User:Ceoil/Celtic stone heads

History

The Tandragee Idol,c. 1000 – c. 500 BC. St Patrick's Cathedral (COI), Armagh

The earliest European stone idol heads appeared in the Nordic countries in the late Bronze Age, where they continued to be produced, including in Iceland, until the end of the Viking Age in the 11th century AD. The very early examples resemble contemporary full-length wooden figures, and both types are assumed to have been created for cultic sites. However, early examples are rare; only around eight known pre-historic Nordic stone heads have been identified. The type spread across Northern Europe, with the most numerous examples appearing in both the northeast and southeast of Gaul and across the British Isles in the Romano-British period (between 43 and 410 AD). Most scholars believe that the British and Irish heads were a combination of abstract Celtic art and the monumentalism of Roman sculpture.

The "Lustymore" Janus figure, Boa Island, c. 400–800 AD

The early forms of Ancient Celtic religion were introduced to Ireland around 400 BC. From surviving artefacts, it can be assumed that both multi-headed (as with the Corraghy head) or multi-faced idols were a common part of their iconography and represented all-knowing and all-seeing gods, symbolising the unity of the past, present and future. According to the archaeologist Miranda Aldhouse-Green, the Corleck Head may have been used "to gain knowledge of places or events far away in time and space".

Typically, they were utilised at larger cult or worship sites, of which the known examples are usually near holy wells or sacred groves. The hole at its base indicates that it was once attached to a larger structure, perhaps a pillar comparable to the now lost six ft (1.8 m) wooden structure found in the 1790s in a bog near Aghadowey, County Londonderry, which was capped with a figure with four heads.

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
• Ross, Anne. The Pagan Celts. Denbighshire: John Jones, 1998. ISBN 978-1-8710-8361-3
• Ross, Anne. Druids: Preachers of Immortality. Cheltenham: The History Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-7524-1433-1
• Ross, Anne. "A Celtic Three-faced Head from Wiltshire". Antiquity volume 41, 1967
• Ross, Anne. "The Human Head in Insular Pagan Celtic Religion". Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, volume 91, 1958
• Rynne, Etienn. "Celtic Stone Idols in Ireland". In: Thomas, Charles. The Iron Age in the Irish Sea province: papers given at a C.B.A. conference held at Cardiff, January 3 to 5, 1969. London: Council for British Archaeology, 1972
• Waddell, John. Pagan Ireland: Ritual and Belief in Another World. Dublin: Wordwell Books, 2023. ISBN 978-1-9167-4202-4
• Zachrisson, Torun. "The Enigmatic Stone Faces: Cult Images from the Iron Age?". In Semple, Sarah; Orsini, Celia; Mui, Sian (eds). Life on the Edge: Social, Political and Religious Frontiers in Early Medieval Europe. Hanover: Hanover Museum, 2017. ISBN 978-3-9320-3077-2