Abstract
EXCEPTIONAL interest is attached to the finds which have been made by the Harvard University Archæological Expedition in excavating a crannog at Ballinderry, near Moate, Co. Westmeath, Ireland, and an early bronze age cairn at Knockast nearby. The excavations are in charge of Dr. H. O'Neill Hencken, whose recent book on Cornwall in the “County Archæologies” series, has given him an assured place among authorities on British archæology. The crannog was first identified by Dr. Adolf Mahr, of the National Museum of Ireland, some four years ago, when a Viking sword was found in the course of cutting a drain across the bog. The island constituting the crannog is built up of layers of brushwood and peat contained by timber piles, on which lay a substructure of massive timbers supporting further layers of peat and brushwood and the floor of a circular dwelling. Above this, and built some time later, were two smaller rectangular houses. Judging from the animal remains, the inhabitants were both hunters and herdsmen, while the coulter of a plough and querns indicate their practice of agriculture. In place of pottery they used well-turned wooden vessels, made on a lathe, and barrels made of staves and hoops. Among the tools and weapons of iron was a Viking battle-axe. The remains are dated at about A.D. 1000. The most remarkable finds were a hanging lamp and a gaming board. The former is described by a correspondent of the Times, who gives an account of the discovery in the issue of Oct. 7, as “the finest bronze which has yet come to light in excavation in Ireland”. It is a pointed oval, with three hanging chains attached to animal heads, and is decorated with rosettes and an acanthus scroll. It will be interesting to hear Mr. Kendrick's analysis of its relation to the British hanging bowls, from which descent is claimed for it. The wooden gaming board has forty-nine holes and is bordered with carved Celtic patterns, said to be the finest Viking object known from Ireland.
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Excavations in Westmeath, Ireland. Nature 130, 574–575 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130574c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130574c0