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^Procf£tiinQS at tte J^cctings of if)c artftaEological institute December 5, 1851. Edward Hawkins, Esq., F.R.S., Treasurer, in the Chair. Mr. Hawkins read a dissertation on the various types of personal ornaments, ring fibulre, pins attached to chains and plates of various peculiar forms, brought to this country from Tunis for exhibition in the

• • Crystal Palace." He laid before the meeting an interesting series of

these ornaments, which are wholly of silver, and he pointed out the remarkable analogy which they present, in form, adjustment and work- manship, to ancient silver ornaments of the Saxon period, such as those found (in a fragmentary state) at Cuerdale, the collection discovered in the island of Falster, and other examples. He called attention especially to the frequent use of punches, in all these objects, for impressing various ornamental designs. For the purposes of comparison, and as illustrative of the mode in which some of these ancient relics may have been used, the Tunisian ornaments might well claim a place in our National Collection. Mr. RoiiDE Hawkins, in illustration of the same subject, produced several silver ornaments of analogous forms, brought by him from Asia Minor. The Rev. G. F. Weston, Vicar of Crosby Ravensworth, Westmoreland, comnmuicated through John Hill, Esq., local Secretary in that county, drawings executed by himself, representing two remarkable silver orna- ments, discovered in a crevice of limestone rock, on Orton Scar, in his parish. Of one of these, a ring-fibula of a type sometimes regarded as almost exclusively found in Ireland, a reduced representation is here given. It has however been recently shown by Dr. Wilson, in his " Prehistoric Annals," to be occasionally found in North Britain. The annular portion, upon which the acus is so adjusted as to move freely round half the circum- ference, has the other moiety dilated, and curiously engraved with inter- twined ornament ; this part is divided in the midst to allow free passage to the acus, and it is set with flat bosses, five on either side. Each of these flat dilated parts of this curious ornament appear to proceed from the jaws of a monstrous head, iuiperfectly simulating that of a serpent or dragon ; and between the jaws is introduced the intertwined triplet, or triquetra, the same ornament which is found on the sculptured cross at Kirk Michael, Isle of Man, ^ and on some Saxon coins. The close analogy of the workmanship of this fibula, with that of the silver frag- ments found in Cuerdale, in a hoard deposited, as Mr. Hawkins has shown, about the year 910, deserves attention ; and in that deposit portions occur, which had apparently formed parts of fibulae of precisely similar fashion to that found on Orton Scar. The same punched ornaments are also there ' Engraved, Archaeological Journal, expelled A.D. 944. It occurs on one of vol. ii., p. 76. The tnquetra appears on the silver ornaments found in Falster, coins of Anlaf, a Northumbrian prince, AnnalerforNordisk01dkynd.l842,tab.ll.