_Anchors._--For the purpose of holding a canoe stationary an anchor

is requisite, but of these not more than three have as yet been

discovered. The one figured (plate IV. fig. 6) is of stone. The shank

must have been of wood, lashed to the stone. There was with the canoe

discovered in the Boyne what bore the appearance of a kind of wooden

anchor. At Toome Bar was found an anchor or grappling instrument

twenty-one inches long, but being formed of iron it should be viewed as

comparatively modern (plate IV. fig. 7).

_Curach._--There is yet another kind of boat, the curach, that must

have been employed by these lake dwellers; of it, however, on account

of the perishable materials of which it was composed, no remains have

as yet been exhumed. We may all recollect, when reading English history

in our childhood, the description given of the primitive Celtic boat,

constructed of basket-work and covered with skins, in which the Picts

and Scots are said to have invaded Britain in crowds, and of which the

Britons themselves made use: this is frequently referred to by old

classical writers. Herodotus mentions boats of this kind as existent in

his time on the Tigris and Euphrates; similar skiffs are used on those

rivers at the present day; boats of analogous construction are employed

in some parts of India; they are propelled by paddles where the water

is deep, and poled over the shallows. Nothing can be more simple than

the construction of these skiffs; only two materials are requisite,

and they the most accessible in the country, _i.e._ bamboo and hides.

When Cæsar had constructed boats in Spain, after the manner learnt by

him in Britain, it is said that “the keels and ribs were made of light

timber, the rest of the hull being woven together with basket-work, and

covered with hides.”[76]

“The bending willow into barks they twine,

Then line the work with spoils of slaughtered kine.

…

On such to neighbouring Gaul, allured by gain,

The bolder Britons cross the swelling main.”

Pliny says:--“Even now, in the British channel, they (the boats) are

made of osiers, covered with hides sewn together.” Solinus, describing

the rough sea between Britain and Ireland, says that the natives

“sail in ships made of osiers, which they surround with a covering of

hides.” Adamnan, in his life of St. Columba, refers to a voyage made

in a curach by St. Cormac. The curach is said to be still in use on

the Severn,[77] and on some parts of the coast of Ireland, in shape

and build similar to those of thousands of years ago; at the same time

it may be affirmed that few persons of the present generation could

declare they have seen the _true_ curach, that term having been now

transferred to boats covered with coarse tarred canvas, and which

differ widely both in form and method of construction from their

ancient prototype. The curach seen by W. F. Wakeman in use on the river

Boyne so late as the year 1848 is thus described by him:--A regular

frame of willow ribs, generally laid in pairs, and extending along the

sides and floor, formed the skeleton of the future boat, which was in

the form of the bowl of a spoon, a little broader towards one end than

the other; about eight feet in length, but very nearly circular. The

extremities of the ribs for a depth of about eighteen inches from what

would now be called the gunwale, were set in a very thick, strong,

and closely-woven band of wicker-work, above which the ends of the

rods slightly projected. Midships was a thwart of ash or oak pierced

with four holes, two near either end, through which were rove thongs,

composed of twisted osiers connecting the seat, or thwart, with various

portions of the above mentioned band, so as to bind the work together.

The frame was then covered over on the outside with skin, untanned, of

the horse or cow; and the result was the completion of a boat well

adapted for the requirements of fishermen.[78] The raw hide of a newly

slain animal, properly extended presented a ready means of constructing

a boat, and became to the early inhabitants of the British Islands what

the birch-tree bark is to the American Indian. In the sculptures from

Nineveh a similar use of the hide is observed, as a means of crossing

rivers, but the application is less ingenious, being merely a skin

inflated with air like what is called on some parts of the Irish coast

a “stookey,” and with which, not unfrequently, fishermen, so late as

the year 1860, floated their nets and lines; the skin of a dog or any

other animal served the purpose.[79]

[Illustration: Plate V.

Curach, as used on the Boyne, 1848.]

_Ingenuity of Lake Dwellers, Clothing, &c._--It has been remarked

that the brains of most savages and the skulls of most primitive

races are larger than, in theory, they ought to be; often rather

larger than the brains and skulls of the average masses of the great

cities of the present day; but this need not cause surprise, if the

life of intelligent interest passed by the savage child be taken into

consideration. From the tenderest age he was observant of all the

devices practised by his parents for procuring clothing, food, means

of defence, in short, all the essentials of existence; the natural

result of his wild life was health and strength; indeed, on the

principle of the survival of the fittest, it could only be the robust

who lived through the hardships and climatic exposure incidental to a

savage life. The lake dweller was no exception to this rule, for his

ingenuity would be most fully exercised in endeavouring to procure the

means of sustenance for his family. It is easy to imagine the various

daily occupations needful in his struggles for existence. Timber from

the forest supplied him with materials both for his dwelling and for

fuel; the skins of wild animals furnished him with clothing, he shaped

them with a sharp flint flake, and sewed them with thongs, using as

needle the pierced bone of some bird or small mammal. In early Irish

history mention occurs of skin or leather garments: when _Muircheartach

MacNeill_ made his celebrated circuit of Ireland, A.D. 942, it is

stated that his soldiers were clad in long leather cloaks. We are

not left to mere conjecture regarding the manner in which the men of

these primitive times protected themselves from the inclemency of the

weather. In the year 1821 the body of a man, about six feet in height,

with dark, reddish-coloured hair, short beard, and teeth in a good

state of preservation, was found ten feet below the surface of a bog,

on the lands of Gallagh, near Castle Blakeney, county Galway. The head,

legs, and feet were bare, but the body was covered with a deer-skin

tunic reaching to the knees and half-way down the arms; in front it

was laced and fastened by thongs of the same material. The mantle was,

unfortunately, much injured in the disinterment, but a few fragments

of it still hung together; portions of the seams sewed with fine gut

of three strands still remained; “the regularity and closeness of

the stitches are most remarkable, as shown by the accompanying cut,

in which a portion of one of the joinings is represented double the

natural size. This closure was effected by what is termed the looped

stitch, similar to that used in working a button-hole, so that by

having each stitch knotted the chance of ripping was lessened.”[80]

The age of the Irish mummy (if we may apply that term to the body here

described) is considered by some to date back at least 2000 years.

[Illustration: Fig. 11.

Fragment of Deerskin Garment.]

A bed of growing peat is endowed with marvellous powers. It seems to

act like the ancient Egyptian process of embalming on the bodies of men

or animals that have become accidentally entombed in it, preserving

them for centuries after their contemporaries have, by the ordinary

laws of nature, totally disappeared, and organic substances, such as

butter, seem also to feel its influence. Peat may bear comparison with

ice, the well-known preservative properties of which were strikingly

illustrated by the discovery on the shores of Lake Oncoul, in Siberia,

of a carcass of the _Elephas primigenius_, or mammoth (supposed to

have become extinct in the Pleistocene period) in a perfect state, and

so well refrigerated that, when thawed, the dogs of the neighbourhood

devoured its flesh. Again, in 1846, the summer in Siberia had been

unusually hot; the frozen marshes which extend along each side of the

river Indigirka were thawed, and a perfectly preserved carcass of a

mammoth floated down the stream. This monster had most probably met his

death centuries before by sinking into the deep snow of the morasses,

was frozen over, and thus remained until the exceptional summer heat

melted his icy prison.

_Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages._--We know that the learned have divided

the period man has inhabited the globe into what may roughly be called

three Ages--the Stone, the Bronze, and the Iron. Ancient mythology

presented us with another, ycleped the Golden, when our planet was

supposed to be a paradise, and man lived in a state of perpetual

happiness; it is to be feared that the idea of a golden age, either

past or to come, is purely mythical. Future archæologists may, perhaps,

be tempted to apply the designation “Steel” to the present or now

commencing epoch, in order to distinguish it from the mere “Iron Age.”

Improved methods of manufacture are now-a-days causing steel in some

degree to supersede its parent metal, iron, even as iron superseded

bronze. Excavations on the site of crannogs have demonstrated clearly

the fact that some of them have had a continuous existence throughout

the three ages of Stone, Bronze, and Iron. Classification of the

earth’s history into those three ages does not, however, imply a

defined and distinctive period when stone, bronze, or iron alone was

in exclusive use, though there may possibly have been a time in which

only stone and bone were available. When the empires of the Tigris

and Nile were in their prime, the northern littoral of Europe was

inhabited by a race using implements of bone and stone, but these

regions were in the Bronze Age[81] at the period when the Phœnicians

had attained the zenith of their power. According to some writers, the

inhabitants of the Baltic littoral had not till early in the Christian

era discarded bronze and stone for iron. Although weapons of bone or

flint were certainly of an earlier age than bronze and iron, yet it

is more than probable that flint, bronze, and iron may have been in

use at one and the same period, and even in the same locality, down

to a period long subsequent to the Christian era. To this day the

Esquimaux use bone implements, but they also employ iron, so that

in remote countries a stone age might be said still to exist, the

few iron implements in possession of the wild tribes being acquired

by recent contact with western civilization. In Ireland there is no

fixed line of demarcation between the stone, the bronze, and the

iron age; there was an overlapping and co-mingling as the better and

more useful metal gradually superseded its predecessor. Thus a stone

instrument, by itself, would be a most deceptive guide in determining

the state of civilization of the inhabitants of the site on which it

was discovered, because stone implements are also found associated with

articles both of bronze and iron. “Like the three principal colours of

the rainbow,” writes Mr. Evans, “these three stages of civilization

overlap, intermingle, and shade off, the one into the other; and yet

their succession, as far as Western Europe is concerned, appears to be

equally well defined with that of the prismatic colours, though the

proportions of the spectrum may vary in different countries.” Petrie,

the well-known Irish antiquary, was the first to claim for a large

class of iron remains the position of an interesting connecting link,

which they are now allowed to hold, between the bronze manufacture of

a remote age and the industrial achievements of comparatively modern

days. At the period of the first discovery of the remains of Irish lake

dwellings, archæologists looked upon objects of iron found in lakes,

or in their immediate vicinity, with very little interest, for it was

considered that they could not have held out against the corroding

influence of water for a lengthened period; therefore iron was supposed

to stamp lacustrine habitations with a mediæval or even modern impress.

The belief was then very general that the inhabitants of Erin of the

prehistoric period, having existed generation after generation as

manufacturers of flint and stone weapons, had gradually, through some

unknown channel, become acquainted with gold, silver, and bronze, and

that this latter metal, down even to the advent of St. Patrick, was

used almost exclusively in the manufacture of weapons of war, small

ornaments for personal adornment, and objects of domestic use. Articles

of stone, bone, wood, bronze, and iron have been discovered in strange

medley: swords, spear and javelin heads, axes, daggers, knives, hones,

querns, shears, tweezers, chains, combs, pins, brooches, beads, horse

trappings, cauldrons of hammered bronze, lumps of iron slag, &c.--in

short, every conceivable object, from the rudest flint implement to

highly-finished silver ornaments.

The accidental discovery of the great historical crannog of Lagore,

in the county Meath, already referred to, presents the first,

and probably the most important, treasure-trove of earliest iron

implements. In A.D. 848 an Irish chief, with his Danish allies,

plundered this island fortress and burnt it; whilst in 933, nearly a

century later, the place again suffered a similar fate at the hands

of another marauder. Nothing more was heard of it till the date of

its disinterment, about the year 1840. The latest period, therefore,

to which the majority of the antiquities so plentifully found within

and around this stronghold may be referred, is somewhere between the

eleventh and earliest half of the tenth century. This approximate date

is about the historic limit in which the so-called “Iron Age” may be

allowed to have reached back in Ireland. How long it had previously

existed there must be matter of conjecture; but it is almost incredible

that its natives should have been far behind their neighbours in

the art of metallurgy; and we know that Cæsar[82] found the Britons

acquainted with the use of iron. It can only be surmised that, at some

very remote period, bronze as the prevailing material gave way to iron,

but the period of transition may probably be counted by centuries.[83]

_Weapons and Tools._--In nearly all Irish crannogs, more especially in

the larger sites, weapons of war and of the chase have been discovered

in abundance, consisting chiefly of arrow- and spear-heads, swords,

daggers or skeans, knives, and axe-heads. The numerous fragments of

artificially fashioned bone found in and around crannogs plainly

demonstrate how much that material was utilized by their inhabitants;

many tips of the antlers of deer contained in the collection of

the Royal Irish Academy and in that of the Royal Historical and

Archæological Association, have evidently been sawn from the original

branches, and employed in forming handles for swords, knives and

daggers; some are ornamented, whilst others are pierced with a hole at

one extremity, having evidently been fabricated for a distinct purpose,

for spear- or javelin-heads, &c.; these were attached to handles or

shafts, by means of the sinews of animals, or thongs of skin. Amongst

primitive races the transition from tool to weapon is slight; the same

article must, in many cases, have served the double purpose. Arrow-

or spear-heads have been found of bone, horn, flint, bronze, and iron;

they are usually of small size. Figs. 12 and 13, from Lough Ravel,

county Antrim, represent (half-size) flakes fashioned into arrow- or

spear-heads. Fig. 14 is a flake of basalt (full-size) from Toombridge,

in the same county. Fig. 15 is a flint implement from the recently

discovered crannog of Lisnacroghera.[84]

[Illustration: Fig. 12.

Fig. 13.

Flint flakes from the Crannog of Lough Ravel. Half-size.

Fig. 14.

Flake of Basalt from Toombridge. Full-size.]

[Illustration: Fig. 15.

Worked Flint from Lisnacroghera. Full-size.]

Plate VI., No. 1 is a flint implement, probably a knife. No. 2--A

well-worked flint, most likely used for the same purpose. No. 3--A

flint “scraper,” that appears to be somewhat injured at one end. No. 4

represents what antiquaries style a “core” of flint. It is in fact the

remains of a block, from which flakes have been struck for the purpose

of forming them into arrow-heads, knives, &c., &c. No. 5 is a specimen

of the hammer-stone so frequently discovered in the refuse heaps of

Irish crannogs. They are usually abraded at the extremities, as if from

long use, and similar articles occur in the shell mounds of our

coasts, having probably been used for breaking crustaceæ. No. 6 is an

ordinary stone hatchet. No. 7 represents a wooden object which has all

the appearance of having been used as the handle of a stone-hatchet.

It is here given ⅛ of the real size. The aperture, supposed to have

been made for the reception of a stone celt, measures in length, 3⅜

in., but the shrinking of the wood in drying renders it impossible

to say what its original breadth may have been. The dotted line is

introduced to show how the cutting instrument was most probably placed.

No. 8 may have been either a dagger or a spear-head; it is of bone;

a rivet-hole indicates that a handle was at one time attached. No.

9--A knife of bone, the handle and blade in one piece. It measures 8

in. in length, and the haft portion, as shown in the illustration, is

ornamented with a series of squares enclosing a rude pattern composed

of dots. No. 10 is a very curious little article formed of bone, and

not untastefully decorated in the same style as the socket portion of

the iron spear-head, as shown in plate IX., fig. 6. It was evidently a

scoop, and would be serviceable in the extraction of marrow from bones

of deer, or other animals used as food by the lake dwellers. Nos. 11

and 12 are rude unornamented knives, in a single piece each. It is not

easy to guess what articles of this kind could have been employed to

cut, but so early as the times of stone chambers, knives of bone were

in requisition.[85]

[Illustration: Plate VI.

Flint, Wood, and Bone Implements from Crannogs.]

[Illustration: Fig. 16.

Axe-head of red-deer’s Horn from Lough Eyes. Quarter-size.]

Fig. 16, from Lough Eyes, represents the horn of a red-deer converted

into a weapon; its weight is considerable, and there can be little

doubt that it had served as a rude battle-axe; its broader end had

been fined to a cutting edge, and a notch shows where a leathern thong

or sinew was lashed for attachment of the axe-head to the handle into

which it had been set in the manner of a stone or flint celt. This

antler, together with the bone axe-head from Ballykillen, are the only

specimens of that special class of weapon; but both spear-heads and

daggers formed of bone have been found at Ardakillen, Ballinderry, and

other crannogs. In the Swiss “Pfahlbauten” it was only the handle of

the axe that was composed of horn, the cutting portion being flint or

stone, inserted into the shaft at its thicker end.[86]

Swords, whether of bronze or iron, are almost invariably of small size,

and double edged. There is usually a central rib to the blade, but

in some instances fluting occurs. The ordinary crannog sword may be

described generally as of two kinds, the one increasing in breadth from

the handle to the end, which terminates in the form of a triangle; the

other is shorter, with a broad straight-edged blade obtusely pointed.

Their handles were composed of bone or horn, and sometimes wood was

used. There was no hilt or guard, properly speaking, though the handle

usually somewhat overlaps the edges of the blade, while it recedes in a

curve tending in a direction opposite to that of the pommel.

[Illustration: Plate VII.

Hafted Bronze Rapier Sword, showing both sides. Full size.]

In April, 1864, a sword-blade of bronze, with the haft still attached,

was found adjoining a lake containing a small artificial island, in

the townland of Galbally, county Tyrone. The extreme length of blade,

25 in.; breadth at tang, 1¾ in.; weight, 13¾ ounces. The handle (both

sides of which are represented in the accompanying plate) is of bone,

probably cetacean; its length, 3½ inches; weight 1 ounce; thickness,

⅝ of an inch. The smallness of the handle is very remarkable,

taking into consideration the popular idea of the great stature and

strength of Erin’s ancient inhabitants.[87] A well-preserved iron

sword, with bronze mountings to the handle, was found in the crannog

of Lisnacroghera. The blade tapers gradually to a point from about

midway down its length, with a central ridge. The bronze mountings

of the sword-handle are four in number. “Of these, one is at the

pommel, another hoods as it were the butt of the blade, two others

are intermediate, and very probably do not now occupy their original

position, one of them certainly being movable. It is, therefore,

impossible to judge of the space which had been left for reception of

the swordsman’s hand. It may be observed that the edges of all these

fittings had been serrated or milled, but no other attempt at

decoration appears upon them. The blade measures in length 14¾ in., the

handle 5 in.”[88]

[Illustration: Plate VIII.

Iron Weapons and Manacle from Lagore.]

[Illustration: Fig. 17. Iron Sword from Lisnacroghera, about ⅖ real

size.]

Plate VIII. presents good examples of iron swords, two of them

double-edged: (1) the one measures 22¼ in., including the strig or tang

that passed through the hilt; the blade is 18½ in. long and 1⅜ in.

wide, with a broad shallow groove or channel along its entire length;

the other double-edged sword (2) measures 15¼ in., and the blade is

formed with a central ridge. No. 3 somewhat resembles an oriental

weapon, the blade being curved towards the point; the length is 13¼

in., width 1 in., and the curved portion alone has a cutting edge. No.

4 is a peculiar, single-edged weapon of diminutive size; the blade

measures 8 in., and the entire length is only 13 in., including the

cross ornamented socket into which the haft was fixed.

With these articles an iron ring was found (5) having a portion of

chain still attached; it is seemingly part of a manacle. In ancient

Irish writings mention is made of “golden” fetters, and no doubt the

“golden” swords,[89] also noticed in old poems as having been used by

the Dalcassians, were so described on account of the yellow colour of

the bronze of which they were composed; a fine example of neck fetters

may be seen in the Royal Irish Academy, with a chain of considerable

length and strength attached.[90]

No. 1, plate IX., is an iron sword, with bronze mounting at handle,

measuring 25¾ in. in length; the breadth of blade is 1½ in.; and the

handle 3½ in. long. This was considered by Petrie to be the finest

specimen of its class then found. No. 2 may be also considered a very

characteristic specimen of the ordinary crannog sword; its length is

23 in. including the handle, which measures 4 in. No. 3 exhibits a

beautifully executed bronze fitting which separated the handle from

the blade; the ornamentation of the bronze is a fine specimen of the

“trumpet pattern.” The total length is 21½ in. No. 4 is characteristic

of the shorter crannog sword or dagger; total length 14¼ in.

[Illustration: Plate IX.

Weapons of Iron from Crannogs.]

Few darts or spear-heads have been found of bronze, but the iron

examples are very numerous, often of beautiful form and highly

ornamented; they vary in length from about 6 to 18 inches. No. 5

represents a spear-head of iron in a wonderful state of preservation,

and retaining two rivets, by which it was attached to the handle.

The socket is ornamented with an elegant pattern in lines obliquely

crossing each other, but the work is too fine to admit of being

properly shown on the scale here given; length 13⅛ in. No. 6. A

spear-head, its socket strengthened by two bronze ferrules, is very

curiously ornamented with a number of small crosses, separated from

each other by fillets; there are apertures for four rivets which do

not now remain; possibly they were of wood; length 14½ in. No. 7. A

spear-head, interesting on account of the ornamentation on its socket,

as also from its general _contour_, which resembles that of some of

the finest known bronze examples; length 13⅛ in. No. 8. An extremely

slender spear-head from Ballinderry, where it was found with a good

many others; length 16 in. No. 9. A spear- or javelin-head; the form

is very slender: entire length 9 in. No. 10 is a well-preserved and

interesting axe-head of iron, its cutting edge well steeled. It

measures 4½ in. at the edge, and 3¾ in. from edge to back. Axe-heads

of this peculiar form are to be seen in Scotland, sculptured on early

monumental stones, probably of the Pictish age. No. 11 is an axe-head

of the form most commonly found in Irish crannogs; it measures 7

in. in length. No. 12 was found with the last described; it measures

7½ in. This form of axe-head, although of rather rare occurrence in

Ireland, is common on the Continent. No. 13 is an iron dagger, no doubt

in use contemporaneously with the swords just noticed. The handle is

of bone or horn, and it is valuable as an illustration of the style of

hafting early iron weapons of the sword and dagger class. No. 14 is a

point formed of iron, and containing a socket. It was most likely an

arrow-head. No. 15 is a very beautifully formed arrow-head from Lough

Gur; length 3¼ in. From the size of the socket the shaft must have

been extremely slender.[91] Arrow-heads of this kind are rare in Irish

crannogs.

[Illustration: Plate X.

Iron Spear-head, from Lisnacroghera, side and edge view. Half size.]

[Illustration: Fig. 18. Iron Spear-heads from Lagore.]

[Illustration: Fig. 19.

Fig. 20.

Fig. 21.

Fig. 22.

Fig. 23.

Spear Butt-ends of Bronze from Lisnacroghera. Two-thirds natural size.]

The two spear-heads from Lagore, (fig. 18), are in fine preservation

and very sharp; their length 10 in. In the crannog of Lisnacroghera,

a magnificent spear-head of iron was discovered, of which a front and

side view (half-size) is given, plate X. Spear-heads of this class

have been commonly met with in the larger lacustrine sites, but this

specimen is invested with a peculiar interest, from its being found in

company with a number of bronze objects, whose use up to the present

was unknown to antiquarians. It is now certain they were the butt-ends

of spear-shafts--indeed two were discovered with the ends of their

shafts still remaining in them. The mode in which one--and probably

others also--had been attached to the handle is thus described by

Canon Greenwell:--“The end of the shaft is split, and into the split

is inserted a wedge of iron, so that when driven home, the wedge

expanded the end of the shaft, and kept it firm in the butt.” In

Anderson’s _Scotland in Pre-historic Times_ one is described as having

been found in Orkney. Like its Lisnacroghera fellows, it differs from

the generality of Irish remains of its class, in the possession of

a rich moulding bisecting the neck, but in all other particulars the

style is identical. All the specimens of this class here figured were

obtained by Canon Grainger from the crannog of Lisnacroghera. To one

bronze butt was attached the whole of the shaft, 8 feet in length,

furnished at top with a beautifully designed loop of bronze (see plate

XI), and upon it was displayed a perfect Greek fret, with provision for

the reception of enamel. From the same locality was procured also the

highly interesting fragment which forms the central object of plate

XI. It is portion of a spear-shaft retaining its bronze ferrule, and

the rivet, also of bronze, by which the head was secured; this band or

ferrule, being exceptionally beautiful, has been drawn as if rolled

out. Adjoining the edges are slightly projecting fillets, enclosing a

space through which runs a graceful wavy pattern in relief. The hollows

were doubtless enamelled, as in the case of similar ornamentation on

some bronze remains in the same “find.” The space between the fillets

or bands is occupied by a singular design, and this design, all but the

circular bosses, four in number, may be described as in low relief.

The intervening spaces, like those of the fillets above and below,

at one time contained coloured enamel. Altogether the style of

this object represents as it were a combination of classic and Celtic

ornamentation. The smaller and even more classic-looking ferrule to the

left of plate XI. has already been noticed (_ante_, p. 64); the figure

to the right (plate XI.) represents a bronze rivet of curious form,

with well-sunk depressions on one of its sides, like those seen on a

cog-wheel.[92]

[Illustration: Plate XI.

Portion of Spear-shaft, with ferrules and rivet of Bronze. Full size.]

[Illustration: Fig. 24. Bronze Dagger from Lagore.]

[Illustration: Fig. 25. Bronze Skean from Loughran Island.]

The distinguishing characteristic of the bronze dagger or skean from

Lagore (fig. 24) consists in its openwork handle forming one piece

with the blade. The weapon is 9¾ inches in length; the handle, 3⅛.

The blade, 1⅜ inches in width, is flat, with broad bevelled edges.

Fig. 25, found at Loughran Island, in the Lower Bann, is 4⅞ inches in

length by 1¾ in width. It is a thin, flat, angular-shaped dagger blade,

decorated on the surface of the mid-rib with a series of dotted lines,

and pierced at the broad end by four small rivet-holes.[93] Daggers or

skeans of bone, as well as of bronze and iron, have been frequently

found in Irish lake dwellings, and knives formed of flint are not

uncommon. The iron knives found in the crannog of Ballinderry, and now

in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, resembled those figured in

Munro’s _Ancient Scottish Lake Dwellings_.[94]

At the time the Catalogue of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy was

compiled by the late Sir W. Wilde, although some objects of bronze,

supposed to have been ornaments on leather or wooden dagger sheaths,

are mentioned by him, yet he was unable to point to any example

composed altogether of bronze. Since that period, however, three

sword-sheaths of that metal have been discovered in the crannog of

Lisnacroghera, county Antrim. Their workmanship is exquisite. They bear

traces of enamel, and one of them contained a sword of iron so firmly

attached to it by corrugation that any attempt to withdraw it must have

involved the mutilation or utter destruction of the bronze in which it

was encased.

The decoration of the sheath, plate XII, No. 2, is very remarkable; the

distinctive peculiarity being its spiral character, a perfect specimen

of those combinations of involved circles and curvilinear lines,

supposed to be characteristic of early Celtic art. Some portions of

the sheath, near its end, still retain settings in enamel, the colour

of which, though now faded, must have been rich vermillion. Enamel

of the same hue and material once occupied the little saucer-like

depressions which occur on the terminating snake-suggesting head. One

of the circles (that had been, doubtless, intended to represent eyes)

shows that it had been so filled, as were, probably, the little raised

bosses, two in number, that may be observed at the opposite extremity.

The interior of what might be styled the crescent-shaped patterns, nine

in number, which occupy the chief plane of the sheath, as also the

minor spirals of their adjacent spaces in the general figure, exhibit

a design suggestive of basket-work. It is now impossible to determine

whether the sheaths had been formed by casting, or were beaten into

shape from a plain sheet of copper. It is evident that for the

production of the ornamentation a graver had been used. The lines are

sharply and deeply incised, and appear to have been intended for the

reception of enamel of a black shade, some traces of which appear here

and there. The enamel on the sheath “was, in all probability, _niello_,

a composition of silver, copper, sulphur, and lead, the _nigellum_ of

ancient writers. It was not so hard or lasting as the ordinary enamel

of glass or vitrified paste, some examples of which may be seen on

several early ecclesiastical remains. The art of enamelling in _niello_

is of the very highest antiquity; it was practised by the Egyptians.

Specimens of it, of various ages, even of modern times, are numerous,

and it appears to have been known to the Anglo-Saxons, as a ring of

Bishop Ethelwulf (ninth century) is ornamented with it.”

Although the decoration of the third sheath is similar in style, yet

some of its features are peculiar, especially the dot and circle

pattern along one of the edges, and which appears to have extended from

handle to extremity.

[Illustration: Plate XII.

Fig. 1.--Sides of Bronze Sheath, containing an Iron Sword.

Figs. 2 and 3.--Sides of Bronze Sword Sheaths, from the Crannog of

Lisnacroghera.]

Fig. 26 represents an object supposed to have been an ornamental

termination of the pommel of a sword; it is of bronze, richly decorated

with bands of white and red enamelled designs in a chevron or wavy

pattern. The form is oval, and upon the upper rim are representations

of two birds. Early Irish decorative art is characterised by bird-like

forms, and figures of this kind are to be seen on early MSS. and on

articles of the toilet or of personal adornment.[95]

[Illustration: Plate XIII.

Iron Tools, &c., found in the bottom of a “dug-out” at Cornagall.]

[Illustration: Fig. 26. Bronze enamelled object from Lisnacroghera.

Full size.]

In a small lake called Cornagall (_the Hillock of the Dane or

Stranger_), about six miles from Cavan, there is an almost circular

artificial island, thirty yards in diameter, its crannog nature,

attested by rows of oaken stakes fencing its margin, showing above

the summer level of the lake. In August, 1869, the water being

then particularly low, a log of timber that bore evident traces of

manual labour was ascertained to be the end of a “dug-out” embedded

in soft, boggy matter. It proved, however, to be only a fragment,

the other portion having been destroyed by fire, as evinced by the

charred appearance of the remains: the large quantity of charcoal,

half consumed sticks and chips visible on the margin of the crannog

indicated its destruction also by that element. A set of iron tools

lay on the floor of the canoe thus discovered, all here represented

one-third their real size. The following is a brief description of

them:--

Plate XIII., No. 1, is an adze in a perfect state: the metallic portion

consists of soft iron, well steeled to a considerable distance from

its cutting edge. No. 2 is an adze, scraper, or implement of the same

class, but differing from the former in that it shows no perforation;

its narrow-pointed end had evidently been intended for insertion in a

wooden handle: the edge being broken, it is impossible to determine

whether it had been steeled. No. 3 is a hammer of iron, the handle of

oak, split at its upper extremity for the insertion of a wedge, which

still remains. No. 4 is a celt or chisel--a somewhat similar object

(from Lagore), but considerably broader, is preserved in the Museum

of the Royal Irish Academy. Nos. 5 and 6 represent a thin, knife-like

piece of iron and a wooden handle, originally, perhaps, portions of

one implement; the wood, hollowed for reception of the blade, is

perforated for the insertion of a rivet, which no longer remains. With

the iron tools in the canoe was found a remarkable object, composed of

oak, use unknown; it is curiously notched upon one of its sides, near

the edge. Figs. 8 and 9 represent two views of it.[96]

[Illustration: Fig. 27.--Iron Axe-head from Lagore.]

Fig. 27, an iron axe-head, from Lagore, is seven inches in length,

massive, and of considerable weight; the cutting edge singularly

narrow. A great number, made of stone, have come to light; and all that

are composed of iron are well steeled round the cutting edge. Axe-heads

are of great diversity of form.

A front and side view (fig. 31) is given of an iron adze, six inches

and a-quarter long, from the crannog of Lisnacroghera, as were also

the three objects of iron here represented (figs. 28, 29, 30), the

uppermost, probably a knife, and having a hole through what appears

to have been the haft end. The other two articles are said to be the

remains of a saw, and the long fragment, perforated in four places, is

supposed to be the strengthening bar attached to the piece of wood into

which the back of the saw had been inserted.

[Illustration: Figs. 28, 29, 30.--Iron Objects from Lisnacroghera.]

[Illustration: Fig. 31.--Front and side-view of Iron Adze from

Lisnacroghera.]

_Hones._--Hones and sharpening stones are very commonly met with

in crannogs; they plainly denote that at some period during their

habitable existence the occupiers possessed metallic weapons or tools.

The Cornagall “find” presents two specimens of whetstones; one is given

(plate XIII. fig. 7); the material dark-grey in colour, almost black,

extremely hard, and close-grained; they are symmetrical in form, and

partake greatly of the character of the so-called touchstones. Fig. 32

is a perforated example.

[Illustration: Fig. 32.--Whetstone.]

_Armour._--Amongst crannog “finds” no well-authenticated remains of

defensive armour have been recorded, with the exception of a fragment

of chain armour from Inisrush, and the ancient “golden bronze” shield

from Lough Gur. The armour found on the site of the crannog in Lough

Annagh is not here taken into consideration, it being evidently

seventeenth century work.

In the townland of Monea, about five miles from Enniskillen, county

Fermanagh, in a small but deep lake,[97] there is a very fine circular

crannog, about seventy-five feet in diameter, composed almost entirely

of timber, and surrounded with remains of staking; a complete

examination of the site was not possible, owing to the thick mass of

roots and fibres thrown out by the trees with which it was studded.

Upon digging into that portion of the shore offering the greatest

facility, there were discovered several fragments of bones of the _Bos

longifrons_ and other animals, quantities of charcoal, some iron slag,

and the remains of the curious iron helmet here figured, which must,

however, be viewed as of comparatively modern date. The helmet is

entirely devoid of ornamentation, is acutely conical in shape, and no

traces of nasal or cheek pieces remain. A casque, very similar to this,

was found in the river Nore, near Borris-in-Ossory, Queen’s County, and

is preserved in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy.

[Illustration: Fig. 33.--Iron Helmet found in the Monea Crannog, front

and side view.]

[Illustration: Plate XIV.

Front View of Bronze Shield from Lough Gur. Diameter 28 inches.]

The shield, of which the accompanying plate gives a correct

representation, was found in the bog close to the banks of Lough Gur,

County Limerick; and near it were the head and antlers of a _Megaceros

Hibernicus_. This shield is a disc of bronze, slightly convex, and

strengthened by a series of six concentric circles formed of hollow

bosses, about two hundred in number, surrounding the central umbo. It

appears to have been carried slung on the shoulder, the slinging loops

being fixed so as to form bosses on the obverse equal in size to those

contained in the circle: it was furnished with a very small handle,

interiorly traversing the umbo. The rim is an inch three-quarters in

width; the diameter, two feet three and three-quarter inches. The holes

with which the shield is pierced are not proofs of warfare; it was the

discoverer--a boy with a fishing gaff--who inflicted the injuries in

bringing his novel spoil to land.[98] The Rev. James Graves considered

the looseness of the rivets at the inside loops for the strap by which

the shield was carried, to be proof that some material, most probably

the hide of an animal, had originally formed an inner lining, as the

thin bronze being in itself incapable of withstanding the impact of a

fishing-gaff, could afford little real protection against even ordinary

weapons of warfare. The coating of sheet bronze may be viewed rather

as ornamentation than as rendering the shield more impenetrable; or it

may have been but a variety of the arrangement of studs or circles of

bronze affixed to bucklers of wood or leather--

“Whose brazen studs and tough bull-hide

Had death so often dashed aside.”

In the Museum of Antiquities at Edinburgh may be seen a bronze shield

of like character.

In the Crannog of Lisnacroghera was discovered, with many warlike

weapons, a disc of thin bronze, its centre from one-third its

circumference descending into a hollow, at the base of which is an

aperture: the ornamented side, as here portrayed, must have been

intended to be the front, as the other side is quite plain. “Can it be

the centre of a shield, other portions of which were composed of less

durable materials? Certain it is, that thin circular plates of bronze,

displaying similar depressions, have been found both in England and in

Ireland, and are supposed to be connected with the mounting of shields.”

[Illustration: Fig. 34. Disc of Bronze from Lisnacroghera.]

The first figure to the left, plate XV., represents an object of the

same class, but slightly smaller, and not so much ornamented. To

the right are two views of another article, which presents all the

appearance of an umbo. On the same plate (XV.) are four bronze rings:

one of them is formed of two very thin plates, secured together by

rivets of the same material; the three remaining rings are solid, and

of a class which some antiquaries suppose formed a kind of defensive

armour. It is imagined that they were attached pretty closely together

to portions of the ancient warrior’s garment; and it is worthy of

remark that in the collection of the Academy a number of such rings,

or objects very like them, may be seen looped together by bronze

fastenings.[99]

[Illustration: Fig. 35. Stone Mould from Lough Scur.]

[Illustration: Plate XV.

Boss-like Objects, and Rings of Bronze, from Lisnacroghera. Full size.]

Stone moulds, evidently employed in casting celts, weapons, tools,

and other articles of bronze, have been brought to light. Fig.

35, discovered in the Crannog of Lough Scur, county Leitrim, is a

triangular block of coarse white sandstone 7½ inches long, 5¼ wide, and

3½ thick, having both sides indented for castings. On the side here

presented are moulds for a plain celt three inches long, and another

celt four inches long, with cross strop and ring for attachment to

the shaft. Castings taken from this mould “delivered” implements

closely resembling several in the Museum, R. I.A.[100] At Lough Ramor,

county Cavan, a very curious block of sandstone was found, having a

mould on three of its faces: the one here represented is for a broad

arrow-head, with side rings. Upon the obverse is one for a small spear

and leaf-shaped arrow; on the right side is another arrow-mould.[101]

[Illustration: Fig. 36.

Stone Mould from Lough Ramor.]

_Vegetable Remains._--The ancient Irish set great value upon the hazel

plant, a fact demonstrated by the frequent mention made of it in their

best and oldest MSS.; the numerous round stones met with in crannogs

are supposed to have been used for breaking the nuts; their shells

form the most considerable portion of vegetable remains in the kitchen

middens, where beech nuts also are present; and it is known that within

historic times the Irish kept large herds of swine that fed on masts in

the woods, for then

“The forests cast their fruits in husks and rind.”

Grain (species not stated), and various kinds of wild fruit, have been

discovered; walnuts at Lough Nahinch, cherrystones at Ballinlough.[102]

_Hammer-stones._--It cannot be doubted that in a few instances

the round stones, sometimes designated “sling-stones,” have been

artificially worked, but the great majority must be looked upon simply

as water-worn pebbles that had been utilized as hammer-stones. Many of

the egg-shaped specimens are more or less frayed or chipped at their

extremities; and similar stones, used, as is supposed, for breaking

crustacea, are common in the “shell mounds” on the coast, as also

amongst the “kitchen middens” of ancient settlements that abound within

the sand dunes of the north-western littoral of Ireland. A large flat

stone implement, with circular termination, rough sides, and polished

edges, was found in the crannog of “The Miracles,” county Fermanagh.

It measured about eleven inches by three, and was one inch thick. Its

flat end shows marks of wear, as if used for a pounding instrument.

A stone exactly similar was found in a “kitchen midden” at Ardnahue,

county Carlow, which had all the appearance of having been grasped in

the hand for use, hence the edges polished from constant friction.[103]

[Illustration: Fig. 37.--Stone Implement from the Crannog of “The

Miracles.”]

[Illustration: Fig. 38.

Lower Jaw of Sus scrofa.]

_Mammalia._--Amongst animal remains, those of the _Sus scrofa_ are very

numerous. This species of wild swine lived in the woods and marshes,

was long-faced, and had great length of tusks.

The accompanying illustration represents a lower jaw of this ancient

Irish pig, procured from the crannog of Lough Gur, county Limerick;

it is of a yellowish-brown colour, a hue that pervades all the animal

remains from that locality.

[Illustration: Fig. 39.--Head and Antlers of Cervus elephas.]

[Illustration: Fig. 40.

Fig. 41.

Fig. 42.

Crania of Goats.]

Bones of the red deer (_Cervus elephas_) are extremely plentiful in

lacustrine sites. It is the wild animal most frequently mentioned in

early Irish history, and of which there were many until a comparatively

modern epoch: so late as 1752 they abounded in the barony of Erris,

county Mayo, and some few exist still in Killarney. The head and

antlers here shown came from the crannog of Ballinderry, county

Westmeath. The horns in this specimen are still attached to the

cranium, and there were originally seven tines on the right, and

eight on the left side. Bones of the _Magaceros Hibernicus_, or Irish

big-horn, of the wolf and fox, of a small breed of horse, and of the

ass, have been also met with. The remains of sheep belong to the horned

class. There are several specimens of the four-horned variety of the

goat (fig. 42), but those of the ordinary kind are more numerous:

figs. 40 and 41 are from Dunshaughlin. Amongst the vast collection

of animal remains on the site of this crannog were heads of canine

animals: of the largest of these the accompanying cut gives a faithful

representation. “It is nearly eleven inches in length, measured from

the end of the occipital ridge to the alveolar process at the roots of

the upper incisors, and is principally characterized by the magnitude

of the crest.”[104] The profile view of the outline, and the prolonged

muzzle, rather lead to the belief of its having belonged to the true

Irish wolf-dog of former times, a large long-coated hound, of an

iron-grey colour.

[Illustration: Fig. 43.

Cranium of Wolf-Hound.]

According to the best authorities, there were in Europe in early

times four great types of oxen: first, the _Bos priscus_, or Urus, the

great Auroch, that even in classic times roamed through the forests

of Germany; and its bones have been found in Swiss lacustrine sites:

it was of great size, had long upright horns, a narrow forehead, high

frontal crest, projecting orbits, and a warm shaggy coat, reddish-brown

in colour. The second type, the _Bos primigenus_, was found by the

Romans amongst the wilds of Europe; it had long, slightly-curved

horns, set on at right angles to the head, but turning forward at the

extremities, and spreading to a breadth of nearly five feet from tip

to tip. The third variety, the _Bos trochocerus_ had a very narrow

head, and long cylindrical horn-cores rising high above the level

of the back of the occiput, then curving forwards and inwards. The

fourth type, which is almost peculiar to Ireland, has been denominated

_Bos longifrons_, the long-fronted or small fossil ox--somewhat of a

misnomer it must be confessed, because, properly speaking, it should

be denominated _Bos latifrons_, from the exceeding breadth of forehead

and face, in which particular it differs in an especial manner from the

three former.

[Illustration: Fig. 44.--Cranium of domesticated Bos longifrons.]

Specimens of the crania of four distinct breeds of cattle from crannogs

are here given as described by Wilde, who named them very appositely:

1, the straight-horn, or _Drom-adharach_; 2, the crumpled-horn, or

_Crom-adharach_; 3, the short-horn, or _Gearr-adharach_; 4, the

Hornless, or _Maol_. Of the first type (Fig. 44), which was found at

Dunshaughlin, Wilde states that there are none now existing in Ireland

of this race, evidently domesticated descendants of the ancient wild

_Bos longifrons_. The cranium is “broad in the face, flat on the

forehead, nearly level between the horns, with but slight projecting

orbits, short thick slugs or horn-cores rising but little above the

occipital crest, and turning slightly inwards, like some of the best

short-horned bulls of the present day. It is eighteen inches long in

the face, and nineteen from tip to tip of horn-core.”

[Illustration: Fig. 45.--Cranium of the _Crom-adharach_, or

Crumpled-horn Ox.]

Fig. 45 represents a cranium of the _Crom-adharach_ or Crumpled-horn,

which, judging by its remains, appears to have been the most numerous

variety. This magnificent head of a bull of the race is “in point of

size as fine a specimen as has yet been found: it is twenty-three and

a-half inches long, and eight inches across the forehead, which has

been broken in by some blunt instrument, probably in slaughtering. The

horn-cores are not so large at the base, but more than twice as long

as those of the “straight-horned” race; they are curved considerably

inwards, so that the tips of the horns, when perfect, must have

approached much nearer than their bases. Each horn-core was, when

perfect, about eleven inches long.” This head, together with many

similar crania, came from the crannog of Lough Gur, county Limerick.

[Illustration: Fig. 46.

Cranium of the Gearr-adharach, or Short-horned Ox.

Fig. 47.

Cranium of the Maol, or Hornless Ox.]

The third class, or “short-horn”, had long narrow faces, with

exceedingly small horn-cores curving abruptly inwards. The cranium

of one specimen (female) measured seventeen inches in length of

face, six inches across the forehead, and eleven inches from tip to

tip of horn-core. Fig. 46 gives a good illustration of this breed,

which was abundant. The fourth class, the _Maol_, or Myleen (the

hornless or bald), differs in nothing from those of the present day,

save that it appears to have been of smaller size than its modern

representative. The average length of face is about seventeen inches,

by about eight inches across the orbits. Almost all the heads of this

variety presented by Wilde to the R. I. A. came from the crannog of

Dunshaughlin: they exhibit a remarkable protuberance or frontal crest.

[Illustration: Plate XVI.

Figs. 1 and 2.--Top and Side view of Yoke found in Donagh Bog.

Figs. 3 and 4.--Yoke found on the margin of Lough Erne.

Figs. 5 and 6.--Yoke found with Figs. 3 and 4.

Wooden Yokes found in Donagh Bog and on the margin of Lough Erne.]

In Switzerland, at Robenhausen, a settlement of the Stone Age which had

been buried under a bed of peat, it is stated by Keller that horizontal

layers were discovered of a foreign substance, from two to ten inches

thick, ascertained on analysis to be composed of the fæces of cattle.

May not some of the dark strata on crannogs be composed of like matter?

for there is documentary evidence that the Irish chiefs kept cattle on

their islands in time of war. The Lord Treasurer Winchester, writing to

announce the decease of Shane O’Neill to the Lord Deputy, says, that

“he ought to inspect Shane’s lodging in the fen, where he built his

abode, and _kept his cattle_ and all his men,” &c., &c. This “abode” is

known to have been a crannog.

_Butter._--The custom of burying or hiding butter in bogs is probably

of very ancient origin, but, like many old customs, was carried down in

Ireland to a very late period. Thomas Dineley, in a diary of his visit

to Ireland in the reign of Charles II., states that the Irish used

“Butter layd up in wicker basketts, mixed with store of … a sort of

garlick, and buried for some time in a bog.” Sir William Petty mentions

“butter made rancid by keeping in bogs.” The custom is thus described

in the Irish _Hudibras_:--

“Butter to eat with their hog

Was seven years buried in bog.”

The Faröe islanders had a similar practice with regard to tallow. Bog

butter, or mineral tallow, is usually met with in single-piece wooden

vessels, like long firkins.

_Yokes._--For beasts of burden, the yoke was in use from the earliest

ages, but any that have been hitherto discovered, whether double or

single, appear too small for cattle of species still existent; however,

the old race of domesticated kine in Ireland may have been smaller

in size than those of the present day. Probably the first yoke that

attracted notice was the one described and illustrated by Wilde in his

Catalogue of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, for it was not

until a comparatively late period that the attention of antiquaries

was directed towards this class of remains, usually found covered by a

considerable depth of bog. A good idea of their general appearance is

conveyed by the accompanying illustrations (plate XVI.) representing

two yokes of wood that were discovered under eighteen feet of peat

in Donagh, county Monaghan, in the year 1867. Fig. 2 is drawn on

a somewhat larger scale than fig. 1. Figs. 3 and 4 represent yokes

found by turf-cutters about the year 1874, deeply buried in a bog

abutting on Lough Erne. One of them was composed of oak. Figs. 5 and 6

are specimens curiously contorted, twisted, and split, the result of

over-hasty drying.[105]

[Illustration: Fig. 48.

Fig. 49.

Fig. 50.

Fig. 51.

Fig. 52.

Piscatory Implements or Arrows and Spear-heads.]

_Piscatory Implements._--In the crannog of Drumgay, county Fermanagh,

there were implements for forming the meshes of nets. They consisted

of nine pieces of deer’s horn, varying in size from six to little more

than three inches in length. Four of them are curiously fashioned.

Similar objects, composed of the tips of deer’s horn, have frequently

occurred in crannog “finds,” and, during excavations made about

the year 1851, in Christchurch-place and Fishamble-street, Dublin,

many like specimens were discovered. There can be little doubt

that they were used for making fishing lines or nets: indeed one

of the discoverers having procured some thread, at once proceeded

to illustrate his theory by the manufacture of a fishing line. The

suggestion has also been offered that they may have been arrow or

javelin heads. From vegetable fibre the crannog dweller made nets with

which he obtained an ample supply of fish from the waters around him,

and sink-stones, used for either fishing lines or nets, are by no means

a rare “find.” Quoit-like discs of sandstone, pierced with a hole to

attach them to the bottom rope of a net, are not uncommonly employed,

even in the present day, in remote localities. A bronze fishing-hook

picked up from the bottom of a lake is here figured, and in plate

XXIX., vol. ii., of Keller’s work, there is a representation of one

closely resembling it. In 1845 there was found in Lough-na-Glack,

county Monaghan, a bolt or missive of bronze, 16½ inches in length,

evidently used for spearing fish, and of which two illustrations are

given in Shirley’s _History of the County Monaghan_. The thong or

string attached to this weapon, and by which it was hauled back after

projection, was called in Irish _fuainemain_. The name is in the

present day applied by the herring fishermen of the south of Ireland to

the bolt-rope of their fishing-nets.

[Illustration: Fig. 53.--Sink-stone. Half-size.]

[Illustration: Fig. 54.--Bronze Fishing-hook. Full-size.]

_Household Economy._--In crannogs vessels of iron have been brought to

light, also many cooking utensils of bronze; some, as may be noticed,

of remarkable shape. Cauldrons both of large and small dimensions,

hammered out of single sheets of copper, are numerous.[106] Plate

XVII., No. 1 is a cup composed of “soapstone,” discovered with other

remains, now scattered and lost, in the crannog of Drumsloe, near

Ballinamallard, county Fermanagh. Articles hollowed out of stone are

somewhat rare in Ireland, but more than one fine specimen occurs in

the collection of the Royal Irish Academy. A very perfect example

similar to that found at Drumsloe, and represented at page 114, fig.

87, in the Catalogue, was brought to light in the river Shannon, and

a portion of another may be seen in Canon Grainger’s interesting

Museum at Broughshane, county Antrim. These curious vessels, though

formed of stone, are usually found with objects belonging to a supposed

late iron period. Cups strongly resembling them have been exhumed in

connexion with the so-called “Picts’ Houses” in Scotland, and in some

of the Lake Dwellings of that country.[107] No. 2 is a cauldron-like

vessel of thin, hammered bronze, measuring 22½ inches in diameter by

six inches in depth: it was found with many other objects of interest

in the crannog of Cloonfinlough. On its upper side it presents a rim

or lip measuring one inch in breadth, strengthened by four small

plates, fastened to the vessel by bronze rivets, and placed at about

equal distances from each other. No. 3 represents the upper portion

of what had been a very large cauldron, with rivet-holes indicating

the points where staples had been fixed for reception of rings, or the

ends of a handle. The bronze, beaten to extreme thinness, of which

this specimen is composed, seems to be of very early character. No.

4, a shallow bowl of oak, about twelve inches in diameter, exhumed,

with other remains, from the crannog of Breagho, county Fermanagh,

was quite perfect when first laid bare, but on exposure to the

atmosphere it split into several pieces. No. 5, found in the crannog

of Cloonfree, county Roscommon, is a beautiful little vessel hollowed

out of a single piece of wood, and tastefully mounted with bronze

fittings, but the scale on which it is drawn is too small to admit

of the delicacy of its ornamentation being properly displayed. No.

6 represents an artistically formed ladle of extremely thin bronze,

measuring in all 11½ inches, the internal diameter of its bowl being

five inches. This ladle was discovered by turf-cutters in the bog

of Bohermeen, county Meath, in close proximity to a large number of

pointed stakes and other remains of timber, doubtless portion of the

framework of a crannog; but in 1848--the date of its discovery--very

little was known about lake dwellings, and few particulars of the

“find” can now be chronicled. This vessel was bought at the time by

W. F. Wakeman, and by him (together with a beautiful bronze pin found

with it) presented to the late well-known antiquary Petrie, amongst

whose collection, deposited in the R. I. A., it may now be seen. In the

same Museum are several similar vessels, turned up during drainage

operations in various parts of the country. They are supposed by some

writers, but apparently without sufficient reason, to be of Roman

origin: in Ireland, however, they are usually discovered in connexion

with remains of purely Celtic type, and it is not known that in any

instance classic decoration occurs upon an Irish example, although in

Munro’s _Ancient Scottish Lake Dwellings_, a bronze vessel (fig. 13.

p. 45) of similar style is ornamented in undoubtedly late Roman art.

No. 7 is a “coffee-pot”-shaped utensil of bronze, discovered in the

crannog of Rooskey, parish of Killevan, county Monaghan, in June, 1876.

It is seven inches in height, by four in breadth at the centre. The

sketch is from a photograph of the original, kindly supplied for this

work by Dr. Gillespie, of Clones. The spout branches into two, each

terminating in the form of a monster’s head; the legs are finished like

claws, and the animal ornamentation on the concentric rings or bands

encircling the body of the vessel furnishes distinct evidence of very

late Celtic art. The handle no longer remains. This is the only example

recorded as having been as yet met with in an Irish crannog, although

bronze articles of the same class are not uncommon--at least six others

may be seen in the Museum, R. I. A., all from different localities,

found either in bogs or in the beds of rivers. A similar example, save

that it does not possess a dual spout, is figured at p. 24, _Ancient

Scottish Lake Dwellings_, and thus is established another point of

resemblance between the crannog remains of the two countries, although

Stuart in his _Notices of Scottish Crannogs_ remarks, that hardly any

mention is made of the bronze dishes, pots, or “coffee-pot” vessels,

amongst the relics of Irish crannogs which are so frequently found in

those of Scotland. Characteristic examples from Lagore of iron remains

of a domestic character are No. 8, evidently a flesh-fork, which

measures, at present, 13¼ inches from end to end; and No. 10, a knife,

measuring eighteen inches.

[Illustration: Plate XVII.

Culinary Utensils, Implements, &c., stone, bronze, wood, and iron.]

It will be seen that the majority of crannog culinary articles are more

or less rounded at their base; thus when placed over a fire they would

require to be suspended or have a support to steady them. No. 9, from

the great crannog of Lough Gur, county Limerick, is composed of very

fine iron, which had evidently been smelted with wood charcoal; it is

admirably adapted for the purpose of sustaining a pot or other vessel

over a fire of peat or wood, but it is a comparatively modern article.

Bones of deer and other animals found in connexion with Irish crannogs

frequently bear marks of a saw, and No. 11, from Lagore, represents an

instrument of this class, measuring six inches in length. It was, no

doubt, secured by rivets to a back or handle of wood, but the rivets

no longer remain. Saws of this kind, some larger, some smaller, have

constantly accompanied crannog implements of iron. No. 12, also from

Lagore, is, seemingly, a ladle or miniature frying-pan, scarcely eight

inches in length.

In the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy there is a beautiful thin

saucer-shaped vessel, hammered out of a single piece of bronze that has

been cleaned to show the rich red golden colour of the metal.

[Illustration: Fig. 55.--Saucer-shaped Vessel of Bronze from

Cloonfinlough. About one-fifth real size.]

It is 7¾ inches in diameter, the rim pierced with two small holes

as if for suspending it, and decorated externally with a number of

indentations.[108] The crannog of Lisnacroghera furnished a vessel of

fairly graceful form, composed of extremely thin bronze; but it is

unprovided with either handles or holes for suspension.

[Illustration: Fig. 56.--Bronze Vessel from Lisnacroghera. Slightly

over six inches in diameter.]

[Illustration: Fig. 57.--Bronze Vessel and Iron Ladle from Lagore.]

[Illustration: Fig. 58.--Iron Vessel from Lagore. One-tenth the real

size.]

A bowl or vessel of bronze measuring 5¼ inches in diameter and three

inches in height, together with an iron ladle, were amongst the

numerous objects procured at Lagore,[109] also another vessel 9⅞ inches

in diameter, formed of thin iron.

[Illustration: Fig. 59.--Grain-rubber. About one-tenth the real size.]

_Querns_, or hand-mills, both of ancient and modern type, either in

a perfect state or else more or less broken, have been found in most

crannogs. “_Grain-rubbers_, for triturating corn, are, perhaps, the

most primitive implements used in the manufacture of cereal food.

Each consisted of a flag or flat stone slightly hollowed upon the

upper surface, so as to hold the parched grain, and a convex rubber,

or mullet, which was passed backwards and forwards with the hand, and

thus bruised the corn into meal. Querns are evidently the next step

in food-making machinery.… Although there are several varieties, the

most simple and natural division of them is twofold. The first is that

in which the upper and lower stone are simply circular discs from

twelve to twenty inches across, the upper rotating upon the lower by

means of a wooden handle, or sometimes two, inserted into the top,

and fed or supplied with corn by an aperture in the centre, analogous

to the hopper, and which may be termed the ‘grain-hole’ or eye. In

this quern the meal passed out between the margins of the stones.

The upper stones are usually concave and the lower convex, so as to

prevent their sliding off, and also to give a fall to the meal.” The

second variety is usually styled a _pot-quern_, and has a lip or margin

in the lower stone, which encircles or overlaps the upper, the meal

passing down through a hole in the side of the former. Most of this

variety are of smaller size than the foregoing, which is evidently the

more ancient and simple form, as well as that which presents us with

the greatest diversity. The upper stone in the pot-quern was turned,

as in the first-named kind, either by one or sometimes by two wooden

handles. This kind of quern was denominated “bró.” The word, used in

the signification “to grind,” occurs in Proverbs, chap. xxvii., v.

22: “Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a

pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.”

[Illustration: Fig. 60.--Section of ordinary Quern. About

one-fourteenth the usual size.]

A gentleman in Ireland, who at the commencement of the present century

saw a quern at work, describes it as having the upper stone (fig. 60,

A) about twenty-two inches in diameter, its under surface considerably

concaved; the lower stone (B) was convexed, so that an easy descent was

afforded for the meal (E) when ground. In the centre of the upper stone

was a circular hole nearly three inches in diameter, and through it

the quern was “fed,” as it is called, _i. e._ supplied with fresh corn

(EEE) as fast as the bran and flour fell from the sides of the machine.

Within about two inches of the edge was set an upright wooden handle

(D) for moving the upper stone, which rested in equilibrio on a strong

peg or pivot (C) in the centre of the lower stone. There were generally

two women employed in the operation. They sat on the ground facing

each other, the quern between. One of them with her right hand pushed

the handle to the woman opposite, who again sent it to her companion,

and in this manner a rapid rotatory motion was communicated to the

upper stone, whilst the left hand of the operator was engaged in the

“feeding” process. The corn, previously dried over a slow fire, when

arrived at a certain degree of crispness, was taken up to be ground.

This preparation prevented the raw taste perceptible in meal from

modern mills. Little cookery was required. The ordinary way of using it

was to mix the meal in its raw state with milk, to the consistency of

thick porridge, and it was then eaten without any other accompaniment,

the simple mixture being called “a crowdie.” A quern is evidently the

primitive kind of mill referred to in the Scriptures, where it is said

“two women shall be grinding at the mill:” and Shakspeare makes Puck to

“sometimes labour in the quern.”

[Illustration: Fig. 61.--Upper surface of Quern from the Crannog of

Drumsloe. About one-ninth the real size.]

In the centre of the crannog of Drumgay, county Fermanagh, there was

a large block of stone punctured with a cross, and another resembling

it was discovered many feet deep, in the centre of the pagan carn of

“The Miracles,” in the same district. Similar figures are inscribed or

punched upon rocks and upon the sides of natural, or partly artificial

caves, as at Loch na Cloyduff, _The Lake of the Dark Trench or

Diggings_, and the “Lettered Cave,” in the cliffs of Knockmore, “_Great

Knoll_,” county Fermanagh. Within the precincts of well-authenticated

pagan tumuli, as at Dowth, cross patterns have been found, accompanied

in several instances by “scorings,” at present unintelligible. On the

base of a sepulchral urn, preserved in the Museum of the Royal Irish

Academy, the cross is displayed, and the figure of a cross within

a circle occurs on an urn discovered at Broughderg, county Tyrone.

Mr. Albert Wray has described some spoon-shaped objects of antique

bronze, all decorated with the figure of a cross similar in design to

the symbol as observable upon the earliest Irish quern-stones. The

bronze articles in question exhibit a style of workmanship which has

invariably been associated with pre-Christian times in both Britain

and Ireland; whilst in the latter country discs and thin plates

of gold belonging to the same period have been found presenting a

cross-like ornamentation. At Drumgay, at Lough Eyes, at Roughan, and

at Drumsloe, _the Ridge of the Host_, were cross-inscribed querns.

Drumsloe lake, now almost drained, is situated within a short distance

of Ballinamallard county Fermanagh. Interesting objects, now dispersed

or lost, have been there from time to time turned up on the site of

a crannog, the traces of which are now nearly obliterated, and the

curious quern or _bró_, of which the accompanying cut is a facsimile,

is one of the few remaining relics authentically connected with the

locality. The quernstone measures one foot six inches in diameter.[110]

[Illustration: Fig. 62.--Upper surface of Quernstone from Roughan Lake.

One-eighth the real size.

Fig. 63.--Quernstone from Lough Eyes. About one-tenth the real size.]

About the year 1839, upon lowering the level of the water for drainage

purposes in Roughan lake, near Dungannon, county Tyrone, an island

artificially formed was exposed to view. On it were numerous fragments

of pottery and bones, a bronze pin, a few bronze spear-heads, together

with a quern. The illustration (fig. 62) represents the top stone,

which is eighteen inches in diameter, and two and a-half inches thick;

it is formed of sandstone, the ornamentation being in high relief.

The hole or socket for reception of the handle is in one of the arms

of the cross, and goes quite through the stone.[111] Portions of a

highly decorated quernstone, restored in the accompanying illustration

(fig. 63), were found in one of the crannogs in Lough Eyes. On “Bone

Island,” in the lake of Drumgay, several fragments of quern-stones

were collected. Two of those obtained were inscribed with a cross-like

ornamentation, one of them presenting a most unusual style of crannog

geometrical decoration.

[Illustration: Fig. 64.--Quernstones with Cross and Geometrical

Decoration. About one-twelfth the real size.]

On pottery at Ballydoolough, a cross pattern was observable, as also

on a comparatively modern iron article at Cloonfinlough, and there

was in a crannog in Argyleshire a Greek cross, with crosslets as a

pattern, or ornamentation, burnt into a piece of oak.[112] The “Croix

gammée,” or Swastika, occurs on sculptured stones in Scotland, and

appears on a mosaic pavement in the recently discovered Roman villa in

the Isle of Wight. In Keller’s _Lake Dwellings of Switzerland_,[113]

a cross within a circle is represented: it was found at Auvernier,

and had seemingly been an article of personal adornment. Layard, in

his work entitled _Nineveh and Babylon_, states that he found what is

now called the Maltese and Irish cross in such connexion as led him

to identify it with the sun. In these ancient sculptures the cross

was often inserted within a circle, which, having neither beginning

nor end, was considered to be the emblem of eternity, and may be so

observed in Assyrian sculptures. Dr. Schliemann, in his _Troja_ (p.

167), gives a representation of a curious copper or bronze ring, about

the size of an ordinary napkin ring, but very heavy. It has five

compartments, each ornamented with a cross marked by openings cut

in the metal. Amongst the whorls found by Dr. Schliemann, numbers

are ornamented with [Illustration] and [Illustration]. The same sign

is found in Pompeii, and amongst the ancient heathen population of

Yucatan and Paraguay. “Later still, it was even adopted by the

Christians as a suitable variety of their own cross, and became

variously modified geometrically.” In No. 1 crannog, in the lake of

Drumgay, there was a very peculiar cross-sculptured stone, two feet

in length by three inches in thickness. It is seemingly of no great

antiquity, and was most probably intended for a tombstone to be placed

in the neighbouring cemetery of Devenish.

[Illustration: Fig. 65.

Sculptured Stone from No. 1 Crannog, Lake of Drumgay. About one-eighth

the real size.]

_Human Remains._--There have been, as yet, few instances of the

discovery of human bones in crannogs. At Dunshaughlin, in Meath, at

Ardakillen and Cloonfinlough, in Roscommon, the people appear to

have met with a violent end, and there is no reason to believe that

the remains are very ancient. The lake dwellers of Switzerland had

cemeteries on the mainland, directly opposite their habitations, and it

is probable that the Irish disposed of their dead in the same manner,

but up to the present this subject has not been investigated.

_Fireplaces on the Shore._--Numerous fireplaces on the shore adjoining

crannogs were discovered at Drumkeery lough, and at Lough Eyes. In

the immediate vicinity of the latter were traces of gins or traps for

catching game. In the neighbouring bogs labourers have, at various

times and in different localities, met with stakes planted in the

original surface soil, in a vertical position, and sharpened to a

point, seemingly by a clean-cutting metallic tool. Since fixed in

their original position the peat had grown so much that it is now, on

an average, about five feet above the pointed ends. It has been often

surmised that stakes planted thus were in some way connected with the

trapping of deer and other wild animals.[114]

_Pottery._--Dr. Schliemann rightly designates fragments of pottery as

the cornucopia of archæological science; it is always abundant, and it

possesses two qualities--those, namely, of being easy to break, and yet

difficult to destroy, which render it very valuable in an archæological

point of view. Investigation has shown that the inhabitants of crannogs

had in use a description of fictile ware, distinctly characteristic in

style, graceful in form, and well manufactured, admitted by English

archæologists to be superior to that possessed by the Britons or early

Saxons. It is known that the primitive people of Ireland possessed the

art of constructing excellent fictile ware for mortuary purposes of

fire-hardened clay; they could therefore manufacture every-day culinary

vessels of the same material. An immense quantity of pottery has been

found in connexion with many crannogs, by which means facilities

are afforded for comparing ordinary domestic vessels with the urns

and vases of an undoubtedly prehistoric and pagan period. The great

majority of specimens of crannog pottery present designs marked upon

them, similar in style to the ornamentation observable on the walls

of sepulchral cairns and the vessels deposited in them, on golden or

bronze ornaments, on implements, and on the surface of rocks, all of

which are usually acknowledged to date from prehistoric times.[115]

Mr. Rau states that the fictile vessels discovered by him amongst the

debris of Indian relics on the left bank of the Cahokia Creek, on the

Mississippi, opposite St. Louis, resemble the ancient Irish fictilia,

“more especially those found in crannogs and kitchen middens.” One

fragment showed punctured and impressed ornamentation of the class so

usual on Celtic urns. Mr. Graves observes that the arts of primeval

peoples may be illustrated by comparison with those that prevail under

similar conditions of civilization existing in or near our own times.

Thus in India cromleac builders raise their megalithic monuments on

hills. In the Hebrides, cloghans, _i. e._ mortarless stone-built and

roofed habitations, similar to those strewn over the western littoral

of Connaught, and also lake dwellings in various parts of the world,

are even still occupied.

[Illustration: Fig. 66.--Pitcher from Lough Faughan. About one-seventh

the real size.]

From the crannog of Lough Faughan, Co. Down, was procured the pitcher

No. 9, Museum of the Royal Irish Academy; also another pitcher, 13

inches in height, and 32 in girth, of a description of pottery so light

as only to weigh 5 lbs. 10 oz. It figures as No. 10 in the collection

of food implements. Externally it is dark in colour, and being

partially glazed, is, therefore, not of very ancient date: it is so

rounded at the bottom that it cannot stand upright: about the neck, and

for some distance down the sides, it is tastefully decorated, and the

handle is peculiar in form.[116]

[Illustration: Fig. 67.--Fictile Vessel from Ballydoolough, restored.]

The accompanying engraving (fig. 67), a good specimen of another class

of fictile ware, represents, in a restored form, one of the finest of

the crocks found at Ballydoolough. In colour it is light-yellowish red;

it measures three feet two inches round the mouth, and is tastefully

ornamented on the rim and sides. This decoration had been evidently

impressed upon the soft clay before the vessel was burnt, and the

pattern conveys the idea of such antiquity that, if found in a tumulus,

it would be referred to a prehistoric age.

[Illustration: Fig. 68.--Fictile Vessel, Drumgay Crannog, restored.

Quarter size.]

A large fragment of fictile ware was discovered on one of the crannogs

in the lake of Drumgay; it was of size sufficient to enable a restored

representation (fig. 68) to be made of a vessel that had been in use by

the former inhabitants of the crannog for culinary purposes.

[Illustration: Fig. 69.--Restored Vessel from Lough Eyes. One-fourth

the real size.]

The following illustrations (figs. 69 and 70) represent two of the

vessels found in the crannog in Lough Eyes, county Fermanagh,

carefully restored from fragments discovered on the sites. With the

remains of these vessels were numerous flat discs formed of the same

kind of clay, and that would seem to have been their covers or lids.

[Illustration: Fig. 70.--Restored Vessel from Lough Eyes. One-fifth the

real size.]

[Illustration: Fig. 71.--Baked Clay Pot Cover from Lough Eyes.

One-fourth the real size.]

For the escape of steam during the process of boiling, a simple

provision is observable in several of these earthen pots. In the neck

of the vessel, just below the point where the lid would be supported,

is a small circular hole (see figs. 72 and 73). The aperture occurs in

numerous fragments, but it is not now possible to determine whether

this class of vessel, when entire, was invariably perforated.[117]

[Illustration: Fig. 72.--Portion of a Perforated Vessel from Lough

Eyes. One-half the real size.]

[Illustration: Fig. 73.--Portion of a Perforated Vessel from Lough

Eyes. One-third the real size.]

[Illustration: Fig. 74.--Portion of Fictile Vessel found on

Ballydoolough Crannog. One-half the real size.]

About 140 fragments of earthen vessels were discovered in the

Ballydoolough crannog--none, however, in an entire state; but several

pieces of the same article being found to fit together, a restoration

giving a correct idea of the perfect vessel was easily attained.

Fig. 67 (see _ante_, page 92), has been thus reconstructed. The next

engraving (fig. 74) represents a fragment of what must have been a very

large vessel, ornamented on the side with a chevron, and on the rim

with an oblique pattern; it is composed of very hard-baked clay, dark

in colour.

[Illustration: Fig. 75.--Portion of Fictile Vessel found on

Ballydoolough Crannog. One-half the real size.]

[Illustration: Fig. 76.--Portion of unornamented Vessel.]

A third fragment (fig. 75) partakes of the character of the last

described. The decoration is more elaborate and the punctured design

or chevron slightly different. Many of the indentations are of

semicircular form, and not angular or semiangular, as in most of the

other crocks. The material is very hard, like fig. 74, and of a dark

colour. Fig. 76 is portion of a large, straight-lipped vessel, that

measured originally over three feet in circumference round the rim; it

is unornamented, and formed of hard, well-baked, darkish-coloured clay.

[Illustration: Fig. 77.--Rim Ornament of Fictile Ware.]

Fig. 77 is the only pattern of its kind found at Ballydoolough. It is

drawn half-size. Whether this specimen and fig. 76 were originally

furnished with ears it is now impossible to say. Figs. 78 and 79, drawn

one-half the real size, represent portions of vessels. The larger

fragment bears upon its ear, or handle, two figures somewhat like a St.

Andrew’s cross; on the smaller there is only one.

[Illustration: Fig. 78.

Cross inscribed Pottery.

Fig. 79.

Cross inscribed Pottery.]

Fig. 80, drawn half-size, exhibits a bold but rude chevron pattern.

[Illustration: Fig. 80.--Portion of Fictile Vessel found at

Ballydoolough Crannog.]

There were thirty-five distinct patterns on the various fragments

unearthed, yet the locality was not thoroughly explored. Specimens of

the pottery from Ballydoolough were forwarded to Mr. Albert Wray, a

well-known authority on such subjects, and he would not refer them to

a very early age, or to that in which the use of bronze was prevalent.

The mode of ornamentation appeared to present a slight resemblance to

the “Cuerdale Hoard,” which is sometimes ascribed to the ninth century.

W. F. Wakeman, however, is of opinion that amongst the numerous designs

found upon the crannog vessels there is none suggestive of the work

of Christian times in Ireland, unless the cross-marked fragments

be considered as such, chevrons and circular depressions being all

expressive of Pagan ideas of ornamental art.

[Illustration: Fig. 81.--Portion of Fictile Vessel, with Ear, Drumgay

Crannog. One-half size.]

[Illustration: Fig. 82.--Rim Ornaments of Fictile Vessels, Drumgay

Crannog. One-half size.]

On “Bone Island,” in the lake of Drumgay, were several fragments of

earthen vessels. The one represented in the annexed cut, drawn half

size, is a portion of what had been a large and well-formed vessel with

ears. The top of the rim is ornamented with a pattern. The diameter of

the vessel at the mouth is about eleven inches; the neck is short, and

the sides are decorated with indented lines about an inch in length,

placed diagonally. There were also several fragments of fictile ware

consisting of unimportant portions of rims decorated as shown in the

accompanying representations. One pattern is a simple chevron. The

accompanying illustrations represent characteristic examples of

the pottery found in abundance on No. 3 crannog in Lough Eyes, county

Fermanagh (plate XVIII., figs. 83 to 88).

[Illustration: Plate XVIII.

Fig. 83.--Fragment of Fictile Vessel from Lough Eyes.

Fig. 84.--Fragment of Fictile Vessel from Lough Eyes. One-half size.

Fig. 85.--Fragment of Fictile Vessel from Lough Eyes. One-half size.

Fig. 86.--Ear of Vessel from Lough Eyes. One-half size.

Fig. 87.--Fragment of Vessel from Lough Eyes. One-third size.

Fig. 88.--Lip of Vessel from Lough Eyes. One-half size.

Fragments of Pottery, from No. 3 Crannog, Lough Eyes.

(Discovered by W. F. Wakeman.)]

Numerous fragments of fictile ware, of which five rims are given as

specimens, were in No. 5 crannog, in the same locality (plate XIX.,

figs. 90, 91, 92, 95, 96); and fragments were found in No. 6 crannog,

of which four examples are given (plate XIX., figs. 89, 93, 94, 97).

[Illustration: Plate XIX.

Fig. 89.--Fragment of Vessel from Lough Eyes. One-half size.

Fig. 90.--Rim of Vessel from Lough Eyes. One-half size.

Fig. 91.--Rim of Vessel from Lough Eyes. One-half size.

Fig. 92.--Rim of Vessel from Lough Eyes. One-half size.

Fig. 93.--Fragment of Vessel from Lough Eyes. One-half size.

Fig. 94.--Fragment of base of Vessel from Lough Eyes. One-half size.

Fig. 95.--Rim of Vessel from Lough Eyes. One-half size.

Fig. 96.--Rim of Vessel from Lough Eyes. One-half size.

Fig. 97.--Fragment of Vessel from Lough Eyes.

Fragments of Pottery, from No. 5 and No. 6 Crannogs, Lough Eyes.

(Discovered by W. F. Wakeman.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 98.--Fragment of Fictile Ware, Lough Eyes. One-half

size.

Fig. 99.--Fragment of Fictile Ware, Lough Eyes. One-half size.]

Figs. 98 and 99 represent fragments of fictile ware also from Lough

Eyes. Fig. 98 has evidently been a deep-lipped vessel, and its

“herring-bone” ornamentation is almost identical with the pattern that

prevails most upon burial urns, and closely resembles that figured

upon the vessel found in “One Man’s Cairn,” at Moytirra, county Mayo,

as represented in Wilde’s _Lough Corrib_, p. 235: the same style

of decoration is a characteristic of early bronze celts and other

remains of the prehistoric period. Fig. 99 presents the same style

of ornamentation. It was apparently an eared vessel, of reddish-drab

colour.

[Illustration: Fig. 100.]

Fig. 100 has evidently formed portion of what was a well-finished

vessel. So far as at present known, its style of ornamentation is

extremely rare, being identical with that seen upon portion of

a decorated leathern shoe found in the crannog of Dowalton loch,

Wigtonshire, and of which a representation is given at p. 49 of Munro’s

_Ancient Scottish Lake Dwellings_. The fragments of vessels found

in Lough Eyes were all hand-made, and well burnt, whilst the action

of the fire would seem to have been greater on the interior than on

the exterior. The material used was the sandy clay of the district,

or perhaps the grit may have been added in order to give greater

consistency to the paste. In most of the specimens there are distinct

traces of this sand, and in the ruder examples particles of white stone

of the size of very small peas project from the surface. The colour

varies from light drab to a very dark brown, almost black, whilst some

few are of a reddish hue--but all are unglazed. Many fragments of

pottery have from time to time been disinterred from the site of the

crannogs in the lake of Drumskimly, county Fermanagh: one of them is

figured in the _Journal Royal Hist. and Arch. Asso. of Ireland_,[118]

in connexion with a vase evidently of Pagan origin, from the “Bar” of

Fintona, near Trillick, county Tyrone.

[Illustration: Fig. 101.--Stamped pattern on fragment of Fictile Ware

from Drumskimly.]

[Illustration: Fig. 102.--Carved Wooden Vessel found at Cavancarragh.]

[Illustration: Fig. 103.--Wooden Vessel from Ballydoolough Crannog.]

The term “Lestar” comprises vessels of various shapes, and of all kinds

of material, although it is more generally applied to those made of

wood--several have been found in crannogs. In a bog, occupying what

in distant ages appears to have been the site of a small lake, on

the lands of Cavancarragh, county Fermanagh, implements of flint, a

fine bronze spear-head, and a beautifully-shaped wooden vessel, were

discovered, all buried under peat. Now, according to the theory of

some geologists, a peat formation of such depth as covered them would,

according to circumstances, take from six hundred to one thousand

years to accumulate, so that the articles found might be referred back

to any period from the thirteenth to the ninth century; and at about

this latter period, it is remarked, with regard to the ornamentation

observable on the wooden vessel, that a similar style prevailed in

the MSS. and on stone work of that era, still extant. The vessel was

made of oak, the bottom alone being alder: when first exhumed it was

entire, and had a cover; the original form seems to have been one of

unusual beauty, and the height about fifteen inches. The lid, now

unfortunately lost, is described as slightly convex, with a knob-like

handle in the centre, the ornamental work on it similar to that of

the vessel itself. On the dark shading round the rim, and between

the interlacing ornamentation, both of vessel and lid, traces were

apparent of some kind of pigment, or enamel, with which the surface of

the wood had been overlaid. In the crannog of Ballydoolough, county

Fermanagh, a vessel of wood was discovered in an entire state, but

from long saturation reduced almost to a state of pulp. The engraving

(about one-fifth the real size), gives a good idea of it. In process of

drying, the vessel soon lost all shape, and became strangely twisted

and distorted. On comparing this woodcut with a vase found in a small

stone chamber at Knocknecoura, near Bagnalstown, county Carlow, and now

in the Museum, R.I.A., a striking resemblance in form is observable;

the latter vessel is, however, more ornamental. To find in a grave an

urn of almost exactly the same shape as a vessel undoubtedly used to

hold food, suggests the idea that the so-called sepulchral urns in

cairns and graves need not be viewed as necessarily intended to hold

human ashes, or the cremated bones of sacrifices. Might not the object

of their position have been to supply the warrior with food on his way

to the Happy Hunting Grounds of Tirnanog? A willow platter, 15 inches

by 14 (fig. 104), was found in the crannog of Ballinderry. It did not

split much in drying, and is in a very good state of preservation: one

handle, however is defective, the other is 2¾ inches in length by 4

in breadth. The dimensions of fig. 105 are as follows: extreme length

from handle to handle, 31⅛ inches; length inside, 25¾ inches; extreme

breadth across the rim, 21⅛ inches. It is not so well preserved as its

confrere from Ballinderry, as it rent in drying, but has not become

either warped or twisted like the great majority of wooden utensils

exhumed from peat.

[Illustration: Plate XX.

Fig. 104.--Willow Platter from the Crannog of Ballinderry, Co.

Westmeath. (Museum, R. I. A.)

Fig. 105.--Carved Platter made of Fir, from Ballykeine Bog, Co. Antrim.

Wooden Platters.]

“Meadar,” or “_Mether_,” is the Irish designation for a species of

drinking cup, so called, it is said, because it was employed to contain

“mead.” It seems to have been commonly made of yew, was quadrangular

at the lip, and round at the bottom. It was usually provided with two

or more handles for the purpose of passing it round from hand to hand.

There was a curious cup of this description in one of the crannogs of

Lough Rea, county Galway, too much decomposed, however, to be dug out

in an entire state; and at Lagore, near Dunshaughlin, was a four-sided

drinking vessel, composed of horn, and very small, being only 2½ inches

in height; it resembles one discovered in the parish of Tamlaght

O’Crilly, county Derry.[119] The use of the _Mether_ appears to have

been universal in Ireland, and continued to a late period, whilst

judging from the great depth at which it is found buried in peat, its

antiquity must be extreme. In drinking out of the _Mether_, it was

not the side, but one of the four corners that should be applied to

the mouth. It is related that when Lord Townsend’s term of the Irish

Vice-royalty had expired, he carried over to England, on his return,

two large methers, which were always produced at his dinner parties.

His guests generally applied the _side_ of the vessel to the mouth,

therefore seldom escaped without a drenched neck-cloth, vest, or

doublet, and the host (after enjoying the joke), if an Irishman chanced

to be present, called upon him to teach the Saxons the _mether drill_.

[Illustration: Fig. 106.--Mether, or Drinking Cup, from Tamlaght

O’Crilly.]

Dean Swift, in his translation of “O’Rourke’s Noble Feast”--a poem

written about 1720, in the Irish language--thus alludes to this species

of drinking cup--

“Usquebaugh to our feast, in pails was brought up,

An hundred at least, and a _madder_ our cup.”

[Illustration: Fig. 107.

Wooden Mallet from Lisnacroghera.]

[Illustration: Fig. 108.

Wooden Peg from Glencar.]

The object here represented (fig. 107), is a wooden mallet, 1 foot 7

inches in length, found about fifteen feet below the original surface

of the crannog of Lisnacroghera.[120] Fig. 108, about 10½ inches in

length, may be also a mallet, but was more probably used as a peg to

keep some part of the framework in position. It rested on one of the

beams of the western crannog in Glencar, county Sligo.

[Illustration: Fig. 109.

Bone Spindle Whorl from Ardakillen.]

The MS. Book of Ballymote contains an ancient Irish poem, which states

“It was Tigearnmas first established in Ireland the art of dyeing

cloth of purple, and many colours.” This monarch is alleged to have

lived, A.M. 2816(?), therefore in Ireland the arts of weaving and

dyeing are of remotest antiquity. Some bright red colouring matter

(realgar?), rolled up in a piece of birch bark, was discovered in one

of the crannogs of Loughrea, county Galway;[121] orpiment, a yellow

sulphuret, probably used in dyeing, was found in Cloneygonnell;[122]

and, whorls, or little discs, popularly called by the peasantry “fairy

mill-stones,” are found in great numbers; of these fig. 109 is a good

example. The whorl was supposed to be simply a weight, used to aid

the rotation of the stick fixed to a ring on the spindle: it can be

seen in Egyptian, Greek, and Roman sculptures, and wall paintings, and

Schliemann in his excavations at Hissarlisk found thousands of these

objects. It has been suggested that a curious ovoid piece of hard

polished bone, found at Ardakillen, may have been utilised in weaving,

for the purpose of keeping the threads, or cords in their proper

places; its longest diameter was 2½ inches, and it was perforated with

ten holes of slightly different sizes.[123] Investigation has led to

the belief that flax was cultivated in Egypt more than forty centuries

ago, and was thence brought into Europe; it was discovered in the

oldest lake dwellings in Switzerland, of the kind which is native to

the Mediterranean countries; the term _lin_--the root of the English

word _linen_,--is to be traced in nearly every European language: in

spoken Irish it is _leen_, i.e. flax. The art of spinning, being of a

sedentary nature, was exclusively allotted to women, which is supposed

to explain the fact of such a number of whorls being found on the

site of crannogs, where this peaceful occupation was carried on. In

the present day, the province of Ulster seems to have monopolized an

industry that may be traced back to the primitive inhabitants of the

lake dwellings of Ireland.

[Illustration: Fig. 110.

Ovoid piece of polished Bone from Ardakillen.]

[Illustration: Fig. 111.

Fig. 112.

Fig. 113.

Fig. 114.

Fig. 115.

Fig. 116.

Fig. 117.

Figs. 115, 116, and 117 are Bone Pins with attached Heads, from the

Crannog of Ballinderry.]

[Illustration: Plate XXI.

Fig. 118.

Fig. 119.

Fig. 120.

Scribed Pins from Ballinderry Crannog.]

_Articles of the Toilet, etc., or of Personal Adornment._--In crannogs,

pins form one of the most numerous handicraft “finds;” they are

fashioned of bone, wood, bronze, iron, and gold: great variety is

observable in their shape and design: indeed there are few articles

on which the crannog artificer has bestowed more pains than on these

cloak or dress fasteners. At Lagore, pins of bone occurred absolutely

in hundreds--the great majority were of very plain character, something

like skewers--flat-headed, and perforated with one hole; some of

the richer examples were singular in design--their heads presenting

grotesque human figures, or carvings of beasts; a few of them

terminated in plain bulbs, or in a series of graceful mouldings: but

whether in bone, wood, or metal, the designs and style of ornamentation

are very varied, and so minute in some instances is the decoration,

as only fully to be descried by the aid of a magnifying glass. Fig.

111, of simple form, is here represented full size; it is ornamented

with diagonal lines; the head is perforated, but the ring (if it ever

contained one) has disappeared.[124] Fig. 112, found at Grosses Island,

on the Shannon, is large, and dark in colour, it is 9 inches long,

and 2½ inches thick at the head: it seems too large to be classed as

a mantle pin. Fig. 113 is of less simple outline. The shank of fig.

114 is formed like a knife-blade, with a rise near the top, probably

intended as a catch to secure it in the garment which it fastened.

Fig. 115 is 3½ inches long, and has an oblong head of bone, with four

indentations, one in each corner; it rests upon a shoulder cut in

the shank. Fig. 116, 4½ inches in length, has a circular head 1 inch

in diameter. Fig. 117 is another highly decorated pin, square in the

shank, and 5½ inches long, with a looped head, through which is passed

a ring. Fig. 118 (plate XXI.) has an acus 4¼ inches long, ornamented

with the “dot-and-circle,” and the front of its flat discoid pendant

has an inscription of oghamic character surrounding a dot and

double circle, enclosed within an ornamented border--

[Illustration: Ogham on fig. 118.]

The loop at the head is not continuous. In fig. 119 (plate XXI.)

the acus is 4⅞ inches long, with an irregular oval ring as pendant,

ornamented with the dot-and-circle. The acus has a swelling in the

middle, which at one side has the dot-and-circle, and on the other a

runic-like scoring--

[Illustration: Scoring on fig. 119.]

Fig. 120 (plate XXI.) has an acus 3¾ inches long, it bears a pendant

carved in the shape of a Maltese cross, ornamented on both sides with

the dot-and-circle. The acus has an ogham-like scoring on one face--