The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bronze Age in Ireland, by George Coffey

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Title: The Bronze Age in Ireland

Author: George Coffey

Release Date: October 11, 2008 [EBook #26880]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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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 ori