haped

this type was found in a house on the Akropolis at Mycen? by Schliemann, and it can be dated at about 1200 b.c.[25] The discovery of this sword may be explained either as the result of a raid, or as showing that invaders from the north had reached Greece as early as this date. A leaf-shaped sword has been noticed on one of the clay tablets dated as late Minoan II, and in one of the stone slabs from over the fifth shaft grave at Mycen?, which represents a figure in a chariot attacking a man on foot, the latter is armed with a leaf-shaped sword.[26] In any case it gives us a date for the period when these swords were in common use in western Europe. The type with notches below the blade has a tendency to become straighter at the sides, and to lose its leaf-shaped form. The u

swords, found with a spear-h

he point of the weapon does not seem to have reached the end of the sheath. There are several examples of bronze chapes in the Royal Irish Academy's collection, and they display a considerable variety of design. Some are long and tubular in shape (fig. 66), while others are of the winged or boat-shaped type which is found on the Continent (fig. 67

.-Bronz

.-Winge

ie

eld, found at Lough

ornamented with large bosses in the British Museum which was found at Athenry, County Galway.[27] These bronze shields have never been found in the British Islands with any objects which would give any definite clue to

er-wood shie

Leit

f leather shield, found a

iath,' one of the Irish words for 'shield,' denotes 'alder.' The next is the leather shield found in 1908 at Clonbrin, County Longford, and presented to the Royal Irish Academy's collection by Colonel W. H. King-Harman. This truly remarkable shield, the only one of its kind in Europe, is made of a solid piece of leather nearly ? of an inch thick, and measures 20? inches in length by 19? inches across. It has an oblong centre boss pressed out of the leather and covered with an ornamental cap of fine leather laced on to it. The boss is encircl

transitional to the oblong shield of Southern Europe and also of the late Celtic type found in Britain