Personal Ornaments.
Fig. 157.—Golden Cap, Devil's Bit, Tipperary.
The personal ornaments show considerable artistic finish, and were in part modelled on designs obtained from the south. Two singular gold articles, ornamented in repoussé, found in Ireland (Fig. 157),[1] may have been intended for caps like the Etruskan "tutuli," or those worn by the Assyrian kings. Similar objects have been discovered in France and in Germany. Round the neck they wore torques of gold, bronze, or iron; round the arms bracelets, and round the waist belts of the same materials. Brooches were used made of bronze, and of the safety-pin[2] type as well as of other forms, sometimes ornamented with enamel. They had finger-rings of gold, as well as of bronze and iron; and necklaces of amber, jet, and of glass. The torques and bracelets are generally solid, and belong to the "beaded" type of Dr. Birch.[3]
They also wore circlets on their heads made of bronze or gold, sometimes ornamented with beautiful designs in volutes and flamboyants, like those of the bronze head-ring found in the village of Stitchel[4] (Fig. 158) in Roxburghshire. Silver was used not merely for personal ornament but for inlaying the hilts of the swords. The precious metals were probably stored up among the
