The hoard, which had apparently been deposited in one spot, consisted of three classes of objects—personal ornaments, ingots of silver, and coins. The personal ornaments formed the bulk of the deposit. They were of three varieties—brooches, neck rings, and arm rings, all of silver.
Fig. 59.—Silver Brooch found at Skaill (15 inches long). ]
The brooches are of great size, and unusually heavy and massive in their construction. The metal is brittle, and most of them are more or less broken. The largest of those that are entire (Fig. 59) consists of a plain penannular ring, formed of a solid cylindrical rod of silver, ¼ inch thick, the ring forming an incomplete circle 6¼ inches diameter, and terminating in bulbous knobs, which are furnished with expansions giving them a strong resemblance to thistle heads. These knobs are each 1¼ inches in diameter. They have been cast hollow, with a short cylindrical collar at either side, through which the ends of the ring of the brooch pass, to be riveted at their terminations. A similar knob with similar collars at either side fits loosely on the ring of the brooch. Its upper part terminates in the conventional thistle head, and its lower part is prolonged into a stout pin of great length. This pin, which is fitted by a socket at its upper end upon a projection of the bulbous head, is, like the ring of the brooch, a solid rod of hammered silver, cylindrical in the upper part, passing into a squarish section in the middle of its length, and tapering gradually to a bluntish point. The total length of the pin from head to point is 15 inches. The only parts of the brooch that are ornamented are the knobs and their collars, and the terminal expansions which give their suggestive resemblance to thistle heads. The spherical surfaces of the knobs are plain on one hemisphere, and the other is decorated with engraved designs of zoomorphic character (Figs. 71-73), to which I shall direct attention at a subsequent stage, for the purpose of determining the typical relationship of the style of ornament. The collars are decorated by a series of bands of engraved parallel lines, passing obliquely across the spaces they fill. The terminal expansions are decorated with triangular spaces, filled with parallel lines, and alternating with spaces that are plain.