Ireland: Jun 5 - The Archaeology Museum

Today we are visiting the National Archaeology Museum in the medieval part of Dublin. First thing we do is hop on one of the local city buses like this one.

Here we are at the entrance to the Museum.

We started out by working our way thru the prehistoric starting with the Stone Age. Here are some examples of stone axes.

And some what more advanced are these chipped knives and spear points. The stone that was used for these items was only available in certain areas so these show that some sort of trade system had developed.

Here is an example of a stone tool that would have been used for clearing ground planting.

Here is a model of a passage tomb similar to what we saw at New Grange and Knowth.

Here was a boat that was found in one of the bogs. It is a hollowed out tree trunk and was about 20 feet long.

Here is an example of a type of mortar and pestle used for grinding grain.

This was a small colorful item that had been carefully ground and polished. Its quality is such that it must have been used for religious purposes.

Now we are in the bronze age and these are examples of bronze ax heads that had been cast.

Here are some bronze swords.

And bronze spear points.

This is an example of a couple of the stone molds that was used to cast the above items.

Here are example of bronze shields, swords and horns.

And an early example of a wheel.

They also had a lot of gold jewelry. This item was hung on a chain around your neck so it was some sort of breast plate.

Here is some more gold jewelry. The semicircular items with the disks on the end are some form of bracelet. The disk shaped cases are earring that were filled with something and then inserted in a hole is the ear lobe as we see today in some African societies.

The next area we entered had examples of human bodies that they had found in the bogs. These were all some sort of ritual killing and burial but they're not sure what the reason for the killing was.

For this one they only found the top half of the body. These are found during harvesting of peat and often by the time they are discovered the machinery has torn up a good chunk of the body.

Here is another body that is almost complete. Almost all of the bodies found are of fairly young men that had been killed and had not died of natural causes.

Next we entered the are call the Treasury which had high end jewelry or religious items. For example, this necklace is made from a flat strip of gold that has been twisted.

This is an example of the head of a crozier which is the ceremonial staff carried by a bishop.

Here is an example of a chalice.

These are reliquaries that are used to carry relics of a saint.

Here is another example of a chalice.

This little gold boat model that was found in an old tomb and is in the design of a Viking ship and is believed to have some religious significance.

This is the world famous Tara Brooch which dates to about 700 and is considered to be the most impressive of over 59 brooches that have been discovered. Even though it is called the Tara Brooch it has no know connection with the Hill of Tara or the Irish High Kings, These brooches were used to secure cloaks and the wealthy had these elaborate brooches made so they could display their wealth.

Here is another example but this one is missing all of its jewels.

Another reliquary, this one is believe to have been made to hold an ancient bell that was thought to belong to St. Patrick.

A lot of these items were found in peat bogs. This photo has a man showing where in the bog he found an item. Looking at this picture you can get an idea how deep some of these peat bogs are.

The next area we entered was about the Battle of Clontarf in April 1014. This battle took place between the forces of Brian Boru who was the High King of Ireland versus the Viking leader of the City of Dublin and his forces. Dublin had submitted to Brian in 1002 but in 1012 had rebelled so Brian marched on the city. The battle took place near the village of Clontarf just to the north of Dublin and Brian's forces won but only after heavy losses one both sides. After the battle, Brian and a small party were camped when escaping enemy forces stumbled over them and Brian, who was about 72, was killed. This photo shows a typical ax which was the favorite battle weapon of the Vikings and the Irish at this time and tells the story of the man who was High King before Brian and then after his death.