| Fig. 354. Newtown Limavady. ¼ | Fig. 355. Ireland. ¼ | Fig. 356. Ireland. ¼ | Fig. 357. Ireland. ¼ |
In a fragment of a sword found with spear-heads, a socketed dagger, and a fragment of a hammer on Bo Island, Enniskillen, there are five deep flutings on each side of the hilt-plate. As is the case with some of the English examples already mentioned, this hilt-plate has been joined to the blade by some process of burning on. One of the four rivet-holes in it has been partially closed by the operation. Sir William Wilde has noticed that several of the leaf-shaped swords under his charge had been broken and subsequently “welded” both by fusion and by the addition of a collar of the metal which encircles the extremities of the fragments. The term “welding” is, however, inappropriate to a metal of the character of bronze.
In the British Museum is a sword of this type with nine rivet-holes (25¼ inches), found near Aghadoe,[1103] Co. Kerry.
In the small Irish blade of much the same type (Fig. 355) there are only three rivet-holes, which have been cast in the blade, a fourth having from some cause been filled up with the metal, though a depression on each face marks the spot where the hole was intended to be.
There were several swords, mostly broken, in the great Dowris hoard. They had a rivet-hole in each wing and two or three in the hilt-plate.
Some of the bronze swords found in Ireland attracted the attention of antiquaries upwards of a century ago. Governor Pownall described two found in a bog at Cullen, Tipperary, which are engraved in the Archæologia.[1104] They are 26½ inches and 27 inches long, and one of them is of the same form as the Scotch sword, Fig. 352. Vallancey[1105] has also figured one (22 inches) with eight rivets.
From among those in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy I have selected two for engraving. The first, Fig. 356 (26¼ inches), has had its hilt attached by a number of very small pins instead of rivets of the usual size. The second, Fig. 357, is a short blade about 19½ inches long, with a central rib extending down the hilt-plate, in which there are four rivet-holes, two on each side.
A bronze sword from Polignac, Haute Loire, now in the Museum at Le Puy, Haute Loire, has its hilt-plate like that of Fig. 356, but has only four rivets. Another with seven rivets was found in a dolmen at Miers,[1106] Lot. Another with six rivets from the Department of Jura[1107] is in the museum at St. Germain.
Another from near Besançon,[1108] Doubs, has six small rivets. One found at Alise Ste. Reine,[1109] Côte d’Or, has four rivets only.
The type also occurred at Hallstatt,[1110] and in Germany.[1111]