A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland

By P W Joyce

1906

DRESS AND PERSONAL ADORNMENT

The Do-at and the Muince-do-at.--At each extremity of all the muinces or crescents is a disc or boss or button--seen in the illustrations--generally circular, or nearly so: very elaborate in one of the types, simple in the other two. Their primary use was as fasteners, to catch the ornamental string by which the necklet was secured. These terminal appendages were known in ancient Irish records by the name of at, a word which means a knob, button, or disc--a swelling of any kind. Accordingly these gorgets, of all the three kinds, are designated muince-do-at, 'the necklet of the two ats or terminal discs.'

FIGS. 154, 155 & 156. Examples of the gold Bunne-do-at or fibula: all in National Museum. Fig. 154, hollow; weight 2 1/4 oz. Fig. 155, solid; over 3 1/4 oz. Fig. 156, hollow: 5 1/4 oz. (From Wilde's Catalogue).