The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

44
THE BRONZE AGE AND THE CELTIC WORLD
at Scurgola in South Italy and MonteraceHo in Sicily," and with other types from
Malta." Spain. Brittany and the west, we shall find the type gradually narrowing at
the butt and lengthening in the blade, till we come in later centuries to the type
commonly known as the rapier, but which I think might more correctly be termed
a dirk (see Plate II.).
The gradual evolution of the axe and the dagger as they pass westwards and
northwards seems to indicate a line of trade, spreading further and further to the
north-west as the centuries pass. At present we must be content with an outline of
the movement, but if illustrations of aU the specimens found in these regions were
available, I doubt not but that the evidence would be more convincing and the details
and the dates more minute and exact.
Thus we find these early traders seeking for copper, tin and gold, or any other
precious commodities, on the north-west of Europe before 2000 B.C., and it has been
shown by various authorities that among the gold-fields explored at that time none was
richer than the Irish gold-fields in the Wicklow HiUs.^* It is needless here to
recapitulate all the evidence which has been adduced to establish the early working
of these deposits. The wealth of gold ornaments of this period found in the island,
most of which have passed into the melting pot, but hundreds of which are stiU in the
National Museum at Dubhn,'^ would alone be sufficient evidence ;
but we know also that
certain ornaments, known as lunulce or crescents, were exported and reached Brittany,
Denmark and Germany.^* It is likely, too, that gold objects of Irish origin reached
to more distant places.^'' This shows us that Ireland was in touch with the trade routes
we have been discussing, and this in turn accounts for the vast numbers of bronze
implements of early types which are to be found in aU museums and private collections,
not only in Ireland itself, but throughout Great Britain.
3> Peet (1909) 194, quoting B.P. xxiv. 208 ; 214, 260, fig. 142, quoting B.P. xxii. 305.
33 Zammit (1917) PI. xxi. fig. 2.
34 Crawford (1912) 1. 194, where the literature on the subject is summarised.
35 Armstrong (1920).
36 Crawford (1912) 1. 195, 196, with map (fig. 8).
37 Crawford (1912) 2. 42.