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Rh purpose short instruments were used, in which there was a much larger proportion of tin than usual.

48.—Bronze knife, said to have been found by Sir Gardner Wilkinson, at Thebes, but probably European.

Such implements are very hard, but at the same time very brittle, and therefore not suited for ordinary purposes. Instruments of this character, though rare, have been met with in the great bronze find at Larnaud and elsewhere.

On some of the bronze vessels the ornamentation has been produced by hammering. This, however, indicates a considerable progress in metallurgy.

Soldering seems to have been entirely unknown during the Bronze Age, and even during the earlier times of the Iron Age. Thus the Hallstadt bronze vessels, when broken, were always riveted together.

I have also figured a group (figs. 64–67) of Irish gold ornaments. The earlier ones probably belong to the Bronze Age; a torque much like fig. 64 formed part of the great Larnaud find, but they appear to have come down to a much later period. The fact is interesting that very similar ornaments, made, however, not of gold, but of