Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/67

Rh has been supposed to be a fibula; the horns of the lunula have been more bent onwards, and converted into a loop of the chain. A chain with a wheel ornament and attached lunula, exactly resembling all these, is figured by Count Caylus, Recueil d'Antiquités, Suppl. vol vii., Pl. xciv.; in the two following plates are chains and wheel-shaped ornaments, all found in Switzerland, and not considered in any other light by the Count than merely female ornaments of dress. With these was an armlet, terminating at each end in an ornament represented as flowers, but indisputably intended for serpents' heads; for, when analysed, all the parts correspond with those upon the heads of the serpents already mentioned. A pair of silver armlets, resembling this, were found at Castlethorpe, in the county of Bucks, about 1830. All these are coarsely executed, chiefly by the hammer and punch, not by sculpture. It is evident that the combination of the chain, the wheel-like ornament and lunula, and perhaps the serpent, was not confined to any locality, but in use in various places, and therefore probably not a mere ornament, but connected with some religious ceremony or feeling.

There is another gold chain, probably an armlet, in this collection, about seven inches long, to which a wheel-like ornament is permanently attached at both ends; there is not any lunula attached; a hollow bead is strung upon each loop.

The two fibulæ found within the vessel are precisely similar to each other: there is not anything in their form which, had they been found unconnected with any other objects, could have led even to a conjecture as to any peculiar appropriation of them to any person or society; as, however, these were found mixed with objects connected with the worship of three united divinities, or Genii, the threefold ornament at the side may have some symbolical reference to these personages. These two objects add another, to many well-known instances, of these large fibulæ being found in pairs.

Of the three spoons, forming part of this find, two are precisely similar; the handle of one of them is wholly, or partly modern; the form is oval, and well known to archaeologists; the third, having a circular bowl and straight handle, is much more rare; all have a small groove round the inside of the bowl, which is not usual, and the object of which is not apparent. They are small, too small perhaps for domestic purposes, and have generally been considered to have been appropriated to sacred purposes, to draw out from the acerra,