gin to certain forms of
Bronze-Age implements.

How this Mycenaean influence penetrated to Ireland is a matter on which
there is some difference of opinion, and possibly new discoveries may
throw additional light on the problem. As I have shown both in this
and in former works, the most probable route seems to be that of the
Danube and the Elbe, and thence by way of Scandinavia to Ireland. It
is to be hoped that now--with a concentrating of Irish interests on
Irish affairs a new impetus will be given to the study of the history
of our country, and that many workers may be found in the fields of
archaeology and of all subjects connected with our past.

In my "Guide to the Celtic Antiquities of the Christian Period" I have
given the history of Irish art in the Christian period; in "New Grange
(Brugh na Boine) and other Incised Tumuli in Ireland, the influence of
Crete and the AEgean in the extreme west of Europe in early times," I
have given as much as is known of the pre-Christian period up to the
Bronze Age; and in this, my latest work, which has been much
interrupted by illness, I have endeavoured to complete the history of
ancient art in Ireland.

I have to thank the Councils of the Royal Irish Academy and of the
Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland for the loan of a number of
blocks. In other cases drawings have been made direct from objects in
the National Museum by Miss E. Barnes.

The plates are from photographs taken by the photographer of the
National Museum.

In offering this book to the public I must express my gratitude to Mr.
E. C. R. Armstrong, to whom I am indebted for his unvarying kindness
and sympathy, and for much valuable assistance both in the matter and
form of the work.

GEORGE COFFEY.

CONTENTS

PAGE
CHAPTER I, 1
Introduction; Chronology of the Irish Bronze Age.

CHAPTER II, 6
Transitional Copper Period; Localities where native copper
is found in Ireland; Finds of copper celts; Moulds for
casting flat celts; List of localities where Irish copper
celts have been found; Halberds; Localities where found;
Types; Analyses; Continental examples; Probable derivation
of Irish halberds from Spain.

CHAPTER III,