Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Anne Storer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Transcriber's Note: The term "halberd" and "halbert" have both been used on numerous occasions. "Halbert" is a variant of "Halberd" and has been left as printed in the original text. * * * * * THE BRONZE AGE IN IRELAND THE BRONZE AGE IN IRELAND BY GEORGE COFFEY MEMBER OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY HONORARY FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF IRELAND KEEPER OF IRISH ANTIQUITIES IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM AND PROFESSOR R.H.A. DUBLIN _WITH ELEVEN PLATES AND EIGHTY-FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS_ HODGES, FIGGIS, & CO., LIMITED, 104 GRAFTON STREET, DUBLIN SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO., LONDON 1913 PRINTED AT THE DUBLIN UNIVERSITY PRESS BY PONSONBY AND GIBBS. PREFACE In this book on the Bronze Age in Ireland I have collected and collated all my work on the period. Much of it I have already published in the "Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy" and elsewhere. I have long felt the need of a book on the Bronze Age in Ireland, as hitherto none has appeared dealing adequately with the archaeology of that period in this country. Within the last few years it has been recognized that the Bronze-Age civilization in Europe did not consist of a series of isolated communities, each developing its own type of objects and decorations, but that there was a community of ideas and forms extending from Mycenae all over the European continent. I have described the various forms of Bronze-Age implements of peace and of war found in Ireland, and have shown how they are connected with similar types on the continent of Europe. M. J. Dechelette, of the Roanne Museum, one of the first authorities on the Bronze Age, agrees with me in ascribing a Mycenaean origin to certain forms of Bronze-Age implements. How this Mycenaean influence penetrated to Ireland is a matter on which there is some difference of opinion, and possibly new discoveries may throw additional light on the problem. As I have shown both in this and in former works, the most probable route seems to be that of the Danube and the Elbe, and thence by way of Scandinavia to Ireland. It is to be hoped that now--with a concentrating of Irish interests on Irish affairs a new impetus will be given to the study of the history of our country, and that many workers may be found in the fields of archaeology and of all subjects connected with our past.