The general result of this examination of the typical form and ornamentation of these bulbous brooches is that they are found to possess features that are Celtic, in combination with features that are distinctive of the art of the Scandinavian heathen time. The obvious inference is that the birthplace of the type is to be looked for in an area in which the population were partly Celtic and partly Scandinavian in their extraction. At the period indicated by the range in date of [Illustration: Fig. 81.—Runic Monument at Aby, with representation of Thor’s Head and Hammer.] these silver hoards,[52] and for a considerable time previous to the earliest date assigned to them, this was the character of the mixed race of the Gall-gael of the Western Isles, and it was also to a certain extent the character of the inhabitants of the northern isles of Orkney and Shetland, though there the Celtic element was feeble and the northern element strong. But this is precisely the nature of the mixed art of these brooches. It is more northern than Celtic, and seeing that the deposit is found in the very area where this was the special character of the population, the conclusion seems irresistible that the type is the product of the area in which it is found. There is no evidence whatever of its having come from the east—no evidence of its having come from Scandinavia itself. The only other example of the type that has occurred in Scotland—the plain bulbous brooch of silvered bronze—which was found with a heathen burial in the island of Eigg (Fig. 43), also occurs within the area of the mixed population. A few specimens have occurred sporadically in England,[53] but there they are confined to the north-western area—that is, the portion adjacent to the insular territories possessed by the Norse colonists of the Western Isles. A few specimens have been found in Ireland, chiefly isolated, but in one remarkable instance associated with brooches and other metal work of pure Celtic types.[54] In Scandinavia itself they do not occur in such abundance as to suggest that they were common ornaments characteristic of the people or the time. While, therefore, they are partially Scandinavian in the character of their art, they occur so sparsely in the Scandinavian countries that they cannot be considered as products that are characteristic of that area, or indigenous to it, and their presence in such limited numbers in the archæological deposits of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, is not inconsistent with the conclusion that the type may have had its birthplace in the Scandinavian colonies planted in Celtic soil, between whom and the fatherland there was always such a closely-knit connection and continuous intercourse. ----- Footnote 52: The approximate dates of the hoards are indicated by the coins found with them. Footnote 53: