854 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 



4. The Distribution of Gold liUimlse. Bi/ Gkoroe Coffey, M. A. 



Of the known examples of tliis most characteristic of Irish gold oruameuts 

 sixty have been discovered in Ireland itself, six in France, four in England, four 

 in Scotland, two in Denmark, and one each in Wales and Belgium. They may 

 be dated provisionally between 1200 and 1500 B.C. 



That they are essentially an Irish ornament is clear from their distribution, and 

 the finding of examples in other parts of Western Europe may point to early 

 raids from those districts or to an early trade for gold with the Irish people. 



5. A Leather Shield found in Co. Longford. By E. C. R. Armstrong. 



The shield, which is of circular form, was found in June 1908 in a peat bog. 

 It is made of a solid piece of leather, and is 20h inches in length and 19^ inches 

 across. It has an oblong central boss, which has been pressed out of the leather 

 and furnished with a cap, of finer leather, laced into the boss. The face of the 

 shield is ornamented with three ribs, between which are small bosses, arranged in 

 sets of three, recalling the decoration of bronze shields. The back of the shield is 

 furni.shed with a leather handle. That the specimen is not the leather lining of a 

 bronze shield is clear from the thickness of the leather and the lacing of the 

 boss. It is of the same type as the bronze shields common iu Upper and Western 

 Europe. 



G. The Survival of La Tene Ornament in some Celtic Penannular Brooches. 



By George Coffey, M.A. 



The date of these brooches can be safely claimed as not later than 700 A.V., 

 from the complete absence of any trace of interlaced ornament in them, as well as 

 from the many La Teue elements surviving in their decoration. Many of them 

 are no doubt earlier, and may antedate the coming of St. Patrick. AH are of 

 bronze, but the enamels with which they were decorated have disappeared. 



7. Ifote on the Tara Brooch. By George Coffey, M.A. 



The particular feature of the brooch with which the paper dealt, and which 

 had not previously been noticed, was that the fine wires of the interlaced patterns, 

 of the central interlacements, and of the head of the pin have a minute granula- 

 tion, hardly apparent to the naked eye. 



8. The Origin of Irish Motes. By Goddard H. Orpen, B.A. 



The scientific investigation of Irish earthworks is only in its infancy. This 

 paper was concerned with classes I) and E of the ' Scheme for recording 

 Ancient Defensive Earthworks,' as recommended by the Congress of Archaeological 

 Societies. 



Ireland oti'ers some advantages over the sister island as a field for the study of 

 motes : — 



1. Existing motes are more numerous and less mutilated than in Britain. 



2. From the known history of Ireland, the peoples to whom the erection of its 

 motes can be ascribed are practically reduced to three, viz. : — 



(«) The Celtic tribes, meaning thereby the race or races that exclusively 

 occupied Ireland prior to the Scandinavian invasion of the ninth century. 

 {b The Scandinavian invaders themselves, 

 (c) The Normans, who first came to Ireland. 



As to the hypothesis of a Cdtic origin — (1) the local distribution of motes is 



