ge do not exist; and even the ethnological affinities of the
dominant race that inhabited Ireland during this period are doubtful.
All that can be said is that there was apparently no gap between the
end of the Neolithic Period and the transitional Copper to Bronze
Period. Stone weapons continued in use side by side with those of
copper and bronze; and the form of the former was sometimes actually
influenced by those of the latter.

There has been so little scientific excavation in Ireland that the
question as to the early burial-customs is surrounded with difficulty;
such evidence as there is points to cremation having been practised
early, as was also the case in Great Britain. Instances show that the
two rites of inhumation and cremation were practised side by side.

In the cairn excavated on Belmore Mountain, County Fermanagh, both
burnt and unburnt interments were found with pottery and other objects
of early Bronze-Age type.[1] At a recent excavation near Naas, County
Kildare, a burnt interment was discovered in a cist, the remains being
associated with a wrist-bracer and remains of pottery.[2] In the fine
series of cairns on Carrowkeel Mountain, County Sligo, burnt and
unburnt interments were found associated with pottery, bone
implements, and stone beads.[3] At Annaghkeen, County Galway, a
cremated burial was discovered in a cist associated with pottery and a
small bronze knife-dagger and awl.[4]

[1] Proc. Royal Irish Academy, vol. xx, p. 659.

[2] Proc. Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxx, p. 351.

[3] Proc. Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxix, p. 311.

[4] Journal Galway Archaeological and Historical Society, vol. v, p. 159.

The Hon. John Abercromby gives a list of food-vessels found with
cremated burials in Ireland, and to these must be added a food-vessel
of early type found in 1912 in a quarry at Crumlin, County Dublin. It
must, however, be left for future excavations to decide many questions
to which at present no answer, or only a doubtful one, can be given.
This, however, is certain--Ireland during the Bronze Age was not
isolated, but stood in direct communication with the Continent. AEgean
and Scandinavian influences can be detected in the great tumuli of the
New Grange group[5]; and Iberian influence is discernible in some of
the later types of bronze implements. Ireland, as will be shown in the
chapters dealing directly with the gold objects, was, during the
Bronze Age, a kind of western El Dorado,