Qo¥F]LY'— Irish Oo2)per Halberds. IIT 



substance rather than the advent of copper implements after the experimental 

 stage had been gone through elsewhere. _ 



Whether this new knowledge of metal, coming from the eastern- 

 Mediterranean, first crept round by way of Spain, or struck across the 

 Continent to the north and west of Europe, and so to Ireland, we cannot 

 at present say definitely ; the line of march as indicated by the halberds^ 

 which are strangely deficient both, in the south and the north of France,^, 

 seems to point to North G-ermany and Scandinavia, by way of the rich ore- 

 fi:elds of Middle Europe. But the archaeology of the Peninsula for this 

 early period is at present too uncertain to speak with confidence. There are 

 indications even in Neolithic times which perhaps point to Spain; but again 

 there are relations which indicate a considerable correspondence with 

 Brittany and the north of France in the early Bronze Age. It may be 

 sufficient at present to note that there is no reason to believe that even at 

 that early time the sea imposed any insuperable obstacle to the spread of 

 •culture influences. ' .' ^ 



The absence or very low percentage of tin in the coarse coppers of the 

 Irish copper implements seems to me to exclude Cornwall as a possible 

 source, as the " tinny " copper ores of that locality would probably give a 

 larger' amount of tin in the copper ; see assays of Cornish copper ore in the 

 previous paper on celts. In the subsequent period of normal tin-bronze, the 

 remains of which are so well represented in Ireland, we can hardly suppose 

 that the scanty native deposits of Irish tin, if known, were at all sufficient, 

 and tin was no doubt imported — possibly bronze, too — from Cornwall or even 

 Brittany-. But the scarcity of copper implements and deficiency of copper 

 types in Britain raise a doubt' that tlie, Cornish copper ores can have 

 been known at the time, or were much in use before the exploitation of 

 Cornish tin. _ 



What approximate date in years may be assigned to the beginning of the 

 Copper Period in Ireland and its probable duration are, of course, questions 

 open to much speculation. A detailed examination of the subject is beyond 

 the scope of this paper. 



The following few dates, however, may be set down provisionally. 

 Dr. Oscar Montelius, who has devoted so much attention to the chronology 



1 Morlillet figures a large triangular blade from Hautes-Pyrenees (Musee Prehistorique, PJ. 

 Ixyiii.) whicli he states is not quite correctly drawn (sides not so straight, and rivet-holes not so 

 symmetrically distributed). He adds that it may be not a dagger, but one of tliose blades which 

 were fixed on the side of a long handle. It is also given from this figure, but as a dagger, by Montelius 

 in " Chronologic en France," Cong. Piehist., Paris, 1900, p. 342. 



