together. Confirmation of this was afforded by the finding, along with the brooch, of a small piece of a very finely plaited chain of silver wire, 1⁄8 of an inch square in section (Plate LXXXVIII., Fig. 10). Elsewhere chains have been found actually attached to pairs of fibulae. In the find from Chorley in Lancashire already mentioned, the connecting chain is of silver, while the pair of fibulae found in the Maximinstrasse, Trier, was fastened together by bronze wire. That the fashion was not purely Roman may be seen from the occurrence in Ireland of gold chains of this type in association with the great gold torc from Limavady. Mr. Arthur Evans has dealt with the question in describing the latter find, and he arrives at the conclusion 'that these chains were in use among the Celtic peoples during the first two centuries before and after our era.'[1]
Perhaps the most interesting of the series of penannular brooches is one which came from the upper levels of the pit in the Principia (Plate LXXXVIII., Fig. 7). The exact period at which this pit was filled in is uncertain, but it was probably open till the end of the final occupation. In all probability, therefore, we are justified in attributing the brooch to the second half of the second century. It is of bronze, 2 inches by 1¾ inches in diameter. The pin is 2¾ inches in length and flattened towards the point. A brooch with a long pin, not unlike it, was included in the finds from Camelon,[2] and there is another in the National Museum from the Culbin Sands, Morayshire. The most interesting features are, however, the broadening out of the ends and their decoration. On one side the latter consists of a narrow panel of dog-tooth ornament filled in with blue enamel and silver. On the opposite side is a small inlaid pattern in silver of an entirely different character. It is altogether very slight, but the curved design at once recalls the decoration of the wooden bowl from the Glastonbury Lake village now in the British Museum,[3] and thus shows the influence of Celtic art.
The penannular brooch is worn today in Algeria. In the ninth and tenth centuries it was common in the Baltic countries. But it was in Celtic Scotland and in Ireland that it reached its highest development. The late Mr. Romilly Allen, in his Celtic Art, commenting on the occurrence of the penannular form of brooch in Great Britain and in Algeria, expressed the
1 Archaeologia, vol. lv. p. 398.
2 Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. xxxv. p. 402, fig.
3 Guide to the Antiquities of the Early Iron Age, p. 126, fig. 107.
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