740 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



containing only two per cent, of gold, or even less.^ These facts help 

 to remind us that the manufacture of alloys was known at a yery early 

 period. It may be suggested that the admixture of other metals to 

 gold for the production of alloys by the early Irish gold-workers 

 would show an extraordinary amount of metallurgical knowledge and 

 point to a high state of civilization in the artists by whom it was 

 employed; but when we remember that "in the ancient annals and 

 histories of Ireland, relating to the most historic periods down to the 

 fifteenth century, we find more numerous references to gold than in 

 the records of any other country in north-western Europe,"^ it is con- 

 ceivable that the early gold-workers possessed this knowledge. These 

 records show that gold both in the crude and manufactured state was 

 in frequent use in Ireland in ancient times. 



Gold is described as "red " or " yellow " according to the amount 

 of copper or of silver with which it may be alloyed. From the cir- 

 cumstance, therefore, of red gold being frequently specified in ancient 

 Irish manuscripts, it would seem to have had a special value attached 

 to it ; but whether this " red gold " was obtained from any particular 

 locality, or was produced by the admixture of a reddening material, 

 such as copper, is unknown at present. 



The results of the analyses present great variety as to the amount 

 of pure gold found in the antique manufactured gold, but on compar- 

 ing the figures obtained it will be observed that there is a certain 

 connection between the various analyses of the same kind of articles, 

 which would lead somewhat to the supposition that alloys of approxi- 

 mately the same composition were used for certain particular varieties 

 of ornaments. 



Mr. Mallet also draws attention to this apparent connection in the 

 concluding remarks of his Memoir. He states that " although the 

 analyses differ much from each other, yet we find some traces of con- 

 nection between the composition of the alloys and the form into which 

 they were manufactured." The number of analyses made up to the 

 present is not sufficiently extensive to form any definite conclusions 

 on this point ; but attention may be drawn to the similarity between 

 the analyses of the " torques " given on page 735 [antea). 



In connection with the two analyses by Mr. Mallet, he points 

 out that they " are greatly below the standard of the other articles 

 examined, and these are both specimens of the same kind of ornament, 



1 La Monnaie dans I'Antiquite. Paris, 1S78. 



2 Catalogue of Gold Antiquities. Wilde, p. 6. 



