The "zoomorphic penannular brooch" of a type developed in Ireland in the sixth and seventh centuries which ended up in a sod of turf. [Photograph: Eye Focus Ltd]
Posted on 02/08/2010 4:52:02 PM PST by SunkenCiv
A 1,400-year-old brooch dating from the early Christian period has been discovered in the remnants of a turf fire in a range in north Kerry.
It is believed the brooch fastened the cloak of a clergyman and was dropped, probably on a forest road which later became bog. It ended up in a sod of turf in the range of Sheila and Pat Joe Edgeworth at Martara, Ballylongford, near the Shannon estuary. Lands alongside the Shannon are chequered with early Christian ruins and holy wells.
The bronze brooch was found shortly before Christmas by Ms Edgeworth when she was cleaning out her range.
The turf had been cut by machine and drawn from the Edgeworths' bog at nearby Tullahennel last summer.
The find has been hailed by archaeologists as most exciting.
Pat Joe Edgeworth told the Kerryman newspaper: "Sheila found it while cleaning the grate. 'What in the name of God is this?' she asked me. I said it looked like half a donkey's mouth-bit, as they were always drawing turf out with donkeys. It was blackened from the fire, but as we looked at it closer and cleaned it up I had a good idea it was a brooch, because it was similar to the ones I had seen in books," he said.
Known by archaeologists as a "zoomorphic penannular brooch", it is a type that was developed in Ireland in the sixth and seventh centuries following earlier examples from Roman Britain.
(Excerpt) Read more at irishtimes.com ...
The "zoomorphic penannular brooch" of a type developed in Ireland in the sixth and seventh centuries which ended up in a sod of turf. [Photograph: Eye Focus Ltd]
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Very cool -— never saw Madeline Albright wearing one of those, and she’s addicted to the brooch
Madeline must have lost it when she was younger.
Tara Brooch, AD 700. "This is one of the masterpieces of the Early Christian epoch: the simplicity of its general outline counterpoints an amazing complexity of techniques and assemblage of materials--gold, silver copper, amber, glass, enameling, filigree, wire-beading, granulation, inlaiyng and soldering are all used.
Looks like the "zoomorph" (animal form) is that of a butterfly...
Do you suppose they exchanged the butterfly for a four leaf clover? They look very similar on jewelry.
Good point, I've never drawn the connection between the two before. It would be interesting to find out the historical correlation between the two. Visually, a butterfly would have two wings bigger than the other two, so that would be a visual clue, and in this case they said "zoomorphic" so I presumed an animal. But a four-leaf clover, especially in Ireland, seems a slam-dunk visual transference.
This near the forest of Fanghorn?
Do you have any info on what this item is, (in reply 5)? It’s similar to an item my brother-in-law found when metal-detecting, and I was wondering if you know any details about the one you posted. Thanks.
That is absolutely beautiful.
Check my post number 6 brooch comes from the same timezone but is in perfect condition..
Made by Christians so i doubt the zoomorphic thing also born in Ireland but never heard about the 4 leafed clover until i came to America..
I am sure if you google it you will find a lot more pics it is on display in Ireland and is very famous because of it’s condition..
Thanks. Will do.
Thanks!
So that would make this brooch about 600 A.D.
Was kind of wondering what was the story in Ireland at that time. Celts and Druids still around? (not a football team).
Ireland was entirely Celtic in 600 AD, apart from Christian missionaries. The druids didn’t have a fixed liturgy, and probably had deep roots and eclectic beliefs from tribe to tribe and place to place. There’s an interesting description of the druidic sacrifice of a local king due to some typical flimsy excuse, like a bad harvest. Kings would have been much better off just starting their reigns by cutting the throats of the druids and dumping the carcasses in the river. But that’s just me. :’)
The Vikings’ invasions and raids were ferocious in Ireland; some of the big cities in Ireland had Viking foundations. The Viking/Irish struggle came to a head at the Battle of, uh, oh oh... anyway, the aged King Brian Boru is credited with the victory, though he died in the battle. Ireland had wound up split into the Five Fifths, but as in other countries in history, there were occasionally vassals who wound up with a great deal of autonomy because they got wealthy one way or other. Midh or Meath, the smallest of the five, wound up getting erased by a couple of its neighbors, and its name survives as one of the counties.
Dublin was the foothold of the House of Normandy; after the 1066 usurpation of the English throne by William the Bastard, supposedly one of the Irish fifths hired the Normans to help him win a war, one of the continual internecine wars in Irish history. The Normans held on to an ever-growing strip, called The Pale (hence the term, “beyond the Pale,” I suppose).
By the time of Elizabeth I, the English crown had been in control of a varying amount of Ireland for centuries. Lizzie’s wars there were fairly expensive, and one of her young up and comings was sent out of the court to keep him from doing something stupid; he was assigned the final conquest of Ireland. He got there, did little, wound up secretly collaborating with the enemy, and that didn’t go over very well back in London.
Irish rebellion against British rule continued off and on, here and there, all the way into the present. Oliver Cromwell conducted a massacre right in a church in Ireland, which was rude at best. Suffice to say, the concept of sanctuary has had varying levels of success.
During the Glorious Revolution, in which James II was chased off the British throne by William and Mary (James and Mary were siblings, she had been married off to the head of the House of Orange), the final clash between the Catholic James and the Protestant William was in Ireland. There’s a reference to this in a song by the late Stan Rogers, the Canadian folksinger, I think the song is called “House of Orange”.
Later, General Cornwallis, who is most famous in the US for finally leading the British defeat at Yorktown, wasn’t disgraced per se back home, but was assigned the task of putting down an Irish rebellion, which he did with alacrity. I think he later served in India as well.
Wow, SunkenCiv, that was INTERESTING! Just got home from work, (yes, it’s after 9pm, I’m a nurse, work an hour away). Sat here reading and re-reading this, complicated and new to me, but very interesting. Don’t know much about the history of Ireland, though I’m Irish, my grandmother born and raised there, Cork, came here when she was 20.
The druid thing is interesting, as I don’t know much about what that was all about.
Of course, as all history, it’s bloody. To quote a man who said honestly, but profoundly, ‘why can’t we all just get along’.
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