These masses of objects seem to imply that they were either the spoils and remains of great fights between different chieftains, or offers to the gods thrown into sacred springs. In this latter case the finds must be the produce of a long series of years, and have been given to the gods at different times, the destruction, instead of taking place on the pyre, having taken place on the water. This destruction was not apparently peculiar to the inhabitants of the North, for Cæsar relates of the Gauls, that when they went into battle they made a vow to consecrate the booty to the god of war. After the victory the captured animals were sacrificed, and the rest of the booty was brought together into one spot. [Illustration: Fig. 344.—Bronze buckle inlaid with gold and silver, for ring armour; the back shows how the rings were attached. ⅔ real size.—Thorsbjerg Bog-find. ] [Illustration: Reverse. ] The narrative of Crosius offers the most striking similarity between this custom and that of the Cimbrians and Teutons, who, when coming from the North after their victory over the Romans at Arausia (near the river Rhone), in the year 105 before Christ, sacrificed the whole of the booty. He relates:— “When the enemies had taken possession of two camps and an immense booty, they destroyed under new and strange imprecations all that had fallen into their hands. The clothes were torn and thrown away, gold and silver thrown into the river, the ring armour of the men cut to pieces, the accoutrements of the horses destroyed, the horses themselves thrown into the water, and the men with ropes around their necks suspended to the trees, so that there was no more booty for the victors than there was mercy for the conquered.” [Illustration: Fig. 345.—Bronze plate, covered with gold and silver, belonging to ring armour.—Thorsbjerg find. ] [Illustration: Fig. 346. ] [Illustration: Fig. 347. ] [Illustration: Fig. 348. ] [Illustration: Fig. 349. Figures, made of thin silver plates, belonging to bronze plate. ] [Illustration: Fig. 350.—Fragment of ring armour. Real size. ] One might suppose that Orosius has here described the feast of victory at Nydam or Thorsbjerg. If any proofs were needed to show that the objects were intentionally placed in the water, we have them in the fact that several clay vessels have been sunk by heavy stones being put in them, and that other objects were fastened to the bottom by means of large wooden hooks. Finally, we ought to add, the space within which the antiquities were found was in several places marked off by fence-like wicker hurdles of twigs, or by poles, spears or swords, stuck into the mud.