156 ANTIQUITIES OF ALDERXEY. 



hive been found in different parts of Longy ; one in the 

 possession of .Indge Gaudion measures nearly a foot in length 

 and is of granular porphyry." 



According to the latest authority ( The Guide to the 

 Bronze Aye of the British Museum, 1905), the Stone Age 

 came to an end in this part of Europe about 1300 B.C., when 

 articles of copper or bronze were introduced, probably by 

 Phoenician merchants, but perhaps by the ])ioneers of the 

 great Keltic hordes which ultimately conquered and occupied 

 Western Europe. 



To represent the Bronze Age, we have the hoard unearthed 

 in 1832. The fine collection, presented to the Mechanics' 

 Institute of Guernsey by the widow of the late Judge 

 Gaudion, and now in our Museum, illustrates capitally this 

 stage of culture. The Guide to the Bronze Age^ plate 3, on 

 page 41, gives diagrams of a number of objects found in 

 a hoard at Minster, in Thanet. These show a remarkable 

 resemblance to those in our Museum; No. 11 and No. 19 

 exactly correspond to articles in the Alderney collection. 

 The Guide calls them hoUou- -loops ; they resemble children's 

 toy trumpets, but have a long oval orifice opposite the handle. 

 They were cast in two sections, afterwards welded together ; 

 the separate parts may be seen in the case. The authorities 

 cannot decide the use to which these articles were applied. 

 They may have been used as buckles for belts, a pin being 

 passed through the hollow centre to secure the catch passed 

 through the front opening ; or they may have been part 

 of horse trappings ; perhaps the reins were passed through 

 the holes at the extremities and then brought through the 

 central orifice. 



The series of axe heads in the collection illustrates the 

 development of the sto/ie axe or celt into palstaves of the 

 Bronze period. There is only one good specimen of this 

 latter implement, but there are numerous spear-heads. The 

 ornamentation is of the simplest kind ; straight and curved 

 lines only are used ; there are no figures of any sort. 



Evans in his Bronze Age mentions this Alderney hoard, 

 but all the information he had before him was that contained 

 in Mr. Lukis's paper. He says : The occurrence of spear- 

 heads, solid bronze rings, gouges, sickles and some other 

 articles in the collection points to a late period of the Bronze 

 Age. Mr. F. C. Lukis says in Vol. I. of Archaeological 

 Journal : " After examining the cutting edges of the looped 

 bronze celts from Alderney, I could not observe much wearing 

 away from use ; the manner of fracture of some of them 



