The Celtic World (Routledge Worlds)

• Ireland: A World without the Romans -
  
  
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Figure 33.6 Bronze disc with repousse ornament, Monasterevin, Co. Kildare. Scale 1:2.

Petrie Crown and on the well-known disc from the river Bann which are apparently
produced by background tooling of the bronze. In stone too, especially on the
famous iron age monolith from Turoe, Co. Galway (Duignan 1976), the Irish crafts-
men were of the highest calibre.
Among the finest of all the native bronzes, however, are the great bronze trumpets
such as those from Ardbrin, Co. Down, and Loughnashade, Co. Armagh (Figure
33.7). These are large, elegantly curving instruments, formed by skilfully hammering
and bending bronze sheets to tubular form and sealing the junction by internally
riveted bronze strips. In the case of the Ardbrin example no fewer than 1,094 rivets
were needed to keep the strips in place. These spectacular implements must have been
display pieces intended to be blown on festive occasions or, perhaps, on the occasion