Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/181

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LATE CELTIC
173

many antiquaries. This consisted of a large quantity of flat polished pieces of bone, among which were fragments of combs, and some plaques ornamented with incised circles, spirals, volutes and dots in the Late Celtic style. They were in conjunction with a heterogeneous assortment of objects of stone, bronze and iron, beads of glass and amber, sea-shells, etc.—among them being a pair of iron compasses. (See Ollamh Fodhla, by Eugène A. Conwell.)

Remains of Late Celtic work have also been found in peat-bogs, surface soil, on Roman stations in England, and in the débris of some of the crannogs, Pictish brochs, underground dwellings and hill-forts of Scotland.

But among recent discoveries the most important is the Lake-village of Glastonbury, which, having a chronological range of continued occupancy from about 100 b.c. to 50 a.d., has yielded a promiscuous assortment of the ordinary débris of village life during the early Iron Age, among which are some characteristic objects of Late Celtic art such as ornamented hand-mirrors, La Tène fibulæ, bronze bracelets, a few articles of harness mountings, pottery, weaving combs, etc.

A number of massive bronze armlets of a remarkable type, and peculiar to Scotland, have been found in different parts of the country. They consist of a solid casting of bronze, smooth on the inner surface and embossed on the outer by running scrolls in high relief. They are penannular and more or