in the centre is of intaglio work. On the reverse side, the wood of all these twelve cross-like buttons is carved much like our shirt-studs, with the sole difference that the lower side is here of an oval form. Thus, there can be no doubt that all of them were used as ornaments on the clothes, but, of course, they can never have served as real buttons. All these buttons show unmistakeable marks of the funeral fire, but as the wood has been preserved, there can be no doubt that the fire was not intended to reduce the bodies to ashes, or to destroy the ornaments with which they were laden.
There were further found with the five bodies of the fourth tomb 110 small golden flowers, in the shape of the four represented under Nos. 387-390, and 68 gold buttons without any ornamentation like Nos. 391 and 392; 134 round pieces of gold plate with a border, like Nos. 395 and 396; and 98 large shield-like pieces of gold plate in repoussé work, with two rope-like borders, like No. 402 (p. 264). Not one of these 410 round pieces of gold plate shows any sign of having been fastened on wooden buttons, and we conclude from this that they must have been merely attached with glue to the clothes and drapery of the deceased.
Nos. 387-401. Plates of Gold. Sepulchre IV. Actual size.
CURIOUS GOLD BUTTONS.
In the same place were found 118 gold buttons with intaglio work of seventeen different types of ornamentation which are represented in the specimens shown under Nos. 393-401 and Nos. 403-413. All of them consist of gold plate, fastened either on wood buttons like our shirt-studs, or merely on flat round pieces of wood; but of a large part of them the wooden button has disappeared, and only the gold plate remains. I need not describe the ornamentation of every one of these buttons, because the reader sees what they represent. I would here only call attention to the beautiful intaglio on the button, No. 397, which represents four long broad knives, whose handles are prolonged into spirals.
Nos. 402-413. Gold Buttons. Sepulchre IV. Actual size.
I further found there 130 large gold buttons with splendid intaglio work, some like Nos. 414-420, which represent beautiful stars, flowers, or crosses, and others like No. 421, which has a beautiful spiral ornamentation. As with the smaller buttons, many of these 130 buttons have still retained their wooden button, shaped like a shirt-stud; while many others have only flat pieces of wood, and of a great many others the wood has disappeared and the gold plate alone remains.