Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron AgeAnderson, Joseph
History
Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron Age
Anderson, Joseph
Scotland -- Antiquities
Another mirror, which is almost precisely similar in form and
ornamentation, was found in 1833 at Trelan Bahow,[63] in the parish of
St. Keverne, Cornwall. In the course of the construction of a new road a
group of graves was discovered. Each grave was formed of six slabs set
on edge, two forming each side of the grave, and one at each end. They
were from two to three feet under the surface, and covered with large
stones. In one of the cists, apparently with the remains of a female,
there were found the bronze mirror almost perfect, some rings of bronze
or brass, fragments of fibulæ, and other personal ornaments, and several
beads of variegated glass. The mirror is circular, 6 inches in diameter,
with a looped handle 2½ inches in length. The back of the mirror plate
has a marginal ornament of triangular spaces alternately plain, and
filled with short parallel lines struck by a punch. Across the central
line of the mirror are two circles enclosing smaller circles and
curvilinear spaces alternately plain, and filled with punched lines in a
style similar to that of the ornament on the collar-like object from
Balmaclellan.
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Footnote 63:
_Archæological Journal_, vol. xxx. p. 268.
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[Illustration: Fig. 108.—Back of a Bronze Mirror found in a grave at
Birdlip, near Gloucester (10⅝ inches in diameter).]
Another mirror of the same character, found at Birdlip on the edge of
the Cottiswold Hills, near Gloucester, in 1879,[64] exhibits the same
style of ornamentation. Three cists were discovered in a group,
containing skeletons placed with their feet to the south. The first and
third were apparently adult males, and with them no manufactured objects
were found. The second was apparently a female. On the face of the
skeleton was placed a large bronze bowl, 9 inches in diameter, inverted;
and among the other contents of the cist were a smaller bowl of bronze,
4 inches in diameter, a harp-shaped fibula of silver plated with gold, a
bracelet and four rings of brass, a key-handle, a knife-handle
terminating in the head of an animal, a string of large beads of jet and
amber, and a mirror made of a massive bronze plate, weighing 38¼ ounces.
The back of the mirror (Fig. 108), which is of a slightly oval form,
measures 10⅝ inches in its greatest, and 9¾ inches in its least,
diameter, and is beautifully ornamented with a triple scroll-like
pattern of flowing curvilinear spaces filled with hatchings of short
lines in chequers, or groups disposed at right angles to each other. The
pattern is so managed that the hatched spaces and the plain spaces
alternate and form symmetrical arrangements, producing a pleasing
effect. At the lower part, where the handle supports the mirror, is a
triple arrangement of trumpet-shaped scrolls in relief, enclosing spaces
which are similarly decorated. The handle is elegantly formed from a
prolongation of the marginal beading of the mirror, which gradually
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