Fig. 344.—Bronze buckle inlaid with gold and silver, for ring armour; the back shows how the rings were attached. ⅔ real size.—Thorsbjerg Bog-find.
Reverse.
The narrative of Crosius offers the most striking similarity between this custom and that of the Cimbrians and Teutons, who, when coming from the North after their victory over the Romans at Arausia (near the river Rhone), in the year 105 before Christ, sacrificed the whole of the booty. He relates:—
“When the enemies had taken possession of two camps and an immense booty, they destroyed under new and strange imprecations all that had fallen into their hands. The clothes were torn and thrown away, gold and silver thrown into the river, the ring armour of the men cut to pieces, the accoutrements of the horses destroyed, the horses themselves thrown into the water, and the men with ropes around their necks suspended to the trees, so that there was no more booty for the victors than there was mercy for the conquered.”
Fig. 345.—Bronze plate, covered with gold and silver, belonging to ring armour.—Thorsbjerg find.
Fig. 346.
