No. 3.
Upper and Lower Portions of Sword-sheath of Bronze from Lisnacroghera. Now in the Grainger Collection.
Bronze Sword-sheaths.—Through the kindness of the Council of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, illustrations are here reproduced, from their Journal (1883, 1889), of several bronze sheaths which were found at Lisnacroghera, near Broughshane, Co. Antrim, in connection with at least three swords of the crannog class. Very few remains of the kind have been discovered in Ireland; and no specimen had been found when Wilde compiled his Catalogue. He, however, notices some small, undecorated objects, composed of bronze, little larger than a lady’s scissors-case, which, in all probability, were the sheaths of small knives or skeans. At Lisnacroghera crannog, four fine and nearly perfect examples of bronze sword-sheaths, which had contained iron blades, have, in recent years, been brought to light; some portions of at least four others also occurred in the same place. In Kemble’s Horœ Ferales several short swords or daggers are illustrated identical in type with that so clearly shown in Ireland, for the first time, by the Lisnacroghera ‘finds.’ The illustrations in that work[99] show both sides of a sword and sheath, and their likeness to the Ulster examples is very striking: the haft of the sword is of a similar character, and the ends of the bronze sheaths identical. This relic was discovered in the river Witham, in England. The bed of the Thames has, from time to time, presented examples of equal interest.
The Lisnacroghera remains are, in some respects, the most remarkable that have been discovered in recent years in Ireland. The special importance of the ‘finds’ lies in the interesting series of iron swords with bronze mountings and ornamental bronze sheaths, already referred to, and iron spears, the wooden handles of which had bronze knobs at the end. One of the sheaths is perfect but unornamented; of the others which are here illustrated only one side of each remains. These are very finely ornamented by sharp and clear incised lines. The pattern was evidently intended for the reception of enamel, which was probably black, and of which some faint traces seemed to remain. If this was so, the contrast, when finished, between the black enamel and the burnished golden-hued bronze must have been very striking and effective.
The advanced stage of art reached in the ornamentation of these objects has been styled ‘Late Celtic’ by Sir A. W. Franks, in editing Kemble’s Horæ Ferales. The objects on which the early craftsmen lavished this decoration, and in which the metal-workers of the British Islands were in no way behind those of Central Europe, consist of shields, swords, sheaths, horse-trappings, fibulæ, armlets, &c. These were of both bronze and iron, the latter prevailing in the La Tène period, and they were often embellished with enamel. Sir A. W. Franks, on a very careful examination of many of these objects, attributes them to Celtic sources, and not to Roman, Saxon, or Danish. He is inclined to fix the date of their production at about 100 B.C.; and as a discussion of the evidence involved in these questions is outside our limits, it is sufficient here to state that the early Iron Age was fully developed among the Celtic races of Central Europe long before the new metal was generally adopted by the inhabitants of the British Islands and the North of Europe. It is now generally admitted that the art and industry represented in the objects under consideration had their origin in the influences emanating from the civilization of Hallstatt and La Tène. Commencing about 800 B.C., these influences extended; and the results may be traced from the British Isles, throughout Europe, to the plains beyond the Alpine barriers, until we reach the shores of the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas.
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Bronze Spear- and Javelin-heads.—These have been found in large quantities in Ireland; and the number in the National Museum is about 320. The classification given by Wilde is that usually adopted: (1) the leaf-shaped, either long and narrow, or broad, with holes in the sockets for the purpose of riveting into the shaft. (2) The looped, with eyes on the sockets below the blade and on the same plane with it. (3) Spear-heads with the loops formed at the junction of the blade with the socket. (4) Those with the loops in the body of the blade, on either side of the midrib or main line of the weapon. These spaces are sometimes crescent-shaped, and are considered to lighten the weight of the spear. This division seems more or less arbitrary, depending on accentuated points of difference. A more satisfactory classification has been attempted by Mr. George Coffey, showing their probable type development.[100]
Varieties of Spear-heads of Bronze.