The original was found with two others at Wedmore, Somersetshire. One of these is of the same type, but of smaller size, and not quite so closely twisted, as shown in Fig. 467; and the other is made of a flat ribbon of metal, ? inch broad, twisted, as shown in Fig. 469, which is copied from the same plate as Figs. 466 and 467.

From another account of these torques,[1456] it appears that they were found near Heath House, in the parish of Wedmore, and that with them were two celts and a few amber beads strung on a wire. This latter, to me, sounds doubtful, as the wire is probably a later addition. The weight of the largest is said to be ½ pound, of the second 2 ounces, and of the smallest 1½ ounce.

Another torque of the character of Fig. 466, about 9 inches in diameter, was found with a bracelet, Fig. 481, and a two-looped palstave, Fig. 87, at West Buckland, Somersetshire,[1457] and is in the collection of Mr. W. A. Sanford. It is shown on the scale of one-third in Fig. 468.

A portion of another torque, but of slender make, was found at Pen Pits,[1458] in the same county; and another, somewhat imperfect, near Edington Burtle.[1459] With the latter was a portion of a ribbon torque like Fig. 469, two bracelets, some rings, and four palstaves.

Two very fine torques, like Fig. 468, 8¾ inches in diameter, were also found in Somersetshire on the Quantock Hills,[1460] in 1794. Within each of them is said to have been placed a looped palstave, like Fig. 77. The weight of one of the torques is reported to have been nearly 2 pounds.

In the collection of the Rev. E. Duke, of Lake House, near Salisbury, are two fine torques of this kind, one large and heavy, and the other smaller and more slender, which were found near Amesbury. With them were several spiral rings closely resembling Fig. 489.

Two others found with armillÆ in Dorsetshire[1461] are now in the British Museum. The larger of these is closely twisted, and about 7½ inches in diameter. The smaller is thicker, and shows a coarser twist, and is about 6? inches in diameter. The armillÆ are penannular and of rhomboidal section.

Two small torques, some bronze rings or bracelets, and a palstave are recorded to have been dug up in Woolmer Forest, Hants.[1462] Two spiral rings were found with them.

In the collection of Mr. Durden, at Blandford, are several specimens found at Spetisbury, Dorset.[1463]

I have a thin torque about 6¼ inches in diameter, but unfortunately broken, found in Burwell Fen, Cambridgeshire.

In some instances the plain ends of the torque are left without hooks. Such is the case with the fine collar found, with four looped armlets and a palstave without loop, at Hollingbury Hill,[1464] near Brighton, which is now in the British Museum. On each extremity was a spiral ring of bronze, considerably larger than the rod forming the torque, and a third ring is shown in the published drawing. The palstave, which is broken in the middle, apparently on purpose, lay within the circle of the torque, which also was broken across the middle. At regular intervals round it lay the four bracelets, which resemble Fig. 482, and vary somewhat in weight.

The third of the torques already mentioned as found at Wedmore is shown in Fig. 469.

It is of a type which occurs more frequently in gold than in bronze, and in the former metal has often been found in Scotland. Several such were discovered under a large stone at Urquhart, Elginshire. Others have been found at Culter, Lanarkshire;[1465] Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire; Little Lochbroom, Ross-shire; Rannoch, Perthshire; and elsewhere. Some of these are in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh.

There are three or four such in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy.

A gold torque of this class found at Clonmacnoise,[1466] King’s County, has oval balls at each end instead of hooks.

That shown in Fig. 470 lay near the head of a contracted skeleton at Yarnton, four miles from Oxford, at a spot which seems to have been a prehistoric cemetery. I obtained it through the kindness of Professor Rolleston when visiting the place. The ends are ornamented by hammer marking. In a line with the wire forming the torque is a slightly raised flat band perpendicularly fluted; the expanding parts above and below are fluted horizontally. A herald would engrave “azure, a fesse gules” in the same manner, but with the lines much closer together. Two torques of the same character, found at Lumphanan, Aberdeenshire, are in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh.

The form probably belongs to the close of the Bronze Period, if not indeed to the Late Celtic or Early Iron Age.

A torque about 5 inches in diameter, described as of copper, made of a simple wire, with the ends turned back so as to form hooks, and on each a lenticular button of metal, was found near Winslow, Bucks,[1467] and may also be Late Celtic.

Another form of torque is made from a stout wire expanding into small flat discs at the end, a type which is also common among bracelets both in bronze and gold. A torque of this kind, together with a bracelet, is shown in Fig. 471, kindly lent by the Council of the Society of Antiquaries.

These objects were found with seven others in the parish of Llanrhaiadaryn-Mochnant, Montgomeryshire.[1468] One of them is said to have had pendants upon it. Several of them were too small to have served as torques for the neck, and were most probably bracelets or anklets. To these penannular ornaments I shall have to refer further on.

The other varieties of torques found in Britain seem decidedly to belong to the Late Celtic rather than to the Bronze Period, so that a brief notice of them will suffice. They are frequently made in two halves, hinged or dowelled together, and are often decorated with a series of ornamental beads.

A collar found in Lochar Moss, Dumfriesshire, is now in the British Museum.[1469] About one-third of it is formed by a solid piece of bronze of flat section, having the face ornamented with a peculiar wavy pattern and the outer rim with cabled lines. The rest consists of fluted melon-like beads with pulley-shaped collars between them. They appear to have been strung on an iron wire.

A portion of another collar found at Perdeswell,[1470] Claines, near Worcester, has the iron wire still preserved. The ornamental beads are flatter, with leaf-shaped projections upon them, and between them are smaller pulley-like beads.

Another, formed in much the same fashion as that from Lochar Moss, was found at Mow-road, Rochdale, Lancashire.[1471] This was in halves, dowelled together with iron pins.

Another, entirely of bronze, is made in two pieces, one part resembling a row of beads, the other engraved like a closely plaited cord, and was found at Embsay, near Skipton, Yorkshire.[1472]

A torque, weighing no less than 3 lbs. 10 ozs. avoirdupois, was found in the parish of Wraxall, Somerset.[1473] This also is in halves, with pins to form the joint. It is described as appearing to have been adorned with precious stones. Possibly, like some other objects of Late Celtic manufacture, it may have been inlaid with enamel of different colours.

They are sometimes slightly hollowed at the expanding ends. One found with the hoard at Marden, Kent,[1474] is of this kind. Another plain penannular bracelet tapers off at the ends instead of expanding. This latter is too small for an adult person.

One found, with various other bronze relics, at Ty Mawr, on Holyhead Mountain,[1475] expands at one end and tapers at the other. As is often the case, the inner side of the ring is flatter than the outer.

One, 2? inches by 2 inches inside, expanding at each end, was in the Heathery Burn Cave hoard. Some others were also found there.

In some instances the section of the metal, instead of being rounded, is nearly square. Two such, tapering towards the ends, were found in Dorsetshire,[1476] with the torques already mentioned, and are now in the British Museum.

Three plain penannular bracelets were in the hoard of palstaves and socketed celts found at Wallington, Northumberland.

Several have been found in Scotland. Two such bracelets, the one slender and the other thick, were found at Achtertyre, Morayshire,[1477] in company with a socketed celt, a spear-head, Fig. 383, another spear-head, and some fragments of other bracelets and of tin. One of these is shown full-size in Fig. 472.

Another, 2½ inches in greatest diameter, slightly thickened at the extremities, was found in a peat moss at Conage, Banffshire.[1478]

Other penannular armlets, one of which is shown as Fig. 473, were found with socketed celts at Redhill, Premnay, Aberdeenshire,[1479] and are now in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh; as is another found with burnt bones near Preston Tower, East Lothian.

This very simple penannular form of bracelet is found all over the world, and is indeed the form of necessity adopted wherever it became the fashion to wear thick metal wire round the arm. It was common among the ancient Assyrians, and several bronze bracelets of this form from Tel Sifr, in South Babylonia, are in the British Museum. The hammered copper bracelets of North America[1480] are usually penannular.

Two very massive penannular armlets, formed of rounded bronze fully ½ inch in diameter, and weighing about 12 ozs. each, were found with an agate bead and a spindle-whorl in a tumulus near Peninnis Head, in the Scilly Isles.[1481] One of these is shown in Fig. 474.

An imperfect armlet of thick bronze wire was found in a barrow at Wetton,[1482] by the late Mr. Bateman.

Four plain armillÆ of bronze found with the spiral ring, Fig. 489, and with a palstave, in Woolmer Forest, Hants, are also in the Bateman Collection.[1483] As already mentioned, two small torques and a celt are said to have been found with them.[1484]

Ornamented bracelets, such as have been found in abundance in the Swiss Lake-dwellings, and such as are common in most continental countries, are scarce in Britain.

In the British Museum are two bracelets, slightly oval in section, and engraved with parallel lines, chevrons, &c., as will be seen by Fig. 475. They were found at Liss, Hampshire. Though the two ends are brought more closely together than usual in continental examples, the general character of these bracelets is much like that of some French and German specimens. The patina upon them closely resembles that on the celt Fig. 17, also found at Liss; so they were probably deposited together.

A curious penannular armlet with flat broad ends, and ornamented with punctured markings, was found with another armlet of smaller diameter, but plain, more massive, and broader, together with the remains of a skeleton, at Stoke Prior,[1485] Worcestershire. It is now in the British Museum, and is represented in Fig. 476. It may belong to a later period than that of which I am treating, and is possibly Saxon.

Fig. 477, kindly lent by the Council of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, shows another form of armlet, made from a bar of nearly semicircular section, bent into a circular form. The original, together with another of the same kind, were found near Stobo Castle,[1486] Peeblesshire, beneath a flat stone, and lying on a large boulder, under which was a collection of small stones, burnt and with apparently calcined bones among them.

Another armlet (3 inches) of the same type was found with an urn containing burnt bones in a cairn in the parish of Lanark.[1487] A bronze spear-head is stated to have been found with it.

One of the bracelets from the find at Camenz,[1488] in Saxony, is of nearly the same type.

Two circular armlets, one with the ends slightly apart, were found in Dorsetshire, one in the parish of Milton.[1489] I have an imperfect armlet of this kind, found with a palstave, at Winterhay Green, Ilminster, Somerset.

A penannular armlet of bronze, with compressed oval knobs at the extremities, was found by Mr. F. C. Lukis, with a jet armlet, in the cromlech of La Roche qui sonne,[1490] in Guernsey, and is shown in Fig. 478. The scale has been said to be one-third, though from information kindly furnished to me by the Rev. W. C. Lukis, F.S.A., it appears to be one-half.

A somewhat different and more elegantly ornamented armlet from Cornwall[1491] is shown in Fig. 479.

A bronze armilla, made from a flat ribbon of metal, ½ inch broad, and ornamented outside with a neatly engraved lozengy pattern, was found with an interment in a barrow at Castern,[1492] near Wetton, Staffordshire.

Another, about 1½ inch wide, ornamented with four parallel bands of vertical lines, with chevrons at the end, was found in a barrow at Normanton,[1493] Wilts, encircling the arm of a skeleton, and is shown in Fig. 480. In this example the ends overlap.

Another, with a series of small longitudinal beads or mouldings upon it, was found near Lake, Wilts, and is in the collection of the Rev. E. Duke. Some plain penannular bracelets from that district are in the same collection.

An armlet of nearly the same character, but narrower, was found in Thor’s Cave,[1494] near Wetton, Derbyshire. Remains of Late Celtic and of Roman date were found in the same cave.

A fluted bracelet was found with rings and other objects at Edington Burtle, Somersetshire.[1495]

A bracelet of bronze, of which some of the fragments are represented in Fig. 481, was found with a bronze torque and a two-looped palstave at West Buckland,[1496] Somersetshire. It is flat on the inside, so that the ornaments appear to have been cast in a mould, though subsequently the more delicate work was added by means of punches or gravers.

Another form of bracelet, probably of earlier date than some of those represented in the previous figures, is of the type shown in Fig. 482. It consists of a long bar of bronze, either circular or subquadrangular in section, doubled over so as to leave a broad loop in the middle, and then curved round so as to form the bracelet, the two ends of the bar being bent over to form a hook, which engages in the central loop. That shown in the figure was formerly in the collection of the late Sir Walter Trevelyan, and is now in the British Museum. As will be seen, the edges are in some parts minutely serrated. The original was discovered with two others, and a ring of the same metal, in a moss at Ham Cross, near Crawley, Sussex.

Four others, forming two pairs, neatly placed round a torque, were found at Hollingbury Hill,[1497] near Brighton, as already described. They are now in the British Museum. I have seen two others of the same kind which were found at Pyecombe, Sussex. They are in the collection of Mrs. Dickinson, of Hurstpierpoint. Another was found in a barrow near Brighton,[1498] with the long pin already mentioned, and is now at Alnwick Castle. This was slightly ornamented with a kind of herring-bone pattern.

Bracelets constructed on the same principle are sometimes formed of much thinner wire. One from the Heathery Burn Cave,[1499] already so often mentioned, is shown in Fig. 483.

Another of the same size and character, but made of even thinner wire, was found with a bronze razor, a button, and other antiquities, in the bed of a stream near Llangwyllog Church,[1500] Anglesea. These objects are now in the British Museum. The type is not confined to Britain, for a bracelet clasping in the same manner was found in the Lac du Bourget.[1501]

Penannular bracelets, like Fig. 473, with the ends slightly expanding, have been not unfrequently found in Ireland. One engraved by Wilde[1502] is described as of pure red copper.

In many there are large cup-shaped ends at about right angles to each other. One from Co. Cavan is shown in Fig. 484. I have another of the same type, but much smaller and lighter, from Ballymoney, Co. Antrim.

They much resemble the manillas or ring-money in use on the West Coast of Africa, but are more cup-shaped at the ends. It appears possible that, like some large Irish rings which will subsequently be described, they are not actually bracelets. The other armillÆ engraved by Wilde appear to be of later date than the Bronze Period. The same may be said of the elegant bracelet shown full size in Fig. 485, which is certainly Late Celtic. It was found by Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., on the right arm of a female skeleton in a barrow at Cowlam,[1503] Yorkshire, and is similar to some found at Arras,[1504] in the same county.

Another somewhat plainer bracelet, with a short dowel at one end, fitting into a socket at the other, so as to form an almost invisible joint, was found with a fibula, Fig. 498, on the skeleton of an aged woman in another of the Cowlam[1505] barrows, and is shown in Fig. 486.

Another bronze armlet of the same period was found in a barrow in the parish of Crosby Garrett,[1506] Westmoreland. It encircled the right arm of a skeleton, and is penannular, “oval in section, and unornamented, except in having a series of notches along both edges.”

Many bracelets of Late Celtic date have been found at various times in Scotland. Some of these are of very ornate design, and extremely massive; while on others a repoussÉ pattern has been worked upon a plate of thin bronze. Such bracelets hardly come within the scope of the present work, but a few references to engravings of them are subjoined:—

Aboyne, Aberdeenshire (Arch. Journ., vol. xxii. p. 74; Wilson’s “Preh. Ann. of Scot.,” vol. ii. pp. 136, 139).

Alvah, Banffshire (Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. vi. p. 11, pl. iii. 1).

Muthill, Perthshire, now in the British Museum (Arch., vol. xxviii. p. 435).

Plunton Castle, Kirkcudbright (Arch. Journ., vol. xvi. p. 194; Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. iii. p. 236).

Strathdon, Aberdeenshire (Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. vi. p. 13, pl. iii. 2).

In the hoard found at Marden,[1507] Kent, there were six perfect bronze rings, varying in diameter from 1? to 1? inch. In the Heathery Burn Cave were numerous rings of circular section, and varying in thickness from ½ inch to 1½ inch in diameter. Many of these are now in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S. One, 2½ inches in diameter, was in the hoard found at Westow,[1508] Yorkshire, and may have been an armlet. Several stout rings, about 1 inch in diameter, “probably cast in moulds,” were found with various other antiquities in bronze at Ty Mawr,[1509] Holyhead, and a number of rings of various sizes, from ? inch to 1½ inch in diameter, were found in the deposit at Llangwyllog,[1510] Anglesea. There were also three small rings in the great hoard found at Pant-y-maen,[1511] Glancych.

Several rings, some of lozenge-shaped section and of delicate workmanship, were found in the hoard at Taunton,[1512] with the pin and other objects already mentioned.

Such rings may have served various purposes, but were probably used as means of connection between different straps or accoutrements. Canon Greenwell has called my attention to two separate instances of two rings being found together, in company with a bronze sword, in one case near Medomsley, Durham, and in the other near Rothbury, Northumberland.

The rings found with remains of chariots at Hamden Hill,[1513] near Montacute, Somersetshire, appear to be of Late Celtic date, and to be hollow. A hollow ring, however, 1? inch in diameter, and made from a strip of bronze, fashioned into a tube and left open on the inner side, was found with a socketed celt, a gouge, and other objects of bronze, at Melbourn,[1514] Cambridgeshire. Many of those from the cemetery at Hallstatt are of this kind, wrought from a thin plate of metal. Some hollow rings from Ireland will subsequently be mentioned.

Near Trillick,[1515] Co. Tyrone, a pin passing transversely through the body of two rings (see Fig. 496) was found, and with it two large rings about 3½ inches in diameter, and four smaller, about 2 inches. These latter appear to be hollow, with probably a clay core inside. With these objects a socketed celt and a bronze hammer were found.

Nearly six hundred bronze rings are in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy.

Some of the Irish rings are cast in pairs, like a figure of 8.[1516] Others of large size have smaller rings cast upon them. That shown in Fig. 487, borrowed from Wilde,[1517] is 4¼ inches in diameter, with rings of 1½ inches diameter upon it. Sir W. Wilde was inclined to regard it as a bangle with two rings by which to suspend it, but this appears to me very doubtful. I have an almost identical example of the form from Ballymoney, Co. Antrim.

A gold ring, 4¼ inches in diameter, with a single small ring playing upon it, from the great Clare find, is figured by Wilde.[1518] He states that “similar articles are occasionally observed sculptured upon the breasts of the statues of ancient Roman generals, the small ring being attached to the dress.”

One found with the armlets and palstaves in Woolmer Forest,[1519] Hants, as already mentioned, is shown in Fig. 488. It has been formed from a small quadrangular bar of metal, cylindrical at the ends, twisted after the manner of an ordinary torque, and subsequently coiled into a spiral ring. Mr. Bateman[1520] describes it as a finger ring. With it was also another twisted bronze ring of the same kind, but of only one coil. It appears doubtful whether these rings were not more of the nature of ornamental beads. It will be remembered that three spiral rings of the same kind, but plain and of about four coils each, were found on the extremities of the torque discovered at Hollingbury Hill,[1521] Sussex. They were considerably too large to fit on the torque, and were regarded as intended in some way to fasten the garment. Some rings of this kind were found with torques near Amesbury, as already mentioned. A ring of a single coil, but made from a twisted bar like that in the figure, was in the hoard found at Camenz,[1522] Saxony, in which also were fragments of torques.

I have three small twisted penannular rings of gold which were found with a small torque of the same metal near Carcassonne, Aude. They are of different sizes and weights, but are all too small for the finger or for ear-rings. One of them is indeed too small to pass over the recurved end of the torque, but the ends may possibly have been pinched together since it was found. I am not aware that any of the rings were ever actually upon the torque, though I have reason to believe they were found with it.

Mr. Franks has recently presented to the British Museum a gold torque from Lincolnshire, which has three banded rings of gold, strung like beads upon it.

Some small penannular rings found on a gold torque at Boyton have already been mentioned.

The penannular rings so often found in Ireland, and commonly called ring money, may after all be of the nature of beads.

The large hollow penannular ornaments made of thin gold, and nearly triangular in section, seem also to be of the nature of beads or possibly clasps. Straps passed through the narrow notch would require some trouble to take out; but still such beads could be dislodged from their string without its ends being unfastened. The ornament shown in Fig. 489 was found near Dumbarton.[1523]

Others, similar, have been found in Anglesea, Heathery Burn Cave, near Alnwick,[1524] and in other places. They occur also in Ireland.[1525] They have frequently been found associated with armlets. Some Egyptian rings of carnelian, ivory, and other materials have similar notches through them. They have, however, been regarded as ear-rings.

Bronze finger rings seem to have been in occasional use.

In a perished urn with burnt bones, found with several others, one containing a barbed flint arrow-head, in the cemetery at Stanlake,[1526] Oxfordshire, there was a spiral bronze finger ring of the plainest form, the only fragment of metal brought to light during nearly a month’s excavations by Mr. Akerman and Mr. Stone. What may have been a finger ring was also found in the Heathery Burn Cave,[1527] Durham. It is formed of stout wire, the ends expanding, and slightly overlapping each other, and is ? inch in diameter.

In the hoard of bronze antiquities found near Edington Burtle,[1528] Somersetshire, were several small rings; but with one exception they are hardly such as could have served for finger rings. This exceptional ring is penannular, and fluted externally like the bracelet found with it in the same hoard. The form is not unlike that of the gold ring engraved by Wilde[1529] as his Fig. 609.

In a barrow at Cowlam,[1530] “touching the temporal bones, which were stained green by the contact, were two ear-rings of bronze. They have been made by beating the one end of a piece of bronze flat, and forming the other end into a pin-shaped termination. This pin had been passed through the lobe of the ear and then bent round, the other and flat end being bent over it.” Thus the ear-ring must have been “permanently fixed in the ear.” One of these rings is, by Canon Greenwell’s kindness, shown as Fig. 490, as is one from Goodmanham,[1531] in Fig. 491.

In the latter case there was a bronze awl, or drill, behind the head; the ear-ring here figured was at the right ear, and its fellow, in a more broken condition, lay under the left shoulder. The better preserved of the two is somewhat imperfect, and may, I think, have formed a perfect circle when whole.

Mr. Bateman records finding in a barrow called Stakor Hill,[1532] near Burton, a female skeleton, “the mastoid bones of which were dyed green from contact with two small pieces of thin bronze bent in the middle just sufficiently to clasp the edge or lobe of the ear.” With the skeleton was a flint “javelin head,” and Mr. Bateman considered the interment to be the oldest he had met with in which metal was present.

By way of illustration, a much longer form of trough-shaped ear-ring may be adduced, though the metal in this instance is gold and not bronze. That shown in Fig. 492 was found with another in a stone cist at Orton, Morayshire.[1533]

It seems possible that a lunette or diadem of gold was buried with these ear-rings.

A pair of circular embossed plates, with a beaded ring on each and a smaller disc above, were found in a tumulus near Lake, Wilts, and have been regarded as ear-rings. They are in the collection of the Rev. E. Duke.

In the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy[1534] is another gold ornament of the same form as Fig. 492. It is, however, smaller, and the lower part is at present flat. Gold penannular rings of torque-like patterns, pointed at each end, and which may have been ear-rings, and not bead-like ornaments, are not uncommon in Ireland and Britain.[1535] Rings of nearly the same kind are still in use in Northern Africa. Plain double-pointed penannular ear-rings in bronze are also found, but I am uncertain as to the period to which they should be assigned. Some appear to be of Saxon date.[1536]

I have a pair of ear-rings of circular form from Hallstatt, about 2 inches in diameter, of hollow bronze, made from a thin plate, and with one end pointed which fits into a socket at the other end. Other ear-rings of bronze,[1537] from the same cemetery, have a small ring encircling them, to which, in one instance, three small spherical bells are attached.

In the Laibach Museum are some bronze ear-rings of the Early Iron Age, much like those from Goodmanham, but broader.

Ear-rings of the Bronze Period appear to be almost unknown in France. I have, however, specimens found with a hoard of bronze socketed celts, fragments of swords, spear-heads, bracelets, and a variety of other objects at Dreuil, near Amiens, about 1872.

They are two in number, in form like Fig. 490, but rather shorter. One of them is coiled up, and the other has the broad part nearly flat. Each is ornamented with some parallel lines stamped in across the broader part. Several small hollow and some solid rings, circular, semicircular, and flattened in section, were in the same hoard.

A notched bead of tin, like a number of small beads strung together, accompanied a little pin of copper or bronze, most probably an awl, and some conical buttons of bone or ivory, in a barrow on Sutton Verney Down,[1540] in which there had been deposited a burnt body. Hoare says that “it is the only article of that metal we have ever found in a barrow.”

Small beads, or more probably drum-shaped buttons of gold, as suggested by Dr. Thurnam,[1541] have also been found in the Wiltshire barrows.

Beads formed of joints of encrinites, with others formed of burnt clay, as well as a necklace formed of the shells of dentalium, were found in a barrow near Winterbourn Stoke.[1542] Glass beads of the notched form have been found with burnt interments, and frequently with bronze instruments in others of the Wiltshire barrows.[1543] Other beads have spiral ornaments in white upon a blue ground. A blue glass bead, with three yellow spirals on it, was found with the point of a bronze blade in a cist with burnt bones in a barrow at Eddertoun, Ross-shire.[1544] Such beads, known as Clachan Nathaireach,[1545] or serpent stones, have been used as charms for diseased cattle and other evils.

Glass beads with the same spiral ornamentation have been found in the cemetery at Hallstatt, and their presence in these graves certainly affords an argument for assigning them to a comparatively late period, or at all events to a time when commerce with the Continent was well established.

Among the objects found at Exning, Suffolk,[1546] are some “curious bullÆ” with clay cores, but they appear to belong to a later date.