Fig. 484.—Co. Cavan. ½ —— Fig. 485.—Cowlam. 1/1
They much resemble the manillas or ring-money in use on the West Coast of Africa, but are more cup-shaped at the ends. It appears possible that, like some large Irish rings which will subsequently be described, they are not actually bracelets. The other armillæ engraved by Wilde appear to be of later date than the Bronze Period. The same may be said of the elegant bracelet shown full size in Fig. 485, which is certainly Late Celtic. It was found by Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., on the right arm of a female skeleton in a barrow at Cowlam,[1503] Yorkshire, and is similar to some found at Arras,[1504] in the same county.
Another somewhat plainer bracelet, with a short dowel at one end, fitting into a socket at the other, so as to form an almost invisible joint, was found with a fibula, Fig. 498, on the skeleton of an aged woman in another of the Cowlam[1505] barrows, and is shown in Fig. 486.
Another bronze armlet of the same period was found in a barrow in the parish of Crosby Garrett,[1506] Westmoreland. It encircled the right arm of a skeleton, and is penannular, “oval in section, and unornamented, except in having a series of notches along both edges.”
Many bracelets of Late Celtic date have been found at various times in Scotland. Some of these are of very ornate design, and extremely massive; while on others a repoussé pattern has been worked upon a plate of thin bronze. Such bracelets hardly come within the scope of the present work, but a few references to engravings of them are subjoined:—
Aboyne, Aberdeenshire (Arch. Journ., vol. xxii. p. 74; Wilson’s “Preh. Ann. of Scot.,” vol. ii. pp. 136, 139).
Alvah, Banffshire (Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. vi. p. 11, pl. iii. 1).
Muthill, Perthshire, now in the British Museum (Arch., vol. xxviii. p. 435).