The result of an examination of the foregoing weights is to show that in all probability the vast majority of them were made on a standard much lighter than the Roman ounce of 432 grs., which was in full use in mediæval Ireland. We saw that the Roman ounce had been only 420 grs. down to the Second Punic war, and I suggested that originally it was of the same weight as the Sicilian talent 390-405 grs. Can we observe a similar increase in the Irish ounce? The ounce of 400-410 seems to point to a time when Kelt and Scandinavian had a common higher unit of similar weight corresponding to the value of a slave[1], just as the Sicilian and Macedonian talent of three ox units represented the same slave unit.
I shall now give the weights of the various ornaments of gold found in England, Wales and Scotland which are preserved in the British Museum. For these I am indebted to the great kindness of Mr F. L. Griffith of the Anthropological department.
Torques with rings.
Boxton, Suffolk, torque band twisted. 1·038 (2-1/2 oz. of 415 grs.) with double ring. Weight 24·8 grs.
(A ring of 8 parallel sections, bronze plated with gold, injured, weighs 111 grs.; the locality is not known, but it seems connected with this class. Probably Irish, one in Wilde's catalogue of 7 sections.)
Another double ring, Devonshire, weighs 563 grs. (1-1/3 oz. of 420 grs.).
Lincolnshire torques; 1454 grs. (3-1/2 oz. of 415 grs.), coiled band 119-1/2. Quadruple ring, 93-1/2 (1/4 oz.?), another similar 93.
Cambridgeshire torques (not in B. M.) 1944 (5 oz. of 387? or 4-3/4 oz. of 410), rest in B. M. viz.:—bracelet 613 (1-1/2 oz. of 412 grs.), two treble rings linked together, combined weight 358, double ring, weight 132 (1/3 oz.), another 131-1/2, two others similar but smaller are each 68 (1/6 oz.).
Wales. Two plain bracelets, near Beaumaris, Anglesea, 1028 (2-1/2 oz. of 410 grs.); 420 (1 oz.), crescent-shaped gorget, Caernarvon, 2861 (7 oz. of 410 grs.).
Scotland. Noard, near Elgin, torques formed of a plain twisted band, 207 (1/2 oz.): 215 (1/2 oz.): 192 (1/2 oz.): 119 grains.
The evidence points to an ounce of 420 grs. It is worth noting
that this is just 5 times the weight of the latest British coins,
84-82 grs.
- ↑ My friend Mr F. Seebohm has shown me that as a weight the Swedish Jungfrau is equal to the Irish Cumhal.
