435 



NOTES ON THE ALLINGTON GOLD TOKO 

 By H. St. George Gray. 



These notes are the outcome of my more elaborate paper on 

 " The Gold Tore found at Yeovil, 1909," published in the Pro- 

 ceedings, Somersetshire Archceo logical and Natural History Society, 

 Vol. LV., part ii., pp. 66 — 84, where the finding of gold tores in 

 Great Britain, Ireland, and Northern France is fully discussed, 

 and the Allington specimen briefly described and figured (p. 81). 

 Those interested in British gold tores are referred to the above- 

 mentioned paper for much general information on the subject — 

 their construction, use, date, distribution, &c. By a study of the 

 bronze implements found in association with funicular tores of 

 gold and bronze we are able to date the tores as belonging to the 

 later half of the Bronze Age, viz., the period represented by the 

 manufacture of bronze palstaves and the earlier forms of socketed 

 celts. 



Ancient gold objects, other than barrow-goods, have rarely been 

 found in Wiltshire. Two (or three ?) specimens of gold " ring- 

 money" were found near Bishopstone, S. Wilts 1 ; and a find of 

 gold bracelets was made at Tisbury. 2 



A number of bronze tores have been found in Somerset 3 — far 

 more than in any other county in England. In Wiltshire such 

 relics appear to have been confined to "barrows near Lake" (in 

 Wilsford parish, near Amesbury, S. Wilts), 4 one specimen being 

 in the Blackmore Museum, Salisbury, two others 5 in the Pitt- 

 Kivers Museum at Farnham, Dorset. The two latter were pur- 

 chased at the sale of the Bev. E. Duke's collection. 6 



1 Reliquary and Illustrated Archaeologist, Oct., 1908, vol. xiv., p. 246 (fig.). 

 "Bronze Age Guide, Brit. Museum, 1904, 147-8. 

 3 Proc. Som. Arch. Soc, LV., part ii., 70—2. 

 4 There is no printed record of the finds from these barrows. 

 5 Evans' Bronze Implements, 377. 

 6 Wilts Arch. Mag., x., 18; xxviii., 261 (on line 6, for " Graves " read 

 " Gray " — the writer of these notes) ; and xxix., 181 (on line 22, for " Graves " 

 read " Gray "). 



