LSoc 1808,30

NOTES ON SOME IRISH ANTIQUITIES DEPOSITED WITH THE ACADEMY. BY EDWARD PERCEVAL WRIGHT, M.D., President of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, Ireland.

[Read DECEMBER 10, 1900.]

Ar a General Meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, held in Dublin on the 12th of April, 1899, it was resolved-"That the Council are authorized to deposit with the Royal Irish Academy a number of Antiquities (scheduled), on condition that the Academy consent to have the same placed on view in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, and that they be marked or labelled as 'deposited by the Royal Society of Antiquaries, Ireland."" These conditions were accepted by the Royal Irish Academy, and the specimens are now handed over to the care and custody of the Academy. It has been considered advisable that a short statement of the nature of the Antiquities deposited should be printed; hence the following Notes.

With the exception of the skulls described under (10), all the specimens were found outside the existing limits of the county of Kilkenny. It having been thought advisable that the Museum at Kilkenny should contain only those Antiquities found within the county, the necessity became great for the proper preservation of the remarkable Antiquities presented to the Society, which had been found outside this area.

The following notes are mostly compiled from the pages of the Journal of the Society, to which references are given :

(1). A Stone, with Cup-and-Ring Markings.-This stone was found on the Ponsonby Estate, in the neighbourhood of Youghal, about twenty-five years ago, the markings on it present a very characteristic example of a cup-like depression, surrounded by seven concentric circles, grooved in the stone, a straight grooved channel extends from the central cavity through the whole of the circles, and projects a little beyond the outermost circle.

The stone is said to have been found with others which were unmarked; it was buried in the soil; the material seems to be a hard

R.I.A. PROC., SER. III., VOL. VI.

Y

whinstone; it has been carefully figured and described by the late W. F. Wakeman in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, Ireland, vol. xvii., c. s. Besides the principal scribing, a number of separate cup-markings are to be found.

These cup-markings in Ireland are very often to be found on rocks in situ, but are also to be met with on detached boulders, the present specimen being only thirty-three inches by twenty-six inches, and averaging twelve inches in thickness makes it a very desirable specimen for a Museum.

(2). Crannoge Timber, showing mortices.-In 1870, our Member, Mr. Thomas Plunkett, called the late Mr. Wakeman's attention to a crannoge at Ballydoo Lough, some five miles from Enniskillen, not far from the old road to Tempo.

The story of how Mr. Wakeman explored this crannoge, and of the very interesting remains which he found in it, are to be found in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, Ireland, vol. xi., c. s., with numerous illustrations from his pencil.

Among the most important of the finds was that of a timber-framed house or hut which occupied the central and most elevated portion of the crannoge. The timber was oak, and the well-squared planks were not only grooved but mortised for the insertion of upright timbers. The late Earl of Enniskillen, hearing of this crannoge, visited the site, and secured the timbers of the log-house and the other remains for presentation to the Museum at Kilkenny, where they were to have been placed forming the entrance door to a "Crannoge Room."

Mr. Wakeman tells the story of how when the timber was carted to the Railway Station at Enniskillen for booking to Kilkenny, the railway porters at first refused to accept "such rubbish, as there was not one sound piece in the whole lot, and the carriage would never be paid at Kilkenny." Lord Enniskillen's name had to be invoked, and after some more controversy the "rubbish" was sent off.

The Museum at Kilkenny was far too small to enable this timber to be properly displayed, but now it may be hoped that it has found its last resting-place.

(3). Various fragments of Pottery from Crannoge Finds outside of the County of Kilkenny.-From time to time, as papers on Crannoges were read before the Royal Society of Antiquaries, Ireland, collections of fragments of Pottery found in them were exhibited; in some cases these fragments were found in considerable numbers, so that a partial restoration of the vessels would be possible, the preservation and

restoration of such requires not only skilled labour, but also considerable space, and so it was thought desirable that these remains should be deposited in the Royal Irish Academy Museum where they would be both housed and cared for.

(4). Various fragments of Sepulchral Urns.-As in the case of the pottery found in crannoges, so in the cases, which were somewhat numerous, of pottery forming urns found in the various forms of sepulchres discovered outside the bounds of the County of Kilkenny. (5). A much-mended Bronze Vessel.-I have been unable to trace the history of this interesting vessel, the shape of which will be best understood. from the accompanying figure, from a drawing made by Miss Simpson. I am indebted to Mr. Coffey for the following measurements:-The height is 12 inches; the diameter of the mouth varies from 11 to 12 inches; the diameter of the base is 5 inches; greatest diameter at shoulder 12 inches.

Mended Bronze Vessel.

(6). A Necklace of Stone Beads.Early in 1849, Mr. Shearman, of Kilkenny, exhibited at a meeting of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, Ireland, a collection of large jet beads, which appeared to have formed portion of a necklace of large size. These beads had been found about two years previously under six feet of turf-mould in Main Bog near Cullohil, in the Queen's County, and had been thrown up while digging the foundations of a bridge. The beads exhibited were ten in number, somewhat rudely formed, imperfectly polished, and of various sizes; the prevailing form was a flattened oval or egg-shape, two of them had a small projection or ridge formed round the extremities of the hole with which they were pierced. The two largest weighed three and a-half ounces each, the smallest weighed 13 pennyweights, 7 grains. The number of beads originally found was said to be eighteen or twenty, but they had been given away from time to time by their original owner; when found they were not strung together.

Some will remember the splendid collection of Irish Antiquities exhibited in the Archæological Court of the 1853 Dublin Exhibition.

Among the treasures sent up to Dublin on that occasion from Kilkenny was this necklace; and in an adjoining case, exhibited by this Academy, were a few similar beads, which Mr. Richard Hitchcock believed formed part of the original set.1

(7). A Stone Mould for a Celt.-This stone mould was found by James Aylward while reclaiming a bog at Ballydagh, in the barony of Iverk. It was found about four feet below the surface. The material is a hard grit; there is an excellent drawing of it in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquities, Ireland, vol. vii., c. s., p. 307. It was a mould for what is called a pocketed, or perhaps as Ellacombe suggested, better called a "socketed" celt. It may be noted that Du Noyer gives several very ingenious hints about this mould, and especially about the upper portion with the cruciform ridges.2

(8). Small Stone Box with Inner Wooden Box.-Dromiskin, in the County of Louth, has an ancient history; it formed part of the territory of Cuchullain; we find early mention in the Irish Annals of ecclesiastical buildings at this place; some remains of its Monastery are said to be recognisable in the garden-wall of Dromiskin House. Its Round Tower is a National Monument; the ground between the Monastery walls and the Round Tower was probably once a burial ground. Sometime, apparently in 1862, the then tenant had removed about five feet of rich soil from the surface of the ground, and in doing so had come upon a cist about 6 feet long, 24 feet wide, 14 feet deep. The remains of a human skeleton were in the grave; the skull, which had lost its face bones, is now on the table, and the stone box, the present object of notice, was found by the side of the skull. This stone box was of a hard close-grained grit, the cover was of green stone rubbed into shape, and fitting closely into the rabbet made to receive it, but it does not slide into its place beneath a dovetail. The timber box was cut from a solid piece of yew wood, and was made to fit tightly into the stone box. The bottom and the lower parts of the sides were broken into small fragments. The lid was slid into a dovetail rabbet and was closed with a spring. The cover was lined on the outside by thin leather which concealed the spring fastening and its rivets. Inside the inner box was a single pin of bright yellow bronze. The pin had evidently

1 Journal, Royal Society of Antiquaries, Ireland, vol. ii., c. s., p. 32, and vol. ii., c. s., p. 287.

2 Loc. cit., p. 380.

been broken before being placed in the box; when perfect the box would not have contained it.

A great deal of interest has been excited by the discovery of this, as far as I know, unique specimen, and there has been some controversy as to the date of the burial, one writer fixing it "at or about the introduction of Christianity into Ireland." Dr. Thurnham, from the mechanical details of the little yew box, seems more correctly to assign it to the Medieval period, and to regard the remains as those of a member of the ecclesiastical buildings which still exist. One would like to know the mystery of this broken pin, so treasured up in life and then buried in the grave, but this is hopeless. Bronze pin and needle cases have been found in Eastern excavations, such as those in bronze found at Salamis, but such throw no light on the box now exhibited. This object was given to the Kilkenny Museum by the Right Hon. John Wynne.1

(9). Portion of a Pastoral Staff.-In March, 1854, Mr. James F. Blake, of Ballynemona, presented to the Kilkenny Museum the head of an ancient Irish pastoral staff, which had been in his family for a considerable period; he could not say how it came into his family, or to what part of Ireland it originally belonged; his longest recollection of it was its being used as a plaything by the children of the house. He remembered that when he first knew it it was about two feet long in the staff, and it had two more bosses of intertwined lacertine work below those still remaining. The staff itself was covered with thin plates of silver, the pilfering of which was possibly the cause of the reduction in the size of the staff. The wood appeared to be yew, over which, at this moment, some small remnants of silver coating were to be found. The peculiarly shaped head was of bronze and nearly devoid of ornament. The recurved dragon heads had their eyes filled in, two with red enamel and two with silver; the red eyes were on one side of the heads the silver ones on the other.

This staff has been examined by Petrie, Todd, Graves, Albert Way, and Westwood, and has been described and figured by James Graves: in the judgment of all, so far as Ireland is concerned, it is unique. I am glad that it now should form one of the fine series of Pastoral Staffs which enriches our Museum, and I venture to express the hope that we may some day have an illustrated catalogue of this portion of our Ecclesiastical Antiquities. Wilde had begun the collection of the materials for such; a great deal has been added since then; and

1 Journal, Royal Society of Antiquaries, Ireland, vol. vii., c. s., p. 201.