Iron Age Pagan Idol Discovered in Irish Bog

 

The Gortnacrannagh Idol unearthed in Roscommon bog, Ireland, 2021. Photo: courtesy Archaeological Management Solutions/European Association of Archaeologists

Introduction

Archaeologist working on the route of the N5 Ballaghaderreen to Scramoge Road Bypass in Co. Roscommon have discovered a 1,600-year-old wooden pagan idol. The discovery was made in the townland of Gortnacrannagh, about six kilometres from the prehistoric royal site of Rathcroghan.

Rathcroghan was an ancient site of power and the prehistoric royal capital of Connachta, one of the five ancient Irish kingdoms. The area is home to more than 240 archaeological monuments, including Neolithic and Bronze Age burial mounds, ringforts, and earthworks, and was known as a place of ritual gatherings. It is also said to have been the site of the capital and palace of Queen Medb. According to the Ulster Cycle, a group of legends set in the first century BC, Medb was a powerful warrior who at one time ruled much of Ireland.

Gortnacrannagh Idol

During the excavation of the wooden idol, archaeologists found an animal bone and what is thought to be a ‘ritual dagger’. The blade did not show evidence of use suggesting that, perhaps, it was made specifically for animal sacrifice. The Gortnacrannagh Idol remained intact due to the waterlogged conditions of the bog.

The “Gortnacrannagh Idol” measures over two and a half meters (8.2 ft.) high. Less than 15 similar idols have been found in Ireland and this one represents the largest discovered to date. The 1,600-year-old wooden pagan idol was carved from a split oak tree trunk during the Iron Age, which in Ireland occurred between 500 BC - 400 AD. The idol has been radiocarbon dated to between 252 and 413 A.D

A human-shaped head was carved at one end of the artifact and the body was marked with several horizontal notches. Dr Eve Campbell, Director of the AMS excavation site, told the Irish Examiner that ancient Celtic cultures regarded wetlands “as mystical places where they could connect with their gods and the Otherworld.”

Other Irish Wooden Idols

The Winter 2003 issue of Archaeology Ireland reported the discovery of a prehistoric alder-wood ‘figure’ in Kilbeg townland, Ballykeane Bog, County Offaly. The discovery was dated to the Bronze Age. ‘Red Man’ of Kilbeg was one of seven probable alder-wood idols deposited in the raised bogs of east Offaly in the early/late Bronze Age https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9QPoxrXxoA. The wooden idol was carved from curved alder roundwood (231 cm long, 16cm maximum diameter). It had been worked to a point at one end. Eleven notches 3cm apart had been cut across its width. It was radiocarbon dated to 1739-1530 BC.

Prior to 2001, only three prehistoric idols were known from Ireland all of which were recovered from wetlands. The oldest figure was recovered from the early medieval ‘royal’ crannog at Lagore, County Meath. It was 47cm in height and dated to the Early Bronze Age (2135-1944 BC). The second Bronze Age figure was dated to 1096-906 BC was discovered by turf cutters at Ralaghan, County Cavan. It was carved from yew and was 114cm in height. The third idol was discovered in Corlea, Co Longford. It was 5m tall and made form ash roundwood. One end was carved to a point while the other end has a carved neck and bulbous head. This item was incorporated within the sub-structure of an Iron Age (148 BC) trackway at Corlea.

“The lower ends of several figures were also worked to a point suggesting that they may once have stood upright,' stated wood specialist Cathy Moore. 'Their meaning is open to interpretation, but they may have marked special places in the landscape, have represented particular individuals or deities or perhaps have functioned as wooden bog bodies, sacrificed in lieu of humans.”

AMS archaeologist Dr. Eve Campbell, who directed the excavation of the site, said that the idol was likely to be a pagan god. 

"The Gortnacrannagh Idol was carved just over 100 years before St. Patrick came to Ireland — it is likely to be the image of a pagan deity. … Our ancestors saw wetlands as mystical places where they could connect with their gods and the Otherworld. The discovery of animal bone alongside a ritual dagger suggests that animal sacrifice was carried out at the site and the idol is likely to have been part of these ceremonies."

The idol is being conserved at University College Dublin and will eventually go on display at the National Museum of Ireland.

An early reconstruction of the Shigir Idol from 1894. Photo: courtesy Sverdlovsk Regional Museum 

The Shigir Idol

The most famous prehistoric wooden sculpture is the 12,500-year-old Shigir Idol, uncovered in a Russian peat bog which is the oldest known example of ritual art in the world. The incredible wooden sculpture was pulled from a peat bog in the western fringes of Siberia, Russia, 125 years ago. The Shigir idol is 2.8 meters (9.2 feet) long, though it was originally 5.3 meters (17.4 feet) before lengths of the artifact were accidentally destroyed during the Soviet era.

Head of the Shigir Idol, the world's oldest known wood sculpture. Photo: courtesy Sverdlovsk Regional Museum 

Doogarymore Wooden Wheel

In 1968/9 two warped fragments of pre-historic block wheels from the same period were found in the Roscommon bog. The National Museum of Ireland declared that these two artifacts were the earliest evidence of the wheel being used for transport on the island.

Doogarymore Wooden Wheel.
Photo: courtesy Flickr

The idol is now in University College Dublin, undergoing a three-year programme of preservation. The idol will be given to the National Museum of Ireland once the project is completed. Meanwhile, the AMS will make a replica of the Gortnacrannagh idol and donate it to the Rathcroghan Centre, where it will go on display.

Conclusion

The discovery of an Iron Age wooden idol near the ancient royal site of Rathcroghan has shone a light on pagan Ireland around a hundred years before the arrival of St Patrick. The Gortnacrannagh Idol remained intact due to the waterlogged conditions of the bog. It is thought that it may have formed part of an animal sacrifice. Less than 15 similar idols have been found in Ireland and this one represents the largest discovered to date.

For further information see:

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/pagan-idol-0015694

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/11000-years-old-new-dating-shigir-idol-reveals-it-oldest-wooden-sculpture-020504

https://roscommonherald.ie/2021/08/13/rare-artefact-from-iron-age-unearthed-near-rathcroghan/

Doogarymore to Ljubljana: wheels of time

  

Doogarymore Wooden Wheel - 400 BC

In the early 1960s, an ancient wooden trackway, built to carry people walking in single file, was discovered close to the Lung River in the Callow Bog, North County Roscommon and dated to 1165 BC. A wood and stone trackway from the same locality has been dated to 1100 BC. Myself and some friends had the privilege of assisting the late Professor Etienne Rynne in the excavation of both trackways (See Blog Post – 8^th September 2008).

This ancient roadway was traced continuously over a distance of a quarter of a mile. Today, it lies largely undisturbed beneath a blanket of soft bogland, hidden from the world but is depicted on the Lough Gara and its Hinterland map of the area. It seems unlikely that the wood and stone trackway was used for wheeled transport as it was only about one meter wide. Perhaps, some time in the future, evidence of wheeled transport will be discovered in the area.

The first routes in Ireland were prehistoric trackways, some of which were later developed into roads suitable for wheeled vehicles. Usually, most surfaced tracks from this period were made with wood and were designed to facilitate travel through or into bogs. In prehistory and the early medieval period, before the construction of major roads, rivers and lakes would often have provided a means of travel and transport through a wooded landscape.

Corlea Trackway, Co. Longford

Trackways typically date to the early to middle Neolithic period, the Middle and Late Bronze Age, early Iron Age (c. 500-300 BC) and throughout the early medieval and late medieval periods. For example, the Corlea Trackway (Irish: Bóthar Chorr Liath) is an Iron Age trackway, or togher, near the village of Keenagh, south of Longford town, County Longford. It was known locally as the Danes' Road and was constructed from oak planks in 148–147 BC.

Two massive block-wheels, dating to about 400 BC, which were found in 1968 and 1969 in Doogarymore, Co. Roscommon, are the earliest direct evidence at present known for wheeled transport in Ireland. Several features of the Doogarymore wheels are also found in wheels from widely scattered areas in Europe which include one-piece and three piece types.

The wheel found in 1968 was left on the surface of the bog and, unfortunately, only two warped fragments survived. Dr. Lucas from the National Museum of Ireland investigated the 1969 wheel which consisted of three lengths of thick plank fastened together edge to edge by means of two large dowels. The wood of the planks has been identified as alder and that of the two dowels as yew.

The Doogarymore wheel revolved on the axle which passed through a circular opening in the central piece. This hole was provided with a long wooden sleeve which projected some distance on each face of the wheel and housed the end of the axle.

The oldest wheel in the world was found in Slovenia and is 5,150 years old. The Ljubljana Marshes Wheel is a wooden wheel that was found some 20 km south of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, in 2002. The people who made this wheel lived by hunting and gathering in wood pile lake settlements like the crannog dwellers of Ireland.

Ljubljana Wooden Wheel and Azel
5,150 years old

The wooden wheel belonged to a prehistoric two-wheel cart thought to be a pushcart. Similar wheels have been found in Switzerland and southwest Germany, but the Ljubljana Marshes wheel is bigger and older. It has a diameter of 72 centimetres (28 in) and is made of ash wood, with 124 centimetres (49 inch) long axle made of oak. The axle was attached to the wheels with oak wood wedges, which meant that the axle rotated together with the wheels, unlike the later Doogarymore wheel.

Must Farm Wheel - 1100-800 BC
Cambridgeshire, England

In 2016 archaeologists working on the Must Farm Bronze Age site in Cambridgeshire, England, discovered the largest, most complete, and earliest example of a Bronze Age wooden wheel in Britain. It has been dated to 1100-800 BC, and measures one metre in diameter. This wheel is so well preserved it still contains its hub and is thought to be from a chariot or cart. It was made of three different kinds of wood: alder for the outer rim, oak for the axle and braces and ash for the dowels. This wheel bears many similarities to the two large block wheels found at Doogarymore.

The invention of the wheel arose out of man's trial-and-error efforts to move loads from place to place. The wheel of the Western world is a direct descendant of the Egyptian wheel, records of which go back to at least 2000 BC. Mention of the wheel is made in the Old Testament (the ark of the covenant was carried on a cart drawn by oxen) and it is possible that the ancient Hebrews derived their wheel from the Egyptians.

One of the reasons why the wheel was invented relatively late in human history is that metal tools were needed to chisel fine-fitted holes and axles. The ends of the axle, as well as the holes in the centre of the wheels had to be almost perfectly smooth and round. Failing to achieve this would result in too much friction between these components, and the wheel would not turn.

Whilst County Roscommon cannot claim credit for inventing the wheel, the earliest evidence at present for wheeled transport in Ireland comes from Doogarymore in the county. The oldest wheel in the world was found in Ljubljana in Slovenia and is over five thousand years old.  The axle of the Ljubljana wheel rotated together with the wheels, unlike the later Doogarymore wheels which were free moving. The Doogarymore, Ljubljana and Must Farm wheels share some common features and highlight developments in wheel/axel technology over some 5,000 years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT4Ej-wOXUs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zYXfCiNV6c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwQmA3jCW38