IjlQ Proceedings of the Roijcd' Irish Academy . 



easily reduced than the sulphides; and it is in these oxidised ores that tin is 

 most usually found: thus samples from deep ores might be misleading. 



But though the direct evidence of a comparison of the native ores with 

 the implements is wanting, we may, I think, fairly draw the following con- 

 clusions from the investigations already made. 



The copper implements were not imported, nor was the copper for making 

 them. This, I think, can be inferred from the prevalence and the special types 

 of the Irish halberds. If the halberds were imported as made implements, 

 we should expect a closer coi-respondence with Continental types; and it 

 is improbable, taking into consideration the widespread use of copper 

 implements (judging from the numbers and distribution of finds), and the 

 local knowledge of casting (as shown by the types), that copper was imported 

 as metal to a country in which copper ores are largely distributed. In 

 saying this, it is not meant, of course, to exclude the possibility of implements 

 or metal having been brought into the island in the first instance. 



Copper came into use in Ireland, we may suppose, in no sudden or 

 violent manner. On the contrary, the transition from stone was probably 

 of some duration, and, it is to be inferred from the evolution of types, took 

 place, in a general manner, possibly somewhat in this way. By the end of 

 Neolithic times, division of labour had probably made considerable advance in 

 certain directions. Flint-flaking and knapping and the manufacture of stone 

 implements would be confined to the skilled workers of a community. This, 

 we know from Catlin and others, was actually the case among the American 

 Indians.^ When the use of copper was making its way through Europe, 

 spreading from the lands of the eastern Mediterranean along the old trade 

 routes of Neolithic times, and influenced by the search for new deposits 

 of ore, there would be thus skilled classes of implement-makers already 

 in existence, and probably to some extent in touch with each other in 

 the different communities by reason of their common craft; by these a 

 knowledge of the extraction of copper from the ore would be passed along, 

 producing new centres of trade and diffusion in localities where ores 

 were easily accessible. And though at first implements of copper, and 

 perhaps: the metal, might be carried to a considerable distance, an early 

 use of the local ores seems to better explain a case, such as Ireland, where 

 the development of the copper celts from those of stone can be clearly made 

 out, implying a local experimental stage in the capabilities of the new 



^ Catlin : " Like the other tribes, they guard as a profound secret the mode in which the flints 

 and obsidian are broken into the shapes required. Every tribe has its factory, in wliich these arrow-, 

 heads are made ; and in tliose, only certain adepts are able or allowed to make them for the use of 

 the tribe." — " Last Eambles amongst the Indians," p. 187. 



