Zoomorphic and proto-zoomorphic pins from Traprain Law 6 2. Irish proto-zoomorphic pins 7 3. Terminals showing development of zoomorphic form 8 4. Zoomorphic pins 10 5. Latchets and antler trial piece and details taken from numbered brooches. 20 6. Antler trial piece and details taken from numbered brooches 2 I 7. Details from Battersea shield, horn-cap, the Cork horns, proto-handpin, terret, and some variations on a basic motif, suggested by the horn-cap, taken from numbered brooches 23 8. Map showing distribution of brooches of the Initial Form, and also zoomorphic and proto-zoomorphic pins 35 g. Distribution: Group A 1 brooches. 40 10. Distribution: Group A 2 brooches. 41 I I. PROLOGUE T HIS is the story of a long line of brooches, all differing one from the other, yet made in accordance with the requirements of a single underlying motif, the zoomorphic motif. The component features of this motif are head, snout, eyes and ears, hence its name of zoomorphic. Because the brooches are penannular in form, and their terminals are fashioned in accordance with the above requirements, they are termed zoomorphic penannular brooches. These brooches are wholly distinct from any other form, and because of that they deserve consideration on their own merits. They are many in number, and generally they fill the gap between the early little types with bent-back terminals and the exotic productions of the eighth century and later. Forty years ago an attempt was made at devising an evolutionary sequence for penannular brooches with zoomorphic terminals. 1 The attempt was not entirely successful, and in the ensuing years critical appraisals have been published. Charges of eccentric thinking, even of partisanship, have been made. To this serious worker, the suggestion of partisanship is abhorrent. But unproductive criticism often receives general assent; this may therefore be an opportune moment in which to get the record into perspective once more, in the light of additional experience and a healthy increase in the numbers now known. Even the term zoomorphic has been questioned. 2 Critical appraisal of a term in long use is hardly appropriate. The exercise has added nothing to what was already known about the brooches, which collectively add up to a very distinctive class. That very distinction, their zoomorphic character, marks them out for special consideration. If the term zoomorphic is thought not to be entirely satisfactory (as some would have it), it is nevertheless an inherited term, one that is universally understood, and for that reason it should be allowed continued use. Nobody has yet come forward with a better term. Not that the critics are agreed amongst themselves. Amongst the welter of criticism one or two points emerge as being entirely acceptable. A common criticism is one directed to the inclusion in the 1937 paper of a type of brooch with simple bent-back terminals, 3 crude in its utter simplicity, and produced in numbers in the first century A.D. Forty years ago it looked like being the initial form for whic...
Zoomorphic and proto-zoomorphic pins from Traprain Law 6 2. Irish proto-zoomorphic pins 7 3. Terminals showing development of zoomorphic form 8 4. Zoomorphic pins 10 5. Latchets and antler trial piece and details taken from numbered brooches . 20 6. Antler trial piece and details taken from numbered brooches 2 I 7. Details from Battersea shield, horn-cap, the Cork horns, proto-handpin, terret, and some variations on a basic motif, suggested by the horn-cap, taken from numbered brooches 23 8. Map showing distribution of brooches of the Initial Form, and also zoomorphic and proto-zoomorphic pins 35 g. Distribution: Group A 1 brooches . 40 PROLOGUET HIS is the story of a long line of brooches, all differing one from the other, yet made in accordance with the requirements of a single underlying motif, the zoomorphic motif. The component features of this motif are head, snout, eyes and ears, hence its name of zoomorphic. Because the brooches are penannular in form, and their terminals are fashioned in accordance with the above requirements, they are termed zoomorphic penannular brooches. These brooches are wholly distinct from any other form, and because of that they deserve consideration on their own merits. They are many in number, and generally they fill the gap between the early little types with bent-back terminals and the exotic productions of the eighth century and later.Forty years ago an attempt was made at devising an evolutionary sequence for penannular brooches with zoomorphic terminals. 1 The attempt was not entirely successful, and in the ensuing years critical appraisals have been published. Charges of eccentric thinking, even of partisanship, have been made. To this serious worker, the suggestion of partisanship is abhorrent. But unproductive criticism often receives general assent; this may therefore be an opportune moment in which to get the record into perspective once more, in the light of additional experience and a healthy increase in the numbers now known.Even the term zoomorphic has been questioned. 2 Critical appraisal of a term in long use is hardly appropriate. The exercise has added nothing to what was already known about the brooches, which collectively add up to a very distinctive class. That very distinction, their zoomorphic character, marks them out for special consideration. If the term zoomorphic is thought not to be entirely satisfactory (as some would have it), it is nevertheless an inherited term, one that is universally understood, and for that reason it should be allowed continued use. Nobody has yet come forward with a better term.Not that the critics are agreed amongst themselves. Amongst the welter of criticism one or two points emerge as being entirely acceptable. A common criticism is one directed to the inclusion in the 1937 paper of a type of brooch with simple bent-back terminals, 3 crude in its utter simplicity, and produced in numbers in the first century A.D. Forty years ago it looked like being the initial form for which everybody was searching, but now this is seen...
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