ich
have been found in Ireland. There are four in the British Museum, and no
less than fifteen in the National Collection at Dublin. In four cases
they have been found in pairs--one pair at Ballina, County Mayo, another
pair at Tydavnet, County Monaghan, a third at Cloyne, Co. Cork, and the
fourth at Castle Martyr, Co. Cork. Some of these disks are ornamented
with concentric circles; others have a cruciform ornament which
resembles the four-spoked chariot-wheel, and is a well-known sun symbol.
When these objects were first discovered, their origin and use were
quite unknown; and Mr. Reginald A. Smith, of the British Museum, was the
first to point out their resemblance to the gold disk, decorated with
spirals, affixed to a bronze sun-chariot, found in Trundholm Moss,
Zealand, in 1902. The bronze chariot consisted of a bronze disk mounted
on wheels and drawn by a horse, the gold disk being affixed to the
bronze one. The ornamentation of the Irish disks is somewhat different,
as the spiral does not appear, its place being taken by the concentric
circle. The Trundholm sun-chariot is dated by Prof. Sophus Muller at
before 1000 B.C. The Trundholm disk is admittedly connected with
sun-worship, as is also the cruciform ornament on the Irish disks. The
spoked-wheel is a well-known solar symbol; and similar designs have been
found on the bases of some Irish food-vessels, and may also be compared
with some of the markings at Dowth.[20] The prevalence of sun-worship
in the Bronze Age need not be further gone into here; but the gold disks
are of great interest, as furnishing another point of contact between
Ireland and Scandinavia in the Bronze Age. The finding of Irish gold
lunulae in Denmark, and the occurrence of Scandinavian amber in Irish
finds of the Bronze-Age, have already been mentioned.

[20] "New Grange and other Incised Tumuli," p. 59, fig. 39.

[Illustration: PLATE III. Gold sun-disks. _p. 64._]

GOLD BALLS

We may also mention the large hollow golden balls of which seven are
in the National collection, one in the possession of Mr. H. J. B.
Clements, and another in the British Museum. Eleven of these golden
balls were found in 1834 at Carrick-on-Shannon.[21] There has been
much conjecture as to the use these balls were put to, and it has been
suggested that as their large size would render them inconvenient as
personal ornaments, they were probably used to decorate a horse. If so
they may have been attached to t