Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland: Being a Tourist's Guide to Its Most Beautiful Scenery & an Archæologist's Manual for Its Most Interesting RuinsRussell, Thomas O'Neill
History
Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland: Being a Tourist's Guide to Its Most Beautiful Scenery & an Archæologist's Manual for Its Most Interesting Ruins
Russell, Thomas O'Neill
Ireland -- Antiquities; Ireland -- Description and travel
Many valuable gold ornaments of antique and beautiful design and
workmanship have been found in Tara and its immediate vicinity, but very
few of them have found their way to the Kildare Street Museum in Dublin,
one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, collection of ancient
weapons, implements, and ornaments to be seen in Europe. Most of the gold
ornaments found in Tara have been melted down. If one is to believe what
the peasantry living in its vicinity say, the quantity of gold ornaments
found there was very great. The famous Tara Brooch, preserved in the
Dublin Museum, and considered the most beautiful piece of metallurgy,
either ancient or modern, that is known to exist, was not found in Tara,
but on the seashore about three miles from Drogheda, and nine or ten from
this famous hill. It was found by an old woman, who is said to have sold
it to a shopkeeper in Drogheda for ninepence. The Royal Irish Academy paid
£500 for it. Many think that a regular, scientific exploration of Tara
Hill ought to be made, such an exploration as Schlieman made of the site
of Troy. If this were done under government surveillance, or by some
responsible and skilled antiquarian, there is hardly a doubt but that many
and precious ornaments in gold, and implements and weapons in bronze,
would be found, especially the latter, for there seems every reason to
believe that Tara was the seat of government long before iron was known,
and long before the bronze age came to an end. It would, however, be a
tremendous task to uproot several hundred acres merely on speculation. But
the quantity of antique gold ornaments that has been found in Ireland was
immense, more, it is thought by some, than has been found in all the rest
of Europe. They are being found almost every year. Nearly £300 worth of
golden fibulae was found in the County Waterford in 1894. They are now to
be seen in the Dublin Museum.
[Illustration: TARA BROOCH.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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