Fig. 79.—Bronze button.
In the late period of the Irish Bronze Age, bronze pins with disk-shaped heads having a conical projection in the centre are fairly common. The disk-heads in many instances are ornamented with concentric circles and other simple kinds of decoration. They are bent at right angles to the pin, though in some cases the pin comes straight from the head. The pins are very long, some measuring as much as 12 inches. In the very interesting find at Armoy, County Antrim (p. [81]), it will be remembered that one of these pins was found together with a woollen garment, and there is no doubt they were used to fasten the dress. The fact of a razor being one of the objects of this find indicates that the pins were used by men, though no doubt they may also have been worn by women. The use of such long pins seems to point to the wearing of some kind of cloak-like garment probably fastened in the front; and the ornamental heads of the pins indicate that they were worn in a conspicuous place.
As well as the pins a few bronze buttons have been found consisting of disks with the same conical projection, but having the pin replaced by a small bar at the back. One remarkable example in the National Collection measures 4¾ inches in diameter (fig. [78]). This object was probably either attached to a leathern belt or possibly may have been a portion of a horse’s furniture. The smaller buttons have been found on the Continent, and are fairly numerous in the Continental lake-dwellings or finds of the late Bronze Age.
One is tempted to see in the Irish examples a derivation of the button from the pin.
CHAPTER XI
Bronze-Age Pottery
