Object description
This bronze armlet is cast with rounded terminals and alternating thick and narrow projections. It is hollow and C-shaped, decorated with melon-shaped “beads”.
This decoration occurs on Central European armlets, bracelets and neck-rings, most commonly in Hungary and former Czechoslovakia. They have been found in Celtic grave groups.
The armlet dates to the La Tène period (late Iron Age). The name comes from a site of the same name, on Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland, where the first ‘La Tène’ type objects were excavated
Knobbed bronze armlet/Metal,Copper Alloy,Bronze/5th century BC to 5th century AD/The Hunt Collection/PD
The Iron Age in Ireland
The Iron Age in Ireland is thought to have begun around the 8th century BC.
This theory is supported by finds of charcoal associated with iron slag from sites excavated in the Irish midland, specifically Westmeath which has been dated using radiocarbon.
However, the transition to iron from bronze appears to have happened over a long period, and it was not until around the third century BC that a distinctive Iron Age society emerged.
As previously mentioned, this armlet dates to a period called La Tène. It is associated with a particular style of decoration. The art occurs on various objects, including two imported gold collars found in a bog at Ardnaglug, Co. Roscommon which were probably made in the Rhineland in the third century BC.
The decoration can also be found on another item in the Hunt Collection- a two piece, cast bronze torque (see image below). Similar to the armlet, it also has the melon-shaped beads. This type is found almost exculsively in north-eastern Britain and southern Scotland.
Knobbed cast bronze torc/Metal,Copper Alloy,Bronze/5th century BC to 5th century AD/The Hunt Collection/PD
Sources
Scott, B. G. “Some Notes on the Transition from Bronze to Iron in Ireland.” Irish Archaeological Research Forum, vol. 1, no. 1, 1974, pp. 9–24. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20495187. Accessed 26 Sept. 2025.
The Hunt Museum Essential Guide. Scala Publishers. 2002.
https://www.museum.ie/en-ie/collections-research/irish-antiquities-division-collections/collections-list-(1)/iron-age#:~:text=Recent%20radiocarbon%20dates%20from%20sites,in%20the%20third%20century%20BC.