GOLD GORGETS
[Illustration: Fig. 61.--Gold Gorget found in Ireland, formerly in the
possession of the Earl of Charleville. From Vetusta
Monumenta, Vol. v, Pl. xxviii.]
[Illustration: PLATE II. Irish Gold Gorgets. _p. 62._]
Among the most striking of the gold ornaments in the National Collection
are the five gold gorgets or neck-collars, with the ends decorated with
ornamented disks. These are very elaborately decorated, and of great
massiveness. Two others mentioned as having been found in Ireland,
one of which was formerly in the possession of the Earl of Charleville,
were figured in "Vetusta Monumenta." Vallancey states that another was
found in the County Longford. A few disks have also been found which may
have been portions of these gorgets. The neck-portion of the gorgets is
arranged in three rows of raised ridges, and these are ornamented with
rows of small bosses, the depressions of the ridges being occupied with
a narrow rope-shaped fillet. In some cases the ridges are left plain.
The small disks at the terminals of the collar are remarkable; they
measure about 2-7/8 or 3 inches in diameter, and are decorated with a
centre and side bosses, surrounded with concentric circles. They much
resemble in miniature the round shields or bucklers of the late Bronze
Age, but they also show some resemblance to the so-called sun-disks
which have been found in Ireland, and which will be described later
on. Unfortunately the gorgets have in no case been found with any
accompanying objects which would assist in dating them, and in fact in
only two cases have details as to their finding been preserved, one
found at Ardcroney, near Nenagh, County Tipperary, the other at Tony
Hill, Croom, County Limerick. Their ornamentation, however, would seem
to place them in the Hallstatt period, first Iron Age, which may be
dated at about 700-600 B.C. Their form and ornamentation may be compared
with that of the splendid gold collar from Cintra, Lisbon, now in the
British Museum,[19] and also with the triple bronze collars common in
Scandinavia and north Germany, all of which are referred to the
Hallstatt period. This period is at present not well represented in
Ireland or the British Isles; and it is doubtful whether iron came into
general use in Ireland till about the third century B.C.
[19] "British Museum Bronze-Age Guide," p. 148.
One point of much interest must be noticed. In one of the gorgets
shown in Plate II, where the disk is attached to the gorget, above
the line where the end of the plate passes into the boss, three
perpendicular and two cross-stitches can be seen. Some of these
sewings are made by means of slight square wire, but in others the
fastenings are composed of fine woollen thread, round which is twisted
spirally a thin, flat strip of gold. These strips are one of the
oldest specimens of woollen cordage now in existence in Ireland.
GOLD SUN-DISKS
We have already referred to the flat disks of gold, a number of which
have been found in Ireland. There are four in the British Museum, and no
less than fifteen in the National Collection at Dublin. In four cases
they have been found in pairs--one pair at Ballina, County Mayo, another
pair at Tydavnet, County Monaghan, a third at Cloyne, Co. Cork, and the
fourth at Castle Martyr, Co. Cork. Some of these disks are ornamented
with concentric circles; others have a cruciform ornament which
resembles the four-spoked chariot-wheel, and is a well-known sun symbol.
When these objects were first discovered, their origin and use were
quite unknown; and Mr. Reginald A. Smith, of the British Museum, was the
first to point out their resemblance to the gold disk, decorated with
spirals, affixed to a bronze sun-chariot, found in Trundholm Moss,
Zealand, in 1902. The bronze chariot consisted of a bronze disk mounted
on wheels and drawn by a horse, the gold disk being affixed to the
bronze one. The ornamentation of the Irish disks is somewhat different,
as the spiral does not appear, its place being taken by the concentric
circle. The Trundholm sun-chariot is dated by Prof. Sophus Muller at
before 1000 B.C. The Trundholm disk is admittedly connected with
sun-worship, as is also the cruciform ornament on the Irish disks. The
spoked-wheel is a well-known solar symbol; and similar designs have been
found on the bases of some Irish food-vessels, and may also be compared
with some of the markings at Dowth.[20] The prevalence of sun-worship
in the Bronze Age need not be further gone into here; but the gold disks
are of great interest, as furnishing another point of contact between
Ireland and Scandinavia in the Bronze Age. The finding of Irish gold
lunulae in Denmark, and the occurrence of Scandinavian amber in Irish
finds of the Bronze-Age, have already been mentioned.
[20] "New Grange and other Incised Tumuli," p. 59, fig. 39.
[Illustration: PLATE III. Gold sun-disks. _p. 64._]
GOLD BALLS
We may also mention the large hollow golden balls of which seven are
in the National collection, one in the possession of Mr. H. J. B.
Clements, and another in the British Museum. Eleven of these golden
balls were found in 1834 at Carrick-on-Shannon.[21] There has been
much conjecture as to the use these balls were put to, and it has been
suggested that as their large size would render them inconvenient as
personal ornaments, they were probably used to decorate a horse. If so
they may have been attached to the bridle like the large balls shown
on the horses' bridles in the bronze scabbard from Hallstatt, dated La
Tene I. See Dechelette, "Manuel d'Archeologie," vol. ii, p. 770. The
Golden Peytrell found at Mold, Flintshire, may be instanced to show
that gold was sometimes used to decorate horses; and if the gold balls
were really used for this purpose, we may well endorse what the author
of the "British Museum Bronze-Age Guide" says when he writes: "A
discovery of this kind demonstrates in a striking manner the abundance
of gold at the end of our Bronze period."[22]
[21] Proc. Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxx, Sec. C, p. 450.
[22] "British Museum Bronze-Age Guide," p. 150.
CLARE FIND
Another type of neck-ornaments are the thin gold gorgets with
funnel-shaped ends, many of which were found in the great Clare find.
These gorgets are quite plain, except for a little ornamentation at
the extreme ends near the funnel-shaped extremities. There are five of
these objects in the National Collection, and all were found together
in the celebrated Clare find. This find--the largest collective one of
gold objects ever made in Western Europe--was discovered in making a
railway-cutting for the Limerick and Ennis Railway in 1854. A gang of
labourers were digging near an old hawthorn-bush, a little distance to
the south of the railway bridge in Moghaun north, on the west side of
the line of the great fort, and opposite the lough, when they
undermined a kind of cist. The fall of one of the containing-stones
disclosed a mass of gold ornaments--gorgets, bracelets of all sizes
with cup-shaped ends, and a few ingots of gold. The find, from a
numerical point of view, far surpassed anything ever made, but none
of the objects were highly ornamented or of a special type.
The fact of this immense number of gold ornaments being hidden in
a cist in this way has given rise to many conjectures; but in the
absence of any other explanation, it may be suggested that the objects
had been collected together, and hidden purposely, with the idea of
returning and regaining possession of them later. The value of the
find has been estimated at at least L3,000. Unfortunately, most of the
objects were sold to jewellers and melted down, but a large number
were exhibited at the Archaeological Institute by Dr. Todd and Lord
Talbot de Malahide in 1854, and casts of these were taken, and a set
is now in the National Collection. There are also a small number of
the originals in the Royal Irish Academy's collection (Plate IV).
Otherwise such objects of the find as escaped the melting-pot were
scattered, and have found their way into different museums and private
collections. As has been mentioned, the objects of this find did not
show any remarkable types, and for the most part consisted of very
thin bracelets and penannular rings with cup-shaped ends. It is
probable that, as well as being ornaments, they served as a kind of
currency.
[Illustration: PLATE IV. Portion of the great Clare find. _p. 66._]
PENANNULAR RINGS AND RING-MONEY
[Illustration: Fig. 62.--Gold fibulae, and other objects found together
at Coachford, Co. Cork.]
[Illustration: Fig. 63.--Sixteenth-century bronze casting from Benin,
showing Europeans holding manillas (after Read and Dalton,
_Antiquities of the City of Benin_).]
The large number of penannular rings with cup-shaped ends which have
been found from time to time in the island, brings us on to the
general question of the so-called Irish fibulae. In Ireland penannular
rings with cup-shaped ends of copper or bronze are very rare, only
about half a dozen being known, while fibulae of gold are exceedingly
common. The Coachford find, in which amber beads, gold fibulae, and a
copper or bronze fibula were all found together, shows that the
objects were contemporary; and as this find may be placed at the end
of the Bronze Age, it shows that these objects were in use at that
period (fig. 62). On the other hand, it is likely that their use began
earlier and continued for a long period. These objects when made of
gold are of two shapes--in the one case the expanded cups are large
and flat and the connecting bar is bow-shaped, and is striated. These
have been conjectured to have been used as brooches for fastening a
garment; and their form was probably influenced by the Scandinavian
spectacle-brooches, the bows of the latter having, in some cases, the
same decoration. Except for the striations on the connecting link,
the Irish so-called mamillary fibulae are almost always plain; but
Vallancey has figured two examples, one of which is engraved with
triangular, and the other with lozenge, ornaments. There is also the
well-known example in Trinity College, Dublin, in which the surfaces
of the cups are completely covered with concentric circle ornament,
the inside rims of the cups being decorated with hatched triangles,
and the neckings of what may be called the handle, with chevron and
herring-bone pattern, while along the back of the handle is an
ornament of lozenges. In the second type these objects assume the
shape of a bracelet; and the expanded ends are sometimes cup-shaped
and sometimes plain. From the extreme similarity between the shape of
these, whether in gold or bronze, to the so-called African manillas,
it has been conjectured the Irish examples, like the African, may have
been used as a medium of exchange; and on the whole it seems probable
that such was the case, the dividing line between what were used for
ornaments and what may have been used for exchange not being at all
easily defined (figs. 63 and 64).
[Illustration: PLATE V. Gold Fibulae. _p. 68._]
[Illustration: Fig. 64.--Sixteenth-century bronze casting from Benin,
showing natives holding manillas (after Read and Dalton,
_Antiquities of the City of Benin_).]
RING-MONEY
The question of a medium of exchange leads us to mention the very
small gold penannular rings, the largest being about an inch in
diameter, frequently found in Ireland, which are known as
'ring-money.' There are fifty-six in the National Collection; and a
find made near Belfast of a socketed bronze celt in association with
some of these objects shows they were in use during the late Bronze
Age.[23] Attention has been called to the similarity of these Irish
gold rings to the penannular copper rings plated with gold often found
in early Japanese burials.[24]
[23] Archaeologia, lxi, p. 153.
[24] See Munro, "Pre-historic Japan," p. 435, fig. 276.
Many attempts have been made to equate the weights of a series of
these rings with some known standard; and in his valuable work "The
Origin of Currency and Weight Standards," Professor Ridgeway devotes
several pages of his Appendix C to a discussion of the subject, and
gives a table of the weights arrived at by grouping the rings in
multiples of 18.
While there can be no reasonable doubt that these objects were used as
a medium of exchange, we are not inclined, in the absence of literary
evidence, to go any further into the question of what standard they
may represent. Some of these rings are evidently forgeries of ancient
times, as they are composed of bronze rings covered with a thin plate
of gold. The rings as a rule are plain; but some are ornamented with
small strips of darker metal let into the gold, and two examples are
twisted like small torcs.
[Illustration: PLATE VI. Gold Ring-Money. _p. 70._]