The Lake Dwellings of Ireland: Or ancient lacustrine habitations of Erin, commonly called crannogs.Wood-Martin, W. G. (William Gregory)
History
The Lake Dwellings of Ireland: Or ancient lacustrine habitations of Erin, commonly called crannogs.
Wood-Martin, W. G. (William Gregory)
Lake-dwellers and lake-dwellings -- Ireland
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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