from the Journal of the
Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland.)]

Another very important find of moulds was made in 1910 at Killymeddy,
near Ballymoney, County Antrim. This find included two complete moulds
and a half mould for casting looped socketed spear-heads. Of the other
moulds for casting spear-heads found in Ireland, nearly all are for
the looped type; and the few that have been found for casting the
leaf-shaped type are small and indeterminate in character. It is most
probable that, with the introduction of the leaf-shaped spear-heads,
moulds of clay or sand were introduced; and these have naturally
perished. Fragments of a clay mould for casting a spear-head and a sword
were found at Whitepark Bay, and portions of clay moulds for spear-heads
have been found in Brittany, the Lake of Bienne, and other places. The
discoveries of moulds enforce the distinction of type between the
looped and leaf-shaped spear-heads, and the moulds from Killymeddy
(figs. 38-40 and 43) may probably be placed at the end of the period
when stone moulds were in use, and assigned to about 1500-1200 B.C.

[Illustration: Fig. 43.--Half of mould for casting spear-head and
dagger, Killymeddy, Co. Antrim.]

SPEAR-FERULES

[Illustration: Fig. 44.--Bronze spear ferules.]

[Illustration: Fig. 45.--Bronze spear ferule with La Tene ornament.]

From time to time objects of bronze have been found in Ireland of a
curious shape, somewhat like the handle of a door; and their use was
considered uncertain; it is, however, clear that they were the ferules
of spears; and in some cases the remains of the wooden shafts have been
found inside them. The finding, moreover, of one in the Lisnacroghera
Crannog with the whole of the shaft, measuring 8 feet in length,
attached to it, places the matter beyond dispute.[15] It also shows
that these objects were in use down to the early Iron Age, as most of
the objects of the Lisnacroghera find belong to the La Tene period.

[15] Journal Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. xvi, p. 395.

Other ferules assume a long and graceful shape, and one is decorated
with La Tene motives (fig. 45).

CHAPTER IV

IRISH GOLD

Ireland's extreme richness in gold during the Bronze Age made her
a kind of El Dorado of the western world. The gold was, no doubt,
obtained from County Wicklow, where gold was worked down to the end
of the eighteenth century, nuggets of 22