THE BRONZE AGE Of the bronze implements many types are similar to those found elsewhere in northern Europe, but some have distinctive character. The flat copper hatchet is probably indigenous to the country, from which it spread over the continent. The copper halberds are especially remarkable. They are a kind of dagger-axe, being in essence triangular dagger-blades mounted at right angles at the end of a long handle. Here again there is evident connection with Spain, where this form of weapon reappears. About the middle of the bronze age Ireland seems to have lost her initiative in civilization ; the later types of hatchet-heads, etc., are imported into the country, rather than exported abroad. To the last, how ever, the Irish metallurgists of the bronze age retained their skill and their appreciation of beauty and symmetry; some of the late spear-heads, for example, are of admirable workmanship. For one class of objects Ireland was the source of supply for Europe till the end of the bronze age—the horn-shaped trumpets, made by the cire perdue process, which are found in many places on the Continent ; there is one represented as lying by the side of the well known statue of the Dying Gaul.
The rude stone monuments show a power of manipulating enormously heavy masses of stone ; and as this required the colla boration of a very large number of men, it presupposes no small degree of social organization. The great monuments that appear to have been erected in honour of deceased lords are impressive evidence of the respect in which they were held ; such are the Giant's Ring near Belfast and, especially, the tumuli in the ancient royal cemetery on the river Boyne, about 5m. above the town of Drogheda. Of these tumuli, the most noteworthy is the famous mound of New Grange, which covers an acre of ground. It is about 4oft. in height, and encloses a large chamber the walls of which are lined with huge slabs of stone. A passage between 5o and 6of t. in length gives admission to this chamber. Many of the stones used in the construction of the passage and chamber, as well as certain stones of a surrounding kerb outside the mound, are covered with symbolic devices—spirals, lozenges, zigzags, etc., the meaning of which must be a matter of conjecture, as we possess no direct clue to their interpretation. A circle of pillar
stones, the tallest of which is about 8f t. in height, surrounds the mound. The neighbouring mound (called Dowt/i) possesses two independent chambers, the stones of which bear similar ornamen tation. To the north of the same county of Meath, near the town of Oldcastle, the Lochcrew hills bear a series of carns containing similar but smaller chambers, likewise enriched with sculptured symbols ; and there are others at Knockmany and Sess Kilgreen in Co. Tyrone, and in the Deerpark of Castle Archdall, Co. Fer managh.
The few human bones found in Irish bronze age sites indicate that the population of the country during this period belonged to the Mediterranean race (see RACES OF MAN)-a relatively short, dolichocephalic (long-headed) and dark-complexioned peo ple, to be seen to-day in their fullest purity in Spain. This population was apparently dominant all through the stone and bronze ages, for the few skulls of round-headed individuals that have been found are to be taken as those of casual wayfarers. Of the language of this people we are absolutely ignorant. Some of the river names, which cannot be explained with the aid of Celtic, may belong thereto : and a few inscriptions in the Ogham charac ter, found in the Pictish regions of Scotland, may possibly preserve some words of this tongue, or of a cognate dialect. These inscrip tions have defied all attempts to decipher them.
Scandinavian and other foreign objects of the late bronze age found in Ireland speak of an oversea trade with eastern and southern Europe ; the centre of activity shifted eastward in the course of the bronze age. We may assume that the technical skill displayed by the bronze objects which have survived was like wise shown by the objects in wood and in textiles, which no longer exist. Here, as elsewhere, owing to the decay of organic materials, only a very incomplete picture of ancient civilization can be reconstructed. The bronze age was illiterate, so that no literary documents have survived, even indirectly; though there very likely is a considerable body of bronze age material embedded in the vast body of Irish literary and oral tradition.