Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/131

An image should appear at this position in the text.9 these ingots and drops have been hammered on two sides, sometimes on four, 9, 10 ; perhaps, in some cases, as

a preparation to forming them into ornaments, or articles for use, such as armlets, rings, &c. ; but before this intention was fully carried out, they have frequently been cut into pieces of various dimensions and weights.

It would seem, at first sight, most probable that all the in- gots and bars in this treasure were made previously to the ornaments found with them, and that they formed part of the materials of their manufacture. But the ins-ots marked with a cross were doubtless made by a Christian people, such as the uorthmen, by whom this emljlem of their newly embraced religion was adopted on their coins ; while the ornaments, as we shall shew, were most probably the work of pagans in the east, and thence imported into Scandinavia. We must there- fore consider that some of the ingots and bars were cast in the place of manufacture, whence the ornaments originally came, and that the remainder, i.e., those marked with a cross, were made by the northmcn, when they melted down treasure for the pm*pose of trathc. Amongst the various manufactured objects entire or in fragments, which were found in this collection, are several armlets in various stages of preparation, from which a tolera- bly correct idea may be formed of the processes by which they were constructed.

An image should appear at this position in the text.11 Fig. 11 is a small armlet, probably not quite finished, having been merely hammered into form, the edges and sides still rough and sliarp, and retaining traces of the ham- mer ; it is also entirely without ornament. It is perfectly flat, broad at the middle, becoming gradually narrower to- wards the extremities, where it terminates in blunt round ends. Armlets of this description vary in breadth at the