Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/211

FOUND IN CUEUDALE. 193 titions of the same punch, or by combinations of two or more ; the connections of the two ends of the armlets or rings have also been effected solely by the hammer ; no attempt has been made to produce any resemblance to any form of organic life, unless the supposed attempt at a dragon's head in fig. 50 be produced as an exception. The same absence of any other instruments than the hammer and the punch appears in almost all the objects belonging to the same period which have been discovered in this and other countries, and the cause of this mode of operation would form an interesting subject of inves- tigation. It appears as if the result obtained by the hammer might probably have been accomplished with greater ease and more elegance by other means ; and it might therefore be sup- posedthatthe people by whom these ornaments were constructed were generally unacquainted with any other mode of produc- ing the effect required. And again, the absence of all resem- blance to any created being might be supposed to arise from the incompetence of the artists, or it may have been occa- sioned by some religious or superstitious objection to such representations. This leads to an examination of the question where and by what people these objects were manufactured. The coins found with them were, with the exception of 27 pieces, either English, French, or, as we believe, struck by the sea kings of the north ; at first sight therefore the pre- sumption would be that amongst these three classes the manufacturers must be looked for ; but as the 27 coins excepted are oriental, it is not impossible that these objects may have been fabricated in the east. Now it must be observed that none of the ornaments appear to have been in a state fit for wear ; all have been crushed together for convenience of packing, or have been cut to pieces ; they do not therefore appear to have been the personal ornaments then actually in use by the persons wdio were owners of the property at the time the deposit was made ; and it is not un- reasonable to suppose that they may have come into the pos- session of the then proprietors by the same channel and from the same source as the 27 coins ; in short, they may have been oriental ornaments. This leads to the enquiry as to the discoveries which have occurred elsewhere of ornaments of similar fabric. The most inq)ortant of these finds was that of Vaalse in the island of Falster, in the year 1835, of which an account has been given