Page:Primevalantiquit00wors.djvu/95

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ANTIQUITIES OF THE IRON-PERIOD.
55

gold plates, and much more rarely of massive gold; now the very reverse is the case. At the same time we do not find the gold altogether unalloyed. It was used with a portion of silver, fused with it, by which a metal has been produced to which the name of electrum has been given. Objects of pure silver alone, which, it is known, have never been discovered in barrows together with remains from the bronze-period, also occur in this period, although they are by no means so general in Denmark as articles of gold.

The primeval antiquities of Denmark 095a.png

The superior style of these trinkets, as they are occasionally found, will appear from the circumstance that our forefathers also possessed ornaments for the head, which were of massive gold. That which is here figured was found some years ago at Stamp, in the neighbourhood of Haderslev, and is particularly remarkable, because on the reverse of the broad plate, which probably adorned the forehead, is seen the word (lvþro), which probably denoted the name of its possessor. In case the name of a man was here expressed, which is not improbable, the inscription would tend to confirm the former supposition, that it was by no means women only, but doubtless men also, who were adorned with such ornaments. It will be impossible at the present day to determine whether rings were worn in ancient times exclusively by men or women, for which reason we will treat of these ornaments together.

The primeval antiquities of Denmark 096a.png

Still larger and more costly than the ornaments for the head just described, are the rings which in all probability were worn round the neck[1]. They are composed of two

  1. We are indebted to Mr. Birch's elaborate paper on the Torc of the Celts, in the third vol. of the Archæological Journal, for the accompanying figure of a solid torc, now in the collection of the British Museum. The body is plain but thin, the bulbs oblong, slightly concave, and decorated at the side with an engrailing. This has been anciently twisted into a knot, probably in order to fit a younger or female wearer, or perhaps it has been