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Gold Lunulae
The Gold lunula (plural: lunulae) is a distinctive type of late Neolithic, Chalcolithic or (most often) early Bronze Age necklace or collar shaped like a crescent moon; most are from Prehistoric Ireland. They are normally flat and thin, with roundish spatulate terminals that are often twisted to 45 to 90 degrees from the plane of the body. Gold lunulae fall into three distinct groups, termed Classical, Unaccomplished and Provincial by archaeologists. Most have been found in Ireland, but there are moderate numbers in other parts of Europe as well, from Great Britain to areas of the continent fairly near the Atlantic coasts. Although no lunula has been directly dated, from associations with other artefacts it is thought they were being made sometime in the period between 2400–2000 BC; a wooden box associated with one Irish find has recently given a radiocarbon dating range of 2460–2040 BC. Of the more than a hundred gold lunulae known from Western Europe, more than eighty ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blessington Lunula
Blessington, historically known as Ballycomeen (, from the Irish surname ''Ó Coimín''), is a town on the River Liffey in County Wicklow, Ireland, near the border with County Kildare. It is around 25 km south-west of Dublin, and is situated on the N81 road, which connects Dublin to Tullow. History Prehistory Evidence of Bronze Age activity in the area is demonstrated by the spectacular Blessington gold lunula, now in the British Museum. The nearby Rath Turtle Moat was occupied from the 12th century onward by Norse Gaels and Normans. Medieval period to 1900s Blessington was previously called ''Munfine'', and in the Medieval period was part of the lordship of Threecastles. In 1667, Michael Boyle, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, bought the lordship, previously the property of the Cheevers, for £1,000. Archbishop Boyle received a Royal Charter to establish the town of Blessington, in the townland of Munfine, as a borough. Cons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torc
A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large rigid or stiff neck ring in metal, made either as a single piece or from strands twisted together. The great majority are open at the front, although some had hook and ring closures and a few had mortice and tenon locking catches to close them. Many seem designed for near-permanent wear and would have been difficult to remove. Torcs are found in the Scythian, Illyrian, Thracian, Celtic, and other cultures of the European Iron Age from around the 8th century BC to the 3rd century AD. For the Iron Age Celts, the gold torc seems to have been a key object. It identifies the wearer as a person of high rank, and many of the finest works of ancient Celtic art are torcs. The Celtic torc disappears in the Migration Period, but during the Viking Age torc-style metal necklaces, now mainly in silver, came back into fashion. Torc styles of neck-ring are found as part of the jewellery styles of various other cultures and periods. Te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bell Beaker Culture
The Bell Beaker culture, also known as the Bell Beaker complex or Bell Beaker phenomenon, is an archaeological culture named after the inverted-bell beaker drinking vessel used at the very beginning of the European Bronze Age. Arising from around 2800 BC, it lasted in Britain until as late as 1800 BC but in continental Europe only until 2300 BC, when it was succeeded by the Unetice culture. The culture was widely dispersed throughout Western Europe, being present in many regions of Iberia and stretching eastward to the Danubian plains, and northward to the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and was also present in the islands of Sicily and Sardinia and some small coastal areas in north-western Africa. The Bell Beaker phenomenon shows substantial regional variation, and a study from 2018 found that it was associated with genetically diverse populations. The Bell Beaker culture was partly preceded by and contemporaneous with the Corded Ware culture, and in north-central E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coggalbeg Hoard
The Coggalbeg hoard is an Early Bronze Age hoard of three pieces of Irish gold jewellery dating to 2300–2000 BC. It is now in the National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology in Dublin, where it is normally on display. It was found in a bog at Coggalbeg, Roscommon in 1945, and consists of a gold lunula (a crescent shaped "little moon") and two small gold discs, of a type known from other examples, decorated with a cross motif within two circles. The pieces are flat and thin, and collectively weigh under , indicating that they were probably intended as part of a necklace. In 2017 the three objects were featured on an Irish postal stamp, one of a series showing ''A History of Ireland in 100 Objects''. O'Toole, Fintan. ''A History of Ireland in 100 Objects''. Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 2013. Discovery The hoard was discovered in 1945 by Hubert Lannon while cutting turf on his bog in Roscommon. From 1947, it was kept in a safe at Sheehan's Chemists in Strokestown, during whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portable Antiquities Scheme
The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is a voluntary programme run by the United Kingdom government to record the increasing numbers of small finds of archaeological interest found by members of the public. The scheme begun in 1997 and now covers most of England and Wales. It is primarily focused on private metal detectorists who through their hobby regularly discover artefacts that would otherwise go unrecorded. Members of the public can also report objects they have found and finds of non-metallic objects are also covered by the scheme. Finds that legally constitute treasure are dealt with through the Treasure Act 1996. This however concentrates on precious metals, prehistoric base metal, and finds in association with them. Non-prehistoric base metal and non-metal finds would not be recognised as treasure and therefore be unrecorded. The PAS exists to fill this gap. The scheme funds the posts of Finds Liaison Officers (FLOs) at county councils or local museums to whom finders ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira. It features the westernmost point in continental Europe, and its Iberian portion is bordered to the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean and to the north and east by Spain, the sole country to have a land border with Portugal. Its two archipelagos form two autonomous regions with their own regional governments. Lisbon is the capital and largest city by population. Portugal is the oldest continuously existing nation state on the Iberian Peninsula and one of the oldest in Europe, its territory having been continuously settled, invaded and fought over since prehistoric times. It was inhabited by pre-Celtic and Celtic peoples who had contact with Phoenicians and Ancient Greek traders, it was ruled by the Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coimbra
Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto Metropolitan Area, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest city of the Coimbra (district), district of Coimbra and the Centro Region, Portugal, Centro Region. About 460,000 people live in the Região de Coimbra, comprising 19 municipalities and extending into an area of . Among the many archaeological structures dating back to the Roman Empire, Roman era, when Coimbra was the settlement of Aeminium, are its well-preserved aqueduct (watercourse), aqueduct and cryptoporticus. Similarly, buildings from the period when Coimbra was the capital of Portugal (from 1131 to 1255) still remain. During the late Middle Ages, with its decline as the political centre of the Kingdom of Portugal, Coimbra began to evolve into a major cultural centre. This was in large part helped by the establ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chariot
A chariot is a type of cart driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, dated to c. 2000 BCE. The critical invention that allowed the construction of light, horse-drawn chariots was the spoked wheel. The chariot was a fast, light, open, two-wheeled conveyance drawn by two or more horses that were hitched side by side, and was little more than a floor with a waist-high guard at the front and sides. It was initially used for ancient warfare during the Bronze and Iron Ages, but after its military capabilities had been superseded by light and heavy cavalries, chariots continued to be used for travel and transport, in processions, for games, and in races. Etymology The word "chariot" comes from the Latin term ''carrus'', a loanword from Gaulish. In ancient Rome and some other ancient Mediterranean civilizations, a ''biga'' re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Tène Culture
The La Tène culture (; ) was a European Iron Age culture. It developed and flourished during the late Iron Age (from about 450 BC to the Roman conquest in the 1st century BC), succeeding the early Iron Age Hallstatt culture without any definite cultural break, under considerable Mediterranean influence from the Greeks in pre-Roman Gaul, the Etruscans, and the Golasecca culture, but whose artistic style nevertheless did not depend on those Mediterranean influences. La Tène culture's territorial extent corresponded to what is now France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, England, Southern Germany, the Czech Republic, parts of Northern Italy and Central Italy, Slovenia and Hungary, as well as adjacent parts of the Netherlands, Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia, Transylvania (western Romania), and Transcarpathia (western Ukraine). The Celtiberians of western Iberia shared many aspects of the culture, though not generally the artistic style. To the north extended the contemporary Pre-Roma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Triskele
A triskelion or triskeles is an ancient motif consisting of a triple spiral exhibiting rotational symmetry. The spiral design can be based on interlocking Archimedean spirals, or represent three bent human legs. It is found in artefacts of the European Neolithic and Bronze Age with continuation into the Iron Age especially in the context of the La Tène culture and related Celtic traditions. The actual ''triskeles'' symbol of three human legs is found especially in Greek antiquity, beginning in archaic pottery and continued in coinage of the classical period. In the Hellenistic period, the symbol becomes associated with the island of Sicily, appearing on coins minted under Dionysius I of Syracuse beginning in BCE. It later appears in heraldry, and, other than in the flag of Sicily, came to be used in the flag of the Isle of Man (known as ''ny tree cassyn'' "the three legs"). Greek (''triskelḗs'') means "three-legged". While the Greek adjective "three-legged .g. o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Llyn Cerrig Bach
Llyn Cerrig Bach is a small lake located between Rhosneigr and Valley in the west of Anglesey, Wales. Whilst it is not one of the largest lakes on the island (around 1.8 acres), its claim to fame is the group of over 150 Iron Age metal objects discovered there in 1942, apparently placed in the lake as votive offerings. These finds are considered to be one of the most important collections of La Tène style metalwork, or Early Celtic art discovered in the British Isles, and the most important in Wales. Archaeological Site The discovery was made by William Owen Roberts, head groundsman of RAF Valley, when ground was being cleared for a runway extension. This involved spreading peat over the sandy ground, and the items were discovered during the extraction of peat from the Cors yr Ynys bog on the southern margin of Llyn Cerrig Bach. The first object to be found was an iron gang chain, used for slaves. This was caught up in the teeth of a harrow and was not at first identified as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly applied to Iron Age Europe and the Ancient Near East, but also, by analogy, to other parts of the Old World. The duration of the Iron Age varies depending on the region under consideration. It is defined by archaeological convention. The "Iron Age" begins locally when the production of iron or steel has advanced to the point where iron tools and weapons replace their bronze equivalents in common use. In the Ancient Near East, this transition took place in the wake of the Bronze Age collapse, in the 12th century BC. The technology soon spread throughout the Mediterranean Basin region and to South Asia (Iron Age in India) between the 12th and 11th century BC. Its further spread to Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and Central Europe is somewhat dela ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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