Page 15 - Demo

Chapter One 15
which in Ireland lasted to about 2,000 B.C. , that standing stones or pillar stones, planted in the ground, sometimes singly, or sometimes in a circle and erected throughout the country, irst appeared, as did the sepulchral monuments, or chamber tombs known to us in Irish as Cromleaca, or in English ‘Dolmens’. Examples of some of these powerful structures are still standing after a lapse of thousands of years in places as far apart Beann Eadair, Howth in Dublin, Leaba Caillighe ‘The Hags Bed’ near Fermoy, in county Cork, and the Dolmen of the Four Maols, at Ballina, in county Mayo.
The Bronze Age
The use of bronze, which marked a great advance in civilization, began in Ireland be- tween 2000 and 1800B.C. and lasted roughly until about 350 B.C. Whether one of the new colonies to settle here brought the wonderful discovery of copper with them, or whether the natives discovered it by themselves, is impossible to say with certainty, but by 2000 B.C. the Irish people were producing copper knives and axe-heads, instead of stone ones.
In the Ireland of those times there were a great many copper mines located throughout the land and once the people had acquired and learned the secret of melting copper and pouring it into moulds to harden, they quickly grasped how much easier it was to make copper tools than stone ones. They next realised that if they mixed a little tin with the cop- per, the resulting metal, bronze, was much harder, and therefore more practical and useful than copper alone. So began the Bronze Age in Ireland.
The bronze weapons, utensils, and ornaments discovered by excavation show a skill and workmanship which is far superior to the crude productions of earlier days. They also display a new found grace and artistry.