144 



ProceedingH of the Royal IrUh Acadcni;/. 



Introdtjctoey Note. 



In connexion with the recent lawsnit, Attorney-General v. the 

 Trustees of the British Museum (better known as the " Gold Orna- 

 ments Case"), which was heard before Mr. Justice Farwell at the 

 Koyal Courts of Justice in June, 1903, an interesting question arose, in 

 which geological and archaeological considerations were combined. 

 The golden boat, collar, and associated objects were found in ploughing 

 on the extensive flat that stretches around Limavady junction in 

 County Londonderry. They were buried eighteen inches deep in stiff 

 clay soil, at a spot which is four feet above ordinary high- water mark. 

 The British Museum authorities rested their claim to the retention of 

 the objects in part on the theory that the ornaments in question con- 

 stituted a votive offering, which was deposited in Lough Foyle about 

 the beginning of the Christian era, the spot where the objects were 

 sunk having since become dry land, owing to upheaval of the 

 coast-line. " It is," said Mr. Warmington, K.C., in opening the case 

 for the British Museum, " a case of votive offering which was made to a 

 deity, and which would account for its being found where it was. ... I 

 think we shall be able to establish to your Lordship's satisfaction 

 that there is no doubt that, at the place where the articles were found, 

 the sub-soil is a raised beach, and it was shortly before the Christian 

 era submerged, and part of the soil under the water of Lough 

 Poyle."^ Down to the fourth century," said Prof. Hull, in his 

 evidence, I should say the elevation of these lands had not taken 

 place ; but from the fourth century onwards it commences — I mean 

 the fourth century of the Christian era. ... If you are very anxious 

 for a date, I would say it [the upheaval] took between one hundred 

 and two hundred years. ... I think, probablj^, the limit would be 

 three hundred years." ^ In connexion with this contention, as put 

 forward in the pleadings, we were asked by the Solicitor to the 

 Treasury whether we could determine or express an opinion as to 

 the date or period at which the site of the find became dry land. For 

 the purposes of this inquiry, we visited selected parts of the coasts of 

 Derry and Antrim (we had previously examined the neighbourhood 

 of the find) ; and the evidence which we acquired is of some interest 



1 Verbatim Report of the trial, by Messrs. Walsh & Sons. pp. 46, 47. 



2 Ibid., Qq. 350, 418, 423. 



