434 EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. [CHAP. xii. 



at New Grange and at Lough Crew is ornamented with 

 various carvings in spirals, concentric circles, flamboy- 

 ants, and zig-zags, forming part of the Prehistoric series 

 defined by Mr. Franks as the late Celtic, and which are 

 to be seen on many of the early Christian crosses and 

 inscribed stones in Scotland, and in many of the illumi- 

 nated Irish missals. These, however, are more rude and 

 archaic than any of the above, and seem to me more 

 likely to belong to a pre-Christian era rather than to the 

 first four centuries after Christ, to which they are re- 

 ferred by Mr. Fergusson. They belong to a time before 

 history began in Ireland, and before the introduction of 

 Christianity, when the dead were burned and their ashes 

 placed in the above-mentioned stone basins. 



The Art. 



The peculiar art of the Prehistoric Iron age 1 in 

 Britain, termed late or Neo- Celtic, is represented in its 

 simplest form in Fig. 161, taken from the bronze sheath 

 of an iron dagger found in the river With am, and is met 

 with in various personal ornaments, horse- trappings, and 

 other articles, in Britain and Ireland. It is present on 

 the sculptured stones of Scotland (Figs. 162, 163), fre- 

 quently in combination with the mystic Z emblem, and 

 the double-mirror pattern (see Fig. 162), and sometimes 

 along with the broken sceptre and the crescent, the 

 snake, and a curious animal formed of flowing lines in 

 which the natural shape is only to be recognised because 

 it forms one of a series (Fig. 163). In its more ornate 



1 For examples of this art, see Kemble and Franks, Horce Ferales ; 

 Wilde, Catalogue of Antiq. in R. I. Academy, I. ; Stuart, Sculptured Stones 

 of Scotland ; Wilson, Prehistoric Annals of Scotland. 



