CLOTHING AND JEWELLERY
Late Bronze Age
Late Bronze Age
The Late Bronze Age after around 900 BCE was an extremely productive period noted for a very high degree of all the skills necessary to make a range and variety of quality gold work that falls into two main categories. Solid objects, cast or made from bars and ingots, such as bracelets, dress-fasteners and neck-rings, contrast with gorgets, ear-spools and discs made of sheet gold.
The gold dress fastener found in Clones, Co. Monaghan, dates from the 8th century BCE. It is pure gold and weighs over 1000 grammes, it has a length of 21.5 centimetres. It functioned as a double button meant to slip through two holes in a garment such as a cloak. The largeness and elaborate decoration on the surface probably meant it was only worn infrequently for ceremonial occasions.
It is decorated with many small circular shapes engraved into it. Three bands of parallel lines, separated by bands with diagonal hatching, run around the bases of the bow. A hatched chevron design runs around the margins of this band of decoration, both above and below. The exterior surfaces of the terminals are magnificently decorated with small pits surrounded by concentric engraved circles, scattered freehand and occasionally touching one another.
The gold dress fastener found in Clones, Co. Monaghan, dates from the 8th century BCE. It is pure gold and weighs over 1000 grammes, it has a length of 21.5 centimetres. It functioned as a double button meant to slip through two holes in a garment such as a cloak. The largeness and elaborate decoration on the surface probably meant it was only worn infrequently for ceremonial occasions.
It is decorated with many small circular shapes engraved into it. Three bands of parallel lines, separated by bands with diagonal hatching, run around the bases of the bow. A hatched chevron design runs around the margins of this band of decoration, both above and below. The exterior surfaces of the terminals are magnificently decorated with small pits surrounded by concentric engraved circles, scattered freehand and occasionally touching one another.
Among the more dramatic gold items of the Late Bronze Age are large gorgets, made mainly from sheet gold, that would have been worn on the breast. Among the other showy items worn as objects of prestige, were large ear-spools that would have been inserted into ear lobes specially perforated and stretched for the purpose. Small penannular rings, known as ring-money may in fact have been ornaments for the ears or nose. Eleven large graduated spheres with lateral perforations from Tumna, Co. Roscommon were once strung together to form a necklace, while a variety of gold bracelets, pins, and dress-fasteners would also have formed part of the personal ornaments worn by powerful and wealthy members of Irish society during the Late Bronze Age
The Gorget refers to a more elaborate form of the lunula, it is crescentic in shape, worked in gold and attached to two decorated discs at each end. Only eight of these collars are known to exist at this time. The most famous collar of the "gorget" type was found in Glenisheen, Co. Clare in 1932. It dates to the 8th century BCE and is a semi-circular shape with two elaborate disc shapes at either end. It was found in a rock crevice in the Burren area of Co. Clare and it is remarkably well preserved, it is c.31 cm in maximum diameter. There is some amazingly intricate repoussé work on this piece of hammered gold, with rope design and ribbing. Everything is cylindrical and coiled like snakes: typical is the prevalent concentric circles.