Fig. 92.—Bronze object found at Torrs, Kirkcudbrightshire (10½ inches in length).
Its ornamentation is as peculiar as its form. It consists of a series of irregularly divergent spirals in repoussé work repeated symmetrically but not identically on either side of the median line of the front of the object. These spirals or scroll-like figures are formed of curves which are long and flattened, passing suddenly into curves of quicker motion, and ending in volutes. These curves, though proceeding in the same direction, do not proceed at parallel or regular distances from each other, but converge and diverge so as to enclose between them alternate spaces of varying extent of surface. The spaces enclosed between the curves are raised, and the spaces enclosed by their convolutions are flat, but the raised spaces are modelled so as to express the confluence of solid curves of the peculiar forms already indicated. These trumpet and spiral scrolls, as they are called, enclosing irregularly formed curvilinear spaces, and producing designs which are similar but unsymmetrical, are repeated in different varieties of pattern on the outer sides of the horns (Fig. [93]). In the terminal convolutions of the scrolls the curves are sometimes arranged so as to produce a zoomorphic effect, which differs from the later zoomorphism of the metal-work of the Christian time and of the later manuscripts, in being more geometrical in form and character. The zoomorphic termination of the horns has also more of a geometric character than is usual in the Christian period.
Fig. 93.—Plan of the Horns and their Ornament. (1) The right horn. (2) Zoomorphic termination of the right horn seen frontwise. (3) The left horn.
The object being incomplete, its purpose is not obvious. But it is suggestive of the probability of its having formed part of a helmet that Diodorus Siculus, writing only a few years after the conquest of Gaul by Julius Cæsar, describes the military equipment of certain Gallic tribes as including “bronze helmets with lofty projections rising out of them, which impart a gigantic appearance to the wearers; for upon some are fixed pairs of horns, upon others the shapes of birds and beasts wrought out of the same metal.” These horned helmets are represented on some of the consular medals, and the whole description of the Gallic equipment is so similar to what we know of the habits of the Celtic tribes of Britain, that it may be concluded that in this respect their customs may not have been greatly dissimilar.[[56]] And, in point of fact, there is in the British Museum a bronze headpiece found in the river Thames, near Waterloo Bridge, which, from its peculiar form, was at first considered to be a jester’s cap. But Mr. Franks has shown that it is a military helmet of native workmanship. It consists of a cap of thin bronze, with an additional plate at the back, decorated with scrolls of this peculiar character in low relief, among which are cross-hatched discs once coated with red enamel. From each side of the cap projects a conical horn terminating in a moulded button, and upon one side of the horn runs a string of small projecting studs.
Fig. 94.—Bronze Plaque found in Oland (actual size).
It is therefore not improbable that this object at Abbotsford may have been the front part of a military helmet, or of a headpiece used for display. Such a headpiece with similarly large and curving horns, terminating in similar zoomorphic endings is seen (Fig. [94]) on the head of a warrior who appears to be engaged in mimic combat with another accoutred as fantastically as himself, and whose grotesque headpiece bears a resemblance still more remarkable to another bronze object of the same character which I have next to describe. These representations occur on a bronze plaque dug up in the island of Oland, and they have therefore no necessary connection with the usages of the Celtic people. They merely show that in assigning such a purpose to these objects we are not attributing to them a purpose to which they were never applied. But the special use of the object is really of no great moment for the purpose of the present investigation. That purpose is fulfilled when we are enabled to say, from an examination of its special characteristics, that it has certain typical relations linking it with other objects, forming a distinct group and occupying a definite place in the series of types which characterise the area now termed Scotland. I therefore proceed to the description of other objects distinguished by the same characteristics.
