In the Heathery Burn Cave, Durham, was a small button, ¾ inch in diameter, with one loop at the back; and another larger (1½ inch), with five loops at the back, one in the centre, and the four others at equal distances around it forming four sides of an octagon. This larger button has a series of concentric rings or grooves on the face; the small one has a central pointed boss with one groove around it.
Some curious buttons, like half barrels in shape, were found with a hoard of bronze objects at St. Genouph (Indre et Loire), and are preserved in the Museum at Tours. Numerous buttons of circular form have been found in other parts of France.
Buttons of various sizes and shapes have also been found in abundance in the Swiss Lake-dwellings.
A clay mould, apparently for buttons of this kind, is in the Museo Civico at Modena.
Fig. 500.—Edinburgh. 1/1
In the cemetery at Hallstatt immense numbers of small button-like objects have been found, some of the warriors’ coats having been completely studded with them. Some of these are not more than ⅜ inch in diameter, nearly hemispherical, and with a small bar cast across them inside.
A peculiar annular button with two loops at the back, found with bronze swords (see Fig. 353) and a flat-headed pin (Fig. 464) at Edinburgh,[1564] is represented in Fig. 500. The original is now in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh. It has been thought to be the mounting of a belt.
Bronze discs of larger size than any ordinary buttons or clasps are occasionally found. One such, 31/5 inches in diameter, with three concentric circles engraved on one of its faces, was discovered at Castell y Bere, Merionethshire.[1565] Another was found at Wolsonbury Hill,[1566] Sussex. A third, about 5 inches in diameter, with raised concentric rings upon it, is in the Scarborough Museum. One found at Inis Kaltra,[1567] Lough Derg, between Clare and Galway, has been figured. It has a hollow conical projection like the umbo of a shield, surrounded by five concentric raised rings, the interval between the second and third being about double that between any other pair. The inner side has grooves corresponding with the external ridges, and across the inside of the hollow umbo is a small bar of metal. The diameter of this ornament is 4¾ inches. It is now in the British Museum. In many respects such discs resemble the so-called tutuli of the Scandinavian antiquaries, though the long-pointed form has not been found in the British Islands.
