PREHISTORIC ART. 



505 



Fig. 156. 



GOLD BRACELKT. 



Dolmen near Belz, Morbihan, Franco. 



i^ natural size. 



While it is not asserted tluit tlic working of gold was carried on 



in the Neolithic period, yet the fore- 

 going patterns are ditfereut from most 



of those of the Bronze age. Many, 



apparently belonging to the Bronze 



age, are- simply round rods or bars of 



gold of sufBcient length to encircle 



the wrist, and which have been bent 



to that form (lig. 157). Others have 



been made into tliiu sheets, crimped 



around the edges (fig. 158). Both these 



styles are identical with the bronze bracelets, and the places in whicli 



they were found and the objects 

 with which they were associated 

 concur in their assignment to the 

 Bronze age. There are also many 

 objects in gold — tor(j[nes and brace- 

 lets — which show a different method 

 of Avorking, and are sui)p()sed to 

 have been of later date. Some were 

 round, heavy, decorated, marked 

 with zigzag, herringbone, clievron, 

 etc. (fig. 159, a, b), some of them 

 after the fashion of a coil of ro])e 

 (fig. IGO, o, d), in others the ends 

 were hammered square and enlarged 

 (fig. IGO, />, 0). 



Ireland. — The Archteological Mu- 

 seum in Dublin is probably the rich- 

 est in gold objects of any in Euroi)e. One of its attractive displays 



is a series of bracelets, running 



from extremely large to extremely 



small. They consist of a rod of gold, 



larger iu the center, tapering gradu- 

 ally to the ends, but with a head 



hammered down and spread, tlie 



ends being then brought more or 



less together (fig. 161), In the 



larger of these the rod would be 



nigh half an inch thick, and from 



that down. Some are large enough 



to go over the hand and so be worn 



on the wrist, or even on the aim, 



while the smaller ones in the series 



would iK)t go on the little finger. 



The evident fact that the.*-e small ones, though practically re])ro(luctions 



of the larger, are quite too small (or any i)ossil)le use as bracelets or 



Fig. 1.57. 

 BKONZE BRACELET OP ROUND ROD, THE COM- 

 .MONEll PKI.MITIVE FORM IN BRONZE AND COPPER 

 THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. 



}<■> natural size. 



Fig. 158. 



BRONZE BRACELET OK THIN MRTAL WITH CRIMPED 

 EDGES. 



Stamlaril.style .luring the l.ronze age in Europe, i:, nnturalsize. 



