The Corleck Head
Two of the head's three faces
MaterialLimestone
Size
  • Height: 33 cm (13 in)
  • Width (max): 22.5 cm (8.9 in)
Created1st or 2nd century AD
Discoveredc. 1855
Corkick hill, County Cavan, Ireland
53°58′21″N 6°59′53″W / 53.9725°N 6.9981°W / 53.9725; -6.9981
Present locationNational Museum of Ireland, Dublin
IdentificationIA:1998:72[1]

The Corleck Head is an Irish carved stone idol usually dated to the 1st or 2nd century AD. It was found c. 1855 in either Corleck Hill or possibly in the nearby townland of Drumeague, County Cavan. It is carved from a single block of local limestone and shows a three-faced (tricephalic) stone idol whose faces have enigmatic and haunted expressions, with closely set eyes, a broad and rounded nose, and a simply drawn mouth.

As with most stone artifacts from the European Iron Age, its origin, cultural significance and function are unknown. It probably represents a Celtic god and may have been part of a larger shrine associated with a Celtic head-cult.[2] The area where it was discovered had for millennia been a site of celebration of Lughnasadh, a three-day mid-autumn harvest festival. Its design seems influenced by contemporary Romano-British and northern European iconography. The three heads may represent a trinity representing the unity of the past, present and future, ancestral mother-figures representing "strength, power and fertility",[3] or an all-knowing, all-seeing god.

The Corleck Head was discovered during the excavation of a large Neolithic site between 1832 and 1900, but was not reported to archaeologists until 1948 after its prehistoric dating was realised by the historian Thomas Barron; until then it had been placed on top of a gatepost. Today it is on permanent display at the archaeology branch of the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. It was listed in the 2011 anthology A History of Ireland in 100 Objects.[3]

Discovery and provenance

In Irish, Corleck hill is known in Irish as Sliabh na Trí nDée or Sliabh na nDée Dána, both of which roughly translate as the "Hill of the Three Gods". Archaeological evidence indicates the hill was a site of pagan worship. It is traditionally associated with the Lughnasadh, an ancient Gaelic harvest festival celebrating the god Lugh, usually held on the last Sunday of July or first Sunday of August.[4] Archaeologists believe it likely that the head was one of a series of objects placed at the site during the festival, and according to the historian Jonathan Smyth, was likely place on top of a pillar, possibly as part of a phallic symbol representing "strength and fertility".[5][6] Corleck is one of six areas in Ulster where a cluster of presumably related stone idols have been found.[lower-alpha 1][8] Other cult objects found in the area include the wooden Ralaghan Idol (c. 1096–906 BC), and the contemporary stone heads from nearby townlands of Corravilla (a small, small, spherical head) and Corraghy (a bearded head with unusually long neck).[9][10]

The Corleck head was probably hidden at the same time as the Corraghy Head, a stone bust of a bearded man, now also in the National Museum of Ireland.[2][5] A number of early sources record that the head was found alongside a now lost two-headed stone carving of a man with hair and a beard on one side, and a ram's head on the other.[11]

It was discovered c. 1855 by the local farmer James Longmore Jr while searching for stones to build a house,[12] however the exact find spot is known.[13] It was probably Corleck hill, or less likely in a quarry on the nearby Drumeague Hill.[5][11][14] After Longmore sold the farm to Sam Hall, the Corleck head was placed on the gatepost of a wall outside the farm house.[15] Emily Bryce, a relative of that family, remembered visits throwing stones at the head.[1] The head's age and significance were first recognised in 1935 by the local historian Thomas J. Barron. He contacted the National Museum of Ireland in 1937,[5] after which it was taken to Dublin for study by the archaeologist and museum's director Adolf Mahr, who secured funding to acquire it into the museum's collection.[1][16] Study of the object and its provenance preoccupied Barron until his death in 1992.[17]

Description

Face with arched brows and a more protruding nose.[11]

The Corleck head is a relatively large example of the type, being 33 cm (13 in) high and 22.5 cm (8.9 in) at its widest point.[5] Its faces, which could be male or female,[18] are similar in form and expression, but not identical; according to the archeologist Eamonn Kelly, each seems to express a different mood.[19] They all have enigmatic and difficult to read expressions, and very basic and simply described facial features. Each face has a broad and flat wedge–shaped nose, bossed eyes that are closely-set but staring, and a thin, narrow, slit mouth.[20][3] One face is heavily browed, another has a small hole at the center of its mouth, a feature of several Irish contemporary stone heads, as well as examples from Yorkshire in England, Wales and Bohemia.[21][22]

The hole under the base suggests it was created for a pedestal which would have had a tenon (a joint that connects two pieces of material).[9] This further supports the theory that it was part of a larger pre–Christian shrine.[19][23]

As with surviving Irish stone idols from the Iron Age, it is cut from limestone blocks.[24] Its simplicity of design and complexity of expression, it is widely considered the finest example of the type.[13][19] In 1972 the archaeologist and historian Etienn Rynne described it as "unlike all others in its elegance and economy of line",[9] while in 1962 the archaeologist T.G.F. Paterson wrote that only the a triple-head idol found in Cortynan, County Armagh shares features drawn from such bare outlines. According to Paterson, the simplicity of Corleck and Cortynan heads indicates a degree of sophistication of craft when compared to the often "vigorous and...barbaric style" of other contemporary examples.[10]

Dating

Face with a small hole at the centre of its mouth

Most surviving iconic (representational, as opposed to abstract) prehistoric Irish sculptures originate from the northern province of Ulster and also consist of a human head carved in the round in low relief. The majority are thought to have been produced between 300 BC and 100 AD.[25] However, the Corleck head has not received significant scholarly study,[11] and dating single pieces of Iron-Age stone sculpture is extremely difficult given that techniques such as radiocarbon dating cannot be used. In addition, the late-19th-century tendency to associate objects with mythical or a "Celtic Revival" viewpoint based on medieval texts or 19th-century romanticism, has been largely discredited.[26] Thus modern archaeologists date such objects based on their resemblance to other known examples in the contemporary Northern European context.[27]

While the majority of the stone heads found in the Northern Irish counties since the 19th century are now believed to be pre-historic, a number have since been identified as either from the Early Middle Ages or examples of 17th- or 18th-century folk art.[23]

Function

Although current knowledge of the pre-Christian Celts in Ireland is, according to Kelly, "sketchy and incomplete", the archaeological evidence suggest a complex and prosperous society that assimilated and adapted external cultural influences. Many undecorated Early Iron Age stones have been identified, as well as a small number of standing stones decorated in the La Tène style (c. 1st century BC).[28]

The Corleck Head is one of the earliest known Irish anthropomorphic stone carvings, although it post-dates by around a millennium the c. 1000–500 BC Tandragee Idol found in County Armagh c. 1912.[23][29] Many of the faces in contemporary Irish examples have similar closely-set eyes, thin mouths and flat noses.[7] The hole at the Corleck's base indicates that it was once attached to a larger structure, perhaps a pillar comparable to the 6-foot wooden carving found in the 1790s in a bog near Aghadowey, County Londonderry, which is now lost but known from a 19th-century drawing of an idol with four faces.[13]

It was likely produced as part of a wider European tradition, in a format derived from contemporary Roman Britain symbolism and iconography.[28][19] In Ancient Celtic religion, triple-head figures represented all-knowing and all-seeing gods, and symbolised the unity of the past, present and future;[30] according to the writer Miranda Aldhouse-Green, the Corleck head may have been used "to gain knowledge of places or events far away in time and space".[31]

Other comparable examples include a three-faced stone bust from Woodlands, County Donegal, and two carved triple-heads from Greetland in England.[5][32]

Notes

  1. ↑ The others are Cathedral Hill in Armagh town, the Newtownhamilton and Tynan areas in Armagh County, the most southern part of Lough Erne in County Fermanagh, and the Raphoe region in County Donegal.[7]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 Smyth (2012), p. 24
  2. 1 2 "A Face From The Past: A possible Iron Age anthropomorphic stone carving from Trabolgan, Co. Cork". National Museum of Ireland. Retrieved 22 April 2023
  3. 1 2 3 O'Toole, Fintan. "A history of Ireland in 100 objects: Corleck Head". The Irish Times, 25 June 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2022
  4. ↑ Smyth (2023), The Latin Style
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kelly (2002), p. 142
  6. ↑ Smyth (2023), The Human Head
  7. 1 2 Rynne (1972), p. 80
  8. ↑ Rynne (1972), p. 78
  9. 1 2 3 Rynne (1972), p. 84
  10. 1 2 Paterson (1962), p. 82
  11. 1 2 3 4 Waddell (1998), p. 371
  12. ↑ Smyth (2012), p. 25
  13. 1 2 3 Waddell (1998), p. 360
  14. ↑ "Thomas J Barron: Biography". Library Service, Cavan County Council. Retrieved 4 February 2022
  15. ↑ Smyth (2023), 13:45–18:44
  16. ↑ Duffy (2012), pp. 150–153
  17. ↑ Smyth (2012), p. 88
  18. ↑ Cooney (2023), p. 349
  19. 1 2 3 4 Kelly (2002), p. 132
  20. ↑ Ross (1958), p. 24
  21. ↑ Waddell (1998), pp. 360, 371
  22. ↑ Kelly (2002), pp. 132, 142
  23. 1 2 3 Waddell (1998), p. 362
  24. ↑ Rynne (1972), pp. 79–93
  25. ↑ Rynne (1972), p. 79
  26. ↑ Gleeson (2022), p. 20
  27. ↑ Morahan (1987–1988), p. 149
  28. 1 2 Kelly (1984), p. 10
  29. ↑ "The Tandragee Man—3000 year old statue". BBC, 2014. Retrieved 24 November 2022
  30. ↑ Ó Hogain (2000), p. 23
  31. ↑ Aldhouse-Green (2015), "The Seeing Stone of Corleck"
  32. ↑ Rynne (1972), plate X
  33. ↑ Waddell (1998), p. 233
  34. ↑ Rynne (1972), plate IX

Sources

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