THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE VOL.I by W.Ridgeway 1901

'
O'CmiT.
'
THE BROOCH. 583
gold from its socket to its heel. He wore fair yellow hair
coming over his forehead, and his forehead was bound with
a fillet of gold to keep his hair from disorder\"
It is remarkable that a body of fair-haired warriors with
brooch-wearing wives, described in another Irish tale cited by
O'Curry, are exiles from Scotland seeking refuge in Erin-.
But the fibula of this type was plainly an exotic and could
not thrive on Irish soil.
Nor did its immediate derivatives fare any better. This
is shown by three very interesting brooches of undoubted
Celtic art here figured.
Two of these were found at Navan
Rath (apparently along with that figured above, Fig. 133),
whilst, though the provenance of the other one is unknown,
584 THE BROOCH.
his back, with trappings
of" silver and a boss of gold ;
and he
to permit its point to pass through the garment and to be
had in his hand a sharp-pointed spear covered with rings of
secured in the catch at the smaller end of the brooch.
The very similar brooch (also from Navan Rath, Fig. 139) in
the Irish Museum was
evidently fitted with a
pin on the same balland-socket
principle.
For, although the pin
is gone, there is a hole
in the back of the
brooch to allow the insertion
and free play
of the head of a bronze
pin similar to that in
the preceding figure,
yet its close resemblance to the two former renders it highly
whilst close to the side
pnjbable that it is of Irish origin.
of the hole next the
This last-mentioned specimen (Royal Irish Museum) has
Fig. 137. Bronze Fibula; Navan Eatli. smaller end of the
its pin attached by the ordinary
brooch are the traces
hinge developed from the bilateral
of the metal cross piece (probably of iron) under which the
spring (Fig. 130). One
pin played.
of the Navan Rath brooches
The association at Navan Rath of the bilateral spring
(which is among the interest-
with the rude expedient for a hinge just described is important.
It is a warning to archaeologists not to be
too dogmatic in assigning
is of a Neiy remarkable cliaracter.
hard and fast
It lias neithei' l)ilat('ial
chronological limits to
spi'ing noi- the derived liinge,
the bi'oochc's with the
the pin being attaelu'(l in a
bilateral springs of
I'lii. lH(i. IJronze Fibula; Ir(>laiid.
manner a])|)ui'eiit ly iH'culiur
to
various kinds, and to
Ireland. 'I'he ])i-onze
[)in (Fig. 137) had its globulai' hi'ad
those fitted with the
inserted into the l);(ek (Fig. 13.S) of the broader end of the
later hinge.
It also
Fi