National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology

The prehistoric Ireland section contains artefacts from the earliest period of human habitation in Ireland (just after the Last Ice Age) up to the Celtic Iron Age. There are numerous stone implements created by the first hunter-gatherer colonists beginning around 7000 BC, then moving on to the tools, pottery and burial objects of the Neolithic farmers. Some notable artefacts include four rare Jadeite axeheads imported from the Alps of Neolithic Italy, and the unique ceremonial macehead discovered at the tomb of Knowth.[8][9] The exhibit then covers the introduction of metallurgy into Ireland around 2500 BC, with early copper implements. From the later Bronze Age period there is an impressive array of bronze axes, daggers, swords, shields, cauldrons and cast bronze horns (the earliest known Irish musical instruments). There are a few very early Iron weapons. Wooden objects include a large dugout logboat, wooden wheels and cauldrons and ancient reed fishing equipment.[10]

The NMI contains artifacts from excavation of the earliest Irish settlements, including bronze age blades, flint points and spearheads dated to before 4500 B.C..[11] Other artifacts include bronze rings and necklaces.[12]

Its collection of bronze age gold work ranges from c. 2200 to 1800 B.C and is considered one of the "largest and most important" in Western Europe, and includes crescent shaped collars called lunula collars, bracelets and dress-fastners.[13] Most of the goldwork is probably jewellery, but many of the objects of are of unknown (possibly ritual) function. In the early Bronze Age most artefacts were made from sheet gold and include sundiscs and lunulae. In the middle Bronze Age new gold working techniques were developed; starting around 1200 BC a great variety of torcs were produced from twisting bars of gold. Items from the late Bronze Age, starting in 900 BC, include solid gold bracelets and dress-fasteners as well as large sheet gold collars, ear-spools and a necklace of hollow golden balls.[14][15]

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  Decorated stone from Loughcrew, Co Meath, 2500-1700 BC
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  The Gleninsheen gorget, c. 800-700 BC
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  Dress fasteners, Clones, County Monaghan (800-700 BC)
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  Box from Killymoom Demesne in County Tyrone (800-700 BC)

The museum contains many well-preserved Irish bog bodies, found between the 19th century and present day. A number are believed to have been ritualistically sacrificed.[16][17] Eamonn Kelly (former Keeper of Irish Antiquities) developed the theory that the bog bodies were tribal kings sacrificed by the community, having failed in their kingship, in pools of water at the boundary points of the tribal territory.[18] Some seem to exhibit evidence of the so called threefold death practice. The bog bodies in the collection are Gallagh Man (470-120 BC),[19] Baronstown West Man (242 to 388 BC), Clonycavan Man (392 to 201 BC), and Old Croghan Man (362 to 175 BC).[18]

The withy hoop found around Gallagh Man's neck was probably used as a garrotte to strangle him, probably during a ritual involving human sacrifice,[18] given that most of such bodies from this period are young males aged 25 to 40 years old, and like many of the victims, his hair had been closely cropped.[20] It is also possible that he was a criminal who was put to death.[21] However, the willow rope strongly suggests ritual sacrifice; they often appear for this purpose in early Irish mythological stories such as that of the Táin Bó Cúailnge.[22]

Alongside the bodies are examples of the material culture of the Celtic Iron Age period in which they lived. These include metal weapons and horse trappings as well as wooden and leather pieces. The Petrie crown (named for George Petrie) is part of a high-status headdress made in the La Tène artistic style. The section also contains Ralaghan Man, a carved wooden figure believed to be a boundary marker and examples of bog butter, which is ancient butter preserved in the bog in containers such as wooden buckets. The museum also possesses several other bog bodies not currently displayed, such as the Cashel Man (discovered 2011, dated to ~2000 BC), believed to be the oldest fleshed bog body found in Europe.[23]

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  Gallagh Man, 470-120 BC, found in County Galway, 1821
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  Clonycavan Man, 392 to 201 BC, County Meath
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  Old Croghan Man, 362 to 175 BC, County Offaly
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  Baronstown West Man, 242 to 388 BC, County Kildare

The museum's treasury room exhibits early medieval Christian and secular Irish metalwork dating from the late Iron Age to the end of the Middle Ages, and contains important pieces from both the La Tène and Insular periods.[24] Examples include the Ardagh Chalice, Tara Brooch, the Broighter Gold, the Derrynaflan Hoard and the Cross of Cong. The exhibition area consists of three main gallerys. Gallery One contains art works from the Iron Age to the twelfth century AD, with the displays arranged chronologically, including the Rinnegan Crucifixion Plaque is one of the earliest extant representations of the crucifixion in Irish art, and outside of illuminated manuscripts, a rare example of both representation and a narrative scene in early Irish Insular art.[25]

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  The Rinnegan Crucifixion Plaque (or Athlone Crucifixion Plaque), late 7th or early 8th century. Outside of illuminated manuscripts, a rare example of representation in early Insular art
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  Head of the Tully Lough Cross. bronze, gilt and tin mounted on wood. 8th or 9th century, found July 1986.[26]
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  Derrynaflan Chalice, 8th- or 9th-century. Found as part of the Derrynaflan Hoard of five liturgical vessels in 1980 near Killenaule, County Tipperary.[27]
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  The Cross of Cong, the most highly decorated of the early 12th-century Irish Christian ornamented processional crosses.
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  St. Patrick's bell (below) and bell-shrine (above), c. 1100
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  Shrine of Saint Lachtin's Arm, c. 1118–1121. A reliquary made of wood and metal shaped as an outstretched forearm and clenched fist.[28]

Gallery Two holds the Faddan More Psalter (c. 800 AD) discovered in a bog in July 2006, in the townland of Faddan More in north County Tipperary. Gallery Three is devoted to Irish metalwork.[29]

Celtic brooches (more properly called penannular brooches) are types of brooch clothes fasteners, especially associated with the beginning of the Early Medieval period in the British Isles. Beginning as utilitarian fasteners in the Iron Age and Roman period, they are especially associated with the highly ornate brooches produced in precious metal for the elites of Ireland and Scotland from about 700 to 900, which are popularly known as Celtic brooches or similar terms.

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  Ballinderry Brooch, c. 600, considered one of the most complexly designed of the surviving brooches[30]
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  The Tara Brooch, c. 710-750, generally considered as "the pinnacle of early medieval Irish metalworkers’ achievement".
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  The Kilmainham Brooch, late 8th- or early 9th-century. Its design was influenced by both Pictish and Viking metalwork.[31][32][33]
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  The Roscrea Brooch, 9th century, whose craftsmen had absorbed elements of Scandinavian imagery and metalwork techniques

Brooches are the most significant objects in high-quality secular metalwork from Early Medieval Insular art, and were worn by the emerging middle-classes, more often by men than women however, but rises in general wealth across centuries generated demand and demand for the format in precious metals flourished. The most well known examples would have been produced for the upper strata of their communities only.

Most surviving examples Irish shrines in metalwork amd date from the peak age of Irish monasticism before 800, and the extant cumdachs date from after 1000, although it is clear the form dates from considerably earlier. The most well known examples of this type are the 11th century Soiscél Molaisse, Cathach of St. Columba and Shrine of Miosach cumdachs, and the 14th century Domnach Airgid.[34] The majority are held in the NMI, with other examples at the British Museum and National Museum of Scotland.

Cumdachs (or book shrines) are elaborate ornamented metal reliquary box or case used to hold Early Medieval Irish manuscripts or relics. They are typically later than the book they contain, often by several centuries.[35] In most surviving examples the book comes from the peak age of Irish monasticism before 800, and the extant cumdachs date from after 1000, although it is clear the form dates from considerably earlier. They are mostly of Irish origin, and consist of a protective enclosures intended to permanently seal off a manuscript or relic.[36] The usual form is a design based on a cross on the main face, with use of large gems of rock crystal or other semi-precious stones, leaving the spaces between the arms of the cross for more varied decoration. Several were carried on a metal chain or leather cord, often worn off the belt, or suspended around the neck, placing them next to the heart and thus offering spiritual and perhaps medical benefits. They were also used to bring healing to the sick or dying, or more formally, as witness contracts. Many had hereditary lay keepers from among the chiefly families who had formed links with monasteries.[37]

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  Panel from the Domnach Airgid, an 8th-century wooden reliquary reworked between the 13th and 15th centuries.[38]
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  The c. 1026 cumdach for the Stowe Missal, a small Irish illuminated manuscript written mainly in Latin and Old Irish in the late eighth or early ninth century.[39]
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  Shrine of Miosach, 11th century. May have once contained a manuscript with psalms or extracts from a Gospel[40]
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  The Soiscél Molaisse, an 11th century book shrine known with a 9th century inner wooden casing.[41]

Although most of the extant book-shaped protective shrines are mentioned in Irish annals, they were not properly described until the early 19th century, when antiquarians and collectors such as George Petrie began to seek them out from heredity collections. Most are badly damaged, including due to general wear and tear over the centuries, fires at their holding location, or more usually, having elements such as their gemstones removed for sale by their owners. A majority are now in the NMI.[42]

House (or tomb)-shaped shrines originate from both Ireland and Scotland and mostly date from the 8th or 9th centuries. Typical examples consist of a wooden core covered with silver and copper alloy plates, and were built to hold relic] of saints or martyrs from the early Church era;[43] a number held corporeal remains when found in the modern period, presumably they were parts of the saint's body.[44] Others, including the now badly damaged Breac Maodhóg, held manuscripts associated with the commemorated saint.[45][46] Like many Insular shrines, they were heavily reworked and embellished in the centuries following their initial construction, often with metal adornments or figures influenced by Romanesque sculpture.[47]

The Breac Maodhóg was probably used as a battle standard, when it would have been carried onto the battlefield by a cleric so as to offer protection to the troops and perhaps bring victory. A medieval text on the life of the patron saint of the kings of Leinster, St Maedoc of Ferns, records that the kings of Breifne sought that "the famous wonder-working Breac [was] carried thrice around them" during battle.[48]

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  The Lough Erne Shrine, 11th century, NMI.[49] The much smaller but similar shrine was found inside the larger container.[50]
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  Drawing of a shrine found in the River Shannon
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  Gable of the badly damaged but important Breac Maodhóg, showing the figure of a harpist. Late 11th century[51]
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  Saint Manchan's Shrine was heavily influenced by Viking art; 12th century.[52]

Insular croziers are types of processional bishop's staff (crozier) produced in Ireland and Scotland between c. 800 and 1200. They can be distinguished from mainland European types by their curved crooks and drop (that is, the hollow box-like extension at the end of the crook).[53][54] Symbols of office for bishops or abbots, their form is based on the idea of the shepherd as pastor of his flock. Although their production end c. 1200, they continued in use and were often refurbished and added to up to the late medieval period. Of the some 50 extant Insular croziers (including some 30 fragments), the majority are held at the NMI.[55] In craftmanship and ornamentation, the late 11th century Clonmacnoise Crozier is considered the finest of the fully intact example, followed in quality by the 11th century River Laune and c. 1100 Lismore croziers.

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  Lismore Crozier, c. 1100
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  Crozier head (fragment)
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  Crook of the Clonmacnoise Crozier, late 11th century (with the Cross of Cong in the background)
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  Drop-plate of the River Laune Crozier, late 11th century

They are often ornamented with interlace designs, geometric patterns and zoomorphic (portraying humans as non-human animals) figures. The animal designs in the earliest example, including the 9th century Prosperous Crozier, are depicted in a naturalistic manner, while many of the later examples, such as the Lismore Crozier, bear influence from both the Ringerike and later Urnes styles of Viking art.[56][57] Some of the Ringerike style animals bear close resemblance to figures on the margins of ninth-century Insular brooches.[58]