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THE ANTIQUITIES IN THE MUSEUM OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY a.

(Concluded from p. 537.)

THE implements and weapons in bronze naturally occupy a considerable portion of the Catalogue. Those in copper are but few; and to this fact, as well as to the inferences to be drawn from the subject, Dr. Wilde directs attention in some very pertinent remarks :—

"As yet,” he observes, “scarcely any notice has been taken of our Irish copper weapons, apparently the forerunners of the mixed metal-bronze or brass. The only copper implements of very great antiquity in the Academy's collection are some celts, evidently of the very earliest pattern and greatest simplicity in construction, a couple of battle-axes, a sword-blade of the curved broad shape, usually denominated scythes, a trumpet, a few fibulæ, and some rudely-formed tools. There can be little doubt that these copper celts are the very oldest metal articles in the collection, and were probably the immediate successors of a similar class of implements of stone. We have no notice of the discovery or first working of copper in Ireland, although it is found here in small quantities in a native state. Upon the steppes of Tartary, and in some of the wildest parts of Russia, the remains of very ancient copper furnaces of small size, and of the most rude construction, have been discovered. It is remarkable that so few antique copper implements have been found, although a knowledge of that metal must have been the preliminary stage in the manufacture of bronze. The circumstance may be accounted for, either by supposing that but a short time elapsed between the knowledge of smelting and casting copper ore, and the introduction of tin, and subsequent manufacture and use of bronze; or from the probability of nearly all such articles having been recast and converted into bronze, subsequent to the introduction of tin, which renders them harder, sharper, and more valuable. The softness of unalloyed copper was thus, in process of time, corrected by the admixture of tin, of which, together with minute quantities of lead, all our ancient bronze articles are composed."

The entire collection of celts, including the few alluded to (in copper), amounts to 688. The peculiarities of this implement and weapon, the manner in which the varieties were fastened to sticks for use, and the obvious progress made in working and adapting them, are so well described, and so copiously are they illustrated, that the archeologist will find Dr. Wilde's Catalogue one of the best, if not the best guide he can select for these primeval objects, about which so much has been said that is perplexing or unsatisfactory. That they were manufactured in Ireland there can be no doubt, even were the moulds not present to confirm their origin. At the same time, the quantity of these celts found, together with their moulds, in other countries inhabited by the Celtic races, proves them to have been in general use.

"A Descriptive Catalogue of the Antiquities in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. By W. R. Wilde, M.R.I.A." (In Three Parts. 8vo., 1857-1862. Dublin and London.)

The number of bronze swords in the Academy's Museum is equally remarkable. It amounts to not less than 282. The elegant long and short leaf-shaped variety is abundant, not only in Ireland, but throughout the British Isles. In this the most ancient classical type will be recognised as constantly occurring upon Etruscan and Greek monuments, and upon the earlier or Consular Roman coins. The same may be observed of many of the bronze spear-heads; but although it is only reasonable to believe that barbarous peoples would import and imitate the weapons of civilized nations, there can be no doubt that the Celts well understood the working of metals at a very remote period; and although we learn nothing from history on the subject as regards Ireland, yet the evidences afforded by the weapons themselves, and the circumstances which so often attend their discovery, compel us to consider most of them of native manufacture. At the same time, there appear to be good reasons for believing that they were continued in general use after iron had superseded bronze among the Romans.

The annexed cuts are selected as examples of daggers with handles,

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affording a good example of clever casting, and of subsequent deco.

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ration by the punch or graver. It is to be remarked that while the daggers and small swords are commonly found wanting the handles, the leaf-shaped swords are invariably so in the numerous examples found in Ireland. It is difficult to account for this peculiarity. Dr. Wilde considers it would be absurd to suppose the blades had been adapted to wooden handles, and the riveting indicates a substance not

less resistible than metal. We may observe-not as solving the difficulty, but for the consideration of the fact that, in one instance at least, an ivory handle very similar to that of fig. 2 has been found attached to a dagger, in a barrow in the West of England.

From weapons of war we pass on to the implements of peace, the tools of the carpenter and of the husbandman. Varieties of the sickle are here introduced. Similar have been found in Alderney and in Eng

land, but not in great number.

They are small, measuring only six or seven inches in length. The "golden sickle" of the Druids has never been discovered; but the bright, golden colour of these bronze reaphooks may have conveyed the notion of gold; or, what is equally probable, the aurea falx used, as Pliny states, by the Druids, to cut mistletoe, may be a mistake for area falx, especially as we know from other ancient writers that the use of iron was forbidden in certain sacred ceremonies.

In the culinary class are vessels of various shapes and sizes, composed of thin plates of bronze joined at the seams with conical-headed rivets. The handles, of solid bronze, are attached to the rim by ornamental staples, and the example here shewn is also decorated on the upper

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margin with a punched or hammered ornament, such as is found in some of the gold tiaras. The vessels of this peculiar make are numerous; and, though differing in form, are easily distinguished from

all others by being formed from several plates, by the rivets, the

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surface with curved tooled indentations, may be compared with some Norman bowls in the British Museum dug up in London, which closely

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resemble it. The little vessel, of a well-known Roman form, is described as being as thin as ordinary writing-paper, with a double corrugated indentation beneath the lip.

In the personal ornaments native design and manufacture are equally marked, so that it is impossible to resist the conviction that in some branches of the fine as well as the useful arts ancient Ireland may claim originality and nationality. Many of the fibula and hair-pins are peculiarly elegant, and at the same time unlike anything of the kind met with in England or any other part of Europe. It is probable these are all of comparatively late times. The fibule here introduced are the

Actual size.

earliest, and of a totally different construction, being in all probability of Roman origin as well as pattern. A fibula in the form of a serpent of the cobra species, with a spring acus, may also be considered as

Roman. The annexed specimen, though like the earlier kind it has a spring, may be as late as the fourth or fifth century.

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The very remarkable example subjoined may be considered as intermediate in date between the Roman and those of the Saxon period.

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The decoration on the extremities resembles a well-known pattern, commonly called Celtic, while the centre exhibits the interlacing ornament so common in Saxon works of art. It was found in the Ardakillen crannoge, near Strokestown. The bronze hair-pins and brooches in the Museum amount to 600. Then come torques, armlets, finger-rings, and other decorations of the person, from which a couple are selected to close our notice of this division of the Catalogue. The one is

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Actual size.

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with silver and some dark metal (after the fashion of the ancient niello), which

has as yet been discovered in Ireland."

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