EMAP_2012_Report_6_1.pdf (7.3 MB) - The Heritage Council

Chapter 4: Glass, Enamel and Milliefiori-Working
4.1: Introduction
Vitreous materials such as glass, enamel and millefiori were closely associated with
metalworking and along with amber were often used as settings for decorating metalwork,
particularly copper-alloy but occasionally iron, in early medieval Ireland. In the earlier part of
the early medieval period, insets of millefiori and red enamel were used to decorate
penannular brooches, hand-pins and latchets (Doyle infra, Section 3). More complex metal
objects decorated with multi-coloured enamel and glass studs appeared in the eighth century
but amber settings became more common on brooches and other artefacts after this period
(Comber 2008, 126). It has been noted that glass-working or glass-workers are not
mentioned in any of the early Irish literary sources which may indicate either ‘a limited
industry or the production of glass etc. by other artisans, primarily the fine metalworker’
(Comber 2008, 131).
4.2: Glass Artefacts
There is no evidence that glass vessels were produced from raw materials in Ireland. It has
long been thought that glass-working in Ireland comprised the recycling of old scrap glass or
cullet (Harden 1956, 151-2), although at sites such as Dunmisk, glass-working was clearly
carried out. However closer inspection has revealed that these small pieces presumed to be
scrap glass or cullet at Garranes, Ballycatteen, Carraig Aille II, Dalkey and Lagore were in fact
fragments of vessels such as beakers and palm cups imported into Ireland. Fragments of
vessel glass were also found at the site of an emporium at Dunnyneil island and belonged to
vessels from the Anglo-Saxon (seventh or eighth century) and Mediterranean world (fifth or
sixth century) (McCormick and MacDonald 2010, 52-3). It is likely then that glass mostly
reached sites in Ireland as complete ‘luxury item’ glass vessels (Edwards 1990, 92; Bourke
1994, 180; Campbell 2007; Comber 2008, 127). These vessels were naturally very fragile and
had a very short life-span and when they broke the glass was often simply recycled. Intact
early medieval glass vessels rarely survive. Two complete phials of yellowish or yellow-green
glass were recovered from a seventh-century context at Moynagh Lough (Bourke 1994, 168),
and a similar phial was recovered from an undated context in a souterrain at Mullaroe
(Harden 1956, 154).
Glass has also been discovered in the form of studs, beads and artefacts described variously
as bangles, bracelets or armlets and these all appear to have been manufactured in Ireland.
Several glass beads have been recovered from Lagore (Hencken 1950, 132-45) and provide
considerable information about the variety of plain and polychrome glass beads in early
medieval Ireland. Small dark blue beads constituted most of the plain examples but melonshaped,
tubular, segmented, dumb-bell or toggle beads were also known. The polychrome
glass beads could be decorated with twisted cables, spiralled knobs, spots or insets of
millefiori (Edwards 1990, 94). A Viking necklace of 71 glass beads was found hidden inside a
cave at Glencurran and a number of its beads were segmented and foil-covered, similar to
examples recovered from Kilmainham and the trading site at Birka, Sweden (Dowd 2007, 39).
Glass beads and bangles have been recorded at numerous settlements and their quantities,
distribution and types are considered in Doyle infra, Section 3.
4.3: Raw materials, processes, manufacturing
There is evidence for the working of glass, enamel and milliefiori at early medieval
settlements in the form of tools, scrap vessel fragments – probably intended for re-use,
remnants of glass-working rods or canes and clay moulds (Map 4.1, Appendix 1.3). Enamel
and glass-working required much of the same equipment as metalworking, such as hearths,
crucibles and tongs. The furnaces used in metalworking could have also been utilised for
glass-working, especially as enamel, millefiori and glass ornament were frequently applied to
metal artefacts (Comber 2008, 128). Iron ladles have been recovered on a number of sites
such as Ballinderry I (Hencken 1936, 137, 172), Ballinderry II (Hencken 1942, 46), and
Lagore and Garryduff (Craddock 1990, 204). The latter two sites have produced evidence of
55