EMAP_2012_Report_6_1.pdf (7.3 MB) - The Heritage Council

40
35
30
25
20
15
10
iron
bone
copper alloy
5
0
Fig. 7.5: number of sites with pins in the three main materials
Neck ornaments and beads
Very few metal neck ornaments occur on the sites examined; an iron torc was found in a
male burial at Owenbristy (Lehane & Delaney 2010, 35), a fragmentary twisted copper alloy
necklet from a ditch in the cemetery at Collierstown 1 (O’Hara 2009, 12) and a copper alloy
neck-ring accompanied a female burial at Ratoath (Wallace 2010, 305). Parknahown also
produced a bronze ‘necklace fragment’, also called a bead (O’Neill 2009). Pendants are
slightly more common, as shown in Table 7.5.
Site County Number and material Reference
Ballynagallagh Limerick 1 lignite Cleary 2006, 30
Cahercommaun Clare 1 antler & 1 bone Hencken 1938, 41
Carraig Aille I Limerick 1 stone Ó Ríordáin 1949, 101
Cloncowan Meath 1 bone (fragment) Baker 2007, 71
Cush Limerick 1 stone (sandstone) Ó Ríordáin 1939/40, 164
Garryduff Cork 2 stone (shale) O’Kelly 1963, 86
Knowth Site M Meath 1 sperm whale ivory Stout & Stout 2008
Knoxspark Sligo 1 copper alloy Mount 2010, 208
Lagore Meath 1 amber Hencken 1950, 151
Lough Faughan Down 1 sperm whale ivory Collins 1955, 63
Newtownlow Westmeath 1 jet cross Kerr et al. 2010, 713
Table 7.5: Sites with pendants (number and material)
There is far more evidence for neck ornament in the form of beads made in various materials.
It is of course an assumption that beads were worn in the form of necklaces, as was common
in other contemporary societies (Anglo-Saxon England, Scandinavia), but only a couple of
Irish early medieval burials - Parknahown (O’Neill 2008) and Killeany (Wiggins 2006a, 2006b)
– have provided evidence of beads in the neck area of female skeletons which can with
confidence be interpreted as necklaces (although the former might have been worn in the
hair rather than on the neck). Other possibilities include sewing beads to adorn clothing, as
evidenced at Birka in Sweden (Ewing 2006, 65) or threading them on the rings of pins, as in
an old find from Lagore (Hencken 1950, 72 & fig. 14A). Of more interest is the range of
materials used in beads; while glass beads are the most colourful, and most plentiful,
comprising around 72% of the total number of beads, around 15% of beads are of bone,
with amber accounting for some 9%, with smaller quantities made of stone, jet/lignite/shale,
faience/ceramic, clay, wood, lead, silver, gold and carnelian (Doyle 2010).
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