Bronze brooch rises from the ashes [ medieval Ireland ]

Irish Times ^ | Thursday, February 4, 2010 | Anne Lucey

[SunkenCiv]

A 1,400-year-old brooch dating from the early Christian period has been discovered in the remnants of a turf fire in a range in north Kerry.

It is believed the brooch fastened the cloak of a clergyman and was dropped, probably on a forest road which later became bog. It ended up in a sod of turf in the range of Sheila and Pat Joe Edgeworth at Martara, Ballylongford, near the Shannon estuary. Lands alongside the Shannon are chequered with early Christian ruins and holy wells.

The bronze brooch was found shortly before Christmas by Ms Edgeworth when she was cleaning out her range.

The turf had been cut by machine and drawn from the Edgeworths' bog at nearby Tullahennel last summer.

The find has been hailed by archaeologists as most exciting.

Pat Joe Edgeworth told the Kerryman newspaper: "Sheila found it while cleaning the grate. 'What in the name of God is this?' she asked me. I said it looked like half a donkey's mouth-bit, as they were always drawing turf out with donkeys. It was blackened from the fire, but as we looked at it closer and cleaned it up I had a good idea it was a brooch, because it was similar to the ones I had seen in books," he said.

Known by archaeologists as a "zoomorphic penannular brooch", it is a type that was developed in Ireland in the sixth and seventh centuries following earlier examples from Roman Britain.

[SunkenCiv]

:’) Thanks!