Knowledge of how to make bronze, an alloy of copper and ten percent tin appears to have arrived in Ireland from Europe as an established technology. The tin and gold in Ireland was probably imported from Cornwall in southwest England. Bell Beaker vessels, some of which were highly decorated, were replaced by bowls (low profile), and elongated vases and urns.
Cashel Man is bog body (a human cadaver mummified in a peat bog) found and recovered from a bog near Cashel in County Laois, Leinster, which had been intentionally covered with peat after his death around 2000 BC, making it the oldest fleshed bog body of Europe.
Beltany stone circle (2100-700 BC), County Donegal, Ulster, one of the largest in Ireland, takes its name from the Celtic Beltaine (May) festival. Today Beltany has sixty-four stones of varying height and width enclosing an earthen platform
By the Middle Bronze Age (1500-1150 BC). the dagger had evolved into dirks, rapiers and halberds. Neck ornaments included gold torks (neck-rings) and gold lunulae (crescent necklets), both of which were exported to Britain.
During the Late Bronze Age (1150-500 BC) burials were rare and there were no ceramics for several centuries. By the first millennium BC craftsmen were producing trumpet horns, socketed axes, sheet-bronze buckets, cauldrons and swords.
True swords are leaf-shaped which makes them effective for slashing as well as stabbing. The first of these is called the ‘Ballintober’, named after a site in County Mayo, Connacht. Circular shields also occur, such as the fifty centimetre shield found in Lough Gur, County Limerick, Munster.
The richest and most abundant Irish metalwork occurred during the Dowris Phase (850-600 BC), named from a rich hoard found at Dowris, Co. Offaly, Leinster. Until the 600 BC, gold jewellery of superb quality was produced, together with tools, weapons, trumpets and other kinds of objects in bronze.
From 1000 BC people began to build settlements on hilltops, their elevation making them easier to defend than settlements in valleys. These hilltop settlements developed into hillforts, as they are known today. Rathgall hillfort, Co. Wicklow, Leinster, consists of three roughly concentric stone ramparts, with a medieval fourth wall at its centre.
People in wetter areas built settlements called crannogs, dwellings constructed partially or entirely on artificial islands in lakes, rivers or estuaries. At Ballinderry, Co. Westmeath, Leinster, the upper (1) dated from about the eighth century, and the lower (2) from the Late Bronze Age.
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