130 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



No evidence appears as yet of shells forming a primitive cur- 

 rency among the ancient Europeans, although abundant proofs have 

 been obtained of their being used as ornaments. 



In 1838 an elevated knoll in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, was 

 levelled. It was discovered to be a sepulchral mound, and con- 

 tained two male skeletons and a quantity of the common nerita 

 littoralis. These shells had been rubbed down so as to make two 

 holes for stringing purposes. In a cavern at Aurignac were found 

 eighteen perforated discs of the cardium. At Mentone were found 

 pierced seashells surrounding the head of a skeleton. Shell orna- 

 ments were also found in another cavern of the same district. In 

 la Madelaine pierced fossil marine shells have been found. At 

 Cro Magnon pierced marine shells to the number of about 300 

 have recently been discovered, and at Trou-de-Frontal, in Belgium, 

 pierced fossil shells have also been found. The Ceritheum Gigan- 

 teum, a shell of large size, cannot have been obtained from nearer 

 locahties than Rheims or Versailles. 



The use of these shells has been assigned to ornamentation. 

 They are all pierced for stringing, and bear a general resemblance to 

 those used in America for the manufacture of wampum, both in the 

 positions in which they have been found and in their manufacture. 

 So close are the resemblances in some, particularly those ground 

 into shape, that we might almost assume that they had been used 

 as currency, or they may have been used as records in the same way 

 as the wampum, even although no direct evidence of such having 

 been the case is forthcoming. Whatever the uses to which the 

 ancient man put his shells, he evidently valued them highly, and 

 apparently took great care that they should accompany him on his 

 journey to the next world. 



Here, therefore, we have in one single article abun'dant eviden- 

 ces of the care with which man in early times looked after his valu. 

 ables. But shells were not the only article of adornment or use in 

 his possession. The tombs of each world — the old and the new, 

 give us a list of many things highly prized by the primitive inhabit- 

 ant, many of which he must have obtained by the way of barter or 

 some sort of trade from his more immediate neighbors or from 

 tribes many hundreds of miles distant. 



