Fig. 88.—Ingot of Silver (actual size). which was deposited beneath a large stone, consisted of two gold rings, three long, narrow fillets of thin gold, a small ingot of silver (Fig. 88), weighing 228 grains, and a number of silver coins, of which twenty-one were pennies of David I. of Scotland, three of King Stephen, and one of King Henry I. of England. Of the two gold rings, one (Fig. 89, No. 1) is a plain solid ring, formed of a rod rounded by the hammer, and tapered to both ends, and the ends unjoined. The other, shown in Fig. 89, No. 2, is composed of three similarly-hammered rods or wires twisted together, and the ends joined into a lozenge-shaped bezel. The largest of the three fillets found with them is (Fig. [90]) 17 inches in length, and about 3⁄16 inch wide in the centre, tapering to both ends until it expands into a small terminal loop. The others are similar in form. They are scarcely thicker than stout writing-paper, and the largest, though 17 inches in length, weighs only 55 grains. Their ornamentation consists of zig-zag running patterns, and beaded work in repoussé.
Fig. 89.—Gold Rings found in Bute (actual size).
It is thus evident that this typical form of construction of personal ornaments in the precious metals by interplaiting and intertwisting slender rods of metal, rounded and tapered by the hammer alone, and their ends soldered together, comes down at least to the twelfth century, and appears in associations in which there is no suggestion of an Oriental origin. Its area, so far as our present knowledge enables us to define it, appears to be limited to the northern and western isles, no well-authenticated instance having been recorded from the mainland of Scotland. On the other hand, the area of the type extends eastwards into Scandinavia, but there the type itself is regarded as one which is not indigenous.
Fig. 90.—Terminal portions of two Gold Fillets found in Bute (actual size).
The type of penannular arm ring, which is of rounded or quadrangular section, with tapering or slightly flattened ends, of which so many examples were associated with the twisted rings and bulbous brooches in the Skaill hoard, has not occurred in any other metal than silver. Like the other types associated with them, they have not been found in Scotland beyond the area of the Scandinavian colonisation. Within that area, however, they appear not unfrequently. Wallace records the discovery of a hoard of nine in one of the mounds at Stennis, in Orkney. Another hoard, of which the precise number is not given, was found in 1774 at Caldale, near Kirkwall, with a horn containing 300 silver pennies of Canute the Great. In 1830 six or seven were found at Quendale, in Shetland, with a horn full of Anglo-Saxon coins of Ethelred, Ethelstan, Edwy, and Edgar.
In 1850 a hoard of at least six were found in the island of Skye, but in circumstances of which there is no record.
