Transitional Copper Period
In Ireland the metal first used was copper. Native copper is plentiful in Ireland, and has been chiefly obtained from the Counties of Wicklow, Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Tipperary, and Galway. In Waterford stone implements have been found in copper mines in ancient workings, showing copper was mined for at an early period.[7] The time during which copper was in use was probably relatively only a short one, much shorter than the Neolithic Period or than the true Bronze Age. The evidence for this period is the large number of flat copper celts which have been found in the north and south, and east and west, of the country. The earliest copper celts resemble in form the stone celts from which they are derived, and were cast in open moulds on one side only, and then hammered flat on the other. Moulds for casting celts in this way have been found in Ireland. It is also extremely interesting to notice that some stone celts betray the influence of metal types by their form. It may be well here to meet an objection that has been raised against a special use of copper in Ireland. It has been urged that the large number of flat copper celts may have been due to a scarcity of tin, and that as copper cannot be cast in closed moulds, casters who could cast advanced forms of bronze celts were obliged to return to the primitive form necessary for casting in an open mould. Copper ores are, however, very rarely found in a pure state, and the small impurities of antimony, arsenic, &c., combine in the smelting with the copper, and lend a hardness and ductibility which would enable it to be cast in closed moulds.[8] The analyses of Irish copper celts agree among themselves, and substantially with those from other countries, the small quantities of tin, antimony, arsenic, &c., which are found being due to impurities in the ore. The celts may be taken to be of copper, and not of poor bronze.[9] The earliest copper celts resemble the stone celts from which they are derived; some of them are small. A development takes place throughout the series, the celts becoming larger and the edges thinner as they approach the bronze forms. No trace of a stop-ridge is ever found on copper celts.
image Fig. 1.—Copper Halberd, Birr find.
The principal finds are as follows:—
1. Three copper celts, three copper awls, and a copper knife found, in 1874, in a bog at Knocknague, Kilbannon, County Galway. Purchased from the finder, Michael Rafferty, by the Royal Irish Academy. (Fig. 3.)
2. Three copper celts, a fragment of a fourth (butt-end), a copper halberd, and a short blade of copper of somewhat similar form, found in 1892, near Birr, King’s County, formerly in the collection of Mr. Robert Day, of Cork. (Fig. 2.)
3. Three copper celts found in 1868, when ploughing at Cullinagh, near Beaufort, Killarney, County Kerry. (Day Collection.)
4. Two large and well-formed copper celts found together in street excavations in Suffolk Street, Dublin, in May, 1857. (Ray Collection.) (Fig. 4, nos. 1 and 7.)
image Fig. 2.—Birr find.
5. Two copper celts found together at Clontoo, near Kenmare, County Kerry, in 1906. (Fig. 4, nos. 2 and 3.)
6. Six copper celts found together at Cappeen, County Cork. The distribution, analyses, types, and finds show that the copper celts represent a period when copper was in common use throughout Ireland and before bronze was generally known. The celts from the Ray Collection mentioned above show that the fully developed celt was in use during this period, while the “Birr find” with the halberd shows that the halberd was also known and in use during the full copper period.
image Fig. 3.—Copper Knife and Awls found at Knocknague.
Moulds for casting flat celts, copper and bronze, have been found in the following places in Ireland:—Carrickfergus; Ballymena; Loughgall, County Antrim; Ballynahinch, County Down; and Lough Scur Crannog, County Leitrim.[10]
Copper celts have been found practically over the whole country; and the following is a list of those in the National Collection, of which the localities are known, and, as well as these, there are about eighty for which the provenance has not been exactly recorded:—
List of Copper Celts found in Ireland.
Antrim, Craigbally, 1 (1897: 111).
image Fig. 4.—Copper Celts.
Cavan, 1 (R. 1685).
Cork, Cappeen (6); County Cork, 1 (1881: 136).
Donegal, Letterkenny, 1 (1897: 114).
Dublin, Suffolk Street, 1857: 2 large copper celts. (Ray Collection.)
Galway, Knocknague, Kilbannon, three copper celts, a copper knife, and three copper awls. County Galway, 1. (R. 1660) (Fig. 3.)
Kerry, Beaufort, Killarney, three copper celts found together in 1868 when ploughing at Cullinagh. (Day Collection.) Clontoo, near Kenmare, two copper celts found together in 1906.
Londonderry, in the River Bann, near Coleraine, 1. (W. 3.).
Louth, 1. (R. 362).
Mayo, Killala, 1 (W. 4.).
image Fig. 5.—Copper celts from Cappeen, Co. Cork.
Meath, Dunshaughlin, 1 (172, W.).
Tipperary, Dundrum, 1 (1881: 133).
Tyrone, Mountfield, 1 (112: 1897).
Waterford, Tramore, 1 (W. 10.).
The localities of the following copper celts in other collections are known:—
Antrim, 3 (Knowles Collection.)
Cork, 5 (Day Collection, about 4. Evans Collection, 1.)
Fermanagh, 2 (Day Collection, 1. Evans Collection, 1.)
Kerry, 3 (Day Collection.)
Kilkenny, 1 (Day Collection.)
image Fig. 6.
King’s County, 8 (Birr three, and five others found in the King’s County. Day Collection.)
Limerick, 2 (Day Collection.)
Sligo, 2 (Sir John Leslie’s Collection.)
Halberds
As already stated the Birr find shows that the halberd was in use during the full Copper Period; and, though to judge by the form of the celts, we may place it at the end of the period, yet more primitive types are known, and we may therefore presume the halberd goes well back into the Copper Period.
The National Collection at Dublin contains forty-nine specimens of these broad coppery blades. In a few cases there may possibly be a doubt as to whether they should be classified as halberds or primitive daggers. The localities of the majority are not known further than that they have been found in Ireland; but from the known localities they seem, like the copper celts, to have been found in all parts of the island; and local distinctions of type, if they existed, are not now possible.
image Fig. 7.—Halberd blades.
Of the forty-nine mentioned, twenty have localities as follows:—Antrim 1, Cavan 3, Roscommon 2, Galway 8, Meath 1, King’s County 1, Queen’s County 1, Clare 1, Limerick 1, Cork 1. Seven of those from Galway represent a single find, which gives that county an undue proportion.
image Fig. 8.—Halberd blades.
Types
image Fig. 9.—Halberd blades.
image Fig. 10.—Halberd blades.
What may be considered as the developed or normal type of the Irish halberd blade is slightly but distinctly curved, so that they have been called “scythe-shaped.” They vary from about 9 inches to 15 or 16 inches in length, and from about 3 to 4 inches in breadth at the widest part; with few exceptions they have three rivets with large heads. The various sizes are well represented in a find of seven of these blades obtained in 1888 when making the railway near Hollywood, County Galway. They were described as having been found about 2½ feet under the surface of a shallow bog “stuck in a bunch in the ground, with points down. No other relics appeared near them.” We do not think it is any use attempting to place the halberds in a series of development; and no progression can be claimed for their forms other than that there appears to be a movement of development from the smaller straight blades to the larger and curved blades. In one or two cases the mid rib has been brought to a slight roof-ridge; and a fine example in the late Sir John Evans’ collection shows a well-marked bead down the mid rib (“Bronze Implements,” fig. 331); but in most cases the mid rib is quite plain with a rounded curve in section.
Analyses
Analyses of the halberd blades show that the metal of which they are composed does not differ much from that of the copper celts. A recent analysis of five specimens is appended which shows that the blades are practically of pure copper. This is interesting, as it removes the doubt expressed by Sir John Evans in “Bronze Implements,” p. 265, that “many of these blades have the appearance of being made of copper; but the absence of tin in their composition has not been proved.”
| | Copper. | Tin. | Antimony. | Arsenic. | Lead. | Silver. | Iron. | Bismuth,
Nickel,
Zinc. |
| 1 | King’s Co.
Day Coll., No. 25, | 99.02 | 0.22 | Nil | Nil | 0.19 | 0.26 | 0.04 | Nil |
| 2 | Antrim,
1903, 235, No. 9, | 97.31 | 0.31 | 0.14 | 0.18 | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil |
| 3 | Galway,
W. 241, No. 19, | 98.06 | 0.22 | Nil | Nil | 0.58 | Nil | 0.17 | Nil |
| 4 | Cork,
R. 459, No. 7, | 98.30 | 0.30 | 0.27 | 0.37 | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil |
| 5 | W. 248, No. 28, | 97.24 | 0.18 | Nil | 1.54 | Nil | 0.25 | Nil | Nil |
The manner in which the halberd blades were attached to their shafts is explained by the bronze halberds with bronze shafts—the blade and upper part of the shaft often in one piece—from North Germany and from Sweden. These halberds are referred to an early stage of the Bronze Age; but they are of bronze, and, in casting and other features, show a considerable advance on a primitive type; the large imitation rivets cast in the head of the shaft no doubt represent an earlier form in which the shaft was of wood and the rivets real. Ten bronze halberd blades were found together near Stendal in Prussian Saxony, but without handles, four of which are figured by Montelius in “Die Chronologie der Ältesten Bronzezeit,” figs. 115-118. An analysis of one of the blades gave 15 per cent. of tin and of a rivet 4·5 per cent. of tin. From the straight mark across the blades, and some bronze tubular pieces for the handles, there seems no doubt that they were intended for straight wooden handles, and thus represent the earlier type. The blades are about 12¼ inches in length. It is important to note that the rivets are of two kinds: some are large and stout like the usual Irish form; and some have metal washers, like the solitary example found in Ireland (fig. 7), and which has caused some authorities to consider the Irish halberd blades somewhat later than we should care to place them. In general appearance these halberd blades from Stendal are closer to the Irish halberds than any of the others which have been found on the Continent, but do not include the curved or scythe-shaped form common to Ireland. Copper halberds, with remains of transverse wooden shafts, have been found by the brothers Siret on the south-east of Spain. In this case they go back to the very beginning of the bronze age in this district. The form of the blades is, however, in most cases T-shaped, and different from the Irish examples (fig. 12). Halberds attached to their shafts are also shown on the prehistoric rock-markings in the “Italian Maritime Alps,” published by Mr. C. Bicknell. The actual blades, however, that can be classified with any certainty as halberds are very rare in the North and Middle Italian districts, though some of the copper and early bronze triangular dagger forms may have been occasionally mounted as halberds. It is possible, however, that the decoration of certain halberds found in Germany may have been influenced by that of the Italian dagger.
From the analyses of copper halberds, it will be seen that the tin varies from ·18 to ·31 per cent. We may therefore conclude that the copper halberds are simply coarse or unrefined copper from similar ores to the copper celts; and that the copper implements found in Ireland may contain up to about ·5 per cent. of tin. An increasing percentage of tin was not found in any of the copper celts, or, contrary to expectation, in the copper halberds; but, judging from the widespread use of copper implements in Ireland, from which it may be inferred that copper remained in use for a considerable time, it seems probable that bronze was introduced as an alloy of a known percentage of tin. As relatively few analyses of Irish bronze implements have been made, it is not possible at present to come to any fixed conclusions on the subject of the introduction of bronze into Ireland.
Also, in the case of the halberds, the great rarity of any specimens of bronze blades which can be classified as halberds indicates that the form of implement practically ceased to be used when bronze came into use in Ireland. As the copper celts show a gradual transition from stone to metal forms, it seems reasonable to look for the prototypes of the copper halberd among the stone implements of the preceding period. In the Bann Valley many flint wedges or picks have been found, which may, perhaps, have influenced the copper halberds; and if a stone pick-like instrument was in use in Neolithic times, it may explain to some extent the prevalence of the metal halberd in Ireland in the copper period. When the blades were made larger, the curved form would come into existence, being suggested by the deer-horn picks already in use. Copper came into use in Ireland, we may suppose, in no sudden or violent manner. On the contrary, the transition from stone was probably of some duration. The use of copper made its way up through Europe, spreading from the lands of the eastern Mediterranean along the old trade routes of Neolithic times, influenced by the search for new deposits of ore. Though at first implements of copper, and even, perhaps, the metal, might be carried a considerable distance, an early use of the local ores seems to explain the case better.
Whether this new knowledge of metal, coming from the eastern Mediterranean, first crept round by way of Spain, or struck across the Continent to the north and west of Europe, and so to Ireland, we cannot at present definitely say; the line of march, as indicated by the halberds, which are strangely deficient both in the south and the north of France, seems to point to north Germany and Scandinavia, by way of the rich ore-fields of middle Europe. But the archÆology of the Peninsula for this early period is at present too uncertain to speak with confidence. There are indications, even in Neolithic times, which, perhaps, point to Spain; but, again, there are relations which indicate a considerable correspondence with Brittany and the North of France in the early Bronze Age. The late Dr. Much (“Die Kupferzeit,” p. 131) compared the Irish halberds with the Spanish and German examples, and came to the conclusion that the Irish halberds were later than the Spanish and earlier than the German. This view is supported by the form of the Irish halberds, which are more primitive in type than the German examples.
Any conclusion as to the probable date when the halberds were in use in Ireland can only be arrived at in an indirect and approximate manner. We are, on the whole, inclined to think it is probable that the Irish halberds were influenced by the Spanish examples; and Herr Hubert Schmidt, who has worked out in much detail a scheme of chronology for this period, based upon the Egyptian dating of Professor Eduard Meyer, places the finds from El Argar at from 2500 to 2360 b.c.[11] Allowing, therefore, some margin on the later side, we should probably be fairly safe in placing the period when the halberds were in use in Ireland at the end of the third and beginning of the second millennium b.c. We must remember that the whole of the Irish Bronze Age has to be fitted in after the copper period; and if we are to allow sufficient room for the several periods and their approximate correspondence with the periods of the Continental chronology, it is not easy to see how this dating can be much reduced. It may be noted that Montelius in his recent scheme of Bronze Age chronology for the British Islands, treats the halberds as bronze, and places them in his second period (first period of the true Bronze Age) dated from the beginning of the second millennium to the seventeenth century b.c.[12]
