CHAPTER V
Daggers and Rapiers
Fig. 55.—Stone celt, Bronze dagger with gold band, and Urn found in Topped Mountain Cairn, Co. Fermanagh.
As has been mentioned, as well as being parent to the spear-head, the small weak knife-dagger frequently found in early Bronze-Age burials also developed into the true dagger-blade, and in course of time into the sword. Bronze daggers have often been found in Ireland; there are about forty in the National Collection. Among the most interesting finds of these early daggers may be mentioned that discovered in 1897 at an interment at Topped Mountain Cairn, County Fermanagh. This dagger measures 5⅝ inches, and is covered with a beautiful blue patina. It is decorated with raised lines on each side of the blade, and has two small rivets. It was discovered in a cist in the cairn lying at the right side of the skull of an uncremated body, and in the same place was a small band of gold which appears to have been half of a band of that metal which was probably round the handle of the dagger (fig. [55]). Another interesting find is the small bronze dagger discovered with urns and cremated bones in a cist at Annaghkeen Cairn, County Galway, in 1908.
