Note 37 — Chapter IV · (continued 2)

In Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, vol. i. p. 474, is figured a spiral bronze ring, of three twists, found during the construction of a new road leading from Granton Pier to Edinburgh, in a small stone cist, distant only about twenty yards from the seashore, which has called forth the following remarks from its learned author: "Examples of the spiral finger-ring have been repeatedly found in Britain with remains of different periods. They are also known to northern antiquaries among the older relics of Denmark and Sweden. This may indeed be regarded as among the earliest forms of the ring, since it is only at a comparatively late period that traces of any knowledge of the art of soldering among native metallurgists became apparent. A silver ring of the same early type formed one of the celebrated Norrie's Law hoard, found on the opposite shore of the Firth of Forth." Dr. Schliemann, in giving an account of the discovery of a treasure in a tomb at Mycenæ, writes as follows: "There were further found four spirals of wire, five plain gold rings, and a similar one of silver, of which a selection is represented under No. 529. I remind the reader that similar spirals and rings of thick gold wire occur in the wall paintings of the Egyptian tombs. They are supposed to have served as presents, or perhaps as a medium of exchange."—(Mycenæ and Tiryns, p. 354.) Judging from the paucity of gold spiral finger-rings in our Museums they appear to have been rare. Among the collection of antiquities in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, so rich in gold articles, I find only one, thus referred to in Wilde's Catalogue, "a five-sided bar of gold, flat on the inside next the finger, and angular externally, weighing 1 oz. 12 dwt. 6 grs. It may be denominated a torque-ring" (see page 82, fig. 610, Catalogue). In the Belfast collection I also noticed a gold finger-ring with five twists, and having the two ends flattened.