The Bronze Age in Ireland

Gor

ly in the possession of the Earl of Charlevil

te

Gold G

6

eing occupied with a narrow rope-shaped fillet. In some cases the ridges are left plain. The small disks at the terminals of the collar are remarkable; they measure about 2? or 3 inches in diameter, and are decorated with a centre and side bosses, surrounded with concentric circles. They much resemble in miniature the round shields or bucklers of the late Bronze Age, but they also show some resemblance to the so-called sun-disks which have been found in Ireland, and which will be described later on. Unfortunately the gorgets have in no case been found with any accompanying objects which would assist in dating them, and in fact in only two cases have details as to their finding been pr

into the boss, three perpendicular and two cross-stitches can be seen. Some of these sewings are made by means of slight square wire, but in others the fastenings are composed

Sun

were quite unknown; and Mr. Reginald A. Smith, of the British Museum, was the first to point out their resemblance to the gold disk, decorated with spirals, affixed to a bronze sun-chariot, found in Trundholm Moss, Zealand, in 1902. The bronze chariot consisted of a bronze disk mounted on wheels and drawn by a horse, the gold disk being affixed to the bronze one. The ornamentation of the Irish disks is somewhat different, as the spiral does not appear, its place being taken by the concentric circle. The Trundholm sun-chariot is dated by Prof. Sophus Muller at before 1000 b.c. The Trundholm disk is admittedly connected

te

sun-d

6

d B

heir large size would render them inconvenient as personal ornaments, they were probably used to decorate a horse. If so they may have been attached to the bridle like the large balls shown on the horses' bridles in the bronze scabbard from Hallstatt, dated La Tène I. See Déchelette, "Manuel d'Archéologie," vol. ii, p. 770. The Golden Peytrell found at Mold,

re

Clare find. This find-the largest collective one of gold objects ever made in Western Europe-was discovered in making a railway-cutting for the Limerick and Ennis Railway in 1854. A gang of labourers were digging near an old hawthorn-bush, a little distance to the south of the railway bridge in Moghaun north, on the west side of the line of the great fort,

tunately, most of the objects were sold to jewellers and melted down, but a large number were exhibited at the Arch?ological Institute by Dr. Todd and Lord Talbot de Malahide in 1854, and casts of these were taken, and a set is now in the National Collection. There are also a small number of the originals in the Royal Irish Academy's collection (Plate IV). Otherwise such objects of th

te

the great

6

Rings and

other objects found togeth

nin, showing Europeans holding manillas (after Re

two shapes-in the one case the expanded cups are large and flat and the connecting bar is bow-shaped, and is striated. These have been conjectured to have been used as brooches for fastening a garment; and their form was probably influenced by the Scandinavian spectacle-brooches, the bows of the latter having, in some cases, the same decoration. Except for the striations on the connecting link, the Irish so-called mamillary fibul? are almost always plain; but Vallancey has figured two examples, one of which is engraved with triangular, and the other with lozenge, ornaments. There is also the well-known example in Trinity College, Dublin, in which the surfaces of the cups are completely covered with concentric circle ornament, the inside rims of the

at

Fib

6

enin, showing natives holding manillas (after Re

g-M

'ring-money.' There are fifty-six in the National Collection; and a find made near Belfast of a socketed bronze celt in association with some of these objects shows they were in use duri

luable work "The Origin of Currency and Weight Standards," Professor Ridgeway devotes several pages of his Appendix C

nto the question of what standard they may represent. Some of these rings are evidently forgeries of ancient times, as they are composed of bronze rings covered with a th

te

Ring-

7