s and

with gold band, and Urn found in To

s of these early daggers may be mentioned that discovered in 1897 at an interment at Topped Mountain Cairn, County Fermanagh. This dagger measures 5? 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

gger and Ra

n or wood (fig. 57); but the hilts for the most part were made of some perishable substance, and they have consequently not been recovered. The scolloped mark left by the hilt is often quite plainly to be seen on the blade. In later times the handle was sometimes cast in one piece with the blade; but the division between the handle and the blade is always quite clearly marked. The decoration of the later dagger-bl

lade; and this form was probably influenced also, as will be mention

s in length (fig. 59). Another very remarkable Irish example is the short rapier found in Upper Lough Erne, and obtained by Mr. Thoma

7.-Dag

andle

ney, Co

.-Rapie

er Lou

-Rapier

e, Co.

s and Daggers f

tumuli of that period, as at Staadorf, Haut Palatinat (1600-1300 b.c.). Montelius places the rapiers in his fourth period dated at the end of the fifteenth to the middle of the twelfth century b.c.,[17] so that his dating of these objects practically coincides with that of M. Déchelette. It is now well recognized that the swords of the ?gean-Mycen?an area were developed on parallel lines to those of Western Europe. We find th