Page:Ancient armillae of gold recently found in Buckinghamshire and in North Britain; with notices of ornaments of gold discovered in the British Islands (IA b31941461).pdf/14

10 quartz rocks of Wales, seems to have been proved by the interesting Notices of Mr. Johnes and Mr. Warington Smyth, regarding the Ogofau Mine in Carmarthenshire. The local tradition—the discovery of Roman pottery, ornaments, and a bath—the name “Conwill Gaio,” supposed to signify the advanced post of Caius, and other circumstances, appear to justify the conclusion that the ancient workings there found are of Roman times.

The antiquities of the earlier periods, including all remains which bear no evident stamp of Roman origin or influence, claim our most careful investigation. Exceedingly limited in variety of types, these vestiges of the ancient inhabitants of Great Britain are not more interesting to the antiquarian collector, on account of their rarity, than valuable to the historian. They supply the only positive evidence, in those obscure ages, regarding customs, warfare, foreign invasions, or the influence of commerce and the advance of civilisation amongst the earliest races by which these islands were peopled. The true classification of these remains is of much importance: there is still the risk of erroneous conclusions, from inconsiderately designating as “Celtic,” or “Primeval,” ancient objects which perplex the antiquary by singularity of form or undefined character. With this view, I am desirous of submitting to the more careful consideration of archaeologists certain remarkable types of rare annular ornaments of gold discovered in Britain. I am not prepared, at present, to offer any speculations on the probable age to which each variety may be attributed: my object being rather to record facts—materials which may perhaps hereafter serve, in more able hands, as the groundwork of satisfactory conclusions on this interesting subject.

The most simple type of gold ornament discovered in these islands is the ring, formed of a rounded bar of equal thickness throughout, bent into circular form, and the extremities left disunited. These objects, sometimes characterised, on that account, as “penannular,” are already well known to our readers as of frequent occurrence in Ireland, where they are designated by most antiquaries as “ring-money,” of which several notices have been given in this Journal. I do not propose to enter upon the question, nor