FLOOR.] BRITISH AND MEDIEVAL ROOM. 
131 
suspension. Circular pierced disks, which have been used as beads, or 
as whorls for the spindle. 
Table Case A. A mass of breccia from the floor of a cave at Les 
Eyzies, Dordogne, containing flint and bone implements. 
Table Case B. In the central part is a large collection of imple- 
ments in reindeer-horn, flint, &c., from caves in the South of France, 
some of them from Bruniquel, near Montauban, others from Dordogne. 
In the Desks are placed a series of antiquities discovered on the site 
of dwellings built on piles in the shallow parts of the Swiss lakes. 
They afford much information as to the arts, habits, and food of 
the ancient inhabitants. 
Cases 13-25. Implements and weapons made of bronze, a mixed 
metal, usually compounded of about nine-tenths of copper to one-tenth 
of tin. The sites of discovery are, as far as possible, marked on the 
objects themselves. 
Cases 13-15. Illustrations of early British Metallurgy. Lower 
Shelf. Stone muUers or hammers, which have been employed in 
ancient copper mines to break the ore ; cakes of copper and bronze ; 
stone mould for making rough bronze celts, and casts of moulds for 
making bronze swords. Middle Shelf. Bronze moulds for casting 
celts of various forms ; unfmished and imperfectly formed celts from 
various localities, and lumps of copper found with them. 
Cases 16-20. Bronze implements, commonly called celts (from the 
Latin celtis, a chisel), which appear to have been affixed to wooden 
handles. They are arranged, according to their forms, into classes. 
On the upper shelf, two bronze shields, found in Wales. 
Gases 21, 22. Middle Shelf. Blades of bronze daggers and knives, 
of which the handles were of wood, horn, or bone. Lower Shelf. 
Bronze swords, among which some fine specimens from the Thames ; 
and ends of sword-sheaths. Upper Shelf. Bronze swords from Ireland. 
Cases 23-25. Bronze shield found in the Isis, near Dorchester. 
Two shields found in the Thames. Bronze spear-heads, some with 
rivet holes, in which a wooden peg appears to have been fixed ; others 
without rivet holes, but with loops at the side, or piercings in the 
blade, for thongs. Bronze trumpets from Ireland. 
Cases 26-35. Miscellaneous antiquities of the Bronze period, and 
bronze implements from foreign countries ; likewise a large series of 
urns from Germany and Denmark. Below have been placed, for want 
of other space, three Pioman leaden coffins from East Plam, Essex. 
In Cases 36-42 are placed various antiquities found in England. 
Scotland, and Ireland, chiefly of bronze, and characterized by a peculiar 
style of ornament, and frequently by the presence of enamel. They 
are probably late Celtic, of about the time of the Eoman invasion of 
England. Among them a shield and a helmet found in the Thames ; 
a shield found in the Witham, Lincolnshire ; a helmet without locality ; 
horse-trappings and a sword found at Stanwick, in Yorkshire, during 
excavations made by the Duke of Northumberland, by whom they 
were presented ; similar trappings from Polden Hill, Somersetshire, 
and Westhall, SuOolk. 
K 2 
