Fig. 522.—Maghera. ½
On the larger, by the side of the main mould, is a second, which would produce a slightly tapering casting, ribbed longitudinally on one face and flat on the other. It is difficult to judge of the purpose for which it was intended, but it may possibly have been at once an ornament and a support for the scabbard of the blade.
Some fluted pieces of bronze, such as would be produced from a mould of this kind, are in the museum at Tours, found in a hoard at St. Genouph.
A mould for a short leaf-shaped sword has been found in Ireland.[1689]
A stone mould, formed of green micaceous schist, and found at Maghera, Co. Derry, is in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., and is shown in Fig. 522. As will be seen, it is for a spear-head of the ordinary Irish type, with loops on the socket. These, however, were probably flattened down during the finishing process. The outside of the mould has been neatly rounded, and has shallow grooves in it to assist in keeping the string in place with which the two halves of the mould were bound together when ready for use.
In the same collection is the half of a mould for spear-heads, from Armoy, Co. Antrim. It is much like the figure, but 7⅞ inches long.
I have the half of a mould for a nearly similar spear-head, made of light brown stone, with the sides left square, and not rounded. This is also from the North of Ireland. It is difficult to understand the manner in which the cores for forming the sockets of the spear-heads were supported in the moulds. Possibly small pins of bronze were attached to the clay core, which kept it in position, but which during the casting process got burnt into the molten metal. I have, however, found no actual traces of such a contrivance. On examining broken spear-heads it will sometimes be found that the socket core inside the blade, instead of being simply conical, has lateral projections running into the thicker part of the blade.
A mould for spear-heads of the same kind as Fig. 521, found near Claran Bridge,[1690] in the barony of Dunkellen, Co. Galway, has at the base two pin-holes about 1 inch long and ¼ inch in diameter. Their axes are parallel to that of the socket. These may possibly be connected with the steadying of the core.
A stone mould found at the edge of Lough Ramer, Co. Cavan,[1691] and now in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, is quadrangular in section, with moulds for very small lance-heads on three of its faces. On the fourth there are marks of a worn-out mould. The corresponding halves have not been found. Such instances of several half-moulds on a single block of stone are not unfrequent.
