Smith — Ancient Irish Gold and Silrer Ornaments. 739 



From the apparently superior workmanship and from the fact that 

 the various parts are joined by soldering it is probable that these or- 

 naments Numhers 4 a and 4 h belong to a period more recent than the 

 majority of the ancient Irish gold ornaments as the art of soldering 

 appears to have been introduced at a later period. In many of the 

 gold diadems or tiaras in the Royal Irish Academy collection, which 

 are composed of several parts, the various pieces of which the parts 

 are made are usually connected by means of what may be termed wire- 

 sewing, fine gold wires or threads being used for the purpose ; not the 

 slightest trace of soldering can be perceived, and it may fairly be pre- 

 sumed that, if that art was known to the early Irish gold workers, it 

 would have been employed instead of the wi-re-sewing. In connection 

 with the small "bosses" or "pendants" it may be remarked that no 

 ox^naments of a similar kind are to be found in the Eoyal Irish 

 Academy collection in the Science and Art Museum, Dublin, or in 

 the collection of Irish gold antiquities in the British Museum, London. 



Conclusions. 



The results of the analyses of the gold ornaments examined appear 

 to support the conclusions arrived at by Mr. Mallet that the articles 

 were not manufactured from native gold but were made from alloys 

 artificially produced. The comparatively large quantity of silver and 

 of copper found in some of the ornaments, submitted to analysis, 

 excludes the supposition that they were produced from natural alloys. 



It is well known that natural alloys are found, and that " elec- 

 trum," which includes pale-yellow or amber-coloured alloys of gold 

 and silver,^ containing from fifteen to thirty -five per cent, of the latter 

 metal, which occurs in the native state, was much used for ornaments 

 and coins by the Greeks and Romans, and by the nations which 

 acqmred their arts ; but when we consider the very high percentage 

 of silver and of copper found in the articles examined it cannot be 

 reasonably suggested that the ornaments wei'e manufactured from 

 natural alloys. An artificial electrum as well as the natural electrum 

 was also used by the ancients, the former, according to Pliny, contain- 

 ing as much as twenty per cent, of silver. The Greeks and Romans, 

 after electrum had fallen into disuse, employed the purest gold they 

 could procure, viii. that from 990 to 997 fine. Under the Roman 

 Emperors, however, copper was intentionally added ; and in the two 

 centuries preceding the fall of Rome very base alloys were used, some 



^ Historia Naturalis, lib. xxxiii., c. 23. 



