JOURNAL OF THE COUNT\- DONEGAL HISTORICAL SOCIEI ~ P·!'otected by the withdrawal of .the legionaries to defend the heart of the Empire when the Huns were hamme::-ing at the Gates of Rome. But, after all, coins, even the oldest of them-and all the glory and grandeur of Greece and Rome are but things of yesterday in the long story of Man. I know of few things more calculated to give one a worth~while thrill that to s.toop, when crossing a ploughed field and to pi·ck up a s.tone axe or a flint ar>rowhead dropped from the hand of some hunter or worker many thousands of years ago. These objects show that even in that dim an distant morning of the world our ancestors in Ireland were both craftsmen and ·artists. How interesting to tl).ink that so much of their work has survived the suns and storms, the frosts and snows of many centuries-not to mention · the myriad possibilities of accident and damage in the more recent times of mechanical cultdva.tion? My first introduction to the study of ,the evidences of prehistoric man in my district came when a country carpenter-a species almost extinct now-adays-used to work at our place. He had a small farm in a neighbouring townland and being an observant cl:rara:cter had picked up several unusual-looking stones which he brought to me, knowing that I was interested in everything old and curious. I just knew enough to recognise them as Neolithic axe-heads 'and for years afterwards, in the course of his wo·rk around the district he obtained many others. These formed the n'll'cleus of my colle·ction which, at least, has the merit of being entirely local. Then one day my ploughman found one on my own 'farmthe first to be found on it, as fa·r a.s I know and a very fine one it proved to be. This was the precursor of numerous others found by the same man, by myself and by others during the past forty five years. There is now not a :fileld on my own farm nor a townla;id in the parish which has not yie:ded one or more objects made and used by our distant predecesso•rs. Sometimes when in an imaginative mood I can see these former owners stretching dusty hands ·across the dim centuries to claim their old possessfons. Then I look upon my collection with a kind of reve:-ence--too often missing now-adays, I am afra:id,-in regard to these and other relics of the distant past. For several years my collect- 'o".l did not include anytbiing repre;.entative of the succeeding Bronze Age, until one day a neighbouring farmer told me that he had found on his land wha.t he thought was a stone hatchet and he asked me to go to see it. It turned out to be a stone axe all right and in the course of talk I happened to mention that n later c~ass of weapons and tools were made of bronze and that the earlier ones were somewhat similar in shape to the stone axes. "Hold on a bit" said he as he mounted on a chad.r and brought down a sma11 box from what is known in old country hous·es as the h~lf loft.Groping through a miscellaneous ·assortment of old bolts, screws, nails etc he produced-an excellent Bronze axe of the earliest type with an evidently hti!!h proportion of copper . in it. He had found it when cleaning out a ditch and had often thought of using it as .a wed.ge for his grubber but d:1d not think it just quite suitab'le ! You can imai;?ine wha.t a doublebflrrelled thrill I got when he sa1\d "Take the two. The:v are no "OOd to me". This was my first Bronze object and subsequent vears brouitht me several more. One was from a tin-smith who had made ineffectual attempts Footnote- Can any member of the Society irive information about a hoard of silver coins found at Meencarriga. Ballybofev near thP. old Barne·smore bridlepath? (Ed) 259.
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