Proceedings at the Meetings of the Archaeological Institute.
December 5, 1851
Edward Hawkins, Esq., F.R.S., Treasurer, in the Chair.
Mr. Hawkins read a dissertation on the various types of personal ornaments, ring fibulæ, pins attached to chains and plates of various peculiar forms, brought to this country from Tunis for exhibition in the "Crystal Palace." He laid before the meeting an interesting series of these ornaments, which are wholly of silver, and he pointed out the remarkable analogy which they present, in form, adjustment and workmanship, to ancient silver ornaments of the Saxon period, such as those found (in a fragmentary state) at Cuerdale, the collection discovered in the island of Falster, and other examples. He called attention especially to the frequent use of punches, in all these objects, for impressing various ornamental designs. For the purposes of comparison, and as illustrative of the mode in which some of these ancient relics may have been used, the Tunisian ornaments might well claim a place in our National Collection.
Mr. Rohde Hawkins, in illustration of the same subject, produced several silver ornaments of analogous forms, brought by him from Asia Minor.
The Rev. G. F. Weston, Vicar of Crosby Ravensworth, Westmoreland, communicated through John Hill, Esq., local Secretary in that county, drawings executed by himself, representing two remarkable silver ornaments, discovered in a crevice of limestone rock, on Orton Scar, in his parish. Of one of these, a ring-fibula of a type sometimes regarded as almost exclusively found in Ireland, a reduced representation is here given. It has however been recently shown by Dr. Wilson, in his "Prehistoric Annals," to be occasionally found in North Britain. The annular portion, upon which the acus is so adjusted as to move freely round half the circumference, has the other moiety dilated, and curiously engraved with intertwined ornament; this part is divided in the midst to allow free passage to the acus, and it is set with flat bosses, five on either side. Each of these flat dilated parts of this curious ornament appear to proceed from the jaws of a monstrous head, imperfectly simulating that of a serpent or dragon; and between the jaws is introduced the intertwined triplet, or triquetra, the same ornament which is found on the sculptured cross at Kirk Michael, Isle of Man,[1] and on some Saxon coins. The close analogy of the workmanship of this fibula, with that of the silver fragments found in Cuerdale, in a hoard deposited, as Mr. Hawkins has shown, about the year 910, deserves attention; and in that deposit portions occur, which had apparently formed parts of fibulae of precisely similar fashion to that found on Orton Scar. The same punched ornaments are also there
- ↑ Engraved, Archaeological Journal, vol. ii., p. 76. The triquetra appears on coins of Anlaf, a Northumbrian prince, expelled A.D. 944. It occurs on one of the silver ornaments found in Falster, Annaler for Nordisk Oldkynd, 1842, tab. 11.
