let into the gold, and two examples are
twisted like small torcs.

[Illustration: PLATE VI. Gold Ring-Money. _p. 70._]

CHAPTER VII

LEAF-SHAPED SWORDS

A number of leaf-shaped bronze swords have been found in Ireland. They
may be roughly divided into two types, those with notches just below
the blade and above the handle, and those that are plain. The latter
are the earlier, and belong to the late Bronze Age; the former
correspond to the Continental swords of the Hallstatt period. The
leaf-shaped type was the typical Bronze-Age sword of western and
northern Europe. It was developed from the dagger, and, like it, was
a thrusting rather than a cutting weapon. The handle is cast in one
piece with the blade, and has rivet-holes, and in some cases a slit
for the attachment of the hilt, which was no doubt formed of bone or
horn plates. The pommel was probably globular, and formed of lead or
some heavy material. A bronze sword of this type was found in a house
on the Akropolis at Mycenae by Schliemann, and it can be dated at about
1200 B.C.[25] The discovery of this sword may be explained either as
the result of a raid, or as showing that invaders from the north had
reached Greece as early as this date. A leaf-shaped sword has been
noticed on one of the clay tablets dated as late Minoan II, and in one
of the stone slabs from over the fifth shaft grave at Mycenae, which
represents a figure in a chariot attacking a man on foot, the latter
is armed with a leaf-shaped sword.[26] In any case it gives us a date
for the period when these swords were in common use in western Europe.
The type with notches below the blade has a tendency to become
straighter at the sides, and to lose its leaf-shaped form. The use
of the notches is not apparent, but it has been thought that the
scabbards at that time were made of wood and were liable to shrink
from exposure to weather, and that this may have prevented the sword
from being thrust home, so that the edge was cut off by the notches
slightly below the handle to avoid cutting the hand. The handle end of
this latter type very frequently assumes a form like a fish's tail.
These swords develop into the iron swords of the Hallstatt period, of
which so far only one Irish example has been found. A bronze sword of
the notched type formed part of the Dowris hoard, and is figured in
the "British Museum Bronze-Age Guide," plate ii. Two remarkably fine
specimens of this type were found in