GOLD GORGETS OR LUNETTES. 141 



heretics will be received with marked resentment. But we must 

 not forget that the interest in this question is not to be limited to 

 Cornwall, or to Ireland ; for I have shoAvn that other, even Scan- 

 dinavian, regions can shew ornaments of a like general character, 

 where the influence of Phoenician traffic is not so satisfactorily 

 established as (we flatter ourselves) it has been in South Damnonia. 



Nor must other considerations be overlooked. It is to be re- 

 gretted that, at present, we are in possession of so few vestiges 

 of indubitable Phoenician metallic workmanship that it is not easy 

 to obtain any clear conception of the favourite style of ornamenta- 

 tion current among the artificers of that race. We have still no 

 decisive tests of Tyrian handiAvork, such as we possess of Greek 

 and Eoman Avork; — no ideal type wherewith to compare the 

 disinterred relics of suspected Sidonian treasure, notwithstanding 

 the late labours of Mr. Charles Newton in that behalf Among: 

 those which I have had an opportunity of examining (they are 

 neither many nor important), I have perceived nothing of the 

 character of that surface ornament which evidently prevailed in 

 these Irish or Cornish gorgets. 



We shall not be warranted ua bestowing on these golden relics 

 the praise of any great skill or of any distinguished sestlietic 

 genius. The graved lines and simj)le forms are of a class likely to 

 be adopted by rather rude, unimaginative artificers, and such as 

 were in fact adopted almost universally in early pottery, before 

 the more elegant forms and beautiful creations of ancient Greek 

 art prevailed. A zig-zag moulding, l)roken and angular straight 

 lines, and lozenge-shaped gravings or impressions, seem to be 

 among the earliest and easiest eff"orts of ornamentation or en- 

 richment. They require the smallest resort to the powers of 

 invention or execution. I believe the prevalence of this simple 

 style of ornament must be knoAvn to all, who have had occasion to 

 inspect any collection of so-called Keltic pottery in almost any 

 part of Europe. I would point out, among late printed works. 

 Sir John Lubbock's Frcehistoric Times, and its illustrations ; and 

 the Urns depicted in the j)lates of Davis and Thurnam's Crania 

 Britannica, Decad I, 2; Decad II, 15, 16; Decad III, 22; Decad 

 V, 41, 42; Decad VI, 53, 58. A sepulchral vessel found near 

 Penzance in 1839, and carefully copied in Plate III of Edmonds's 

 '' Land's End District," is a very good example. Nor are instances 



