Coffey — Monuments of the La Tene Period. 



261 



granite. The carviijg is veiy distinct and well preserved. The orna- 

 ment does not require description ; it is fully shown in the accom- 

 panying illustrations (Plates xix., xx., xxi., fig. 1). These are from 

 photographs of the cast in the Museum, painted in parts to bring out 

 the pattern. An untouched photograph of the stone itself is shown 

 (Plate XVIII.). 



The carving of this stone is, I think, distinctly early. The treat- 

 ment of the ornament is free, not constrained geometrically as in late 

 La Tene, especially the examples found in Britain and Ireland. The 

 derivation from the Greek anthemion can still be traced. 



The fret pattern is rarely associated on the same object with 

 La Tene ornament. In the preceding or Hallstatt period, the fret 

 occurs frequently. It is usually simplified to plain rectangular forms. 



Fig. 1. — Fret-patterns from bronze vessels, Hallstatt cemetery ; the fret is 

 found on Hallstatt pottery.^ 



also 



Again, on a sword-sheath of La Tene I., found at Halstatt, we find 

 the simplified fret.^ The simplified fret, often in the form of fragments 

 consisting of single steps, occurs also on the pottery found in the 

 Gaulish cemeteries of the Marne. There it appears to be a pottery 

 tradition, and the period is abundantly established as La Tene I. -II., 

 chiefly La Tene I. The higher forms of the fret are not found on the 

 Marne pottery ; so that these single-step patterns, or fragments of 

 meanders, may be considered as a feature of the Gaulish style in that 

 district, fig. 2 (i-6).^ Several examples of these fret-forms have been 

 found iu Ireland, and must, I think, have reached our island as early 

 as the close of the Hallstatt period, or in La Tene I. 



We see the form on a bronze spear-head found near Boho, Co. 

 Fermanagh, fig. 3, in which there appears to be a mixture of Hall- 

 statt and La Tene elements. Good examples of this class of fret were 

 also found in the crannog of Lisnacrogher, Co. Antrim, associated 

 with swords of La Tene I. They occui* on the bronze bands of 



1 Von Saken, " Das Grabfeld von Hallstatt," Pis. 23 and 26. 

 -Munro, " Bosnia-Herzegovina," fig. 151. 



3 Morel, " La Champagne Souterraine," Pis. 6, 19, 20, 41 ; Moreau, "Album 

 Caranda," iii., PI. 133; Kevue Archeologique, 3 s., xli. (1902), p. 196. 



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