omas Plunkett,
M.R.I.A., from the finder. This weapon is a wonderfully fine piece of
casting. It measures 16-3/4 inches in length (fig. 58).

[Illustration: Fig. 57.--Dagger with horn handle found at Ballymoney,
Co. Antrim.]

[Illustration: Fig. 58.--Rapier found in Upper Lough Erne.]

[Illustration: Fig. 59.--Rapier found at Lissane, Co. Derry.]

[Illustration: Fig. 60.--Rapiers and Daggers found in Ireland.]

The rapiers belong to the middle and later portions of the Bronze Age.
This type of weapon is common in France, and is described by M.
Dechelette as widely spread in the British Islands and the north of
France, and as having been introduced from there into South Germany
and the region of the Middle Rhine.[16] The rapiers of advanced
type he places in the third division of the Bronze Age, as they have
been found in Bronze-Age tumuli of that period, as at Staadorf, Haut
Palatinat (1600-1300 B.C.). Montelius places the rapiers in his fourth
period dated at the end of the fifteenth to the middle of the twelfth
century B.C.,[17] so that his dating of these objects practically
coincides with that of M. Dechelette. It is now well recognized that
the swords of the AEgean-Mycenaean area were developed on parallel lines
to those of Western Europe. We find that the long rapiers or thrusting
swords are developed from the tanged Cypriote dagger, and that the
true sword is a later evolution from the rapier. It is hardly to be
doubted that some of the western forms of daggers and rapiers were
influenced by Mycenaean types; and the discovery in Sicily of rapiers
of Mycenaean type with pottery dated as recent Minoan III, establishes
a direct bond between the AEgean and Western Europe.[18]

[16] "Manuel d'Archeologie," vol. ii, p. 208.

[17] "Archaeologia," vol. lxi, p. 162, and pl. xv.

[18] "Manuel d'Archeologie," vol. ii, p. 214.

CHAPTER VI

GOLD GORGETS

[Illustration: Fig. 61.--Gold Gorget found in Ireland, formerly in the
possession of the Earl of Charleville. From Vetusta
Monumenta, Vol. v, Pl. xxviii.]

[Illustration: PLATE II. Irish Gold Gorgets. _p. 62._]

Among the most striking of the gold ornaments in the National Collection
are the five gold gorgets or neck-collars, with the ends decorated with
ornamented disks. These are very elaborately decorated, and of great
massiveness. Two others mentioned as having been found in Ireland,
one of w