The Lake-Dwellings of Europe: Being the Rhind Lectures in Archæology for 1888Munro, Robert
History
The Lake-Dwellings of Europe: Being the Rhind Lectures in Archæology for 1888
Munro, Robert
Lake-dwellers and lake-dwellings -- Bibliography; Lake-dwellers and lake-dwellings -- Europe
But the special interest of the Lisnacroghera crannog lies in the
remarkable series of military weapons which it has yielded, consisting
of iron swords and ornamented sheaths of bronze, iron spears with long
wooden handles and bronze mountings, together with a variety of other
bronze objects, probably the mountings of shields. These I shall now
proceed to describe.
[Illustration: =Fig. 123.=--LISNACROGHERA. Sword Sheaths of Bronze.
All ½ real size.]
_Sword-sheaths._--Up to the present time four sheaths (=Fig. 123=,
Nos. 1 to 4) have been recovered, but only one is entire, the rest
being more or less in a fragmentary condition. They are all made of
thin bronze riveted together at the margins, and over this there
is a bead which, towards the lower third, develops into an elegant
ornamentation very similar to that which we have already seen on the
sword-sheaths of La Tène (See =Fig. 87.=) The perfect sheath (No. 1)
is devoid of ornamentation, except that formed by the marginal bead;
but the other three (of which only one side of each remains) are
decorated with highly artistic designs formed by incised lines, the
details of which will be readily seen from the illustrations. No. 1,
which still retains the blade of an iron sword firmly adhered to it,
is 17½ inches long. No. 2 is defective at the tip, besides having
lost its surrounding bead; it measures, in its present condition, 19
inches in length. The illustration here is a reproduction of a rubbing
reduced half size and shows only the upper half. The design which
comes out in white lines is in reality incised lines and corresponds
to the dark lines in the other two. No. 3, the largest of the group,
measures 22 inches in length. Both ends are here represented. No. 4 is
the smallest, being only 16½ inches in length. It is supposed that
the incised lines, which are sharply defined and deeply cut, contained
a black enamel, but no traces of it now remain. The circular cavities
in the surrounding bead at the tips were also intended for the
reception of enamel, probably of some brilliant colour. These designs,
which belong to the so-called "late Celtic" style of ornamentation,
when so treated must have had a striking effect on the bright bronze
surface.
In Nos. 1 and 4 it will be observed that there is a transverse raised
band, the purpose of which was, no doubt, to strengthen the sheath.
Such bands were a feature in the La Tène sheaths, which in some
instances were repeated several times at intervals on the body of the
sheath. In Canon Grainger's collection I saw one or two broad rings
compressed in the middle, which I took to be the cross-bands of other
sheaths.
[Illustration: =Fig. 124.=--LISNACROGHERA. Iron Weapons, etc. Nos. 4,
5, and 10 = ¼, the rest = ½ real size.]
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