. 27. 

 R.I. A. PROC, VOL. XXVII., SECT. C.. [15] 



