memorial passed in the ordinary course of barter from hand to
hand. This is strongly supported by a piece of evidence
produced independently of the previous suggestion by Dr
Hoffmann of Kiel, who has showed[1] that betzer ((
Hebrew characters)) the word
used for gold in Job xxii. 24-25 (b[)e]tz[)e]r) and in Job xxxvi. 19
(b'tzar), from a comparison of its cognates in Hebrew and
Arabic means simply a ring, which through the extended
meaning ring-gold came finally to be used as a name for
the metal simply. To take another example from a very different
region, the golden ornaments of the ancient Irish (of
which numerous specimens exist in the Museum of the Royal
Irish Academy) were made according to specified weight.
Thus queen Medbh is represented as saying: 'My spear-brooch
of gold, which weighs thirty ungas, and thirty half ungas, and
thirty crosachs and thirty quarter [crosachs].' O'Curry, Manners and Customs of Ancient Irish, iii. 112. But we need not
go beyond Greek soil itself for such illustrations. The well-known
story of Archimedes and the weight of the golden crown,
which led to the discovery of specific gravity, is sufficient to
show that the practice in Greece was such as I describe.
The rings seen on Egyptian monuments (of which we give a representation in a later chapter) are of round wire; those found by Schliemann in the tombs of Mycenae[2] (Fig. 9) consist both of round wire rings like the Egyptian, and likewise of spirals of quadrangular wire. As finger rings ([Greek: daktylioi]) are not mentioned in Homer, it has been assumed that the Homeric Greeks did not employ rings at all. Hence in a famous passage where the ornaments made by Hephaestus for the goddesses are described, we find mention of brooches, bent spirals ([Greek: helikes]) ear-drops[3], and chains. Helbig[4] explains the helikes as a kind of brooch made of four spirals, such as are worn in parts of Central Europe, but it is difficult to believe that people who were using brooches with pins and necklaces would not have known and employed the far simpler ring. Again, why should.]
