on each breast.
That they are positively to be referred to the last period of paganism, we know with complete certainty, because they are frequently found in graves in Ireland[1], which country was first peopled by pagan Norwegians, at the close of the ninth century. In connection with these oval ornaments, some other clasps, called the trefoil-shaped clasps, were occasionally deposited.
On the obverse they are embellished with the loop ornaments; on the reverse an iron pin is introduced, which is fastened in a ring. It is therefore evident that these were also clasps. Although there are several different ornaments of the same kind, we will pass over them as of minor importance, and call attention to the numerous gold ornaments of the same period. In the bronze-period most of the ornaments were of the common metals, occasionally covered with thin
- ↑ The following engravings from the Journal of the Archæological Association, vol. ii. p. 331, represent two similar objects found at Pier-o-wall in Orkney, in April, 1839. They are of bronze or copper, and to the projecting points presented on the exterior convex surface, jewels, stones, or glass were no doubt affixed. The bow-like bar in the concavity of No. 3, is of iron. In the Vetusta Monumenta (vol. ii. pl. 20. figs. ix. and x.) a similar ornament is engraved, which was found together with a brass pin and a brass needle, one on each side of a skeleton, in the Isle of Sangay, between the Isles of Uist and Harris, to the west of Scotland: and there is a similar object in the British Museum.—T.
