golden cap (Fig. 157) found in Ireland is similar to those found near Poitiers in France, and in the Valley of the Rhine, figured by Lindenschmidt; it is also of the same design as some of the gold cups found in Denmark (Fig. 151) and Scania.[1] In all these the workmanship is identical with that of the Etruskans.
The Etruskan influence is proved by many discoveries,[2] such as the peculiar vase-carriages in Scania, and the cinerary urns of bronze in North Germany, to have extended as far to the north as Sweden, and to the east as the Lower Vistula. The cinerary urns have been found in association with articles of iron, and with amber beads, in tombs of the Iron age.
Etruskan weapons and designs have also been discovered in Denmark; the axes, for example (Fig. 148), are identical in type with those represented on the frescoed wall of the great tomb at Cære. The shields also, such as Fig. 150, are, if not of Etruskan origin, modelled on Etruskan designs. Some of the Danish swords, with hilts à trois cordons, are identical with those found in Italy.
The ancient Etruskans of Bologna and Hallstadt, and in the older tombs of Cære, were in the state of transition between bronze and iron. Bronze swords and axes were most common, and iron was comparatively rare, and so much more valuable than bronze, that one of the bronze celts, discovered in a tomb at Bologna, had
- ↑ Worsaae, Primeval Antiquities, p. 36. Montelius, Congr. Int. Archéol. Prehist., Stockholm, p. 505.
- ↑ See Archæologia, xv. 128; xli. pl. 4; xlii. p. 488. Lindenschmidt, Die Alterthümer unserer heidnischen Vorzeit. Engelhardt, Congr. Int. Archéol. Préhist., Copenhague, p. 403. Mestorf, Congr. Int., Buda-Pesth, p. 686. Virchow, Matériaux, 1877, p. 233, and Archiv für Ethnologie, passim.
