Macalistee — On a Hoard of Remarkable Gold Objects. 183 



in reviewing the circumstances of its discovery, is that there is a crying need 

 for a drastic revision of the law of treasure trove. As it stands it seems to 

 have been drafted with the idea of securing the suppression and concealment 

 of important finds. As I have shown, the circumstances of this discovery 

 are very imperfectly known, nor have we any certainty that the whole find 

 has been recorded ; it has been lamentably scattered ; and but for the 

 courtesy of the authorities of the British Museum, which deserves the 

 warmest acknowledgment, we in Ireland might never have heard of it at all. 

 Besides the revision of this mediaeval law, the time has fully come to 

 press for a largely increased grant for the purchase of antiquities. The 

 inflated prices which antiquities have acquired in recent years make it 

 difficult to secure them for the nation : and it is nothing short of a scandal 

 that public bodies like the Boyal Irish Academy and the Xational Museum 

 should be unable to compete with the often ignorant and merely acquisitive 

 private collector. 



Passing this point over for the present, though expressing a hope that the 

 circumstances of this discovery may lead to an improvement of the conditions 

 under which objects can be acquired for the public benefit, we next turn to 

 the find itself to see if anything further is to be made out regarding it. 



The first question that presents itself is the date of the hoard. The 

 evidence throwing light upon this problem is given us by the torque : the- 

 spiral patterns on the axe-heads, the cupped pin, and the shield ; the form of 

 the axe-heads ; and the form of the cupped pin. 



According to the scheme set forth by Montelius in his epoch-making- 

 paper on the Chronology of the British Bronze Age {Archaeologia, vol. lxi, 

 part I), the torque comes into use in the third period, that is, about the 

 middle of the Age of Bronze. It is distinctly later than the lunula, which is- 

 a characteristic ornament of the Bronze Age in Ireland during the earlier 

 stages of that phase of civilization. The presence of the torque, therefore, 

 forbids U3 to assign the find to the second period, though to that period the- 

 flat axe-head properly belongs. This is not a difficulty, for though the flat 

 type of axe-head dates back to the second period, it by no means follows that 

 all flat axe-heads are to be assigned to a date so remote ; the type persisted 

 and was also contemporary with the later developments. With this 

 conclusion the spiral pattern also agrees, for the spiral is not found as an 

 art-motive in the lunula period. The cupped pin is distinctly late in date j. 

 indeed, Montelius does not date it earlier than the fifth and last period of 

 the Bronze Age, when, as a rule, the spiral had broken up into groups of 

 concentric circles — as we can see illustrated by comparing the carvings at 

 New Grange with the much later designs at Dowth or Lochcrew. The 

 e.i.a. proc, vol. xsxtr., sect. c. [29] 



