page_title: Prehistoric Ireland
section_title: Copper and Bronze Ages (2500–500 BC)
hierarchical_section_title: Prehistoric Ireland / Copper and Bronze Ages (2500–500 BC)
caption_attribution_description: English: The Glensheen gold gorget (or collar) dates from 800 to 700 BC and was found in a rock fissure in Co. Clare in 1932. The style of the gorget bears a strong resemblance to the styles of ultra-luxurious and superfine goods found in contemporary Europe, giving evidence of links between Ireland and the European mainland. This gorget, which is housed in the National Museum of Ireland is item 12 in A History of Ireland in 100 Objects.&#91;1&#93;
context_page_description: The prehistory of Ireland, pieced together from archaeological evidence, begins with the first evidence of humans in Ireland around 10,500 BC, and finishes with the start of the historical record around 400 AD. Both of these dates are later than for much of Europe and all of the Near East. The prehistoric period covers the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age societies of Ireland. For much of Europe, the historical record begins when the Romans invaded; as Ireland was not invaded by the Romans its historical record starts later, with the coming of Christianity.
  The two periods that have left the most spectacular groups of remains are the Neolithic, with its megalithic tombs, and the gold jewellery of the Bronze Age, when Ireland was a major centre of gold mining.
  Ireland has many areas of bogland, and a great number of archaeological finds have been recovered from these. The anaerobic conditions sometimes preserve organic materials exceptionally well, as with a number of bog bodies, a Mesolithic wicker fish-trap, and a Bronze Age textile with delicate tassels of horse hair.
context_section_description: Metallurgy arrived in Ireland with new people, generally known as the Bell Beaker People (Indo-Europeans) from their characteristic pottery, in the shape of an inverted bell. This was quite different from the finely made, round-bottomed pottery of the Neolithic. It is found, for example, at Ross Island, and associated with copper mining there, which had begun by at least 2,400 BC.  There is some disagreement about when speakers of a Celtic language first arrived in Ireland. It is thought by some scholars to be associated with the Beaker People of the Bronze Age, but the more mainstream view is, or at least used to be, that "Celts" arrived much later at the beginning of the Iron Age.
  The Bronze Age began once copper was alloyed with tin to produce true bronze artefacts, and this took place around 2000 BC, when some "Ballybeg-type" flat axes and associated metalwork were produced. The tin needed to be imported, normally from Cornwall.  The period preceding this, in which Lough Ravel and most Ballybeg axes were produced, and which is known as the Copper Age or Chalcolithic, commenced about 2500 BC.
  Bronze was used for the manufacture of both weapons and tools. Swords, axes, daggers, hatchets, halberds, awls, drinking utensils and horn-shaped trumpets are just some of the items that have been unearthed at Bronze Age sites. Irish craftsmen became particularly noted for the horn-shaped trumpet, which was made by the cire perdue, or lost wax, process. 
  Copper used in the manufacture of bronze was mined in Ireland, chiefly in the southwest of the island, while the tin was imported from Cornwall in Britain. The earliest known copper mine in these islands was located at Ross Island, at the Lakes of Killarney in County Kerry; mining and metalworking took place there between 2400 and 1800 BC. Another of Europe's best-preserved copper mines has been discovered at Mount Gabriel in County Cork, which was worked for several centuries in the middle of the second millennium. Mines in Cork and Kerry are believed to have produced as much as 370 tonnes of copper during the Bronze Age.
  Ireland was also rich in native gold, and the Bronze Age saw the first extensive working of this precious metal by Irish craftsmen. More Bronze Age gold hoards have been discovered in Ireland than anywhere else in Europe. Irish gold ornaments have been found as far afield as Germany and Scandinavia, and gold-related trade was very possibly a major factor in the Bronze Age Irish economy.
  In the early stages of the Bronze Age the gold ornaments included simple but finely decorated gold lunulae, a distinctively Irish type of object later made in Britain and continental Europe, and disks of thin gold sheet. Many of these seem to have been long in use before they were deposited.  Later the thin twisted torc made its appearance; this was a collar consisting of a bar or ribbon of metal, twisted into a spiral.  Other types of gold jewellery made in Ireland during the Bronze Age, most shared with Britain, include earrings, sun disks, bracelets, clothes fasteners, and in the Late Bronze Age, the distinctively Irish large "gorgets", and bullae amulets.  After the Bronze Age goldwork almost ceased to be produced in Ireland; the Irish deposits may well have been essentially exhausted.
  Construction of wedge tombs tailed off from about 2,200 BC, and while the previous tradition of large scale monument building was much reduced, existing earlier megalithic monuments continued in use in the form of secondary insertions of funerary and ritual artefacts. Towards the end of the Bronze Age the single-grave cist made its appearance. This consisted of a small rectangular stone chest, covered with a stone slab and buried a short distance below the surface. The body might be cremated, or not. Decorated pots often accompanied the remains, and later  cremated remains were placed inside the urn, which was turned upside-down, and might also have grave goods of various sorts.  Numerous stone circles were also erected at this time, chiefly in Ulster and Munster.
  Crannogs are timber homes bui
caption: the Gleninsheen Gorget, 800-700 BC, National Museum of Ireland, no. 12 in A History of Ireland in 100 Objects.[35]
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