Corleck Head

The Corleck Head is a 1st or 2nd century AD carved stone head found on Corleck Hill in the townland of Drumeague, County Cavan, Ireland c. 1855. It consists of a three-faced (or tricephalic) stone pagan god or idol wearing equally enigmatic facial expression, carved from a single block of limestone. The heads rest on a short neck base carved from the same block.

The Corleck Head
Materiallimestone
SizeHeight 33cm; maximum width 22.5cm
Created1st or 2nd century AD
DiscoveredAfter 1855
Drumeague, County Cavan, Ireland
Present locationNational Museum of Ireland, Dublin

As with most object from the early Iron Age, its exact cultural origin and function are unknown, it most likely represents a Celtic god and was once part of a larger shrine. Its design is influenced by contemporary Romano-British iconography of either a trinity representing the unity of the past, present and future,[1] the three female deities known as the Matres and Matronae often represented as three ancestral mothers, representing "strength, power and fertility",[2] or an all-knowing god with "all-seeing eyes".

The Corleck head was discovered between 1855 and (at latest) 1900 during the dismantlement of a Neolithic site, but was not reported to archeologists until 1948 after its prehistoric dating was realised by the historian Thomas James Barron, until then it had been placed an top of a gatepost. Today it is on permanent display at the archaeology branch of the National Museum of Ireland (NMI), Dublin. It was included in A History of Ireland in 100 Objects (# 19) in 2011.[2]

Description

The head is relatively large, being 33 cm high and 22.5 cm at its widest point.[3] Each of the three faces has very simple and only slightly individualised features. Each has, according to the archeologist Eamonn P. Kelly, "bossed eyes, a broad nose and slit mouth", but they are given equally enigmatic but slightly different facial expressions.[2] In addition, one face is heavily browed and another has a small hole at the center of its mouth (a feature in several contemporary carved heads found in Yorkshire).[4]

The small hole under the statue's base suggests it was intended to hang on a pedestal, probably as part of a shrine or another type of larger display.[5] While its function is unknown, it probably represents a Celtic god, in a format derived from contemporary Romano-British iconography and symbolism.[5] The triple head seems to indicate an "all-knowing", "all-seeing" god, that according to writer Miranda Aldhouse-Green "used to gain knowledge of places or events far away in time and space".[6]

Discovery
View of the sculpture with two faces in view

The date and exact circumstances of the head's discovery are unknown but estimated to have occurred as around 1855 or at latest 1900. It was found at a quarry on Drumeague Hill during the disassembly of a passage grave located within a stone circle and 64 meter circular embankment complex on the nearby Corleck Hill.[3][7] The site was traditionally associated with the Lughnasadh, a Gaelic harvest festival, suggesting that the head was one of a series of objects placed at the site during the festival.[3] The head is likely to have been hidden along with the "Corraghy Head", a carved stone bust of a bearded man.[3]

The head spent much of its time after its discovery on top of a gatepost outside the Hall family farm. A friend of the family recalled spending "days as children on a day visit" throwing stones at the head.[8] It was first recogonised as ancient in 1935 by the historian Thomas James Barron. He contacted the NMI in 1937, and it was brought to Dublin by the archaeologist and the then museum director the archaeologist Adolf Mahr, who later secured funding to acquire it into the museum's collection. Study of the object preoccupied Barron until his death in 1978, and it became closely associated with him.[8][9] His work was followed by the 1972 pamphlet "Celtic Stone Idols in Ireland" by the archaeologist and scholar Etienne Rynne (1932–2012).[10]

Similar objects

A number of Iron Age three-faced stone idols survive, most of which are similarly cut out of a large limestone block.[11] Of there the Corleck Head is widely considered one of the finest in its simplicity of design and is similar to a triple head from in Cortynan, County Armagh before 1935, an object found in Clejbjerg, Jutland, Denmark,[12] and two carved triple heads from Greetland, Halifax, England.[3] Of all the known examples, the Corleck Head has been described as "the finest of its type."[3]

  • One of the sculpture's faces
  • A third face

References

Ciations
  1. Ó Hogain (2000), p. 23
  2. O'Toole, Fintan. "A history of Ireland in 100 objects: Corleck Head". The Irish Times, 25 June 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2022
  3. Kelly (2002), p. 142
  4. Kelly (2002), pp. 132, 142
  5. Kelly (2002), p. 132
  6. Aldhouse-Green (2015), "The Seeing Stone of Corleck"
  7. "Thomas J Barron: Biography". Library Service, Cavan County Council. Retrieved 4 February 2022
  8. Smyth (2012), p. 24
  9. Duffy, Patrick. "Reviewed Work: Landholding, Society and Settlement In Ireland: a historical geographer's perspective by T. Jones Hughes". Clogher Record, volume 21, No. 1 (2012), pp. 150–153. JSTOR 41917586
  10. "Professor of archaeology and renowned scholar drawn to a range of subjects". The Irish Times, 14 July 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2022
  11. Rynne (1972), pp. 79-93
  12. Paterson (1962), p. 82

Sources
  • Aldhouse-Green, Miranda. The Celtic Myths: A Guide to the Ancient Gods and Legends. London: Thames and Hudson, 2015. ISBN 978-0-5002-5209-3
  • Armit, Ian. "Headhunting and the Body in Iron Age Europe". Cambridge University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-5218-7756-5
  • Kelly, Eamonn. "The Iron Age". In Ó Floinn, Raghnal; Wallace, Patrick (eds). Treasures of the National Museum of Ireland: Irish Antiquities. National Museum of Ireland, 2002. ISBN 978-0-7171-2829-7
  • Kelly, Eamonn. "Treasures of Ireland: Catalogue entries, Late Bronze Age and Iron Age Antiquities". Treasures of Ireland: Irish Art 3000 BC – 1500 AD. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1983
  • Morahan, Leo. "A Stone Head from Killeen, Belcarra, Co. Mayo". Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society, volume 41, 1987–1988. JSTOR 25535584
  • Ó Hogain, Dáithí. "Patronage & Devotion in Ancient Irish Religion". History Ireland, volume 8, no. 4, winter, 2000. JSTOR 27724824
  • Paterson, T.G.F. "Carved Head from Cortynan, Co. Armagh". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, volume 92, No. 1, 1962. JSTOR 25509461
  • Rynne, Etienn. Celtic Stone Idols in Ireland. Council for British Archaeology, 1972
  • Smyth, Jonathan. "Gentleman and Scholar: Thomas James Barron, 1903 - 1992". Cumann Seanchais Bhreifne (Breifne Historical Society), 2012. ISBN 978-0-9534-9937-3
  • Waddell, John. The Prehistoric Archaeology of Ireland. Galway: Galway University Press, 1998
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