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| Lough Gara, Co. Sligo |
Lough Gara-type Rings
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| Gold Ring ornaments (c) National Museum of Ireland |
The Annaghbeg Hoard
In 1988 the National Museum of
Ireland was contacted by the Curator of the County Museum and Art Gallery,
Truro, Cornwall. He had recently seen a small hoard consisting of a pottery
vessel and two decorated gold foil-covered rings said to have been found either
on the shore or close to the shore of Lough Gara.
After negotiations the hoard was
acquired by the National Museum of Ireland and returned to Ireland. This hoard
is a rare example of the discovery of prehistoric gold objects in a container
and the only surviving example of the use of a ceramic vessel to contain gold
or metal objects. It is also recorded that the Rathtinaun hoard was found in a
wooden box with two upright wooden pegs beside it which may have been markers.
Mary Cahill describes the
Annaghbeg ceramic vessel as:
… a small coarse-ware pot with thick
walls narrowing towards the rim, rounded in form and roughly U-shaped in
profile but slightly waisted at the centre of the vessel. The vessel is
undecorated. The outer fabric surface is buff coloured, smooth and slightly
burnished but quite pitted, perhaps as a result of soil conditions since
deposition. Internally the fabric varies from black to buff from base to rim.
The base is slightly rounded.
Both foil-covered composite rings
were made from a solid led core which is crescent shaped. Each ring is broadly
U-shaped in cross-section. The rectangular strip of gold foil used to cover the
ring had to be carefully fitted and stretched over the outer surface of the
ring.
The rings are decorated with a simple
pattern of lines and dots which have been lightly incised on the surface of the
led core before wrapping the ring in the gold foil. Each face of the rings has
been scored with a series of radial lines drawn across the surface.
Very little gold was required to
wrap the rings but considerable goldsmithing skills were essential to beat an
ingot into an extremely thin foil and to complete the application of the foil
cover. Both rings are the same size, weight and similarly decorated and were
clearly intended to be a pair.
The Rathtinaun Hoard
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| Amber Necklace from Rathtinaun Hoard, Lough Gara, Co. Sligo (c) National Museum of Ireland |
A further three penannular rings
in the Rathtinaun hoard are of the same type as those from Annaghbeg but with
some important differences in terms of size, weight and the quality of
craftsmanship. The Rathtinaun specimens show a much higher degree of workmanship.
For example, the decoration on these rings is more complex and more skilfully
executed. Two of the three rings from Rathtinaun form a pair and resemble the
Annaghbeg rings closely in form.
The Rathtinaun hoard is rare because
of the mixture of metals and organic material, the type of objects in the hoard
and the exotic nature of some artefacts. It also includes objects made of tin
which is very rarely used on its own as a metal, boars’ tusks, amber beads and
an unusual bronze pin.
Bronze Age and Iron Age Gold
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| Gold Lunula from Coggalbeg Hoard - Early Bronze Age (c) National Museum of Ireland |
It remains unclear why lead was used in the making of these rings. Lead has been in use since the Middle Bronze Age as an additive to the usual copper/tin alloy, bronze, because it improves the ductility of the metal. Like tin, lead was rarely used on its own.
Although these objects are small,
they are very heavy because their cores are made from lead. From the seventeen
examples known to date, eight form matching pair being of similar size, weight
and decorative style. It is possible that these rings are ear ornaments or ear weights.
These items might also have been used as hair rings but when used as a pendant
form of ear ornament the rings would be seen to their best advantage. The
single rings may not have been used in pairs raising the possibility of their
use as nose ornaments.
Scholars have noted the difference between
gold used in the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Consequently, at least sixty items of
goldwork from Late Bronze Age have been reassigned to the Iron Age period. Mary
Cahill states:
During the Bronze Age the amount of silver present varies but is never
greater than 15% whereas during the Iron Age the silver content is much higher
and can be as high as 25% to 30%.
A resurgent gold-working tradition can be seen
in the Iron Age when, for example, ribbon torcs were produced in significant
quantities. Ribbon torcs have been recorded mainly from counties in the
northern half of Ireland – Antrim, Cavan, Derry, Donegal, Mayo, Roscommon and
Sligo – although some have been recorded in other counties also. They date
mainly from the third century BC to the 2nd Century AD.
Given the quantity and range of
artefacts from Lough Gara it is hardly surprising to find evidence of
goldworking.
Based on an article
by Mary Cahill Prehistoric Gold from Co.
Sligo in ‘Dedicated to Sligo: Thirty-four Essays on Sligo’s Past’. Editor: Martin
A Timoney (2013)
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