Early Bronze Age axe-ingots from Brittany: evidence for connections with south-west Ireland?

Abstract:This paper examines the possibility that a variant of Irish Killaha-type axeheads, dating to the start of the Bronze Age, has been identified in France. This proposed Ploukilla-type shares morphological characteristics with the classic Irish examples but is different in that the objects are poorly cast and non-functional, suggesting they are axe-ingots. The analysed French objects contain copper consistent with Type A metal from the mine at Ross Island, Co. Kerry. However, they are pure copper, in contrast to the standard Killaha type, which is representative of the first tin bronze in Ireland. The Ploukilla-type objects are concentrated in Brittany. They suggest that copper from Ross Island was traded along the Atlantic seaboard of north-west France, where no direct evidence of contemporary exploitation of copper sources is known.