Page:Primevalantiquit00wors.djvu/74

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34
ANTIQUITIES OF THE BRONZE-PERIOD.

a considerable quantity of trinkets, many of which were very tasteful. Large hair-pins, nearly a foot long, adorned with knobs, and inlaid with gold and all kinds of ornaments; combs, partly of bronze, partly of small pieces of bones rivetted together; rings for the hair of the most varied forms, occasionally with broad expanded ends; and finally the so-termed diadems, which beyond all doubt were fastened over the forehead, all shew us that ornaments for the hair occupied no mean place among the trinkets of that time.

The primeval antiquities of Denmark 074a.png

The primeval antiquities of Denmark 074b.png

They also wore round the neck rings, which were frequently hollow, doubtless for the purpose of being filled with a soft substance, so as both to lessen their weight and pressure, and at the same time to give them a more splendid appearance, and spare the metal. Among the ornaments peculiar to the age of bronze must be specified the winding spiral-formed armlets, and which are generally upwards of twelve inches in length, and therefore capable of covering almost the whole of the arm. Their flexibility secured this advantage, that they could be expanded as the arm increased in circumference. In some cases they might afford protection to the arm against the blow of a sword.

The primeval antiquities of Denmark 074c.png

But we know nothing with certainty as to the nature of the costume which was most frequently worn in connection with these ornaments. That those who lived during the age of bronze were not clad like the aborigines, chiefly in the skins of animals, we may conclude from the degree of civilization to