Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context 1789699916, 9781789699913, 9781789699920

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Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment

2

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Rena Maguire

Archaeopress Archaeology

Archaeopress Publishing Ltd Summertown Pavilion 18-24 Middle Way Summertown Oxford OX2 7LG www.archaeopress.com

ISBN 978-1-78969-991-3 ISBN 978-1-78969-992-0 (e-Pdf)

© Archaeopress and Rena Maguire 2021 Cover: Image of Irish Late Iron Age snaffle, by kind permission of © Dr Robert Sands and UCD School of Archaeology teaching collection.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owners. This book is available direct from Archaeopress or from our website www.archaeopress.com

Contents Contents������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������i List of Figures��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������iv List of Tables�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������v List of Plates����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������vi Acknowledgements���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������viii Glossary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������x Chapter 1 ‘For want of a horse, the rider was lost’: An introduction to Irish Iron Age tack������������������������������1 Introducing the Iron (Age) horse�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������1 Research questions: aims and objectives ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������2 Chapter 2 The Irish Iron Age horse in context: Literature and legend����������������������������������������������������������������6 Introducing the issues������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������6 A horse with no name: unknown breeds of the Iron Age�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������6 Horses and heroes: status and deposition practices���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������7 Into the mystic: druids, scholars, and political agendas��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������9 Lost in translation: The Ulster Cycle and Irish equitation���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������10 Ancient problems, modern times���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������12 Looking to Europe�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������14 Chapter 3 The Irish Iron Age bridle: Form, function, use-wear, and fit������������������������������������������������������������ 17 A practical introduction to bitting�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������17 Summary of methods used in analysis������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������18 Understanding the function of the bits and hackamore types of the Irish Iron Age������������������������������������������������18 Identifying the Irish Iron Age bit types����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������20 Type A�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������21 Type B�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������22 Type C�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������22 Type D ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������22 Type E�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������22 Centre links����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������22 Stop-studs������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������23 Cheek rings����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������24 Description, background, and function of the Irish Y-piece�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������24 Y-piece types�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������25 Examining use-wear on bits and Y-pieces������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������26 Use-wear results: Bits ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������27 Use-wear results: Y-pieces��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������28 Repairs �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������28 The Dead Pony Club: reconstructing the Irish Iron Age bridle�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������29 Methods used to estimate sizes of horses present in the Irish Iron Age���������������������������������������������������������������������30 Chapter 4 Decoration, symbolism, and evolution of Irish Iron Age tack����������������������������������������������������������� 35 Designs on Celtic Identity?��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������35 The beginnings of insular La Tène art styles.�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������36 La Tène-derivative styles in Ireland. ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������36 Looking at the pictures: analytical methods used�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������37 Analysis of symbol use on Y-pieces�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������38 Analysis of symbol use on bits��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������39 Stop stud design��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������41 Symbolism and morphology as identity���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������42 Mouthpiece morphology of Irish bits��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������43 i

Recurring decorative relief themes on Irish La Tène-derivative bits and Y-pieces�������������������������������������������������� 44 Irish bit morphology: Societal change and superstition����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 47 Chapter 5 ‘Horses make a landscape look more beautiful’: Distribution, deposition, and landscape�������������52 A landscape of objects?������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 52 Methods of analysis������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 53 Distribution ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 53 Landscape analysis�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 53 Pastures new: where were the grazing lands of the Late Iron Age horses?��������������������������������������������������������������� 54 Distribution of Irish Iron Age tack in Ireland, England and Wales������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 56 Distribution of Bits�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 57 Distribution of Y-pieces������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 60 Hoard locations�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 63 Find clusters������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 65 Landscape features and commonalities��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 70 Water depositions: rivers and lakes���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 72 Dry-land depositions: commonage����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 72 ‘Heroic’ and folkloric sites�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 73 Re-use of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age sites�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 73 Sites replaced by Early Medieval ecclesiastical installations��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 74 All roads lead to Rome: tracks, memorials and roadside gods������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 74 Chapter 6 Under the influence: Looking for the regional and cultural origins of Late Iron Age Irish tack����77 Finding a context����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 77 British Tack: form and function���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 78 Summarised comparison���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 79 British single-bar bits ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 80 Summarised comparison���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 81 British single-jointed bits �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 81 Summarised comparison���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 82 British double-joint bits ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 82 Of unknown origins: iron loop bits����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 82 British bit types: distribution and estimated animal size��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 84 Hackamores and Y-pieces in England, Scotland, and Wales����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 85 Look homewards, angel: tracing Irish tack through Europe����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 86 The Netherlands: the psalion/mechanical hackamore and bits������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 87 Identity, militarism and ritual deposition of tack���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 88 Early equestrian influences on Germanic/Scandinavian tack������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 89 Thorsberg Moor war booty depositions as a template for Baltic Iron Age tack�������������������������������������������������������� 89 The Thorsberg bits�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 90 Comparison to Ireland�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 91 The Thorsberg kehlbergen��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������92 Comparison to Ireland�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 92 Tack comparisons from the Roman Empire�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 92 Comparison to Ireland ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 93 Chapter 7 Conclusions and future directions�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������95 Jumping the hurdles: assessing the achievement of aims and objectives������������������������������������������������������������������ 95 The road goes ever on: future research directions��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 98 A clear round: concluding thoughts on Ireland’s equitation���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 99 Bibliography������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 100 Catalogue������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 113 Foreword����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 113 Type A bits�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 114 Type B bits��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 114 Type C bits��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 122 Type D bits�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 123 Type E bits �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 127 ii

Unclassified bit types���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������131 Y-Pieces��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������133 Type 1a���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������133 Type 1b���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������137 Type 1c���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������141 Type 1d���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������141 Type 1e���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������143 Type 1f����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������144 Type 2a���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������144 Type 2b���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������148 Type 2c���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������150 Uncategorised specimens��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������151 Lists and Indices������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 152 Plate Index���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������152 Site Index�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������154 Unknown Provenance��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������156 Museum Index���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������157 Hoard associations including bits and Y-pieces������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������158 Plates������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 159

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List of Figures Figure 2.1 Pseudo Irish Type E bit found in Transylvanian region of Romania.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 15 Figure 3.1 Parts of a snaffle.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 17 Figure 3.2 Modern snaffle types.�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 19 Figure 3.3 How single joint and double joint snaffles function.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 19 Figure 3.4 Parts of a Y-piece.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 20 Figure 3.5 How a bosal and mecate hackamore work (Image courtesy of Summer Jackson, modelled by Dancer).�������������������������� 21 Figure 3.7 Cannon styles of Irish Late Iron Age bits.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 21 Figure 3.6 Mechanical hackamore. Image from Wikicommons (CC BY 2.0).������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 21 Figure 3.8 Types of central links: modern examples on top, Iron Age at bottom.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 22 Figure 3.9 Use of link types on different types of Irish Iron Age snaffle.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 23 Figure 3.10 Stop stud types.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 23 Figure 3.11 Gold stater from Dover, FASAM-FCD3A2, showing a bosal-like structure under the horse’s jaw.����������������������������������� 24 Figure 3.12 Kehlberge, Raddatz 639, R0639, Lau PG 123, Inv.-Nr. SH1858-1.34 (F.S. 6347) from Thorsberg Moor assemblage.��������� 25 Figure 3.13 Finial types which define the various Y-pieces styles.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 25 Figure 3.14 Use wear on bits and Y-pieces.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 27 Figure 3.15 Hypothetical reconstruction of a Late Iron Age bridle, using use-wear to inform of fit.������������������������������������������������� 29 Figure 3.16 How to measure a bit – detail shows why, with end of cannon outside of mouth.������������������������������������������������������������ 31 Figure 3.18 Diagram showing sizes of animals in hands high (hh).���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 32 Figure 3.17 Heights of animals in Ireland, using bit size as a loose gauge.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 32 Figure 4.1 Placement of decoration on Y-piece specimens.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 38 Figure 4.2 Placement of decoration on bit specimens.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 39 Figure 4.3 Styles of stop studs on bit types.�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 41 Figure 4.4 Iron ‘loop’ bits. Photograph by permission of National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden.�������������������������������������������������� 43 Figure 4.5 Detail of head decoration on Heidelberg carving, compared to stop stud decoration.������������������������������������������������������ 45 Figure 4.6 Comparison of Witham shield umbo (left) with Tara/Skryn Y-piece (right). After Maguire 2017: 187, fig. 3.��������������� 46 Figure 4.7 Comparison of objects.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 47 Figure 4.8 Roman period harness pendant, incorporating the manu fichu and re-imagined La Tène derivative ‘eyes’.������������������ 48 Figure 5.1 General distribution of bits and Y-pieces.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 55 Figure 5.2 Distribution of Irish La Tène derivative metalwork (Warner 2002a).������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 56 Figure 5.3. Distribution of Type A bits.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 57 Figure 5.4. Distribution of Type B bits.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 57 Figure 5.5 Distribution of Type C bits.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 58 Figure 5.7 Distribution of Type E bits.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 58 Figure 5.6 Distribution of Type D bits.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 58 Figure 5.8 Distribution of uncategorised bits.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 58 Figure 5.9 Distribution of sizes of bits, indicating sizes of equids.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 59 Figure 5.10 Distribution of Type 1a Y-piece.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 60 Figure 5.11 Distribution of Type 1b Y-piece.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 60 Figure 5.12 Distribution of Type 1d Y-piece.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 61 Figure 5.14 Distribution of Type 2a Y-pieces.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 61 Figure 5.13 Distribution of Type 1e Y-piece.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 61 Figure 5.15 Distribution of Type 2b Y-pieces.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 61 Figure 5.16 Distribution of Type 2c Y-piece.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 62 Figure 5.17 Distribution of uncategorised Y-pieces.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 62 Figure 5.18 Breakdown of hoard distributions which include tack.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 63 Figure 5.19 Hoards and associated finds.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 64 Figure 5.20 Bits and Y-pieces within GIS kernel density ‘hotspot’ model.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 66 Figure 5.21 Distribution of Irish tack compared to Roman finds.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 68 Figure 5.22 Kernal density ‘hotspot’ model compared to projected routes of the ancient tracks, or sligheann.������������������������������� 69 Figure 5.23 Breakdown of landscape features to tack find spots.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 70 Figure 5.24 Breakdown of bits (top) and Y-piece finds (bottom).������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 71 Figure 5.26 Percentages of provenanced bits.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 72 Figure 5.25 Percentages of provenanced Y-pieces.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 72 Figure 6.1 Detail by author of horse head in bridle, Sanctuary of Apollo, Cyprus. ������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 77 Figure 6.2 Detail of Baekkedal bridle, photograph by kind permission of Dr Torben Sarauw and Nordjyske Museer.�������������������� 77 Figure 6.3 Single bar snaffle from Rise, Kingston on Hull, authors drawing. ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 79 Figure 6.4 Stanwick Hoard snaffle mouthpiece, authors drawing.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 80 Figure 6.6 Hagbourne Hill snaffle detail, authors drawing. ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 81 Figure 6.5 Polden Hill ‘fletchling’ cuff detail, compared to cheek ring detail from Siebenbürgen.���������������������������������������������������� 81 Figure 6.7 Estimates of British equid sizes, using same method as used on Irish snaffles.������������������������������������������������������������������� 82 Figure 6.8 Distribution of bits, compiled from data in Palk 1984 and 1991.�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 83 Figure 6.9 Irish 2a Y-piece butt terminal, Kingston Deverill, Wiltshire. PAS WILT-9E5865.����������������������������������������������������������������� 84 Figure 6.10 Metal snaffle and rein rings from Thorsberg Moor.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 90 Figure 6.11 Kehlberge.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 91 Figure 6.12 Roman psalion/mechanical hackamore, reconstructed by Ala Batavorum group, Netherlands.������������������������������������ 92

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List of Tables Table 1.1 Comparative timeline of Ireland and Europe’s Iron Age phases������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 1 Table 2.1 Calibration of horse bones from Tlachtga, Co. Meath using Calib������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 15 Table 3.1 Typical bit measurement chart, available in most tack shops, showing bit sizes typically used for equid sizes.������������ 31 Table 4.1 Associations in hoards of decorated tack.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 40 Table 4.2 Breakdown of associated finds in hoards.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 41 Table 6.1 Calibration of radiocarbon dates for leather found in the Binchester 2c/kehlberge.������������������������������������������������������������ 85

v

List of Plates Plate 1. Type A bits. IB1A, Llyn Cerrig Bach. IB4A, IB5A, both Ballymoyer Bog, Armagh. Actual size.��������������������������������������������� 160 Plate 2. IB2A, not to scale, from Rossknowlagh Museum. IB6A Ballymoyer Bog, Armagh. Actual size.������������������������������������������� 161 Plate 3. IB3A, after Raftery 1983, fig. 1, no. 5. IB7A, unknown. Actual size.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 162 Plate 4. IB1B. Ballina Costello, Mayo IB2B, after Raftery 1983, fig. 7, no. 11. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������ 163 Plate 5. IB3B, Armagh. IB4B, unknown. Actual size.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 164 Plate 6. IB5B, unknown. IB6B, unknown. Actual size.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 165 Plate 7. IB7B, unknown. IB8B, Lough Beg after Raftery 1983, fig. 4, no. 8. Scale 1:2.��������������������������������������������������������������������������� 166 Plate 8. IB9B, Cotton Bog, Newtownards. IB12B, Annashanco, Fermanagh. Actual size.�������������������������������������������������������������������� 167 Plate 9. IB10B. Meath. IB11B, Urraghry, Aughrim, Galway. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 168 Plate 10. IB13B, unknown. IB20B, unknown. Actual size.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 169 Plate 11. IB15B, unknown. IB18B, unknown. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 170 Plate 12. IB14B, Leap, Offaly. IB21B, Armagh. IB23B, unknown. Scale 1:2.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 171 Plate 13. IB24B. IB25B. Both Abbeyshrule, Longford. Scale 1:2.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 172 Plate 14. IB28B, unknown. IB29B, Kilmore, Antrim. Actual size�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 173 Plate 15. IB32B, Tracton Abbey. IB33B, unknown. IB35B, unknown. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 174 Plate 16. IB34B, unknown. IB38B, unknown. IB39B, unknown. Scale 1:2.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 175 Plate 17. IB41B, unknown. IB42B, unknown. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 176 Plate 18. IB43B, Navan, Meath. IB44B, Kinnefad, Offaly. Scale 1:2.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 177 Plate 19. IB36B, unknown. IB37B, unknown. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 178 Plate 20. IB45B, unknown. IB46B, unknown. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 179 Plate 21. IB47B, unknown. IB48B, unknown. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 180 Plate 22. IB49B, unknown. IB40B, unknown. IB50B. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 181 Plate 23. IB53B, unknown. IB54B, unknown. Actual size.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 182 Plate 24. IB51B, unknown. IB52B, unknown. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 183 Plate 25. IB17B, Toomevara. IB26B, unknown. Scale 1:2.�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 184 Plate 26. IB55B, after Raftery 1983, fig. 8, no. 59. IB. Scale 1:2.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 185 Plate 27. IB22B, Glenleslie, Antrim. IB19B, Headfort, Kerry and IB31B, Dublin, after Raftery 1983, fig 13, no. 21 and fig. 15, no. 18. Actual size.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 186 Plate 28. IB30B L Inchiquin, after Raftery 1983, fig. 8, no 14. IB16B, after Raftery 1983, fig. 3, no. 57. Scale 1:2.���������������������������� 187 Plate 29. IB27B, Ballynahinchafter Raftery 1983, fig. 10, no. 16. Scale 1:2.�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 188 Plate 30. IB1C, unknown. IB2C, unknown. IB3C, unknown. Actual size.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 189 Plate 31. IB4C, Gortgole, Antrim. IB5C after Raftery 1983, fig. 22, no. 68. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 190 Plate 32. IB1D Streamstown, Westmeath after Raftery 1983, fig. 30, no. 83. IB3D, unknown. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������� 191 Plate 33. IB5D, Roscommon. IB6D, DurkIsland, Cormongan. Scale 1:2.�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 192 Plate 34. IB4D, unknown. IB10D and IB11D, Ballymoney, Garry Bog. Actual size.�������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 193 Plate 35. IB8D, Killucan, Westmeath. IB12D, Bushmills, Antrim. IB13D, unknown. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������ 194 Plate 36. IB20D, Aghivey, Derry. IB22D, Ballynaminton, Offaly. Scale 1:2.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 195 Plate 37. IB15D, unknown. IB18D, unknown. Actual size.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 196 Plate 38. IB32D, Dolgellau, Wales after Raftery 1983, fig. 33, no. 136. IB16D, Streamstown after Raftery 1983, fig. 30, no. 84. Scale 1:2.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 197 Plate 39. IB21D, unknown. IB23D, unknown. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 198 Plate 40. IB7D, Loughan Island, Derry. IB14D, Co. Dublin, after Raftery 1983, fig. 24, no. 76. IB9D Clongill, Meath after Raftery 1983 fig. 27, no. 98. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 199 Plate 41. IB24D, unknown. IB25D, Loughan Island. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 200 Plate 42. IB26D, Tara/Skryn Valley, Meath. IB27D, unknown. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 201 Plate 43. IB28D, unknown. IB29D, unknown. Actual size.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 202 Plate 44. IB31D, Tensbury Wells, England. After Raftery 1983, fig. 26, 96. Scale 1:2.���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 203 Plate 45. IB17D, unknown. After Raftery 1983, fig. 32, no. 92. IB33D after Raftery 1983, fig. 32, no. 85. Scale 1:2.�������������������������� 204 Plate 46. IB1E, unknown. IB6E, ‘Northern Ireland’. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 205 Plate 47. IB4E and IB5E. Both Attymon, Galway. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 206 Plate 48. IB9E, unknown. IB11E, Galway. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 207 Plate 49. IB7E, Cong, Mayo, from Raftery 1983, fig. 34, no. 106. Scale 1:2.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 208 Plate 50. IB10E, unknown. IB13E, unknown. Actual size.�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 209 Plate 51. IB12E, unknown. IB14E, unknown. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 210 Plate 52. IB15E, Co. Wicklow. IB16E, Co. Antrim. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 211 Plate 53. IB17E, Glenleslie, Antrim. IB19E, unknown, Scale 1:2.�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 212 Plate 54. IB20E, unknown. IB23E, unknown. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 213 Plate 55. IB22E, unknown. IB27E, Roscommon, near Tulsk. Scale 1:2.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 214 Plate 56. IB25E, Ummeracam, Armagh. IB18E, unknown. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 215 Plate 57. IB26E, unknown. IB28E, Tulsk, Roscommon. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 216 Plate 58. IB29E, unknown. IB30E, unknown. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 217 Plate 59. IB31E, Newgrange, Meath. IB32E, unknown. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 218 Plate 60. UCB1, Derryhollagh, Antrim. UCB3 and UCB4 unknown. UCB7, Kilmallock, Limerick. Actual size.��������������������������������� 219 Plate 61. UCB2 Killeevan, Monaghan. UCB5, Loughan Island. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 220

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Plate 62. UCB8, unknown. UCB9, Dundrum, Down. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 221 Plate 63. UCB10, DrumloughMoss, Down. UCB12, possibly Dungannon (Bell Collection). Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������ 222 Plate 64. UCB13, Transylvania. After Rustoiu 2005.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 223 Plate 65. Y1A:001, Portnelligan, Armagh. Y1A:002, Navan Fort, Armagh. Actual size.������������������������������������������������������������������������ 224 Plate 66. Y1A:003 Knockmanycairn, Tyrone. YIA:005, unknown. Scale 1:2. ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 225 Plate 67. Y1A:004, Ballina Costello, after Raftery 1983, fig 54, no. 146. Scale 1:2.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 226 Plate 68. Y1A:006, Co. Limerick. Y1A:007, Co. Limerick. Scale 1:2.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 227 Plate 69. Y1A:009, Aughrim, Galway. Y1A:010, Ardee, Louth. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 228 Plate 70. Y1A:011, unknown. After Raftery 1983 fig. 58, no. 162. Y1A:012, Co. Sligo. Scale 1:2. ��������������������������������������������������������� 229 Plate 71. Y1A:013, Ballina Costello, Co. Mayo, Y1A:014, unknown. Scale 1:2.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 230 Plate 72 . Y1A:015, unknown. Y1A:016, unknown. Scale 1:2.�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 231 Plate 73. Y1A:017, unknown. After Raftery 1983, 56, no. 152. Y1A:018, unknown. Scale 1:2.�������������������������������������������������������������� 232 Plate 74. Y1A:019. Moyfin, Co. Meath. Y1A:020, unknown. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 233 Plate 75. Y1A:021, unknown. Y1A:022, unknown. Scale 1:2.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 234 Plate 76. Y1A:023, Creggan, Co. Roscommon. Y1A:024, unknown. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 235 Plate 77. Y1A:025, unknown. Y1A:027, Mullingar, Westmeath. After Raftery 1983, 55, no. 151. Scale 1:2.��������������������������������������� 236 Plate 78. Y1A:026, unknown. Y1B:01, unknown. Actual size.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 237 Plate 79. Y1B:02, Armagh. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 238 Plate 80. Y1A:08, unknown. Scale 1:2.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 239 Plate 81. Y1B:04, Kilbeg, Westmeath. Y1B:05, unknown. Scale 1:2.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 240 Plate 82. Y1B:06, unknown. Y1B:07 and Y1B:08, ‘River Shannon’. Actual size.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 241 Plate 83. Y1B:09, unknown. Y1B:10, unknown. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 242 Plate 84. Y1B:11, unknown. Y1B:12, unknown. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 243 Plate 85. Y1B:13, unknown. Scale 1:2. Y1B: 14 Lisnacannonfort, Antrim. MS from Raftery 1983, no. 167. Scale unknown.���������� 244 Plate 86. Y1B:15, unknown. Y1B:16, unknown. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 245 Plate 87. Y1B:17, unknown. Y1B:18, Kishawanny, Kildare, after Raftery 1983, fig. 45, no. 169. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������� 246 Plate 88. Y1B:19, Ballymoyer Bog, Armagh. Y1B:20, Lesser Garth Cave, Wales. Scale uncertain as both from MS sketches, with actual objects missing.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 247 Plate 89. Y1C:01, unknown. Y1C:02, unknown. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 248 Plate 90. Y1C:03, unknown. Scale 1:2.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 249 Plate 91. Y1D:02, Ballykean Bog, Offaly. Scale 1:2.�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 250 Plate 92. Y1D:03 and Y1D:04, Ballykean Bog, Offaly. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 251 Plate 93. Y1D:05, Ballykean Bog, Offaly. Y1D:06, unknown. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 252 Plate 94. Y1D:07, unknown. Y1D:08, unknown. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 253 Plate 95. Y1E:01, Co. Clare. Y1E:02, Fish Loughan, near Coleraine. Scale 1:2.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 254 Plate 96. Y1E:03, Lough Fea, Monaghan. Y1E:04, unknown. Scale 1:2.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 255 Plate 97. Y1F:01, Limerick. Y2A:01, Co. Antrim. Actual size. ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 256 Plate 98. Y2A:02 and Y2A:03, ‘Near Galway’. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 257 Plate 99. Y2A:04, unknown, Y2A:05, Roscommon. Scale 1:2.�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 258 Plate 100. Y2A:06 and Y2A:07, Attymon, Galway. Scale 1:2.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 259 Plate 101. Y2A:08, Ballyalla, Clare. After Raftery 1983, no. 198, Scale 1:2.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 260 Plate 102. Y2A:09, Inishowen Barony, Donegal. Y2A:10, Cormongan, Leitrim. Scale 1:2.�������������������������������������������������������������������� 261 Plate 103. Y2A:11, Drumanone, Roscommon. Y2A:12, unknown. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 262 Plate 104. Y2A:13, unknown. Y2A:14, Tara/Skryn, after Raftery 1983, fig. 83, no. 207. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������ 263 Plate 105. Y2A:15, Ballybrown, Limerick. After Raftery 1983, fig. 82, no. 206. Scale 1:2.��������������������������������������������������������������������� 264 Plate 106. Y2A:16, Clonetrace, Antrim. Y2A:17, Mullingar, Westmeath. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 265 Plate 107. Y2A:19, ‘Northern Ireland’, Scale 1:2. Y2A:20, Kingston Deverill, Wiltshire. Actual size.������������������������������������������������� 266 Plate 108. Y2B:01, unknown. Y2B:02, unknown. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 267 Plate 109. Y2B:03, Loughan Island, Derry. Scale 1:2.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 268 Plate 110. Y2B:04, unknown. Scale 1:2.�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 269 Plate 111. Y2B:05, unknown. Y2B:06, unknown. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 270 Plate 112. Y2B:07, unknown. Y2B:08, unknown. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 271 Plate 113. Y2B:09, Derlangan, Meath. Y2B:10 Clongill, Meath. Scale 1:2.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 272 Plate 114. Y2B:11, unknown. Y2B:12, Coolgreaney, Wexford. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 273 Plate 115. Y2B:13, unknown. Y2B:14, Cloonconra, Roscommon. Scale 1:2.�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 274 Plate 116. Y2B:15, Emlagh Abbey, Tipperary. Y2B:16, unknown. Scale 1:2.�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 275 Plate 117. Y2C:01, Binchester Roman Fort, Durham. Scale 1:2.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 276 Plate 118. YUC:01, Co. Clare. YUC:04, Kilbeg, Westmeath. Scale 1:2.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 277 Plate 119. YUC:03, Ballymoyer Bog, Armagh. YUC:05, Drombo, Monaghan. Actual size. ������������������������������������������������������������������� 278

vii

Acknowledgements I do not think I can do this foreword and thank-you list in cool and emotionless academic words. This is from the heart, as one person may write a body of research, but it’s a whole team who feed into that result: librarians, curators, other researchers, academics and family. My first foray into academia, my undergrad dissertation on Y-pieces, was spun from sheer joy and fun, early summer mornings and road trips. This PhD was, as they say, a horse of a different colour altogether. By the end, it was either a runaway horse, or a snapping large dragon and I held on as tight as I could, even if 99% of the time I was terrified. But still… there were times it was all amazing. There were directions taken that I never suspected, crazy moments when Terry O’Hagan (aka @Vox Hiberionacum on Twitter), poked me on social media to go look at what they were taking out of the ground at Binchester. There were adventures, a fair few involving molten metal, and horses, and frankly I would not change a moment of the journey. I hope I have told the story as far as I can for now, which I am all too aware is only starting. Among friends, and the Twittering masses, the project became known as the ‘Dead Pony Tour (Europe) 2014–17’. They made friends pretty much everywhere they went, those ponies, and so did I. So, there is a cast of thousands (!) I need to thank here, and a fair few who believed in me, when I didn’t. Primary and most sincere thanks to my supervisor, Dr Dirk Brandherm, Dr Finbar McCormick, Prof. Eileen Murphy, Dr Will Megarry, Dr Maarten Blaauw, John Meneely, Conor Graham, Lorraine Barry, and staff at the Chrono Centre QUB. My gratitude to you all. The McClay Library staff were exceptional throughout, finding me obscure books and making suggestions. Special thanks to Carol Dunlop and her archaeology cob mare, ‘Dr’ Roxy, for being the tester of too many ideas. So many museums, thanks to all of you: National Museum of Ireland: Mary Cahill, Margaret Lannin, Nessa O’Connor, Isabella Mullhall, Dr Paul Mullarkey , Nigel Monaghan and Dr Andy Halpin. British Museum, London: Dr Julia Farley, and Dr Helen Chittock. Armagh Museum: Sean Bardon and his entire staff who didn’t laugh at me shuffling on my backside round the floor with an XRF gun! Robinson Library Armagh: Carol Conlin, Thirza Mulder and Rev Gregory Dunstan, who run the last homely house in academia. Thank you all for your many kindnesses. National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh: Dr Frazer Hunter and Dr Alison Sheridan. Dr Sheridan especially for the lovebomb at the Europa Conference 2016. National Museum of Wales: Such gratitude to Dr Mary Davis, Dr Adam Gwilt and Dr Evan Chapman for all help given. Ulster Museum: So much thanks for the kindness and camaraderie from Dr Greer Ramsey and staff. Cork City Museum: Thank you Dan Breen and staff. The staff of the Hunt Museum Limerick and the Hunterian Museum Glasgow. Alnwick Museum, Northumberland: Eve Reverchon and the Northumberland estates for their graciousness and hospitality. Durham University: Dr David Petts, for the dream find and letting me radiocarbon date it. Dr Angela Abegg Wigg, Dr Nina Lau and all the staff of the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology, Stiftung SchleswigHolsteinische Landesmuseen, Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig, Germany. I will always be grateful for the kindness and warmth of welcome of the staff. The hardcore equestrians who fed in through all of this, reminding me that the horse is timeless. Thanks to Dr Caroline Benoite of Neue Schule tack, and the crew of Old Mill saddlery, and of course Christina and co. at Bracken Equestrian! Summer Jackson (and Dancer, Prince, Equinox and Blue Moon), and Jurjen Draaisma, and his Roman charger, Magic. The men of metal, Dr. David Dungworth, and Peter Webster of the Copper Alliance. he ineffable McClay Library staff at Queen’s University Belfast, who work miracles. The ride-or-dies, who kept me on my feet: Dr Brian Scott, who arrived like a wizard, exactly when he had to; Prof. Aidan O’Sullivan and Dr Steve Davis; Anne Given; Deborah Jane Curtis and her ‘Auntie’ Jane Gribbon aka ‘Wheels’, chasing the end of the Iron Age round Derry and North Antrim by following rivers and rainbows; Oisín Murphy-Lawless, supplier of ‘Marvels’ and music; Dr Lorna Jane Richardson; Dr Ruth Carden, Dr Eoin Sullivan; The (Twilight) Beastie Boys, Dr Ross Barnett and Jan Freedman; Spencer Gavin Smith; Marc and Rachel Barkman-Astles, for escapades around Northumberland; Dr Xenia PauliJensen; Aurelian Burlot of UCC; Dr. Roeland Paardekooper and Mgr J. Katerina Dvoráková of EXARC; Kim Biddulph. Last, but not least, old friends Philip Powell and Ivor Kenny.

viii

So much which lay forgotten for so many years, of so many great horses, lived again in memory; Gypsy, Clipper, Herbie, Joker, George, Quincy, Rambler — all schoolteachers about human and horse. More recently, JR, Flame, Bhan. I was transported back to being the very small, silent (and rather odd) child, who loved to get lost in grey misted fields of horses, imagining what the past must have been like. There is always going to be a special magic of kindness and earthiness in a stable, and centuries of peace to be tapped into when hanging over a fence, watching horses put out to graze after work. That connects us to the past – I don’t believe our ancestors were any different in how they felt. I think, occasionally, the ‘silent people’ of the Iron Age started to speak a little by the end of this, as they found common ground, talking of their horses to a horsie person. The biggest thanks of course, goes to Kathleen and Jordana Maguire, who listened and knew when to feed me and haul me out of the Iron Age. As for the small terrier who had his mouth measured for British bits? It happened, his name’s Finbar and he’s an affenpinscher. The story, really, has only started. Here’s to the next gallop!

ix

Glossary

Parts of a bridle. Photograph by Carol Dunlop, McClay Library Queen’s University Belfast. Modelled by Roxy.

Behind the bit: When a horse carries its head low to avoid actions of the hands or contact with a bit. Bosal: A type of noseband used with a hackamore (bitless bridle). Cannon: Metal (or sometimes rubber) elongated links which make up the mouthpiece of a bit. Cavesson: A simple noseband of a bridle. Cavesson bridles have a noseband attached to a slip head that passes through the browband and sits underneath the headpiece of the bridle. The cavesson noseband is a single strap of leather that fits around the horse’s muzzle. Cheek piece: Confusingly, this can be two pieces of a bridle — one, the strapping which runs down the side of the equids face, to connect with noseband and/or bit hanger, or can also be the (usually) metal fitting (such as all the permutations of cheek rings, or shanks in the case of double bridles) which connects to the reins and noseband. Context is usually self-evident as to which is which! Chifney: A circular bit which fits into the mouth of a horse, sometimes with a plate to hold the tongue flat. Part of it remains below the jaw. It has three points of rein contact, and often used on horses which are difficult to handle, such as stallions at stud. Collection: State of perfect balance resulting from defined flexion of the haunches, which leads to elevation of the front end. The horse is so fully responsive it can commence movement in any direction as required.

x

Curb Bit: Bit fitted with cheek piece/shanks and a curb chain, which fits the chin groove. Uses leverage on the lower jaw. In a double bridle, a curb is used with a snaffle bit as well. Double Bridle: A bridle, often used for formal occasions such as showing, which has two bits (snaffle and curb) giving the rider a greater degree of control than a single bit. Double joint snaffle: Snaffle with a centre link between both cannons, inside the mouth, which spreads rein pressure across the mouth and not to the palate. Eggbutt cheek ring: A cheek ring which has only limited movement within the outer cannon aperture. Results in a more direct and speedy contact with the mouth of a horse. Fiadore: A special knot on the hackamore that exerts pressure at the rear of jaws, while also acting as a keeper, in a similar to a throatlatch. Forward on the bit: When a horse is fully engaged and interacting with the rider via the bit Grackle: A noseband which fits in a figure of eight shape, across the nose, to prevent a horse from rejecting a bit but opening its mouth and slipping the bit. They also apply pressure evenly over a larger area making breathing easier. Hackamore: A bitless bridle of various designs used in breaking and training. Harness: The equipment fitted to a horse or equid which is to be used to pull a vehicle. Haute école: The discipline of training a horse to perform complex and graceful movements, derived originally from a horse’s natural gaits, but exaggerated. Believed to be military in origins, with defensive purposes. Dressage taken to its limits and performed for display of harmony between horse and rider. Kehlberge: Archaic hybrid device combining the effects of a martingale and headstall Loose cheek ring: A cheek ring which can rotate fully in the outer cannon aperture. Softer action but can nip the mouth of a horse. Martingale: A combination of strapping and buckles designed to control a horse’s head carriage and act as an additional form of control by preventing head tossing, where the rider could be hit in the face by the horse’s poll or upper neck. There are three main modern types: the standing, the running, and the German martingale. Each of these are used for different reasons. All can assist in preventing bad head carriage habits or as remedial equipment. Mecate: A hackamore or bosal bridle rein or rope. Mullen mouth bit: Single bar bit, no joints. A very simple form of ‘soft’ bit. Ported snaffle: A double jointed snaffle with arched cannons. Psalia/Psalion: An archaic form of metallic head stall, with inflexible noseband and side panels, used to maximise control. Often used by Roman military. Shank/cheek piece: Bars attached to the outer part of a bit, to create added leverage on a horses’ mouth. Associated with curb bits. Single joint snaffle: Simple snaffle with two cannons connected within the mouth of a horse, resulting in pressure on the palate when reins are employed. Snaffle: A bit which does not use leverage via shanks. It is identifiable with a ring on either side for reins to fit into, and acts with direct pressure on the mouth of a horse. Tack: Equipment fitted on horses and other equines to facilitate their use as domesticated animals, regardless of whether it is for riding or driving. Saddles, stirrups, bridles, halters, reins, bits, harnesses, martingales, and breastplates are all forms of horse tack. Equipping a horse is referred to as tacking up. xi

xii

Chapter 1

‘For want of a horse, the rider was lost’: An introduction to Irish Iron Age tack For the want of a nail the shoe was lost, For the want of a shoe the horse was lost, For the want of a horse the rider was lost, For the want of a rider the battle was lost, For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost, And all for the want of a horseshoe-nail. Traditional rhyme. One of the major themes throughout the research is to discern where those influences may have come from.

Introducing the Iron (Age) horse There is a well-known archaeological adage, that if the purpose of an object cannot be identified, it must be either horse harness or ritual. Despite well over two hundred pieces of late prehistoric Irish bits and Y-pieces having been found across Ireland and England, no exclusive and intense study of these artefacts has ever been carried out. The Irish Y-piece in particular has been unfortunate enough to be categorised as both ritual and horse harness due to this lack of attention. This is a strange omission, as from the languid afternoon parades of thoroughbreds at the Dublin Horse Show to the sturdy cobs and working horses of the Lammas horse fair at Ballycastle, Ireland has traditionally considered itself to have a long and passionate association with the horse.

The use of the domestic horse appears to occur relatively late in Irish prehistory, with artefactual evidence suggesting an apex of activity during the Late Iron Age and not a great deal before. Tack appears suddenly in the Irish archaeological record, during the first two centuries AD. Britain, Ireland and mainland Europe all have slightly different developmental chronologies during the Iron Age. The standard scale for the British Iron Age was once Cunliffe’s chronology (2005: 652), with a starting date of around the mid-8th century BC, which is contemporary with Hallstatt C phase in Europe. More recent research by Hamilton et al. (2015) shows a more complex situation, with some regions undergoing an ‘earliest’ Iron Age around the 10th to 9th centuries BC (Hamilton et al. 2015: 636), an Early Iron Age between 600 and 400 BC, leading to a Developed Iron Age between 400 BC and 100 BC, which was concurrent with most of the La Tène phases in Europe. This was then followed by a brief Late Iron Age of 100–50 BC, before the arrival of Roman influences from Julius Caesar’s first expedition in 55 BC. As these dates appear to be substantiated by more recent Bayesian models from settlements across Britain (Hamilton et al. 2015), they have been used as a standard chronology for Britain in this research.

This research provides the first exclusive analysis of the practical use of horses within Late Iron Age Ireland, by examining the equestrian assemblages in Ireland, and comparing them with contemporaneous objects in Britain and Europe, thereby placing them in a wider context. The working hypothesis has been that the uniquely shaped Irish tack components were introduced because of cultural intrusions from other regions of Europe, but were interpreted in a unique manner, achieving a regional identity of their own. Britain

La Tène/European

Germania

Middle Iron Age Pre 100 BC

La Tène B, C and D1

Late Iron Age 80 to 20 BC

La Tène D2

Pre-Roman junction Bronze Developed Iron Age 400 and Iron Ages BC to AD 1

Early Roman AD 40 to 65

Roman controlled Europe

Pre-Conquest 20 BC to AD 40 AD 70 to 100 AD 100 +

Roman Conquest period

Pre-Roman Iron Age

Late Iron Age AD 1 to 400

Roman-period Iron Age

Late Iron Age AD 1 to 400

Pre-Roman Iron Age

Roman controlled Europe

Roman-period Iron Age

Roman controlled Europe

Ireland

Roman-period Iron Age

Late Iron Age AD 1 to 400

Late Iron Age AD 1 to 400

Late Iron Age AD 1 to 400

Table 1.1 Comparative timeline of Ireland and Europe’s Iron Age phases (after Maguire 2018).

1

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Ireland’s Iron Age has been more problematic, with great uncertainty of exactly when technological transitions occurred. An approximate chronology has been proposed by Becker (2012: 3), with an Early Iron Age between 700 and 400 BC, a Developed Iron Age from 400 BC to AD 1, and a Late Iron Age from AD 1 to AD 400 although these loose temporal classifications are unsatisfactory at best (Table 1.1).

choose a small Smart car with an engine of around 68 kW to do the same job as a Land Rover, which requires up to 400 kW to perform its tasks. So too, tack is designed, fitted and used for specific types of horses and types of jobs. The bits and Y-pieces examined for this book have been analysed to gain an understanding of why specific bit types were chosen and further developed, how they fitted on a horse, why they were designed and decorated thus, and what these choices can tell us about the changes occurring in Ireland during the Late Iron Age, thereby fleshing out at least one aspect of a poorly understood period of history.

Recently, Scott (2019) has suggested that some phalera from the Late Bronze Age may have fitted on bridles, which will require further examination. There are no examples of metal bits found in contexts of the Developed Iron Age or Late Bronze Age in Ireland, as there are in Wetwang and Garton Slack in Yorkshire or earlier at Washingborough, Lincolnshire, and Heathery Burn, in Durham (Britnell 1976: 31). This point did not go unnoticed by Raftery (1974: 9) who speculated that the impetus for the creation of bits and hackamores in Ireland occurred within a brief period, with insular innovation taking over afterwards, the result being the distinctive objects we see today in museums. Yet we have not known what the trigger was, or when, why, or how it started. England, Wales, and the Continent have a watershed chronological marker provided by Roman occupation, but Iron Age Ireland lacks such a certain boundary, having myth and metalwork aplenty, but little else of any certainty.

Keeping a domestic horse requires knowledge of training, welfare, as well as the knowledge gained of how to ride or drive it. It also requires a particular landscape and specialised maintenance, which leads to a particular lifestyle of equestrianism. By examining design and technological development of the equipment, we can place the Irish Iron Age equestrians within a wider context of trade and communication, as the influences which contributed to the uniquely designed Irish pieces were derived from various sources across Europe and Britain. Tracing these influences through distribution and deposition patterns shows Iron Age Ireland to be a very different place than once considered, actively influenced by the technological and cultural changes introduced by the expansion of the Roman Empire, and will also contribute to a better, more realistic understanding of Ireland’s relationship with Roman Britain and the wider Empire.

Past studies have included the objects as part of a bigger theme of metalwork (Raftery 1983) or incorporated them with British material (Palk 1991), but no research has sought to examine the reasons for, and mechanisms of, the sudden appearance of tack in the Irish archaeological record.

Research questions: aims and objectives The relationship between horses and humans is a vitally important one. From the 16th century BC onwards, The Egyptian Pharaohs exploited the military advantage afforded by horse and chariot, as did the kings of the later Assyrian empire (McMiken 1990: 76– 77), and subsequently the rulers of Hellenic Greece and the Achaemenid Empire of the 5th and 4th centuries BC. Further, the added mobility provided by the horse allowed for cultural expansion and increased trade. Eventually, agricultural work was also boosted using equids to pull ploughs and transport goods. As such, equestrian equipment has been present in Europe from the 3rd millennium BC (Anthony and Brown 1989: 99– 101), with regional and cultural alterations in design, but not in function.

For anyone who has worked around horses and spent time polishing and cleaning bridles in tack rooms, handling the ancient bits invokes wistfulness, as the use-wear patterns share the same tactile qualities as modern used bits. It is easy to feel which animals were forward on the rein, which hung on it; both good training and bad habits are stories written into the usewear on metal, and as such, one can never forget these bits were worn by living, breathing creatures. Their riders were also flesh and blood, people accomplishing tasks with their horses. This perhaps, is the key to the ultimate rationale behind this research — to find a way to bring at least some of Raftery’s (1994: 112) ‘invisible people’ of the Irish Iron Age into focus, through a relatable, human filter of their lives.

Raftery (1984: 57) classified the presence of horse-riding equipment within Irish Iron Age contexts as signposts of a major societal upheaval in Ireland’s later prehistoric period. This upheaval may be related to the regrowth of forests which is sometimes referred to as the Late Iron Age Lull (Plunkett 2009). Something changed in the lifestyles of the upper echelons of society by the last

A highly practical equestrian approach has been taken throughout, blending stable-yard experience with techniques such as GIS and morphometrics. The choice of tack made by a rider or driver tells a great deal about what jobs they want the horse to perform. You do not 2

Chapter 1 ‘For want of a horse, the rider was lost’: An introduction to Irish Iron Age tack

decades BC, but we do not know what it was, or what it meant for those living through it. The objects which have survived within archaeological contexts of this time are mostly made of metal; weapons, cauldrons, horned head-dresses, pins, and equestrian equipment, all made with great skill.

and used, which allows some idea as to what kinds of horses they were used on. Measurement of functional mouthpieces of the bits offer estimations of the size of animals used in the Irish Iron Age. These are practical stable-yard methods of analysing tack. It is more problematic to attempt to identify the origins of the unique Irish tack style Using art styles to build a chronology is problematic in Ireland, as the time lag between European La Tène styles and insular interpretations is variable. However, by using comparison of decorative designs and morphometrics, with comparable designs sought across prehistoric Britain and Europe, fresh perspectives on extra-insular influences can be found.

Compared to contemporaneous tack in Europe, the Irish bits display extraordinarily high levels of sophistication and understanding of the equine physiognomy. This in itself may indicate that, chronologically, they were a final stage in product design, which had started with much earlier European equine paraphernalia, but Iron Age contexts have all too often been disturbed and reused sites. A high proportion of finds made by 19th century antiquarians lack any details of provenance, adding to the contextual problems. Essentially, knowing when to look is as important as knowing where, and this has held back progress on understanding the Iron Age in Ireland. Establishing a chronology for when Irish bits and Y-pieces first appear in the Irish archaeological record has been of tantamount importance.

It is also important to assess what features, both natural and anthropogenic, Irish tack finds are associated with, and analyse if the distribution patterns can indicate possible networks associated with use of the horse. This has been done by using distribution maps for individual object types, along with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology. A hot spot model has been devised using ArcGIS 10.3.1 software, to show the relatedness of artefact clusters to a particular feature, the trackways or sligheann mentioned in ancient annals. This model was chosen, as the tack types would appear to be contemporary to within a few decades of each other, so time-lapse density models would be of little use. Most known provenances are named only as townlands, so therefore Nearest Neighbour Analysis would not be likely to return any better results. The kernel density model has also been used as a background to underpin the mapping finds distribution points, allowing comparisons without visual clutter. To test another potential link, the nodal points of the Sligheann, Iron Age/Early Medieval roads or trackways, mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters, have also been placed over the kernel model map, indicating a possible relationship.

The questions tackled here are designed to build on each other, from the most basic questions of how the tack fitted, how and why it was used, through to looking for decoration parallels across England and Europe. The aims then extend further, to examine equestrian equipment as objects from a specific time and place, using an examination of distribution, context and deposition through GIS and modified Historic Landscape Characteristic methods. The Irish equestrian equipment then is finally placed within ‘the big picture’ by comparisons to similar equipment in Britain and north western Europe, suggesting the origins of the pieces, but also telling part of their own unique story. The overarching question asked through this research has been, how the bridle assemblages were used, why, and what can this tell of their origins and the people who used them? It was understood from the beginnings of this research that one single homogenous system of analysis would never answer all the research questions posed. Apart from earlier studies by Haworth (1969; 1971) and Raftery (1983), there was little previous research to build upon. However, these previous works provided the catalysts for ideas, although they became filtered through the lens of living with and working with horses.

Previous research had suggested that tack was mostly found in wetlands. The use of primary and secondary source literature indicates a more complex set of depositional circumstances, questioning the predominance of wetlands as more details of sites were discovered. Using the methods employed to create HLC’s (Historic Landscape Characteristics), as set out by the Irish Heritage Council (Lambrick et al. 2013) a set of generalised natural and artificial features have been drawn up, categorising the find-spots according to one or several of these features. This was then combined with information gleaned from antiquarian literary sources, and the early O.S. maps of 1829–1841, to gain insight into any lost features. This has allowed a precise examination of the kinds of landscape features

The steps required to achieve this start with the creation of a comprehensive and up-to-date record of all known tack components, specifically documenting dimensions, weights, use-wear, decoration, and damage/modifications. Indications of repeated stresses and pressure on the metal objects demonstrates how the Irish bit and Y-piece bridle assemblages were fitted 3

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context with which equestrian equipment was most frequently associated.

brooches. This distinctive shape, with its bulb and fold arch, would have been hidden within the mouth of the horse, suggesting it but held a covert symbolic meaning. Analogues of shape and symbolism are sought, and found, with origins in both Europe and Britain, with confirmation of Roman influences on the morphology of the bits. A more complex story is indicated regarding the cast relief decoration symbols of bit and Y-piece, with symbolism from pre-Roman Britain and Europe.

The rationale for this study is examined in the literature review of Chapter Two, which identifies issues of past research, which have prevented advancement in the investigation of equestrianism in Irish archaeology. Establishing a chronology has been dogged by the adoption of a faux Irish Celtic identity, mostly manufactured from the 18th century onwards, to create an Irishness to politically counteract the effect of Imperial Britishness (Kiberd 1997: 21–27). These issues, combined with a general lack of enthusiasm or ‘horsiness’ created a detrimental knock-on effect, resulting in a lack of questioning past chronological paradigms, as well as Ireland’s interactions with Roman Europe.

With the beginnings of a chronology in place, Chapter Five examines the distribution patterns of tack, looking at the distribution of types for any temporal differences, which could suggest which bits came first in the development sequence. The distribution maps are then used to inform a GIS model of kernel density, to assess meaningful regularities in the finds of tack. From this model a new idea of defined routes and paths is developed, which may possibly represent the Irish road systems known as the sligheann, as recorded in the O’Donovan translation of the Annals of the Four Masters (1856: 102). The evidence of use-wear on bits discussed in Chapter Three indicates riding as the most likely means of transport, which would fit well with the idea of roads across Ireland, patrolled by a military elite. This may suggest insular interpretation of Roman infrastructure and allows some speculation on the reasons for tack depositions.

No prior equestrian knowledge is assumed on the part of the reader, so Chapter Three gets down to the nuts and bolts of basic lorinery, with a thorough explanation of what a bit is, how it functions, why there are different bits for different purposes and how this relates to any examination of prehistoric equestrian equipment. These are important concepts underpinning the core of the research, as an understanding of the choice of a bit style reveals a great deal about what the driver or rider wishes the animal to do, as well as how it fitted and what the bridle assemblage would have looked like. Past studies such as Raftery’s (1983) were based on a limited knowledge of how to measure the functional part of a mouthpiece. Chapter Three clarifies this, and allows a full analysis based on measurements of the estimated sizes of the horses wearing the bits, indicating some surprises in range. This diversity shows the presence of different types or breeds, which may open fresh discourse on native breeds and imported bloodlines.

Jørgensen (2003: 12–17) has considered the wetland and moorland tack deposits of Denmark and northern Germany as actions representing periods of intensified conflict, resulting in war booty depositions. Certainly, the actions of the Cimbri in the south of France, in 105 BC, with the mass slaughter of the vanquished and destruction of their weapons (Grane 2003: 146) parallels the weapon and tack hoards found in Danish and Germanic bogs. Even if this war-booty model is used as a template for other European depositions, there are regional and temporal differences to what was placed within the liminal spaces of bog and wetland (Bradley 2000: 55), possibly indicating changes in society, and that what was once appropriate and valuable declined in votive value. This also appears to be the case with Irish depositions (Bradley 2000: 56). Therefore, deviations from earlier patterns of votive deposition within the landscape can indicate societal changes.

With the practicalities of form, fit and function of the bits and Y-pieces explained, Chapter Four allows the next phase of external examination of the bits and Y-pieces, looking at the two kinds of decoration present on Irish tack — the delicate relief work cast into the objects, usually of an insular La Tène-derivative style, and the actual shape of the Irish bits, which are very different from anything else in Europe. The combinations of embellished designs on specimens found within hoards are examined, to assess if there are indications of associated designs or symbols within types, and if the combinations can suggest a chronological evolution of design.

After placing the objects in their own landscape, Chapter Six takes a sweeping overview of Late Iron Age and Roman European equitation. This comparison with European tack acts as a cultural compass, pointing the direction of the influences which entered Ireland and acted as a catalyst for the development of the unique Irish tack. There are also indications that influences did not just enter Ireland, but left it also, as Irish Iron Age bits inspired their own re-interpreted copies in other

The distinctive arched mouthpiece and the extended lipguard of the Haworth/Raftery Types D and E have been referred to as being duck-shaped and dragonesque, but with Jope (1955: 46) and Warner (2013/14: 276) agreeing that their style owed much to Romano-British trumpet 4

Chapter 1 ‘For want of a horse, the rider was lost’: An introduction to Irish Iron Age tack

parts of the Roman Empire of the first two centuries AD.

throughout to describe types of bits and functions is not archaeological, but equestrian (British Horse Society 1968; 1991; 1992; 2003; 2006). The commonly used archaeological nomenclatures of ‘horse gear’ or ‘horse furniture’ are unrecognised terms in equitation. Therefore, this research uses ‘tack’ to refer to all fitted equestrian equipment, and ‘harness’ specifically for driving, which would be convention within equestrian literature.

Chapter Seven summarises the conclusions of research, indicating areas where new questions have arisen. A final note is necessary before proceeding to the main body of the research. As stated, this research uses a hands-on equestrian approach for the details on bit functions, riding styles and fit. The terminology used

5

Chapter 2

The Irish Iron Age horse in context: Literature and legend objects designed and manufactured by a past culture, to solve problems in how to fulfil work tasks with animals they had domesticated and trained. For this, they used both technology and equestrian skill. While it must be acknowledged that there are aspects of earlier European La Tène art and symbolism incorporated into the design of the tack, these decorations are additional to the primary purpose, and the reason why some sort of overview of European tack must be considered, to place Irish pieces within some sort of context for both origin and time period.

Introducing the issues The examination of Irish tack has been one of the most neglected areas of Irish archaeology, despite them being one of the more plentiful objects of Iron Age Ireland. Even the nomenclature used in previous research has been misleading. It has been encouraging to see academics such as Cunliffe (2013: 297) starting to use accurate terminology such as tack in publications, as ‘horse gear’ or ‘trappings’ are not the descriptive norm for any equestrian. Perhaps the familiarity of regular finds bred an attitude of carelessness, as William Wilde (1861: 609) stated that ‘scarcely a year passes without some bronze spur-shaped articles being found in bogs’, referring to discoveries of Y-pieces through the 19th century. Bits were found with reasonable regularity too, although Wilde (1861: 609) lumped early medieval and Viking-period bits with those from the Iron Age in his catalogue of antiquities considering them all ancient.

The process of stimulating fresh debate into material culture of the Irish Iron Age has commenced within other texts not pertaining to equestrian goods. Cunliffe’s Britain Begins (2013: 386) places Ireland within a turbulent and dynamic Europe, as a frontier of the Roman Empire, while the Discovery Programme’s Late Iron Age and ‘Roman’ Ireland (LIARI) research project, in the Republic of Ireland, has instigated ground-breaking, and very welcome, change on the examination of European and British goods in Ireland, and Irish goods across Britain and Europe.

This lack of attention to the time and place of the artefacts allowed misconceptions to become longterm problems. Most 20th century Irish researchers, from Wakeman (1903) to Joseph Raftery (1940) and Barry Raftery (1974; 1982) have contended with the same major issues — primarily, the lack of an accurate chronology, followed by seeing the Irish Iron Age through an idealised, romantic, and often overpoliticised prism of sagas and folklore, as well as a lack of understanding of the objects as functioning tools. More so than any other archaeological period, the Iron Age in Ireland became a projection of a desired national identity.

In short, there is everything to be gained by building on the work of the LIARI project, which has been influenced by earlier general research, such as that of Ó Ríordáin (1945–48), Bateson (1973; 1976), Warner (1976), Raftery (1983; 1984) and, of course, the equestrian-focussed work of Haworth (1971). The difference being that the approach taken within this research concentrates on one area of artefact using methodologies very different from those of the past works mentioned, which almost uniformly show little working knowledge of horses, riding or driving.

Most research on Iron Age metalwork has incorporated equestrian material into larger, more general projects, although Palk (1984; 1991) and Haworth (1969; 1971) focussed on bits, with Haworth going further than most to understand function and possible reasons for the morphologies. Despite this key text, no subsequent research has ever sufficiently examined the artefacts for what they are — practical apparatus to control and modify the movements of a domestic equid.

A horse with no name: unknown breeds of the Iron Age The horse was an undeniable part of transport and military infrastructures of late prehistory. While later, historical cultures used the horse in an agricultural capacity, the status of the horse in Irish antiquity appears to be intrinsically linked to warfare and kingship. O’Keefe (1859: 65) quoted the Brehon Law description of the ideal mount: ‘A big horse, sound, young, noble, high-headed, load-carrying, livelyhearted, broad-breasted, haughty, easy-bearing, sleek, slender-legged, well-descended, free from spearthrusts, free from sword-cuts’.

With such an obvious gap in archaeological knowledge, it has been necessary to combine personal, practical experience of equestrianism with the results of earlier scholarly research. Through this filter of practical equitation, Irish Iron Age bits and Y-pieces can be understood as practical, functioning objects. These were 6

Chapter 2 The Irish Iron Age horse in context: Literature and legend

Translations of the Leabhar na gCeart, a text written down in the 15th century, but originating, like so many Irish texts, during the early medieval period, refers constantly to the elevated status of horses, as gifts to kings, constantly associated with warfare and weapons, as much as with hounds and feasting equipment (Dillon 1962; O’Donovan trans. 1847: 96–117). Even the excerpt from O’Keefe, above, stating the absence of sword-cuts indicates that a particular kind of horse was an accepted part of a warrior elite’s entourage. There was a degree of continuity during the transition period from paganism to early Christianity in Ireland, extending into the 5th and 6th centuries AD (Johnston 2017: 110). While these texts may have been recorded in the early medieval period, there is little reason to doubt even parts of them have earlier origins, although we still have no idea, despite the elegant descriptions, what types or stem breeds these animals may have been.

elaborated on within Scharf ’s report, but at least he acknowledged that sizes of animals in Ireland certainly differed. Recent genetic studies have been focussed on establishing Icelandic pony genetics from the Viking period (Wutke et al. 2016), rather than looking more generally at equids of later pre- and protohistory, as the pacing gene the researchers sought is very relevant to Irish equestrianism, and it certainly existed long before the Viking period. The earliest Irish equine images are the early medieval carvings of carts and riders on High Crosses at ecclesiastic centres, although medieval texts regularly mention a small, lightweight animal, the Irish Hobbey (Duffy 1996; Lydon 1954), which had the fifth gait of pacing or ambling. This is where the legs of the animal move laterally rather than diagonally. It is a useful and comfortable pace for long distances and protracted periods spent on horseback, due to its smoothness. The origins of the Irish Hobbey are unknown, and there are no images of horses from the Iron Age in Ireland to suggest breed origins.

Recent research by Bendry et al. (2013) has started to show nuances of horse use, with possible evidence of bad bitting and even poorer equitation skills on equine dental remains found at Newgrange, County Meath. These date between AD 67–220 (Bendry et al. 2013: 3–4, table 2). If the teeth belonged to the horse which used the Type E bit fragments at Newgrange (IB31E, pl. 59), then the animal was likely to be of a substantial size. The idea of the exclusive presence of small creatures, equivalent in size to modern Kerry Bog Ponies, which have been bred up with mixed bloodlines, must be challenged, as Iron Age Ireland comes into focus as an island that was very much part of an Irish Sea trading network. This is not to say that the ‘small and slender’ types mentioned by Finbar McCormick (2007: 88) were not present in Ireland — it simply indicates that more diverse bloodlines were present on the island at the end of the Iron Age, and that we still have no idea about indigenous breeds or types present during the Bronze Age or even before it.

Romano-British horse and rider figurines often show horses in natural gaits, although the diminutive specimen from Norton Disney, Lincolnshire, shows a horse moving its legs laterally, suggesting the presence of pacing animals in the 1st century AD (Maguire 2016). If this small figurine shows a Hobbey-type animal long before the medieval period, then we must consider pacing animals to be present in early equine types or breeds. Pliny the Elder (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 8.72) noted Iberian equids, which could perform the fifth gait of pacing or ambling. These animals were much in demand by Roman equestrians. The Roman military certainly imported animals from across Europe and judging by the increase in animal size in occupied regions which once had smaller animals, selective breeding for specific traits and conformation would appear to have been practiced (Dixon and Southern 1992: 165; 167;172). It would perhaps be naive to think that imported equids of various sorts were not gifted to allies for favours or traded for other resources.

The paucity of horse bones in prehistoric Irish contexts is remarkable. However, the excavation of Craigywarren crannog (Knowles and Coffey 1906), in County Antrim, includes details of the skulls of a mare and a stallion. Craigywarren crannog remains of uncertain dates, although a stone worked with La Tène-derivative artwork suggest a Late Iron Age phase of occupation (Fredengren 2007: 35). Scharff, a leading zooarchaeologist of the early 20th century, analysed the (still currently undated) horse skulls of the site, primarily identifying differences in skull size and shape. As such, he demonstrated the presence of an unmistakable warm-blood type, along with what he referred to as ‘La Tène Celtic’ pony types, which one could infer was something akin to a small, dense-boned cob (Scharff 1908: 83–84). This difference in breeds would suggest different tasks, although this was not

Horses and heroes: status and deposition practices The horse of the Iron Age fulfilled the twin purposes of transport and prestige, regardless of whether it was a chariot pony or a riding horse. Certainly, both Déchelette (1914: 1155–1204) and Jacobsthal (1944: 121–22) grouped tack with military equipment, as the evidence for domestic and vernacular use of the horse is less obvious. It takes time to train an animal. It takes time, skill and resources to make the equipment used on them, and it takes sufficient land and capital to maintain them. Brian 7

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Dolan’s (2014: 368) charming and fresh hypothesis of nomadic and egalitarian Iron Age communities challenged the normal view of the Irish Iron Age as a period of warriors and serving classes, asking if it was possible that horses were part of shared tribal property. Dolan’s (2014) alternative interpretation of Ireland’s Iron Age aimed to explore the reasons for the lack of vernacular artefacts and settlements of the period, as much as the uncertain chronology. However, even the most cursory examination of Irish tack reinforces that these bits and Y-pieces were made for an elite, and made to impress — they still do, two millennia later. If such metal objects were made to display wealth and status, then their find spots may represent selective deposition practices, like those across Europe from the Bronze Age.

Tène period into the Roman Iron Age would appear to offer weight to the association. La Tène tack, likely dating to the 2nd or 3rd centuries BC, found at Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland, would appear to be part of ritual depositions, and include ornate bridle fittings found in the lake itself (Jacobsthal 1944: 122; 158; pls 123 and 204). The ornate casting and decoration on peculiar cheek bar specimens are as singular as the later Irish bits. Interestingly, the sharp edges and extreme style of this strange object are closer to the (presumed) Transylvanian version of the Type E (Rustoiu 2005). The war horse, and even on occasions the agricultural horse, if we consider the Late Bronze Age assemblage found at Baekkedal, Denmark (Sarauw 2016), has almost always been gorgeously decked out in talismans and symbolic decoration, and such embellishments can offer a glimpse at the social order between those on horseback, with a raised status, and those who were not.

Suggestions that Irish Late Iron Age tack has primarily been deposited in watery environments (Becker 2011: 455) is a considerable oversimplification. Granted, tack has indeed been found within peatbogs, but also rivers, raths and earthworks across Ireland, conforming most closely (from what is currently known) to the disposal methods of military equipment across Europe, from the Late Bronze Age (Brück and Fontijn 2013: 209) to the Roman Iron Age (van Enckevort and Willems 1995: 132–34). Recent work by Garrow and Gosden (2012) has shown a variety of British landscape features associated with finds of equestrian equipment, indicating a wider variety of provenance than just wetlands. Irish tack finds have required a similar approach, acknowledging the complexity of ‘votive’ deposition as a practice, but also taking into consideration other circumstances such as founders hoards and losses.

While objects like the Neuchâtel cheek-bar serve to highlight our lack of understanding of the use and status of the horse in war and peace during the La Tène period, decorative equestrian displays were regular events in the Roman auxiliary cavalry. The hippika gymnasia of Roman cavalry units was basically a ritualised gymkhana, salted with propaganda, not just meant to act as practice for riders, but to impress conquered peoples (van Enckevort and Willems 1995: 130–32). If fear and wariness of ‘the law’ was created as well, the displays had done their job. The auxiliary cavalry units may have been locals to an area, or conscripts from other tribes across Europe, but they were in the employ of Rome now, holding two identities: one as Roman military, the other attached to their own regional cosmologies and beliefs. The complex deposition of associated cavalry objects like face masks, bits, headstalls/psalia and bells, not unlike the specimen found with Y-pieces in a hoard at Kishawanny, Co. Kildare (Raftery 1983: 69, 60), occurred in watery sites and dry-land pits (van Enkevort and Willems 1995: 134), which Roymans (1993) and Bishop and Coulson (1993) have generally viewed as preRoman traditions, adapted, and continued within the framework of Roman control. The practice of ending ‘heroic’ equipment’s lives may have continued, but in altered contexts and circumstances than those of the Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age.

It has been argued that metal tack objects held a similar status as weapons, as use of the horse allowed rapid response to hostilities and an advantage of elevation and speed against the opponent, thus being as important a component of warfare as a sword or spear (Maguire 2014: 84). Pauli-Jensen (2007: 131) had stated that the ‘war booty deposition’ horizon in Denmark and northern Germany, where considerable amounts of deliberately mutilated weapons and tack belonging to vanquished enemies were deposited in wetlands and moors, commences in the earliest decades of the first century AD. These ritualised displays of conquest include the wealth of tack finds at Thorsberg Moor in northern Germany (Lau 2014) and Vimose, Tranbaer and Illerup Ådal in Denmark (Ilkjaer and Friberg 2002; Schovsbo 2007). They often include horse sacrifices, treating the animal itself as a ‘weapon’, mangled and mutilated before deposition, just as swords and spearheads (Dobat et al. 2014). Bruneaux’s (1988: 94) horse skull and weapon assemblages, found in rivers across Europe and probably dating from the late La

By means of comparisons, then, the deposition of highstatus objects can be examined within the archaeological record and changes in status noted, by observations on the selection of regular landscape features as deposition sites. However, Irish material culture has 8

Chapter 2 The Irish Iron Age horse in context: Literature and legend

had other issues which have made interpretation of any evidence difficult, partially due, somewhat ironically, to its wealth of ancient annals and texts.

117–19). He also appears to have been influenced by John Toland, self-designated druid and political agitator (Champion 2001). Where Aubrey’s methods attempted some sort of contextual understanding, the additions of Toland and Stukeley’s Masonic and druidic ideologies muddled Celts and mysticism until it became a form of nationalist propaganda, asserting the innate moral superiority of ancient British druids who were practicing a forerunner to Christianity (Hutton 2009: 128).

Into the mystic: druids, scholars, and political agendas Charles de Vallencey, 18th century antiquarian, mapmaker, and teller of tall tales, has the dubious honour of being the first to record the removal of Iron Age tack from a bog in Roscommon, with a fanciful tale of golden chains and intact plumes on a Y-piece (Vallencey 1786: pl. 1). Despite being a staunchly British military man, Vallencey adopted Ireland as his home, and pioneered the study of its history and antiquities in his six-volume gazetteer of antiquities, customs and language, the Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis at a time when it was unfashionable to do so. Contemporaries like Voltaire were antagonistic towards Irish culture (Gargett 1990), seeing it as base and worthless compared to the Classical world, and the ‘noble savages’ of Gaul and Britain. It would seem likely that Vallencey’s fanciful comparisons of Irish antiquities to both Biblical and Classical antiquities were an attempt to ennoble all things Irish, and make them worthy of study, as well as creating an academic parity between English and Irish antiquities. History and 19th century antiquarians have been harsh to Vallencey (Nevin 1993: 51), but he was a man of his time and there were few antiquaries in Europe of the 18th century who held no socio-political agenda.

The Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, linguist and early archaeologist Edward Lhuyd had been drawn into the analysis of Celtic languages during the early 18th century, with this acting as a catalyst for further studies into the stem languages of the British Isles, Iberia and Ireland (Edwards 2007). His research observed the similarities between Brythonic (Breton, Kernow and Cymraeg) and Goidelic (Irish, Scottish, Manx) ‘Celtic’ words. He proposed that the stem of the Brythonic language originated in Gaul, the Goidelic on the Iberian Peninsula, and with both being variations on the language spoken by the Keltoi tribes described by Herodotus (Cunliffe 2009: 57). Such new ideas and theories of European Celts sweeping westwards to Ireland and the British Isles, bringing their language with them, highlighted how Welsh, Scottish, Cornish and Irish identities could be viewed as separate from England, and also placed new importance on antiquities associated with ‘Celticity’ (Champion 1996: 121). Wales may have gained a new and largely self-made status as the birthplace of the ‘true’, first Briton (Kidd 2010: 4), but Scotland and Ireland, which had been respectively incorporated into the United Kingdom of Great Britain by way of the Anglo-Scottish Act of Union of 1707, and the British-Irish Union of 1800–1, found themselves with a different kind of nationalist identity crisis. By the 19th century, druids and Celts had become part of a pseudo-historical subtext used in politics as a way of uniting the disparate segments of Britain and Ireland (Hutton 2009: 210), perhaps the first application of the Big Society catchphrase of ‘all being in this together’.1

It can be fairly stated that at least some of the archaeological misunderstandings regarding equestrianism are due to the reconstruction of national identities in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the rise of the Celtic Revival movement. Georgian (and pre-Georgian) antiquarians like Stukeley, Toland and Aubrey inadvertently constructed a pseudo-history of wise druids and fearless warriors from the propaganda of Roman annals, using this to assert that Britain’s status of Empire was well deserved, and at least equal to that of Rome (Hutton 2009: 125–29). John Aubrey perhaps stands out as the true Renaissance man of these protagonists. A polymath of his time, his observations of Avebury, and other Wiltshire prehistoric monuments, during the late 17th century, make him a pioneer of methodological approaches to archaeology (Britton 2014).

Both Gellner (2008) and Hobsbawm (2012) have reinforced that nation-building via foundation myths is a relatively modern construction, and that nationalism often invents versions of cultures which did not exist, destroying genuine, pre-existing cultures in the process. No matter which way the political subtext was interpreted, the truth of Irish prehistory became obfuscated by a manufactured Celtic identity, with all

His work proved highly influential to another early archaeologist, William Stukeley, in the 18th century. While Stukeley’s observations and data recording of his Stonehenge excavations are considered to be precursors of archaeological methodology, his interpretations of that site were strongly influenced by Freemasonry, unlike his excavations of Roman sites (Haycock 2002:

Full transcript of the Big Society speech available at UK government website, accessed 11th May 2021. https://www.gov.uk/government/ speeches/big-society-speech

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Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context things perceived Iron Age becoming the quintessence of Irish national identity.

Cú Chullain, the boy warrior of Ulster, and a host of supernatural beings play their parts in a story of greed, war, magic, lust and cattle ownership, the latter being a vital public manifestation of wealth during the Irish early medieval period (McCormick 2008) and likely earlier.

Anglo-Irish antiquarians and scholars often adopted more moderate versions of the Vallencey-esque correlation of Irish antiquities with the ‘noble savages’ of Europe, and by doing so, the study of Irish structures and artefacts became not just acceptable but desirable. The early archaeologists of Ireland, such as Petrie, Wakeman, and Wood-Martin, came from diverse backgrounds, often heavily influenced by the arts: Petrie was an artist and musician, and it was though his art which he was introduced to archaeology as an illustrator of the Irish Ordnance Surveys of the 1830s and 40s (Stokes 2014). Wakeman was his student, again from a more artistic background, and while WoodMartin was an ex-military man, they still shared sufficient archaeological interests to collaborate on projects, with Wakeman illustrating most of WoodMartin’s publications (Ireland 2001: 5–7).

There is some evidence that the oral traditional tales started to be written down around the 8th century AD (Ó hUiginn 2005), with each rendition of it changing the early original story to suit its own time, making the entire story a series of glimpses of late antiquity into the start of Christianity. Unlike the Annals of the Four Masters, the Ulster Cycle concerns itself entirely with gods, demigods and a whole array of supernatural beings, some of which may have sprung from overactive early medieval imaginations. Despite this, there are hints of the past, but it is a text which requires considerable teasing out of literary contexts. These stories of heroes, gods and warrior women offered a mystical origin for the exquisitely made artefacts which were being discovered in newly drained bogs and ploughed fields. The horns of Loughnashade, the scabbard of Lisnacrogher, the tack pieces examined here — all these objects certainly looked as though they should belong to heroes, as even the patina of hundreds of years’ deposition in soil or bog could not diminish the evident skill of the metalworker and the obvious high status of the end user. And so, these beautifully made objects became associated with the ultimate Celtic narrative of the Ulster Cycle and the Táin Bó Cúailnge. It is perhaps not so surprising that archaeologists such as Wakeman and Wood-Martin, both appreciative of the arts, strongly associated the finds of Iron Age metalwork with the Táin’s age of heroes.

The decades preceding the Irish rebellion of 1916 show that no academic discipline exists within a cultural or socio-political vacuum. Wakeman and Wood-Martin were contemporary with Celtic artists such as Yeats and Synge, while William Wilde, surgeon, antiquarian and stalwart of the Royal Irish Academy of Dublin, was father to Oscar Wilde and husband of the avid folklorist Speranza Wilde. The boundaries between folklore, art, music, and archaeology became increasingly blurred, as so many of the archaeological vanguard had passionate interests in all aspects of Irish culture. Even Macalister, who conducted one of the first recognisably modern excavations in Gezer, Israel (Macalister 1912), became more famous for his translations of ancient Irish texts such as the Lebor Gabála Érenn (Macalister 1938). Ireland’s newly minted Celtic past was presented as a heroic dreamtime, with emphasis on folklore and legends being retold for a new generation. (Hutchinson 2012: 55–85), with many scholars accepting the stories of the texts as chronologically correct historical accounts, despite anachronisms caused by numerous retellings, and nuances of what the folkloric traditions represented in their own time.

Artefacts and features in the Irish landscape gave impetus to the growing political identity of Celtic Ireland (Harvey 2003). Early discussions of antiquities by Wakeman (1903) and Wood-Martin (1895) unquestioningly accepted the Ulster Cycle stories of chariotry being prevalent in ancient Ireland, despite no definite archaeological evidence ever being found of such vehicles. Wood-Martin (1895: 246–48) confidently wrote that the Irish were indulging in chariot races during the first three centuries AD, and that ‘the three cognate races, the Gauls, Britons and Irish made use of war chariots’ (Wood-Martin 1895: 249) yet offered no substantiation for his inclusion of Ireland in this list. Instead, he relied on Julius Caesar’s descriptions of England and Europe of the last decades BC. Just as WoodMartin placed all tack into an unspecified age of heroes in chariots, so too Wakeman (1903: 230–32), equated the early medieval carts shown on Clonmacnoise cross carvings as being evidence of what he thought was happening several hundred years before, disregarding

Lost in translation: The Ulster Cycle and Irish equitation The most influential texts, perhaps, for Iron Age archaeology were the Ulster Cycle, a series of folk tales, poems, and prose pieced together from the 11th/12th century Leabhar na hUidre, the similarly dated annals of the Yellow Book of Lecan and the Book of Leinster. Of these tales, the most important must be the Táin Bó Cúailnge, the story of hostilities between Ulster and Munster, caused by cattle-raids. Its strong characters permeate Irish Celticness: Mebh, Queen of Connaught, 10

Chapter 2 The Irish Iron Age horse in context: Literature and legend

that Romans, Vikings and Saxons had all contributed in some way to changes in Ireland between the Iron Age and the erection of the carved High Crosses of Clonmacnoise, Durrow and Monasterboice ,which date between the 8th and 10th centuries AD (Stalley 2014).

The range of sizes of Y-piece and bit should have been sufficient to challenge Ridgeway’s assertions of tiny ponies. Still, the passion to make everything Celtic affected the research and publications of Ridgeway and Ewart, both eminent 19th century naturalists with an interest in the equestrian, with the hypothesis of a subspecies of horse, Equus caballus celticus, the Celtic pony, which never existed (Ewart 1903: 239; Ridgeway 1905: 18). They equated the bloodlines of the Connemara, most likely a pony with medieval, rather than ancient origins (Lewis and McCarthy 1977: 75), with the Icelandic, which is of Viking origin (Brady 2016), an association of breed similarities which is at best anachronistic. There is a dearth of knowledge about breeds or types of animals used in later prehistoric Ireland, and it is likely we need to think more about types than breeds, acknowledging extinct or bred-out2 animals (Maguire 2016), as the range of sizes of tack in Ireland suggest both native pony breeds and larger animals introduced via trade and gift exchanges.

These early archaeological texts are the norm in the first examinations of prehistoric Irish tack with the objects receiving the maximum of one or two pages within otherwise chunky volumes, which linger on pottery and weapons at length. There is little or no attempt at assessing how morphologies altered over time, and what that may imply for the culture from which they came. Instead, biographies of artefacts were fabricated to fit in with an Ireland of heroes. The description by Tempest (1930: 214) of the Ummeracam bit (IB25E: pl. 56) found within the Dorsey earthworks states ‘the bridle bit may have belonged to a chariot of Queen Meave of Connacht’s army’, confidently placing it date-wise between 300 BC and AD 1. Tempest, however, wisely assigned this hypothesis to a Mr Gogan, an assistant keeper of antiquities in Dublin’s National Museum of Ireland in 1914, while presenting the known facts of its discovery in his own voice.

Ridgeway’s work is replete with references to Cú Chulainn and Queen Medb driving small ponies in chariots (Ridgeway 1905: 97–98; 393) and includes a remarkable straight-faced analysis of Cú Chulainn’s legendary chariot horse, the Grey of Macha, being a superior animal specifically imported from the Camargue, based on the description in one of the Táin’s recensions (Ridgeway 1905: 398). It would be an audacious equestrian, never mind archaeologist, who would speculate on such a definite breed type from a description in an ancient story. The rationale behind this identification was most likely that the Camargue, in the south of France, would link with the history of the Gauls, who were incontrovertibly Celtic, presumably part of the ennoblement agenda often undertaken by Ridgeway. The truth is that we currently have no knowledge as to what kinds of equids existed in Iron Age Ireland, or what breeds or types were introduced from where — or perhaps most importantly, when.

Sir William Wilde, and his colleague Mr Clibborn, curator of antiquities in the Royal Irish Academy (1856: 195) stand out among these early artefact analysts with thoughtful and accurate observations, noting the way the stop-studs of Irish bits prevented slipping of the cheek-ring, and the use-wear on the terminals of the Y-pieces, which would indicate they had to hang below the jaw (Wilde 1861: 609). However, even Wilde’s astute observations, which strike the reader as the common sense of someone used to being on horseback were disregarded by Ridgeway (1905: 493–95). Ridegway, an eminent 19th and early 20th century zoologist, held a passion for all things equestrian, although his work on the Thoroughbred horse was influenced by a desire to prove Orientalisation by the ‘noble’ Arabian horse bloodline into British Thoroughbreds. While there is much worthwhile research contained in this text, it is inevitably flawed by romanticism, and the pursuit of what he considered ethnologically pure. He considered the Irish Y-piece to be part of a yoke, similar to fittings on a Theban chariot, now held in Florence museum, and although he did note that one Dr Sullivan had suggested their purpose in riding, this was not elaborated on (Ridgeway 1905: 492– 95). Meanwhile, in Denmark, Conrad Engelhardt (1866: 62) had already noted the similarity of Irish Y-pieces to U-shaped metal objects which were found in Thorsberg Moor — the kehlberge, which will be discussed in following chapters — and cited Wilde’s observations on the Y-piece in his research, yet this was largely ignored until Haworth’s research during the late 1960s.

Interestingly, during the period after the Partition of Ireland in 1921, Armstrong (1923: 24) highlighted the stagnation of research and the way the ideas of the 19th century antiquarians had become uncritically accepted for all Iron Age artefacts. Unfortunately, regarding equitation, Armstrong fell back on those standard explanations for paired draft, despite only eight hoards producing pairs of bits and Y-pieces, and no evidence of any accompanying vehicle. In short, the awareness of misidentification appears to have existed in early 20th century archaeology, but the desire to do anything about it was extremely limited.

Terminology used in horse breeding to indicate distinctive features being cross bred with other breeds until the features cease to exist.

2 

11

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Kenneth Jackson’s Window on the Iron Age (1964) resurrected the idea of the Ulster Cycle as a means of identifying Iron Age beliefs. As a result of this, the subject of chariotry was reinstated as an integral part of Iron Age Ireland material culture. Jackson’s research remains influential, as it is very likely that fragments of the Táin are indeed glimpses into the Iron Age, although skewed by the Irish oral tradition of repeatedly adding to a good story over time. Certainly, the stories became veneered with early medieval anachronisms by the time they were written down (Mallory 1992: 103–61). Mallory (1992: 152) considered much of the material culture of the texts to belong to the Late Iron Age, possibly from around the 4th century AD, while much of the social nuances in the narrative likely to date from the 7th century AD onwards. Placing the multitude of questions about the Táin and how it may represent aspects of the Late Iron Age meant that the topic of chariotry was very much back on the academic menu, with Johns (1971) and Kilfeather (1988) both offering slightly reworked versions of Ridgeway’s old theories on the use of the Y-piece as yoke components.

material held in the National Museum in a new light. Before either, of course, during the mid-1930s, Paul Jacobsthal had been published in specialist art journals (1935), expounding his ideas on classification of La Tène metalwork, using changing styles of patterns. It seems likely this had a direct influence on Joseph Raftery’s development of comparisons of art styles as a means of classification. Joseph Raftery summed the situation up succinctly, that Irish material had been made to ‘fit into a foreignproduced scheme with no attempt to read the lesson which Irish culture itself taught’ (Raftery 1940: 272). The paper is still relevant to all interpretations of artefactual evidence, despite the decades which have passed since its publication. Raftery’s semi-fixed dates for Irish Iron Age items depended heavily upon comparisons of decorative styles, and with this he proposed the Iron Age in Ireland be divided into five phases (Raftery 1940: 281), with the Type A bits and 1a and b Y-pieces dating to phase II (175 BC to AD 75) and the Type E bits to phase III (AD 75 to 200). However, Raftery’s sequence of Irish Iron Age phases provided the correct date range for the Type E bits. If flaws exist within this powerfully innovative text, it is that it still treated the Táin as a documentary source (Raftery 1940: 276; 278), along with scant working knowledge of how bits function, and how changes in function would reflect a changing society. Despite this, it is still a seminal text, even in the 21st century, and this research owes it a considerable debt.

Enthusiastic and well-researched ideas on chariots themselves were presented by Greene (1972) and Karl (2003), although the design of the vehicles may be more appropriate to the early medieval period. This was emphasised by Stifter (2009), who placed the archaeological evidence for chariots and carts in Ireland firmly in the post-Patrician period, while acknowledging the likelihood of earlier vehicles, of which we know nothing. Only Mallory suggested, in Aspects of the Táin (1992: 150) that riding was probably the more practical option to Iron Age transport, and that any hypothetical regular use of chariots had to be weighed against Irish terrain and weather.

It has been tempting to hope for evidence of a slow and observable chronological evolution in Irish tack pieces. Recent research had explored the possibility of this (Maguire 2014), although searching for a gradual (or sudden) chronology was not an entirely new idea. Barry Raftery’s (1974: 9) suggestion that tack was possibly introduced to Ireland over a brief span of time, and then rapidly developed its own insular style received little attention when published. The theory of an Iron Age equestrian ‘Big Bang’ is extremely relevant and valid for a fresh viewpoint on Iron Age material culture as a whole.

Ancient problems, modern times Establishing a chronology for Irish Iron Age antiquities has been the most obvious hindrance to understanding the Irish Iron Age. Museums such as the National Museum of Ireland are replete with objects found in the 18th and 19th centuries, which were treated as nothing more than pretty curiosities by landowners and collectors. These finds have no details of context or provenance, with which to attempt dating by association, and this is an issue which plagues all finds that pre-date modern archaeological site recording.

Yet the important questions of function and use were avoided, with researchers, apart from Wilde and Engelhardt in the 19th century, and Haworth in the 20th, ignoring analysis of bits and Y-pieces, preferring to imagine horses of the Iron Age being led around with pomp and ceremony (Kelly 1984: 7–8), which, somehow, managed to produce chafing use-wear at the sedate pace that a human leading them could walk. Barry Raftery (1984: 45), however, was honest enough to see the Y-piece as something which hung below the jaw of a horse jaw and left it at that, as he could not explain it in any other way.

The sturdy and thorough analysis of British bit types by Perkins (1939) can be said now in hindsight to have occasionally stumbled regarding chronological accuracy, but even acknowledging the flaws inherent to its time, it remains a well-considered scholarly examination of British tack. His combined distribution analysis and attempted classification of bits encouraged Irish archaeologist Joseph Raftery to look at the equestrian 12

Chapter 2 The Irish Iron Age horse in context: Literature and legend

Martyn Jope’s papers for the Ulster Journal of Archaeology (1950; 1955) commenced the distancing of archaeological thought from reliance on the Táin and looked at bits as functional objects which could be analysed for use-wear patterns. By noting asymmetric wear on the apertures of a bit from near Armagh, Jope (1950) opened a productive debate on chariotry and use-wear, and by doing so, dealt the first blow to direct comparisons of British and Irish bits, acknowledging that they were very different indeed. He also questioned the use of chariots in Iron Age Ireland, despite the uneven wear of the Armagh specimen, and highlighted the lack of evidence to link the Y-piece to paired draft (Jope 1950: 58–59).

allowed a full examination of Y-pieces to be undertaken and published by the present author (Maguire 2014). What really set Haworth’s work apart from earlier studies was that, despite indications within his published paper that he was not personally au fait with practising riding or driving, he made an excellent attempt at understanding the basics of equestrian practice and the craft of the loriner, which, no matter how obvious it may appear, had not been done before. It is counter-productive to examine tack only as objets d’art, when they are functional equipment, but likewise, the artistic merit of these objects is part of the overall effect, with decoration meaningful in its own right, as it was added intentionally. Decoration styles can represent the cultural adoption of new ideas and identities, or reinforcements of the past. As examples, the Broighter torc is made in an earlier style, but unlikely to be of an early date (Warner 1982); symbols used on the English Witham shield, which date circa 300 BC are interpreted on Irish Y-piece terminals dating between the 1st and 2nd centuries AD (Maguire 2017; 2020). Likewise, brooches from northern Britain from the 1st century AD resemble enamelled decorative objects made in Britain of the 3rd century BC (Eckhardt 2014: 128–31).

While driving can create asymmetric wear, it can also be created by other factors, such as variations in metals used, and the difference between expected use-wear of paired draft and single driving. The 1955 paper by Jope started to ask questions about the real issues behind Iron Age Irish tack — dates, influences and use. Jope (1955: 38) did not rule out the possibility of chariots or carts and acknowledged that uneven bit wear was not an entirely reliable gauge for driving but did admit there was a great deal unknown as to the means of transport, and what that indicated about the culture of late prehistoric Ireland.

Haworth’s typology classifications were adapted and refined slightly by Barry Raftery in his magnum opus catalogue of Iron Age metalwork (1983), with more detail in the sub-classifications of the Y-pieces. If there is a flaw within the Raftery catalogue, it is that it is just that — a catalogue. Tack was included with a host of other artefacts, and there are a considerable number of errors of provenance within the text, as perhaps is to be expected in an undertaking of such magnitude. Unfortunately for any Iron Age scholars wishing to learn more about ancient tack as a follow-on from Haworth’s work, Raftery did not attempt to understand how bits work on horses and why. Yet it is the very questions of why a bit, martingale or hackamore is made in a specific way which leads to answers about the society which created it.

This paper also was the first to point out the similarity of the decorative styles used on Irish bits to RomanoBritish objects found in Silchester (Jope 1955: 43). He also suggested that there had to be interactions between Roman-influenced workshops and Irish artisans, again because of comparisons of designs on brooches, bowls, patera and box lids in Roman Britain, and the designs on the bits and Y-pieces of the Attymon hoard, in Galway (Jope 1955: 43). The most important corpus of work on Irish bits per se must be Richard Haworth’s exemplary typology study (Haworth 1971), based on his undergraduate dissertation from 1969. Haworth was a student of Jope, and obviously set out to examine some of the issues raised by his supervisor in his 1955 paper for the Ulster Journal of Archaeology. Haworth documented the finds of bits, offering a common-sense, workable classification system based on mouthpiece morphology, which, considering the mouthpiece is what defines a bit type, makes perfect sense to any equestrian. While he also observed differences in stop-studs, cheek rings and central links, he had obviously carried out sufficient research to know these are accents on the mouthpiece shape, not changing the overall effect of the bit. Haworth also proposed a straightforward classification system of the Y-piece, in which different Y-pieces were grouped according to the shape of their terminals and perforations, although he did not pursue the question of their function. The gap left in this research area

When Natalie Palk undertook a Haworth-style typology study of the bits of Iron Age Britain (1984), she included some Irish material as comparison. It was expected that the subsequent doctoral dissertation (1991), which remains unpublished, would have developed on both the commonalities and disparities between Irish and English equipment. After all, British bridle assemblages were being used much earlier than Irish examples, and any evolution should, in theory, be possible to trace, from the Late Bronze Age antler cheek pieces of Britain (Britnell 1976: 24–26) through to the Iron Age Llyn Cerrig Bach hoard (MacDonald 2007), thus allowing assessment of any commonalities across the Irish Sea.

13

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context The scholarly strength in Palk’s work was her analysis of British material, especially chariot terrets, circular attachments which keep multiple rein sets from getting tangled when driving. However, her analysis of Irish tack in her doctoral dissertation barely skimmed the surface of the subject, nor came to terms with Irish Iron Age contexts (Palk 1991: 215–20). Palk’s attempts (1991: 177– 84) to create new classifications based on links, hybridlinks (a term which is never satisfactorily explained to any extent) and ‘rein rings’, which presumably are cheek rings, created a somewhat muddled classification system. Perhaps more importantly, she disregarded the fact that it is the mouthpiece which determines the workings of the bit; all other components such as links and rings are accents, emphasising or focussing specific kinds of pressure, contributing to the overall effect of the bit.

253) quite wisely points out that organic mouthpieces made of organic material such as twine or leather would be unlikely to create harsh dental wear on the teeth of a horse, relying on cheek pieces such as those from the Ukrainian site of Dereivka, circa 4200 BC, as evidence instead. With the introduction of metal mouthpieces during the Third Millennium BC, regional styles of bitting developed, as shown by the pierced nose ring bridles of Ur (Littauer and Crouwel 2001: 335). However, Hüttel (1981: 179–87) theorised that the bulk of Bronze Age bits evolved in a series of phases, the Early Bronze Age eastern European disc cheek-pieced snaffles (Scheibenknebel) ending rapidly in favour of the basic jointed snaffle which became nigh standard kit for Eurasian steppe and European equitation. From this point on, there are copious amounts of work on Hallstatt and La Tène bridles and carts, from Venedikhov (1960), Jacobi (1974), Pare (1992) and Schöenfelder (2002), displaying incontrovertible evidence that wheeled vehicles were being used in Early Iron Age Europe, of the 5th and 6th centuries BC. While work by Jacobsthal (1944) has proved invaluable on the aspect of art and design, it offers little on equitation itself.

The result was a classification system of little use to Irish archaeologists, accounting for why Haworth (1971) and Raftery (1983) remain the standard references for identifying Irish tack. No major amendments have been required for Haworth or Raftery’s work, apart from two new sub-classifications in the light of new finds; here, the attitude taken has been ‘if it is not broken, it doesn’t need fixed’.

Some of these texts, particularly Schönfelder (2002) and Jacobi (1974) provide excellent sources hinting at the pre-Roman origins of the psalion, the rigid headstall device used in the Roman Empire, as well as Irish Y-pieces and Germanic equivalents. From complete chariot assemblages found in 8th century BC pre-Roman Italian tombs (Crouwel 2012), to the Iron Age Husby cart burial (Raddatz 1967) and the ‘princely’ burials of the Heuneburg and Vix (Fernández-Götz and Krausse 2013), tack, vehicles and riding have been part of the story told by numerous archaeological excavations across Europe. This has not applied to Ireland, due to the absence of any direct evidence for either vehicles or earlier prehistoric equitation.

More useful to understanding tack in Britain and Wales was the doctoral dissertation by Mary Davis (2014), from the National Museum of Wales. This work analysed the elemental composition of a selection of pre-Roman and Romano-British hoards in Scotland and Wales, with some of these hoards, like Middlebie and Seven Sisters, containing bits and rein hooks. Davis’s pXRF analysis of these artefacts moved the understanding of tack manufacture into a different and quantifiable area, highlighting regional and chronological differences in how bits were made. Looking to Europe

The paper by Bendry et al. (2013), which re-examined and provided new dates for the equine remains found at Newgrange, proved useful to confirm suspicions about the authenticity of fragments of Type E bits found in the area around the megalithic structure. It is a reminder that re-examination of dates with new technology is a necessity when looking at material which has largely been forgotten for several decades. Such bone assemblages may possibly be much earlier, or representative of continuity of ritual practice at cult sites beyond prehistory. As an example of this, the recent excavations at Hill of Ward/Tlachtga cult site produced equine hock bones from the early medieval period, radiocarbon dated and calibrated between AD 659–775 (UB 32234), but other horse bones, from the upper contents of the same ditch, produced calibrated radiocarbon dates between 399–193 BC (Table 2.1).

No aspect of material culture exists in a cultural vacuum, and as such, Irish bits and Y-pieces need very much to be placed within the Europe of their time to understand where the influences of their creation came from. Research on the origins of equestrianism is plentiful (Anthony 1991; Taylor et al. 2016) but were only relevant to this work because of how they tell of the evolution of the bit. The earliest evidence for the domestication of the horse is from sacrificial deposits of horse bones at Khvalynsk, in the Ukraine, dating to around 4500 BC (Agapov et al. 1990), while the contemporary carved horse-head shaped stone maces found as grave goods in some burials along the lower Danube Valley in central Europe (Anthony and Brown 2011) attest to the rise of the horse as a status symbol. Bits of this period would have been made of organic materials, rope, sinew, antler, and bone. Olsen (2006: 14

Chapter 2 The Irish Iron Age horse in context: Literature and legend

UBA Number

ID

UBA-32235 UBA-32234

Material Type

14C Age (BP)

+/- St Dev

Tlachtga Horse (hock) context 470 bone

2248

53

Tlachtga Horse tooth context 460

1285

35

Calibrated (2 Sigma)

F 14 C

±

399-193 BC

0.978

0.0050

189-175 BC

0.022

AD 790-822

0. 071

AD 659-775

0.929

0.0037

Table 2.1 Calibration of horse bones from Tlachtga, Co. Meath using Calib (Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., and Reimer, R.W., 2021) IntCal20 (Reimer et al. 2020).

Comparison to Roman material across Europe was obvious, and Nicolay’s (2007) work in the Netherlands allowed a fuller picture of European equitation, synchronous with Irish developments. Both Nicolay (2007) and Groot (2011) have suggested throughout their works that horse sizes were larger in Romanised areas of the Netherlands, co-existing with smaller animals, which were used for different tasks. This suggested a route of investigation for the range of mouthpiece sizes in Ireland. The outlier specimen of a dragonesqueshaped version of the Type E bit, shown in Figure 2.1, which was found in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, was categorised as being later Roman (Raftery 2000: 1–12; Rustoiu 2005: 29–30). It stands unique in Europe as a very dramatic (though likely non-functional) interpretation of the Irish Type E, possibly demonstrating how far influences can travel from their point of origin, while being re-worked to suit the identity of the end user.

Y-pieces. Her work, and generosity in sharing her unpublished text, allowed very direct comparison with Irish bridles, enabling a much better understanding of the Irish Y-piece fit and function. To summarise, a new outlook has long been needed to address the utilitarian aspect of late prehistoric Irish equestrian equipment. While this research owes a debt of gratitude and inspiration to the thorough methodologies of Hawarth and both Rafterys, it also recognises the need to look at the objects from the perspective of an equestrian, as much as from that of an archaeologist. We now need to move beyond the political agendas of the past. We also need to acknowledge that the ancient annals do indeed tell us something of later prehistory as much as the early medieval period, although we must be aware that they are multi-period middens of words. We know they are flawed with hearsay, mythology, and contorted chronology, but they also contain seeds of memory about the end of the Iron Age as well as the beginnings of Christian historical Ireland. It is perhaps always going to be a matter of debate as how the true memories are teased from layers of other eras adding to the stories.

However, no publication has made such a powerful and timely impact to furthering comparisons with Europe as Lau’s research (2014) into the bridle assemblages of Thorsberg Moor. As far back as the 19th century, the archaeological excavator and academic Conrad Engelhardt (1866: 62) had observed a similarity of the Y-piece to the Germanic bridle component known as kehlbergen but did not pursue further comparison or investigation into this. Lau’s timely and rigourous reconstruction of the Late Iron Age bridle assemblages of the Thorsberg war booty depositions demonstrated that the Germanic kehlberge was a mixture of a martingale and hackamore, proving both Engelhardt and Haworth correct in seeing parallels with Irish

Most important, perhaps, is to look at Irish La Tènederivative material, for it has waited a long time to tell its own story. The only way to understand the riders of the Irish Iron Age is to think about tack use, animals, and function as they would have done. Bits, harness, and tack in general, do not change. The bone and antler mouthpieces from the dawn of equitation on the steppes are still of recognisable bit types; the severe curbs and

Figure 2.1 Pseudo Irish Type E bit found in Transylvanian region of Romania. Photograph by kind permission of Dr. A Rustoiou.

15

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context gag bits used by ancient Greeks and Assyrians still had recognisable equivalents into the mid-20th century — each and every prehistoric bit has a modern analogue. More refined, perhaps, but they were used for similar reasons then as they are now.

Raftery (1974: 9) was likely correct that metal bitting arrived suddenly and evolved rapidly, just as his father Joseph Raftery (1940: 281) noted that the evolution of styles was likely to be temporal. Establishing that chronology has been of vital importance, to create a framework into which tack, and other Iron Age objects can be placed, resulting in knowing what we are comparing across Europe and Britain, and when. This has meant building on the work of past scholars; Jacobsthal’s knowledge of La Tène art (1944); Jope’s similar specialisation, combined with his identification of Roman-influenced styles, to establish what is genuinely old and what may represent an expression of ‘vintage’.

The author was first placed on horse-back in an old basket saddle at about eight months of age, according to family memory and photographs, which mercifully, are not included here, and has over four decades’ experience of equitation, from breaking and training to eventing. That level of enthusiasm for equitation is not required to understand the following chapters. All knowledge contained within this research is accessible through the plethora of excellent handbooks published by the British Horse Society (1968; 1991; 1992; 2003; 2006), or even the sales staff of a good local saddlery and tack shop. There are no arcane mysteries to understanding why one would use a particular kind of bit over another. It is a personal, practical, and sometimes corrective choice made for both horse and rider/driver. The archaeology, however, is needed to explain the features which time-tested equestrian know-how cannot and relate it to the past.

The glimpses of Iron Age equestrians and their lives parallel the concerns of equestrians today, improvising and creating equipment to allow safe riding and driving. As archaeologists we work from known contexts towards the unknown. Here, we seek to work from the known, i.e., the work of such scholars as Haworth, Joseph and Barry Raftery, and for comparison, Lau, into the unknown, starting with the most basic questions as to how Irish bits worked, fitted and how this can begin to bring the shadowland of the Iron Age into focus.

However, even a working knowledge of equestrianism cannot create a refined chronology for these objects.

16

Chapter 3

The Irish Iron Age bridle: Form, function, use-wear, and fit ridden mostly with curb bits or a bitless bridle, known as a bosal or hackamore, with riders having little rein contact on the mouth of the horse unless applying a specific cue. A European working hunter-type will often wear some form of jointed snaffle and be guided with two hands on the reins, maintaining contact with the horse’s mouth. Bit selection, therefore, can be influenced by differences in the abilities of horse and rider, or driver, just as inexperienced or incorrectly trained horses may respond badly to some bits. The craft of making bits is called lorinery, and it is a practical art, addressing individual needs.

A practical introduction to bitting No assumptions have been made here about the reader’s background knowledge of riding or driving, so this chapter commences with a brief explanation of how bits function, why there are different kinds, how the elements of a bridle assemblage work, and why this is relevant to understanding both function and fitting of Irish Iron Age tack. Analysis of bit types used on a horse can reveal information about the horse such as its training, what kinds of tasks it was required to perform as well as indicating its conformation and health. A bit (Figure 3.1) allows a rider to cue a horse by placing pressure in and around the mouth of the animal, on the interdental space between the front incisor teeth and the back molars, which is known as the bar. Extra pressure and leverage can be applied to the tongue, roof of mouth, as well as lips, chin groove and poll (top of head) by varying the shape of the mouthpiece of the bit. This pressure is used to control the horse’s speed and to direct its movements.

Every animal’s dental structure is slightly different, just as human mouth shapes and dentition are. Each animal requires measurement and often different styles of bit to achieve maximum performance as a domestic animal. Contrary to MacGregor’s opinion that ‘the question of discomfort, verging on cruelty, has no relevance to a study of Celtic harness’ (1976: 25), the issue of bit severity is vital to an understanding of horse and human interaction to the practical archaeologist, wishing to accurately reconstruct the past. An animal controlled by pain is an unpredictable one, unreliable for use in sport or war. The art style, which of course MacGregor was most concerned about, may have no relevance to the issue of cruelty, but on these early bits, the art is incorporated into the functional design and must be looked at holistically.

Use of the bit is only part of the art of equestrianism. Control depends on the riders’ ability to communicate what they want to the animal, regardless of riding or driving. Instructions are transmitted by human hands, voice, and in the case of riding, by body balance and legs. A rider is trained to sit correctly and respond in synchrony with the animal’s natural movements, while their hands connect directly to the reins and bit.

It is an issue particularly relevant when considering the small, severe bits of pre-Roman Britain such as those found with the 5th century BC chariot burial at Newbridge, Scotland (Carter et al. 2010), and the 3rd century BC Wetwang Slack burials in Yorkshire (Dent

Specific riding disciplines use one type of bit more than another. For example, Western-style riding horses are

Figure 3.1 Parts of a snaffle.

17

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context 1985). The narrow, twisted mouthpieces occasionally used by Roman equites (Hyland 1990: 136–40) were even harsher, although they were only one choice among many variations. Most of the Roman cavalry units consisted of recruits from across the Empire, many of whom had longer histories of horse training, such as the peoples of the Netherlands, for example, the Batavii and Frisii (Groot 2011: 217; Spiedel 2002: 24–29). The bits they used often displayed a better working knowledge of equine physiognomy and practical equitation.

hypothetical reconstruction of a Late Iron Age Irish bridle. The functional mouthpieces of bits were measured and recorded with results displayed to suggest the range of sizes of animals in use during the late prehistoric period, employing commonly used equestrian methods of estimating animal size from mouthpiece size. This vernacular, hands-on equestrian method has had some osteological validation (Chrószcz et al. 2014; Engelke and Gasse 2003), although, like all methods involving living creatures, some degree of caution is advised, as the variation of animal conformation means that absolute precision of size is not possible.

Almost all Iron Age European bits are variations on snaffle types, with some use of bitless bridles and hackamores. Examples of the single-jointed snaffle have been found across Europe, such as those found in La Tène chariot burials such as Le Gorge Meillet, in Aisne, France (Joffroy and Bretz-Mehler 1959) and the Hallstatt C burials across Bavaria (Balkwill 1973). There is no indication of the use of curb bits in Iron Age Ireland, and scant evidence of their use in Britain and north-western Europe by the Late Iron Age, apart from Roman examples, some of which are found across Europe, and depicted on war horses on Trajan’s Column in Rome (Lee 1900: 154–58).

Understanding the function of the bits and hackamore types of the Irish Iron Age All categorised Irish bits are double-jointed snaffles, with central links of different kinds. Each cheek ring is held in place by two stop studs, some of which are conspicuously large and decorated. The mouthpiece cannons have perforations at each end for the central link and cheek rings at the same plane, which differentiates them from British bits, which are perforated at right angles. Many of the Irish cannons are hollow, with some such as IB6A and IB7A (pls 2 and 3) still showing traces of their clay cores from the casting process. The mouthpiece components appear to have been cast onto each other, although it is possible some were cast as one complex piece. First, however, an explanation of what snaffles, hackamores and bitless bridles are, to place the Irish material into their categories.

Unlike the tack assemblage of the 6th century BC Bettelbühl burial (Krausse et al. 2017), or the cart grave of Husby (Raddatz 1967), or even the 1st century AD war booty depositions of Ilerup Ådal and Thorsberg mentioned earlier, no complete bridle assemblage has been found in Ireland, although Vallencey’s account (1784: 11–12) of a bit and Y-piece, connected with golden chains, found at a bog in Roscommon is likely to be based on actual events, although exaggerated considerably.

A snaffle bit consists of a mouthpiece connected to circular cheek rings, which rest externally on the cheeks of the horse, and connect the mouthpiece to the rest of the bridle and the reins. The snaffle mouthpiece can take several forms; a single bar known as a ‘mullen mouth’, or two linked bars, called cannons, which either connect to each other (single-jointed snaffle) or to a central link (double-jointed snaffle). Figure 3.2 illustrates the modern varieties mentioned in this research, including the closest comparison to the Irish Type E, the ported jointed snaffle, while Figure 3.7, further in the chapter, shows the Irish Late Iron Age types for comparison.

Summary of methods used in analysis The primary questions of how the Irish bits and Y-pieces fitted within a bridle assemblage work, and why can reveal much about both the animals used and the tasks performed. By using comparison to modern day bits, we gain an indication as to what the Iron Age specimens were used for. Examination of the additional features of the bits, such as the centre-links, the stopstuds and cheek rings, all indicate accents within the overall effect of the mouthpiece. Use-wear analysis of both bit and Y-piece is based on examination for evidence of metal-on-metal grinding, chafing, and rubbing, where connections of cannon, cheek ring and centre-link interact. This has been combined with examination for even or uneven wear, to understand where pressure was placed, indicate how the pieces fitted, and worked together. Bite marks can indicate regular use. as well as indicating how well the bits fitted — or not. The results allow for the

There are different kinds of central links for doublejointed snaffles which either sit flat and plate-like against the tongue of the horse, or sit upright, adding to the strength1 of the bit. Most Irish bits use variations on the Dr Bristol, lozenge and French link, and this is discussed further in the text (also, see Figure 3.8). A bit which has a rapid effect, through discomfort or pain, is referred to as strong.

1 

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Chapter 3 The Irish Iron Age bridle: Form, function, use-wear, and fit

Figure 3.2 Modern snaffle types.

Figure 3.3 How single joint and double joint snaffles function.

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Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Apart from one possible example of a single-jointed snaffle of uncertain origin found at Aughinish, County Limerick (Kelly 1974). Kelly (1974: 10) described this specimen, found in a pit with shells, a bronze awl and fragments of pottery, as being from the Dowris phase of metalworking (900 BC to 600 BC). It is a common bit type across Europe, from the Hallstatt period through to Roman cavalry era, for which Raftery (1976: 192) suggested that it was more likely to be an import than locally made.

which is different for each bit type, is enhanced or diffused by a centre link, or lack of it. This can be used to correct bad habits and influence the behaviour of the animal. In short, an understanding of ancient bit types can inform how well-trained an animal was, how it was expected to move, and therefore what tasks it performed. All types of the Irish Y-piece (Figure 3.4) lie somewhere between the function of a bosal hackamore and possibly a martingale (a rein which stops a horse flinging its head up and down). Hackamores, as we understand them today, are a form of bitless bridle and designed to exert pressure on the nose and chin groove of the head of a horse as a substitute to pressure in the mouth. There are a few varieties; the bosal consists of an organic noseband, usually rawhide or woven, flexible material, which connects the Y or U-shaped strapping to a knot, known as a fiador which connects to looped reins known as mecate (Figure 3.5). It is a simple but effective bitless control system, working on the jaw and nose and is used on young horses to train them to a level of high manoeuvrability. When the bosal is attached to a bridle with additional unyielding structures such as shanks or bars, it is known as a hackamore. There is also a sidepull variation, which places the rein attachment to the side of the horse’s face, thus lessening chin pressure and increasing lateral pull. Mechanical hackamores are potentially harsher in untrained hands and operate by applying pressure to the sensitive nose of the equid (Figure 3.6). Sometimes they are used with a snaffle, although this would be mostly for display than functional riding.

The effect of a single jointed snaffle is shown on the left side of Figure 3.3. It applies a direct, and potentially harsh, squeezing effect on the mouth and tongue of a horse, and upwards into the palate, known as ‘nutcracker’, pressure, due to the targeted compression within the mouth when rein tension is applied. This is how the single joint snaffles found across Europe (such as the Gorge Meillet, and even Newbridge bits) functioned. The double-jointed snaffle (Figure 3.3, right side image) with its central link, has more flexibility within the mouth of the horse, and encourages the animal to accept and engage with the bit, creating a receptive mouth. The central link between the cannons diffuses the severity of the nutcracker effect of the single link snaffle on tongue and palate when pressure is exerted on the reins. Therefore, the specific kind of pressure,

Ancient variations of hackamore/martingale hybrids, such as the kehlberge of Germany (Lau 2014: 140–44), or similar functioning psalia used by Roman riders, such as those found at the Roman camp at Nijmegen in the Netherlands (Willems 1992: 62) are used to exert maximum control in activities such as roping and speed events. Again, they place pressure on the face of the horse, rather than the mouth. They are most effectively used on horses with previous training and are occasionally combined with a mouthpiece for flexibility of use. Identifying the Irish Iron Age bit types The first typological classification of Irish bits was carried out by Joseph Raftery, who considered the undecorated snaffles and simpler, single-cast Y-pieces as belonging to the earlier Iron Age, which he placed from 175 BC to AD 75 (Raftery 1940: 279). He also theorised that a direct link existed between the simpler Type A and B Irish snaffles and those found at Hagbourne Hill in England (Perkins 1939), suggesting that the more ornate pieces belonged to the era of the Táin Bó Cuailgne (Raftery 1940: 280), which he placed

Figure 3.4 Parts of a Y-piece.

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Chapter 3 The Irish Iron Age bridle: Form, function, use-wear, and fit

Figure 3.5 How a bosal and mecate hackamore work (Image courtesy of Summer Jackson, modelled by Dancer).

Figure 3.6 Mechanical hackamore. Image from Wikicommons (CC BY 2.0).

purely in the Iron Age, rather than acknowledge the early medieval influences.

tack, instead of seeking to place the objects in their own time and place (Palk 1991:177–84). She also overlooked that, regardless of what time period it belongs to, a good bit is usually a blend of several components to suit a particular animal — one size does not fit all. Even mass-manufactured bits offer a vast selection of permutations.

Haworth streamlined Raftery’s categories (Haworth 1971), sagely making no attempts to suggest that the designs had a chronological evolution, but presenting the facts as they were available, mainly the changing morphology of the cannons. Palk’s attempt at reclassification tried to match Irish specimens to British

Haworth’s typology, which was expanded by Barry Raftery (Raftery 1983: 7) simplified identification methods based on key features of cannon morphology, and as such has stood the test of time, providing a solid and practical foundation for examining the functional differences between the categories. There is no reason to amend Haworth or Raftery’s shared categories listed here; this study is built on their practical classifications, and chooses to develop them further, not to replace them. The following comparisons of modern and ancient Irish bits can be seen using Figures 3.2 and 3.7. Type A This is the most simple and undecorated of cannons, with a generally oval shape at top and bottom, with one end smaller, connecting to the central mouthpiece link. There is no V-shaped moulding on the cannons, and all known specimens are hollow bronze castings. The stop studs of the cheek rings are cast, and lentoid in shape, but as only one example is complete, it is unknown if this is the standard fitting. These bits are fully reversible as the cannons are not curved, so can be fitted into a horse’s mouth with no consideration for a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way round. They are fully comparable with modern double-jointed snaffles.

Figure 3.7 Cannon styles of Irish Late Iron Age bits.

21

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Type B

Type E

This type is similar in shape to the Type A, except that there is the addition of a subtle bowing of the cannon. There is also a V-shaped moulding to some degree on the inner cannon, which connects to the central link, although some are so stylised that they cease having any function. The cannons are hollow castings. Specimens often include La Tène-derivative embellishments and champlevé on the out-facing cannon, and decoration on the mouthpiece itself. The stop studs used on the cheek rings vary considerably, but are often around 3 mm in diameter, and occasionally decorated with curvilinear decoration.

These slender cannons are narrower than Types A or B, with a similar level of bowing. They are solid, cast alloy with much larger perforations where the cannons connect with the central link, and designs on the stopstuds of the cheek rings vary considerably. They lack any moulding or decoration.

This type is defined by long arched cannons, with flattened and extended outer terminals, occasionally decorated with La Tène-derivative patterns, which would extend beyond the corner of a horse’s lip. The cheek ring perforations are positioned beneath the extended area which may possibly represent an attempt at creating a lip guard against nipping of the corners of a horse’s mouth, although could equally be connected to the peculiar morphology of the mouthpiece itself. There is a strongly defined v-moulding, with stylised multiple folds, culminating in a bulbous inner link, which connects to the central link. These cannons are mostly solid, with a few having hollowed outer wings. Most of the stop studs, which are of various styles but always quite small, are cast as part of the cheek ring. The centre link is usually a Dr Bristol type, but some are closer to lozenge shape. The Type E is a highly sophisticated ported snaffle, similar to the Stübben brand ‘Golden Wing’ which is formed with a curved, protruding lip-guard, except that the outward extension is the reverse direction of the Irish Type E.

Type D

Centre links

The cannons are very noticeably arched and can only be placed in a particular way into the mouth of a horse. The outward-facing area is thick, rounded and dipped, and many are decorated, while the inwards-facing part of the cannon often comprise highly exaggerated and stylised multiple-folded V-shaped moulds. These bits are mostly solid castings in copper alloys. Most stop studs are cast, although some appear to be riveted. Many are connected with what appears to be a form of Dr Bristol centre-link. This style of ported snaffle has become fashionable since commercial loriners such as Myler, Stübben and Neue Schüle pioneered and (re) developed the style during the late 20th century.

The link in the centre of a double-jointed bit acts to emphasise the action of the cannons and to spread the pressure communicated by the reins across the mouth. Some rotate with chewing, such as the roller or lozenge types, while others, like the Dr Bristol or French link, lie at angles on the horses’ tongue. The Dr Bristol is a flat link which lies perpendicular to the bit, unlike the French Link, which, in theory at least, remains at the same angle as the rest of the mouthpiece (Figure 3.8).

Type C

Each link has its own merits and drawbacks. If the mouthpiece is the means of communication to a horse, from a rider, then the centre link can change the ‘tone’ or nuance of how the mouthpiece functions (Clayton

Figure 3.8 Types of central links: modern examples on top, Iron Age at bottom.

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Chapter 3 The Irish Iron Age bridle: Form, function, use-wear, and fit

Figure 3.9 Use of link types on different types of Irish Iron Age snaffle.

1985). The French link is mild in action, and close to the lozenge link in how it diffuses rein pressure. The Dr Bristol has the potential of being the more severe option, although opinions on this differ. The Dr Bristol link, when fitted to a snaffle, is extremely efficient in discouraging a horse which leans too much on the bit, which is the terminology used for when a horse pulls against the bit and uses that force to balance its movement, instead of working in tandem with the rider. The Irish bits show defined preferences for types of centre links used in conjunction with cannons to make up the mouthpiece (Figure 3.9). The Type B is almost entirely connected by French Links, which would diffuse the pressure of the cannons much more evenly; the limited amount of Type C all have basic dog-bone links, the Type D is almost experimental in the diversity of links used, while the Dr Bristol link prevails in the Type E. It is perhaps not surprising to note that modern ‘ported’ snaffles with curved cannons often incorporate the Dr Bristol link, most likely for the same reasons of balance and collection that ancient equestrians required of their mounts Stop-studs Wilde (1861: 604) had noted the function of the small rivet-like objects used on Irish cheek rings, stating that the studs afford ‘limited play in the holes of the bit’. The studs basically secure other components into position to prevent nipping the horse’s lips. It is dubious that their design has any direct bearing on the function of

Figure 3.10 Stop stud types.

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Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context the bit. The studs on the cheek rings conform to a small variety of six patterns shown in Figure 3.10: plain (a), curvilinear (b), champlevé (c), lentoid (d), zoomorphic (e) and star-shaped (f). The La Tène-derivative styled curvilinear designs may possibly be a sub-set of the zoomorphic, owl-like shapes.

and a martingale (Cahill-Wilson 2014: 35–37; Maguire, 2014), the former a bitless bridle, the latter a device to limit excessive movement of a horse’s head. As shown in Figures 3.5 and 3.6, this system works by creating pressure on the nose and top of head, and can be used instead of a bit, or to complement one. The Y-piece may possibly have derived from the Roman psalion, or the Germanic kehlberge of Thorsberg Moor and Vimose (Christensen 2003: 346–350), although there is some tentative evidence there may be earlier non-Roman influenced analogues of the Y-piece, dating to the 1st century BC, as shown on a stater coin found in Dover, England, in 2011, and now within the British Museum (PAS number FASAM-FCD3A2, see Figure 3.11). Such nasal pressure bridles may be even earlier; the contraption found at La Saula, France, c. 400 BC (Boudet 1990: 31, fig. 5) may also be an early analogue, although these would have been considerably harsher, as the

Cheek rings The cheek ring is the point of attachment for the cheek straps of a bridle and reins. Circular cheek rings are mostly found on direct pressure bits such as snaffles, while leverage bits such as curbs, which transfer pressure to other parts of a horse’s head, employ shanks, which are bars of metal which connect to the reins. Some of the Irish cheek rings are flat circular rings, while others are tubular. Type B bits are the only category which appears to be regularly fitted with hollow-cast cheek rings; other categories either have too few specimens to formulate a pattern or else there is a variety of shapes, between lentoid, flattened or tubular. The choice of shape has no effect on the function of a bit and was presumably down to the riders’ aesthetic preference. However, a small ring is obviously more likely to be used either on a pony or an animal with a refined head and jaw. Irish Iron Age bits have semi-loose cheek rings, referred to in modern equitation as eggbutt cheek rings. These rings can move back and forth but cannot rotate. This offers limited movement, but also produces a marginal restriction of vertical movement within a horse’s mouth, increasing the speed of communication between horse and rider/driver. On Types D and E however, the arch beneath the cannon perforation creates an extra distance between the lip and the cheek ring. This was never applied to tack in ancient or medieval Europe.

Figure 3.11 Gold stater from Dover, FASAM-FCD3A2, showing a bosal-like structure under the horse’s jaw. Photograph by permission of Portable Antiquities Scheme and British Museum Trust, CC BY 3.0.

Description, background, and function of the Irish Y-piece The Irish Y-piece, shown in Figure 3.4, is one of the more common finds of Iron Age Ireland and has been dogged by misinterpretation of function. Despite Wilde’s (1861: 609) astute observation that most Y-pieces had been used, repaired, and often modified, their designation by some archaeologists of the 20th century as ritual items, used to lead horses around for some unknown reason, persisted (Waddell 2010: 313). The objects are shaped like bi-pronged forks (Figure 3.4), with a stem and a pair of perforated finials on each side of the prong, which were obviously used to connect to strapping. Recent research, based on the examination of use-wear and width of each object in comparison to equine conformation indicates that the Y-piece was a functioning part of a bridle assemblage, functioning somewhere between a bosal or hackamore

noseband feature was connected to metal shanks or panels, creating leverage by pressing on the sensitive nose of a horse. They may even be modifications of the proto-martingale found in the St Remy La Tène chariot burial (Joffrey and Bretz-Mehler 1959: 22, fig. 18). There may also have been other, organic versions across Europe and Scandinavia which have not survived. The Roman cavalry used mechanical hackamores and bits in combination bridle assemblages, and weighted martingales have been used from as far back as 1000 to 800 BC in Assyria, to prevent excessive movement of a horse’s head (McMiken 1990: 77) with the added weight of a decorative tasselled Y-connection, fooling the horse into believing there was a rider’s hand on the

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Chapter 3 The Irish Iron Age bridle: Form, function, use-wear, and fit

single rein, when the rider needed to use weapons with both hands. Both the Y-piece and its Germanic contemporary, the kehlberge (Figure 3.12) may have less severity in their use, as they would have to be fitted by an organic, bosal-type noseband, although the Irish Y-piece may have been the less effective of the two. A martingale is a strap which connects the rein to the chest of the horse, to prevent excessive head movement, and it seems likely that this was part of the function of the longer stem on the Irish pieces, just as the link at the base of the kehlberge attached to a rein. With both, there is the option to make the equipment work as a single, sidepull rein. The Y-piece, then, is a regional interpretation of a corrective bridle component which had shifted shapes and nuance of function over time and place. Y-piece types There are five distinct varieties of Type 1 labelled by Haworth as A to E (Figure 3.13), with an additional new category, F, represented by a single unprovenanced example in the Hunt Museum, Limerick (Y1F.01, pl. 97). As there is only a stem, the style of finial can only be guessed, but is likely to have matched the butt, with an inset of enamel, glass, or coral. There are three subclassifications of the Type 2 — A, B and a new category, C, represented by a single piece in Binchester, near Durham, England (Y2C.01, pl. 117). Type 1 all have the perforated prong finials cast onto a basic stem, and many have the terminal at the base of the shaft cast on, too. Type 2 have their prong finials cast into their design, but include the 2b variation, which are smaller and lighter than the robust 2a, with much smaller and more delicate terminals. The single 2c has circular terminals like a 2a, but on the solid frame of a kehlberge.

Figure 3.12 Kehlberge, Raddatz 639, R0639, Lau PG 123, Inv.-Nr. SH1858-1.34 (F.S. 6347) from Thorsberg Moor assemblage. Photo M. Höflinger, © Museum für Archäologie Schloss Gottorf, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen, Schleswig.

The Type 1 and 2b are relatively lightweight, due to being made up of cast-on components and are more prone to damage than the solid-cast Type 2a. The shafts of the artefacts are often bent, with the finials worn or damaged, showing these objects were used, and often are missing finials which have snapped off. The Type 2a specimens are cast as single, sturdy units, and as such have survived deposition and the passage of time more successfully, making them the most found type of Y-piece. It is unlikely that the Y-piece had a direct connection to a mouthpiece. The stress-point of the Y-piece is at the centre of the U-shape, beneath the jaw of the horse, while the connecting finials are often missing due to wear. The use-wear on the prong finials and the shafts on the Irish Y-pieces demonstrate the same pressure zones, revealing a similar function to their Germanic counterparts. The comparison by Lau (2014)

Figure 3.13 Finial types which define the various Y-pieces styles.

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Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context of the kehlberge within complete bridle assemblages from Thorsberg, in northern Germany, indicates that Engelhardt (1866: 62) was correct in identifying it as having the same fit and function as the Irish Y-piece, with only the style altered to suit the aesthetics and identity of Ireland.

While all these friction and stress patterns are readily visible to the naked eye, it is not always possible to assess which is applicable to a piece and which is not. For example, without skeletal evidence, we cannot fully tell if it is due to dental problems or a poor fitting bit, or if uneven wear was due to driving. Organic bridle straps on Irish specimens have not survived deposition. However, we may be in a better position to speculate on the possible cause of uneven wear if two cannons are made of different copper-alloys, with one composition being softer and more prone to distortion than the other.

It is quite common to see a modern bosal or hackamore used in conjunction with a bit in events such as baroque equestrian displays, where the focus is on display and collection of paces, but especially in sports where sharp turns and control are necessities. Lau (2014: 263) noted that the technique of ‘neck-reining’ — a single rein held low and used infrequently — was the most likely common means of use on the kehlbergen, and there is no reason to suspect the Irish Y-piece was any different, especially when considering that the bulk of specimens have slightly bent shafts.

The following wear features were noted: a. b. c.

Examining use-wear on bits and Y-pieces Having established the function of bits, and to which modern types the Irish Iron Age tack pieces can be directly compared, the next phase of analysis must be an examination of any use-wear. Any object which is subjected to continual repetitive movement develops patterns of wear that can indicate how an object was handled and used on a daily, utilitarian basis.

Pre-depositional use or lack thereof. The patterns of use-wear, with particular attention to uneven wear, which may identify driving in a team rather than riding. Modifications and repairs.

Each bit and Y-piece was scrutinized for kinds of usewear, especially bite marks, and grinding of metal against metal at all connection points upon the mouthpiece. These are common-place indications of regular use on bits, and also indicate how well the fit would have been. Strongly defined asymmetric cheek ring wear, combined with lop-sided cannon wear could potentially indicate driving. A driving team usually has a lead animal, which has a more forceful pace than that of its partner. Like most animals, horses show natural propensity to leading their movement with either a right or left foreleg. As a result, the driver of a team often must place pressure on the rein to compensate for these factors, creating a combined wear pattern on one side of a cheek ring and cannon.

While use-wear has proved useful for both tool and weapon studies (O’Flaherty 2007; Roberts and Ottaway 2003), experimental reconstructions of use have limits. Testing use-wear is performed in a controlled scenario to create specific marks for comparison with ancient objects. The reality of dents and marks, for example, on a weapon used in a life-or-death skirmish may be very different indeed. Reconstruction of use-wear is not as great an issue with bits, since ancient examples are readily comparable to used modern and historical equipment, which function in the same way as the Irish Iron Age specimens.

The chafing effect of a badly-fitted bit is visible on the entire mouthpiece as it will slide and show erratic wear. If the bits are too large, the horse or pony will constantly grab at the bit with its teeth, creating bite marks to prevent the bit nipping and grating the tongue. This is present on only one bit, IB9B, from Cotton Moss, a peat bog on the convergence of two springs in County Down. The slash-shaped bite on this example, however, is post-depositional, when it was cleaned up and used on a reluctant 19th-century donkey, before being sold on to antiquarians (H. McGuickan, curator, North Down Museum, pers. comm. 2015). A well-used and comfortable bit, however, will display light tooth marks on a mouthpiece with smooth wear on the junctions of cannon and link, which is the most common wear pattern on cannons of Irish bits.

However, as in all applications of use-wear analysis, nothing is totally cut and dried, and there are several possible reasons for use-wear patterns found on bits. These include the following: • Different alloys used in manufacture of bit components. • Uneven cannons • Dental problems of the horse • Repetitive use of pressure on one side or another • Poorly fitted cheek straps connecting the cheek rings to the mouthpiece • Driving in tandem, which automatically creates a bias on one rein, due to over-compensation and weight distribution. 26

Chapter 3 The Irish Iron Age bridle: Form, function, use-wear, and fit

Figure 3.14 Use wear on bits and Y-pieces.

fighting against it. Six pieces indicated uneven wear. The most notable, and atypical, example in uneven mouthpiece wear is the Killeevan bit, from County Monaghan (UCB2, pl. 61) This piece is made up of several different components from different time periods, with one cannon an Irish Type A, the other possibly non-insular, and cheek rings which are decorated with early medieval designs. One cannon is also positioned in a way that it would not be functional. As such, this example must remain open to interpretation.

Use-wear results: Bits Almost all the intact cheek ring specimens indicate reasonably even use, with normal polishing of the metal where reins had fitted and worn the surface of the metal smooth (Figure 3.14), very much in keeping with what one would expect with riding, or an informal, basic driving rig of one animal. Only four specimens (2.7%) out of 146 pieces indicated uneven wear. This is very different from Palk’s (1991: 230) colourful suggestion of the Irish using a driving team of four, for which there is even less evidence than there is for driving in a pair. As the rings are eggbutts (semi-fixed), and not loose, it is easier to observe their replicated patterns of pressure wear.

It is futile to place exclusive emphasis on wear around the cannon apertures, which hold the cheek rings, as even in modern bits, regular friction and pressure will create variable wear. The use-wear associated with driving is not as simple as Jope (1950) implied after his inspection of one of the Armagh bits which had uneven wear on the cheek ring aperture. Using the same bit for riding and driving will inadvertently place different rein pressures for each activity on the cheek

Mouthpiece wear on cannons reflects a similar trend to the cheek rings, with even wear at the centre link, where there is an expected mixture of flexibility from rein pressure and gentle movement from a horse moving the bit around in its mouth, i.e., accepting a bit and not 27

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context rings, creating unique use-wear patterns which are specific only to that team of horse and human. Varying blends of metals used to make cannons will show different wear, as will a replacement cannon or link over time. No single factor proves driving. There is a higher chance of asymmetrical use-wear being drivingrelated if combined with one-sided decoration and especially with cheek ring wear. As such, it would be suspected that specimens such as the British Museum’s 1896.0807.4 (IB12E, pl. 51) provide an example of ‘ride and drive’ activity.

and Vimose, Denmark. The paucity of mutilated Irish specimens, however, may imply that pragmatism outweighed ritual in Ireland, and that such high-status objects were reused or recycled rather than destroyed. Repairs The vast majority of bits and Y-pieces show repetitive use, demonstrating that they were not merely for display, while degrees of wear give an indication of regularity of use. A bit, no matter how sturdy, will not last forever, and Iron Age bits often display repairs, such as replaced studs, cheek rings and cannons. The quality of casting and the excellent state of preservation on many Irish bits has meant that they have been re-used through much later periods. The bit found in Cotton Moss, County Down was briefly used on a donkey (H. McGuckian, curator North Down Museum, pers. comm.), while the Ummeracam Type E was briefly used during the late 19th century before being sold (Tempest 1930: 214). The Killeevan specimen appears to include a much-worn cannon of a Type A mouthpiece alongside what appears to be a non-Irish style cannon, and cheek rings of equally mixed eras and cultures.

With the exception of the Newgrange fragment (IB31E), no other Irish bit suggests deliberate pre-depositional destruction in the manner of the bridles found cut and mutilated within the war booty depositions of Denmark and northern Germany (Lau 2014). Use-wear results: Y-pieces Out of the 110 specimens of Y-pieces, approximately 62% (69 specimens) show some wear on the finials, mostly consisting of being worn smooth and even, as though by the friction of either cord or leather. The cast inner surface of the finials is often hollowed and uneven, with the entire visual effect on the outside, meant to be seen, and this makes use-wear, when present, easier to detect. The use-wear patterns suggest regular, smooth rubbing action rather than scouring of metal on metal over long periods of time. If the very delicate strap fittings on the insides of the Type 1 Y-pieces were subjected to regular metal against metal rubbing, they would break across the back of the finial. This does not exist on any specimen. All Type 1 and 2b finials were cast onto the Y-shaped frame, creating an inherent weakness at those points; almost 23% of specimens lack finials, which must have snapped off from the stems either pre- or post-deposition.

Most other repairs, however, indicate nothing unusual in their use, with the centre link being the most frequently damaged from constant movement. The material used to hold the cannons together usually looks much more recent with less damage, as in the case of IB17E from Glen Leslie (pl. 53), or the Cork Museum’s IB37B (pl. 19), with its wire wrapped around the broken cheek ring. There is no indication these additions are anything other than past curators’ attempts to keep the cannons together — to consider them being of great antiquity would be to presume the string tying IB35B (pl. 15) together in the National Museum of Scotland to be of prehistoric origin.

Most used Y-piece types have some degree of curvature within the stem, which would appear to have been created before deposition, due to the commonality of where they incline — just below the junction of the finials. The bend is where one would place a knot, or fiador, if using the frame itself as a bosal, not unlike the bridle suggested by the depiction of the horse on a gold stater found in Dover shown in Figure 3.11.

Therefore, the main patterns of use-wear on the Irish bits and Y-pieces indicate a bitting system with strong parallels with modern show bridles. a.

b.

The usual gentle stem curvature is markedly different from the 90-degree contortion of the stems of two pieces, Y2A: 17, found in Mullingar, and Y2A:16 (pl. 106) from Clonetrace. These pieces would appear to have been subjected to pre-depositional mutilation, as the extreme bend would make the object un-useable, due to the distinct possibility of stabbing the horse in the throat. These pieces resemble the extreme mutilation of militaria depositions at Thorsberg Moor, Germany

c. d.

28

Mostly even wear on cheek rings and cannons, suggesting a similar bridle structure as today, also suggesting a higher likelihood of riding rather than driving. Normal light ‘chew’ marks on mouthpieces, with minimal indication of pre-depositional gashes in metal to suggest slipping of badly fitted mouthpieces. Regular wear on centre links, in keeping with typical movement of modern double-jointed snaffles. Regular and replicated light bending on Y-piece shafts, likely deliberate to allow desired leverage on a mecate-type reining device.

Chapter 3 The Irish Iron Age bridle: Form, function, use-wear, and fit

The Dead Pony Club: reconstructing the Irish Iron Age bridle

livestock herders, such as South American vaqueros, steppes herders and Western drovers.

The fact that tack has changed little from antiquity to the modern day allows comparison with contemporary late prehistoric analogues from Europe, as well as modern equivalent bits. The respective German and Danish wetland deposition sites of Thorsberg, Ilerup Ådal, and Vimose have produced entire bridle assemblages, leaving little doubt as to the use and function of each component. These bridles, when reconstructed, show an emphasis on preventing animals biting, grazing, evading the bit or throwing their heads around while in action.

A selection of pre-Roman coinage from south and eastern Britain from the final decades of the 1st century BC into the early first decades AD appears to show a prominent knot or ‘catch’ below the jaw of the horse (Hobbs 1996: 112–114), which may well represent a fore-runner of both kehlberge and Y-piece. These also show high-status individuals as riders rather than being transported in chariots. It would seem possible that the Irish Y-piece contained elements of that apparatus but may also have been formalised using metal and ornate decoration, making it similar in purpose to the Germanic kehlberge, but interpreted very differently, which speaks of a culture wishing to stamp its own identity on exogenous equipment. When combined with a padded noseband and bit, it would be a formidable, and potentially unpleasant, means of control.

The reconstructions by Lau (2014: 141, fig. 92) allowed for exploration of the fit and function of the Irish Y-piece, and initially indicated a loose chronological framework in which to place the Irish bridle fittings, as the Danish and North German pieces carry accurate dating from associated coin finds from the mid-1st to 4th centuries AD (Horsnaes, 2003: 331–32; Lau, 2014: 271–73). A Germanic kehlberge, classified as a 2c Y-piece due to some commonalities with the 2a Y-piece, was unearthed in Binchester’s Roman vicus of Vinovia, contained a fragment of leather rein intact, which was dated and calibrated within the 1st century AD (see Table 6.1 so it would appear that these pieces were synchronous in their period of use, indicating the need to use the horse for martial reasons rather than domestic or agricultural.

The use of both Y-piece and kehlberge, then, is best illustrated by the style of a polo bridle or particularly the ‘halter-bridles’ of pre-World War Two European cavalry (Chappell 2013). The riders primarily have one rein that is held loosely and low on the neck of the horse, with most control coming from the seat and legs. The bosal and reins facilitate sudden, sharp movements by placing a sudden and potentially painful pressure

The Germanic kehlberge fitted beneath the jaw, like the Binchester 2c, only often with flexible finials, which could be slid up or down the lower mandible of the horse. The U-shape frame, connected by a central ring, allowed expansion to fit any size of animal, perhaps indicating the need to keep a supply of tack on hand which would fit any size of suddenly acquired horse, depending on what had been raided from defeated rivals. The inflexibility of the Irish Y-piece, however, suggests they were bespoke pieces to fit specific animals of given sizes, suggesting that well trained horses were not common-place commodities. The elongated stem of the Irish Y-piece is longer and more decorative than any known example of kehlbergen. The lack of aperture on the stem, through which a rein could be fitted, can only mean that the neck-rein was tied to the stem, which is regularly found bent to some degree, presumably to hold its rope or leather in place. Depending on how and where it was tied, it could be a means to control equine head-tossing, a single reining method, or purely decorative, for display. This would indicate that the Y-piece functioned in a reasonably similar manner to a modern fiador and mecate assemblage, which is commonly used today by

Figure 3.15 Hypothetical reconstruction of a Late Iron Age bridle, using use-wear to inform of fit.

29

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context on the nose. The severity of the Y-piece compared to the Germanic kehlberge or the Roman psalion remains untested and unknown. The kind of sudden stops and turns which the Y-piece was designed to facilitate would overturn a sturdy cart as easily as a lightweight chariot. Only one Y-piece suggests it may have been used for driving, and that is the specimen held at the Tower Treasury, in Leeds (Y1D:01, pl. 91), which lacks any indication of wear. The looped decoration on one side and unique perforation structure indicates a very different method of fitting to a noseband.

basic riding snaffles, with the Type C possibly aimed at younger animals being trained, while the Types D and E are closer to a haute école bridle, where display, collection, poise and control were the desired effect. Driving bits are often quite complex, with shanks each side of the cheek to encourage an arched neck, and even at Husby (Raddatz 1967), the driving bits were connected to chain retainers beneath the jaw, creating a form of double bridle. In the absence of such accessories, or associated wear on the categorised bits and Y-pieces, the case for vehicles in Ireland must remain open, as the few hints of driving, such as the Y1D:01 piece, may suggest that it was practiced, although perhaps not as commonly as riding.

The prong finials are unlikely to have connected directly to the bit, as Palk theorised (1991: 280), as such a connection would show obvious signs of metal-onmetal friction on both bit and Y-piece. The perforations of the finials of all Type 1 specimens are all too small for such a connection anyway. The fragile narrow internal ‘eye’ of the Y-piece finial would show drastic and irregular wear from such contact, which does not exist on any specimen. Instead, most damage consists of depositional erosion, or finials missing altogether, from broken-off stems due to being welded on separately.

Methods used to estimate sizes of horses present in the Irish Iron Age Past methods of estimating the height of a horse at the withers from incomplete skeletal remains have recently been questioned for accuracy, with new methods of height calculation using craniometric measurements, involving basal and total length of skull (Chrószcz et al. 2014). There is a direct relationship between the length of a horse’s head and the internal palate structure — a larger bit, effectively, indicates a horse with a larger head, and in most situations, this indicates a larger horse (Engelke and Gasse 2003), although with all living creatures, there are morphological exceptions. A very large, coarse head on a small horse is unusual, with perhaps the exception of the primitive Przewalski breed, and a few other ancient breed/types in Europe.

The connections of the Y-piece finials were more likely to have been attached to thonging or leather well behind the bit and cheek rings. The most likely fitting would be to a low throat-latch, with organic fabric of either leather or twine, taken over the nose, creating more of a grackle noseband than a plain cavesson for balance, and fastened to a pad at the nose area, before being swept underneath with a knot, to the stem of the Y-piece itself. The fact that it would remain quite loose, unlike the Germanic and Danish examples, indicates a different style of riding, and must be suspected to have been very intuitive. The exact fitting of straps and placement of the Y-piece, however, needs to be practically tested. Such a reconstruction can demonstrate the position of the riders and if their hands were likely to have been held high or low, and how much collection of the horse could be achieved with this assemblage. This is a case where experimental archaeology can address previously unexamined questions.

There may be a paucity of equine skeletal remains in Ireland, but the pieces of equipment can inform greatly, which has been overlooked by past researchers. Where possible, each complete functional mouthpiece was measured. While a complete mouthpiece consisting of two cannons and a centre-link is ideal for measurement, it is not entirely necessary, as mouthpiece size can be estimated within under a centimetre by measuring one cannon, duplicating the measurement, then including the centre-link sizing, as most links measure between 3 and 3.4cm.

It is expected, however, that the combination of the flamboyant Type D and E bits, in conjunction with the Y-pieces would not be particularly severe for an adept rider, and it is the author’s opinion that this apparatus must be considered as an ancient ‘show’ bridle, which would account for the light use-wear on most of them. Obviously, their correct use took skill, and abuse from less adroit riders would result in damage to animal teeth and palate, as possibly indicated on the Newgrange horse teeth (Bendry et al. 2013).

There has been a particular lack of knowledge as to how to measure a bit for the functional mouthpiece. This is particularly important to gain an understanding of the size of the horse’s mouth, and therefore an idea of the head size. Except for Palk (1991: 231), all research has measured the entire length of the bit, which offers no understanding of the mouthpiece function or the horse it fitted. The functional mouthpiece is the part which remains inside the horse’s mouth (Figure 3.16). There is usually a space of around 1/4″ (0.6cm) between the rings and the lips. This is best measured by touch, feeling the

The bits themselves suggest different functions, perhaps as responses to changing circumstances of riding and/ or driving. The less ornate Types A and C appear to be 30

Chapter 3 The Irish Iron Age bridle: Form, function, use-wear, and fit

Figure 3.16 How to measure a bit – detail shows why, with end of cannon outside of mouth.

Bit (inches / cm)

Estimated horse size

3.5 / 8.9

11 hh+

3.75 / 9.5

12.3 hh+

4 / 10.1

13 hh+

4.25 / 10.8

13.2 hh+

4.5 / 11.4

14 hh+

4.75 / 12.1

14.3 hh+

5 / 12.7

15.2 hh+

5.5 / 14

16 hh+

In the UK, Ireland, The Americas and Australia, measurements for equestrian goods are traditionally measured in Imperial units of inches, and horse height is measured in hands (expressed as hh, hands high), with one hand being 4″ (10.1cm), but only up to the shoulder, or withers. Measurements in centimetres are also used in Europe, and increasingly in the UK on equipment for smaller ponies. Bit size is traditionally displayed in inches, but centimetres are also shown here to conform to European standards. When all suitable mouthpieces were examined, the subsequent data revealed that the range of sizes of horse and ponies was as diverse as those of the modern day. Figures 3.17 and 3.18 can be used together to show the sizes of animals, the highest frequency being the 14 hh to 14.2 hh category, although all but animals the size of the very modern Falabella (the small grey pony at the right of Figure 3.18, which is not a great deal larger than a Newfoundland dog), are represented on the chart.

Table 3.1 Typical bit measurement chart, available in most tack shops, showing bit sizes typically used for equid sizes.

swell of the metal as it reaches the outer edge of the cannon towards the cheek ring. The outer cannon and the cheek ring must remain outside the horse’s mouth, and free from nipping the sensitive mouth or lips of the horse. The functional mouthpiece size was collected for each bit, and then compared to the typical expected size of animal, from the frequently used mouthpiece size guide which can be found at all saddlery and loriner stores. A typical table, available in any equestrian equipment shop, is reproduced here in Table 3.1, with added illustrations of modern breeds (Figure 3.18), to offer a better idea of the variety of animal size.

This considerable diversity in horse size has several implications for the use of the tack. Primarily, it dispels the myth of the only Irish equids being tiny creatures (see the Shetland, second from right on Figure 3.18). It also indicates the likely introduction of presumably non-indigenous larger animals, although that must be questioned too, as there is a huge and unaddressed gap in knowledge about indigenous breed types of prehistory. There are many breeds or types which 31

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Figure 3.17 Heights of animals in Ireland, using bit size as a loose gauge.

Figure 3.18 Diagram showing sizes of animals in hands high (hh).

have become extinct or bred out such as the Rathlin, Achill and Cushendall horses and ponies (Maguire 2016; Watson 1980). The long-extinct Irish Hobbey, which seems likely to have been between 12 hh and 14 hh is the only known native type for which some written records link it to the early medieval period, and as such, possibly late prehistoric Ireland (Maguire 2016).

Kreutz (1999: 81) had suggested that so-called native ‘Celtic’ European breeds, i.e., pre-Roman, remained at an average of 13.1 hh (130cm at the withers/shoulders) until deliberate breeding programmes during the Roman conquest of Europe increased the average size to about 14.1 hh (140cm at the withers/shoulders). This estimation of breeding up fits well with the data shown in Figure 3.17 and appears to apply to pre- and postRoman Britain (Albarella et al. 2008). These variations of size are well within the ranges of extant breeds and types in modern Europe such as the Icelandic Dortmund and Welsh Mountain, although Kreutz’s (1999: 81) suggestion that the modern average horse size is over 16.2 hh is something of an exaggeration. Animal sizes are bred up or down for particular purposes, and the different sizes of Irish bit mouthpieces simply indicates a wide variety of types and sizes of horse, used for different purposes. However, this may also hint at sufficient trade contacts to obtain the desired bloodlines to increase stock height.

Recent genetic analyses of horses and ponies in Celtic settlements of the European Iron Age (Elsner et al. 2016) also shows diversity, with more small animals around 11.2 hh, roughly the size of the Exmoor, third from right in Figure 3.18. Sizes increased with contact with Rome (Elsner et al. 2016) up to 15 hh, when purposedriven selective breeding became evident. The issue with Ireland is that we have very few prehistoric horse bones, and even less of these are radiocarbon dated. As a result, no outline can yet be built of how animal size may have changed with time to match the lorinery used (or vice versa), or if sudden importation of larger animals affected regional breeding stock. 32

Chapter 3 The Irish Iron Age bridle: Form, function, use-wear, and fit

Larger animals of 15 hh and more were known across Europe, with obvious breeding programmes in the Netherlands during the Roman period (Nicolay 2007: 217–18). Skeletal remains of horses at Corbridge and Newstead ranged in size between 13.3 hh and 15.1 hh (Dixon and Southern 1992: 167), while remains of animals over 15 hh were found at Dormangen, in Germany (Müller 1979:73) and Frocester Court Villa, in Gloucestershire, England (Dixon and Southern 1992:167). Earlier archaeological evidence from burials at Pazyryk, Siberia, show that the Sarmatian and Parthian bloodlines, akin to the extant Akhal Teke breed, regularly exceeded 15 hh, making them extremely desirable to Roman cavalry officers wanting an impressive mount (Hyland 1999: 23).

11.2 and 14 hh, none of these animals have an internal bar width of 3″ (7.6cm) or less within their mouths, no matter how refined their heads, with a typical pony mouthpiece size being around 4.5″ (11.4cm). British later prehistoric bits of this size, or smaller, must be suspect as having fitted in an alternative manner. Diverse sizes of animals suggest the use of horses and ponies for different purposes, from a hacking pony to a useful ‘ride-and-drive’ animal versatile enough for cart or riding, right through to a powerful and impressive warhorse. These categories were accepted in medieval Europe, with sumpters and hackneys for domestic haulage, coursers, rounceys and palfreys for riding and reconnaissance, and destriers, or warhorses, for battle (Hyland 1994). The range of bit sizes shows the need for different animals applied to different tasks, illuminating a society using horses for riding and, most likely some degree of driving. However, the metalworkers’ skill displayed on the bits indicates that it was unlikely that even the plainest specimen was used by the lower social strata.

Bloodlines were spread across Europe with cavalry movement and subsequent breeding of animals; Caesar stated that Germanic horses were small and ugly (B.G IV: 2) suggesting that native breeds were not part of the Roman aesthetic. Classical writers such as Oppian of Apamea, in his Cynegetica lists the origins of larger animals, including the ‘immense Cretan breeds’ (Oppian, Mair translation 1928: 33), while Gratius Faliscus reinforced the view that Thrace and Parthia bred large horses, rather than ponies (Johnstone 2004: 41), and the lightweight, fast Libyan horses were likely similar to modern Barbs or Arabians, meaning their size was anywhere between 14 to 15.2 hh. The Roman cavalry, who were mostly conscripts from more equestrian-orientated cultures such as the Batavi and Frisii, had a strong preference for fine-boned animals with a height of 14 hh to 14.2 hh, presumably because it made mounting without stirrups considerably easier. Representative animals, all dating from the 1st to 2nd centuries AD have been found at Maasbracht and Den Haag in the Netherlands (Lauwerier 1999: 103–05) and Elms Farm, Essex (Albarella et al. 2008: 1837–38), with the indication that Romanisation increased the height of native British breeds considerably, as evidenced by the remains found in the Essex excavations.

Judging by the proposed bridle reconstruction, and especially the halter-type bridle of gag and martingale/ bosal fusion, it seems likely that riding styles were similar to herding cultures, as comparable bridles are present on Steppes ponies (Anthony and Brown 2011). Combinations of bits and Y-pieces indicate bridles which were made for control and manoeuvrability, although the polished metal, some with enamel settings, would have created an impressive display which are likely to have been equally important in their design. In addition to their decoration, The Type D and E bits, such as those from Attymon and Drumanagh, are designed for control of larger horses which were possibly imported animals. The less ornate Type A, B and C bits are almost identical to modern day bits, apart from the addition of the V-shaped moulding and the occasional oversized studs on the cheek rings. These bits may indicate use on more general-purpose animals by a slightly lower status of rider, or may simply represent an everyday riding assemblage, as opposed to a formal display bridle.

It is worth noting that mouthpieces sized at 3″ (7.6cm), or less, in the case of some British specimens, rich in insular La Tène-style decoration, such as those of Middlebie, Rise and Stanwick, would only be functional on a modern ‘toy’ breed such as the Falabella. Numerous studies indicate that selective breeding of equids by humans affected overall body size, with cranial features such as the angle of the lower jaw and the length of the tooth-row being more affected (Forsten 1988), along with the shape of the teeth themselves (Cucchi et al. 2017). Native breeds, such as the Exmoor and Eriskay ponies of the British Isles, and the European Dulmen, Camargue and Sorraia, have all existed through late prehistory (Jordana et al. 1995), with occasional introductions of new bloodlines meant to improve stock. Despite being relatively diminutive, between

Organic vernacular mouthpieces may well have existed in Ireland; the antler rings found at the Hill of Ward excavations of 2016 (S. Davis, pers. comm. 2016) and Beginish (O’Kelly and Kavanagh 1955: 179) are possibly early medieval cheek rings, and may represent a form of non-metal bridle component, but if other pieces, such as nosebands and straps, were made of fibre or leather, these have not survived within archaeological contexts. They would not have been particularly hard-wearing, but would have been easy to replace, which cannot be said for the finely worked metal bits. 33

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Unclassified bits such as UCB9 and UCB10 (pls 62 and 63) closely resemble 3rd century BC specimens from Orval, in France, and also some of the Llyn Cerrig Bach specimens, and would appear to be driving bits, from one-sided decoration. The small size of these pieces would be very much in keeping with the diminutive primitive breeds such as the now-extinct Lofoten, a

shared ancestor of the modern Icelandic and Shetland ponies. Irish bits indicate mostly larger ponies and horses, which would suggest they were more often used for riding, although driving must also have existed. It may only be a matter of time before some future excavation provides the solid evidence which can balance the information we hold currently.

34

Chapter 4

Decoration, symbolism, and evolution of Irish Iron Age tack vintage goods which are defined by logos, the logo may not even define ‘Celtic’ branding at all.

Designs on Celtic Identity? In his catalogue of Iron Age antiquities, Barry Raftery (1983: 8) suggested the possibility of determining a chronology of tack through changes in art styles on Irish metalwork, in a similar manner as La Tène objects on the Continent. However, even in Britain, where a fairly accurate chronological horizon exists because of Roman documentation of the AD 43 invasion, anachronisms in art styles used in metalwork have been observed (Davis 2014: 261). During periods of social stress, like the Late Iron Age, there would appear to be reuse, or revival, of older symbolisms and styles. This may be very understandable in Britain, where the identity of Rome was potentially overwhelming to the society which had existed before invasion.

Celts are first referred to by Hecateus in 517 BC, as a tribe from the region of modern Marseilles, France (Bridgeman 2004: 155), whereas Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BC was less specific, referring to the Danube and the unknown settlement of Pyrene, which is presumed to be within the Pyrenees (Sims-Williams 1998: 350; Arnaiz-Villena et al. 2017). Tacitus mentions that the British and Irish peoples were similar, both with connections to the Continental Celtic peoples (Tacitus Agricola XXIV: Murphy 1903: 357), although how much of this is influenced by Julius Caesar’s interchangeable references of Celts and Gauls (Bridgeman 2004: 161) is unknown. Rachel Pope’s (2021) overview demonstrates well how Iron Age Europe, in all its diverse glory, was branded with one homogenous, and very wrong, ‘Celtic’ label.

Ireland existed within the shadow of the Roman Empire, and it is recorded that the island was eyed as a potential conquest by Agricola (Tacitus Agricola XXIV: Murphy 1903: 368). Even ignoring any internal stresses, this proximity to Roman Britain may have been considerably worrisome for the inhabitants. Ireland was known to Mediterranean travellers from antiquity; we know this from the Ptolemy map of the 2nd century AD, but the island was not invaded. Therefore, Ireland lacks what Roman Europe and Britain have — documentation of social change, or even a solid chronology, which complicates comparisons of shifting art styles.

The definition of what being ‘Celtic’ meant to contemporaries in the past, and by default, what it should mean to us, hinges on ethnicity and culture, two very different facets of identity. Ethnicity is often racially inherited and has little to do with where an individual is born, whereas culture is the shared set of beliefs and values, incorporating the artistic and technological manifestation of those ideals into material objects. Language contributes to both means of self-identification, but art is often the most fluid form of self-identity, being, like storytelling, influenced by new circumstances and ideologies, acting as a barometer for change.

The distinctive swirling embellishments on Irish tack pieces are commonly called ‘Celtic’ but it is perhaps more circumspect to refer to them as La Tène-derivative style. The terminology ‘Celtic’ is uncertain in accuracy when applied to the later prehistoric insular cultures of Ireland and Britain. An object, by way of its decoration or form, may look ‘Celtic’, in the same way a Gucci or Hermes handbag bearing a recognisable logo may be purchased in a vintage market. The bag may carry the distinctive company insignia, but proving authenticity is another thing entirely, and depends on how one defines ‘the real thing’. It may have been manufactured in places other than Italy or France on behalf of the company; it may be made to cater for different markets, of materials Gucci or Hermes would never use in Europe. Equally, it may be a copy, where entrepreneurs decided to cater for consumers removed by time, distance and/ or income from the ‘real thing’. It may resemble an original to a greater or larger degree, but differences exist. Defining decoration as Celtic is complicated even further in that, if we still use the analogy of rip-offs and

With the absence of recorded language in prehistoric Ireland, all we have are the exquisitely worked metal objects of the Irish Iron Age, decorated with symbols once loaded with meanings. There is no indication of how the Iron Age peoples of Ireland and England would have viewed themselves, or their identity origins, and it is unknown exactly how and why the adoption of La Tène-derivative decoration on metalwork occurred, if it was trans-cultural diffusion, migration, or a sudden introduction by force. A brief background to the origins of La Tène art styles in Europe is required, before examining the decorations on Irish tack, looking at what they are and where they are placed, as well as suggesting what that may indicate. The actual, unique cast bit shapes are also analysed and compared to contemporary designs, for they are 35

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context very different from anything elsewhere in Europe and indicate hybridisation of ideologies and cultures.

ranging from bits to vehicles, although decorative bits have been exceptions rather than the rule. The bits found with the cart remains of the burial at Somme Bionne, dating to c. 350–400 BC (Harding 2007: 49) are basic single jointed snaffles, and the chariot a largewheeled vehicle, with ornate bronze decorations on the chassis and frame. The La Tène snaffles from Lake Neuchâtel are equally basic and undecorated (Déchelette 1914: 1199).

The beginnings of insular La Tène art styles. The origin of La Tène-derivative art started with the growth of the La Tène culture, between the late 5th and 4th centuries BC, between the Saar, Mosel and River Rhine (Echt 2016: 365; Brun 1994: 58–60). Two seminal works of the early decades of the 20th century, Paul Jacobsthal’s Early Celtic Art (1944), and Joseph Déchelette’s Manuel D’Archaeologie: Prehistorique, Celtique et Gallo-Romain (1914), equated La Tène and Celtic decorative styles. Jacobsthal’s scope of examination is comparable to Déchelette, although it is derived from an art-based point of view, with the analysis of La Tène objects performed through the filter of Classical Greek art, even referred to as ‘barbarian’ (Jacobsthal 1935: 113). Perhaps Jacobsthal’s greatest accomplish was to create a framework of terminology and analysis which allowed subsequent scholars further scope of study.

Yet flamboyant components did exist, such as the elaborate 5th century BC chamfrain found at Heuneburg (Krausse et al. 2017), which is as ornate as the 2nd to 3rd century BC Torrs example, from Scotland (Briggs 2014). The phalera and fittings from 4th/ 5th century BC chariot burials of Sept-Saulx, in the Marne, and Chassemy dans l’Aisne (Joffroy and Bretz-Mahler 1959), both on display in the Musée d’Archéologie Nationale, are incredibly ornate, as if all creative energy went into the visible, outward-facing decoration, while the mouthpieces remained purely functional. Grave goods from the 3rd century BC chariot burial at Orvel, in Normandy, France contained ornate bits of very different style of both decoration and mouthpiece shape, with champlevé cheek rings (Lepaummier et al. 2010). The position of decoration, and what part of tack or harness is chosen to be embellished appears to shift, depending on region and time period.

Jacobsthal had noted an ‘orientalising’ influence in La Tène art styles (1944: 156), but the Mediterranean influences offered the first steps of understanding the progression of the style. The palmette and lotus designs of the Mediterranean were deconstructed into abstracts of their originals, setting the theme of later reworked designs (Megaw and Megaw 1989). The style continued to evolve as the Hallstatt culture gave way to what we call La Tène, around the mid-4th century BC (Joy 2015: 55), taking its name from a Swiss lakeside settlement where many artefacts, decorated with typically graceful ‘Celtic’ interlacing swirls, have been found within the waters, deposited possibly as part of ritual or ideological activity (Bradley 1990: 151).

Equestrian equipment, therefore, was important enough to decorate, which is unsurprising when one considers the time and skill invested in training a horse for either riding or driving. Labour-intensive training of an animal also spoke volumes about the status of the rider or driver, and utilitarian bits would work as well as decorated ones. It is the decoration of the Irish bits which differentiate them from both their contemporaries and modern analogues, and it is that embellishment which now comes under scrutiny.

The progression of the art style moved from the Early Style of the 5th century BC to the more fluid Vegetal Style, circa 4th century BC, with its intertwining coils reminiscent of vine shoots which was followed by the Plastic Style by the 3rd century BC, and the Sword Style (Joy 2015: 56–57). Joy highlighted the fact that La Tène art lacks a single region of origin, with styles constantly being fused and re-interpreted according to regional tastes and lifestyles across the east and west axes of La Tène influence, from Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, and Bohemia, to the Atlantic coastal regions of France and Britain (Joy 2015: 59). At some stage, the art style arrived in Ireland, and was used on the same package of metal goods as Europe: weapons, tack and cult items.

La Tène-derivative styles in Ireland. The surviving Irish Iron Age metalwork of weapons, equestrian equipment, wind instruments and feasting accessories all exhibit high standards of craftsmanship, leaving little doubt of their status as luxury goods. Yet we know very little about their elite end-users, or why they chose to adapt and rework a quintessential European decorative style on particular objects in specific ways. Unlike the Rhineland or Marne regions, Ireland has no known high-status burials containing luxury gravegoods. Most objects, having been found during the 19th and early 20th centuries and curated by antiquarians, have no recorded find spot, or contextual details to flesh out the sites or the circumstances from which

A chronological sequence of changes in style has been possible due to the lavish grave goods found in high status chariot burials across Europe, such as the Waldalgesheim burial in Germany (Frey 1976) and the Somme Bionne burial in France (Stead 1979:1991). These graves have included deposited equestrian equipment, 36

Chapter 4 Decoration, symbolism, and evolution of Irish Iron Age tack

they were recovered. Raftery (1983: 8) wished to address the uncertainty of associated finds and disturbed stratigraphy so typical of many Irish Iron Age finds and considered if the use of a combination of art and historical sources could create a more accurate time frame in which to place Irish tack.

To understand when specific styles of tack, and the skills to use them, were introduced to Ireland is to place both artefact and end-user within a wider, documented context of Roman-influenced Europe. If art styles as chronological markers are unreliable when applied to Irish material, different methods of analysis must be used.

However, even regions across Britain, where there is evidence of Continental interactions from the La Tène period (Champion 2016; Williams 2005), have difficulties in dating based only on art styles. Objects such as the Witham and Battersea shields show that styles of decoration not only overlapped chronologically, but some decorative motifs continued to be re-imagined over hundreds of years (Joy 2015: 59).

Looking at the pictures: analytical methods used Through examining the motifs and symbolic themes used on Irish tack, we can perhaps assess what regions share those symbols and shapes, where the influences came from, indicating whom Iron Age peoples were communicating with, to the extent of adapting their skills and ideologies. However, we must also acknowledge unpredictable time lags and anachronisms for which we have little explanation. The examination of tack decoration has been conducted through two filters:

Irish sites which have yielded high status metalwork, such as Lisnacrogher Crannog, County Antrim, still illustrate questions regarding exact dates of material. The iconic Lisnacrogher scabbards have been variously interpreted as being Continental imports (Henry 1933: 78), regional innovations (Raftery 1938: 277) and related to the Trent sword (Jacobsthal 2014: 220), with dates ranging from 200 BC to AD 100, all based on the decorative style. Raftery (1984: 42, 73, 107, 125) had no option but to acknowledge the uncertainty of dating of many of the objects. Even the most recent research can only tentatively offer ‘possible La Tène’ dates on some objects (Leonard 2014: 126). With such confusion present with well-studied objects such as swords, the overlooked topic of dating equestrian equipment has stood little chance of progress. Harding (2007: 164) identified the issue succinctly, that Ireland has no chronological event horizon, such as the Roman invasions of Britain and northwest Europe, to act as terminus post or ante quem for artefacts. The early historical period of Britain is still the Late Iron Age in Ireland, with no written records from the island itself. Insular Iron Age art-styles in Ireland, then, become an ouroboros, with no firm demarcation of when changes commence or end.

1. Identifying the symbols of decoration on both bits and Y-pieces and seeking comparisons. 2. Examining the actual morphology in which the bits were cast and comparing to contemporary artefacts. In Category One, specific decoration is looked at, namely La Tène-derivative styles of cast decoration, and champlevé, where shallow cast cells within the metal object are filled with enamel or glass. Category Two expands the issue to examine the stylised shapes of the bits, and possible non-utilitarian reasons for this. Design and pattern, like other expressions of creativity such as music and storytelling, are subject to constant revision and re-interpretation via cultural interactions, although symbols which are constantly used and reused should be viewed as particularly meaningful. External influences on Irish material, then, should be identifiable, even to a limited extent. Likewise, symbols used in decoration offers insight into possible identities and alliances.

With regards to equestrian equipment, using art-styles as a basis for chronology was attempted again by Palk (1991: 274) but her results were even more imprecise, dating the objects between 300 BC and AD 400, due to her desire to equate Irish and English specimens. The author’s earlier (Maguire 2014) attempt to build a chronology for Irish tack based purely on art styles was also flawed, in that it did not take continuity of designs into consideration. Insular metalwork often seems to hark back to much earlier styles, in the way vintage styles in fashion today recall an aesthetic of the past, with symbolism from the 5th and 3rd centuries BC occurring in Irish tack of a much later date.

Some archaeologists have suggested that Ireland was an island undergoing an unspecified social crisis through the Late Iron Age (Dolan 2014), citing the apparent fluctuations in agriculture as indications of societal stress (Plunkett 2007). It is during this purported event, or series of events, that the art of the loriner was introduced to Ireland, along with a highly developed set of equestrian skills. The combinations of designs and patterns the loriner created on Irish tack, presumably at the request of the horse-owners, can expand what we know of the objects’ biographies, and by association, our knowledge of horse, rider and society. Three characteristics of 37

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Irish bits are examined: patterns on relief work of the cannons, morphology of mouthpiece and types of cheek ring rivets For Y-pieces, the decorated terminals are examined. Each decorative feature of both bit and Y-piece is assessed, informing suggestions as to where the designs and patterns used may have originated.

•

Analysis of symbol use on Y-pieces A break-down of the 146 known bits and 110 Y-pieces indicate not all are decorated (Figure 4.1), although both bits and Y-pieces display different techniques of decoration.

•

• Types 1a, b, c and d are all reliant on their cast shape for their decorative qualities, although there are some exceptions; at least one Type 1c piece (Y1C:01, pl. 89), closely resembles the ‘eye’ shape found on metalwork from Liecheston Farm, Banffshire (MacGregor 1976: 188), and the cheek ring of one of the Newstead RomanoBritish snaffles, believed to date to the late 1std century AD (Curle 1911: 302; MacGregor 1976: 7). Likewise, the 1d prong finials closely resemble the design and motifs used on Roman lozenge brooches (Hattatt 1989: 348–49, plates 207 and 208), alongside interpretations of the earlier European Plastic La Tène style. • The 1e type is the only variation of Y-piece which used champlevé as part of the overall design,

•

•

although there is some evidence of it being used on some 2b specimens as well, such as the Emlagh Abbey piece (Y2B:015 pl. 116). Scratch marks on some of these terminals suggest that through time, people may have tried to remove what they may have thought were valuable gems. The unique fragment of the new sub-group, 1f, in Limerick’s Hunt Museum, has a hollow in the butt of the stem, which would have contained an inlay of glass, enamel, coral or some other substance. No other detail is evident. Type 2a Y-pieces display the highest frequency of La Tène-derivative decoration, although the decoration on the terminals do not necessarily match the butt decoration, unlike the matched designs of the 1c, d and to some extent 1e types. The 2b Y-piece seems to represent a ‘softening’ of both designs and construction of the solid 2a, perhaps for more casual riding or use on smaller and lighter horses. The pelta-shaped pronged finials often have La Tène-derivative designs, the best examples being the Derlangan, Co. Meath specimen (Y2B:09, pl. 113), the exquisitely crafted Emlagh Abbey piece (Y2B:15, pl. 116) and the staring ‘eyes and gaping ‘mouth’ of the Cloonconra specimen (Y2B:14, pl. 115). As the only kehlberge/Y-piece hybrid ever found, the 2c specimen from Binchester vicus near Durham, is an unknown quantity, although

Figure 4.1 Placement of decoration on Y-piece specimens.

38

Chapter 4 Decoration, symbolism, and evolution of Irish Iron Age tack

design-wise its shape is closer to that of a Germanic kehlberge, with faint linear decoration on the prong finials.

bulb and fold is much more important, actively defining the style of the bit. Some Y-pieces such as the Attymon specimens (Y2A:06 and Y2A:07, pl. 100) and the Roscommon piece (Y2A:05, pl. 99) indicate repoussé work to add extra definition to the cast relief designs. Champlevé does not appear to have been commonplace within bit manufacture, although the Type B found at Lough Beg, Co. Antrim (IB8B, pl. 7) apparently retained traces of red enamel within shallow cells. It is currently unknown if the enamel is similar in composition to that of equestrian material in Britain (Davis and Gwilt 2008: 156). Champlevé decoration is also visible on a few Y-pieces such as the Lough Fea 1e specimen, (Y1E:03, pl. 95), and the Emlagh 2b specimen (Y2B:15, pl. 116), although these are often missing the enamel, with only the slightest hint of pigment remaining.

Analysis of symbol use on bits • Type A specimens are undecorated, but only constitute a very small sample set, which as such is likely unrepresentative. • The bulb-and-fold shape of the inner cannon commences from Type B, although only 11 pieces exhibit this style. La Tène-derivative patterns are as likely to be present on the mouthpieces as they are on the outwards section of the cannon, and some champlevé technique also evident. • There is a paucity of Type C specimens, but what examples do exist indicate undecorated outer cannons and mouthpieces. One specimen, however, has an inner bulb-and-fold shape within the mouthpiece.# • The Type D category has a prevalence of the bulb and fold design of the inner cannon, which runs alongside the very pronounced arched mouthpiece. Decoration of both outer cannon and inner cannon is also present on many specimens. • The elongated lip-guard of the Type E bit has occasional outer decoration, but it appears less important — or possibly suggests it was a style loaning itself to becoming a choice made by the individual. The inner mouthpiece shape of

Only one Type A bit, from Llyn Cerrig Bach (IB1A, pl. 1), is reasonably intact and there is no indication of any decoration on these simple jointed snaffles. The Type B is the most commonly found bit type, with 55 known specimens, with mouthpiece decorations consists mostly of simple curvilinear lines, or elongated lozenge shapes emphasising the shape of the cannon. However, one Type B specimen (IB5B, pl. 6) is decorated with a somewhat grotesque anthropomorphic image, in stark contrast to the refined Armagh specimens (IB2B and 3B, Plates 4 and 5), with their elongated lines along the cannons. The Type B shows a variety

Figure 4.2 Placement of decoration on bit specimens.

39

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Location

Bit type

Quantity

Patterned

Abbeyshrule, Westmeath

B

2

X

D

1

X

Ballymoyer, Armagh Urraghry, Galway

Ballina Costello, Mayo Clongill, Meath

3

B

1

D

Cormongan, Leitrim

Country Roscommon

A

D

X

2a

1

✓

✓

2a

1

✓

2

✓

✓

‘Galway’

E

1

X

Attymon, Galway

Drumanagh, Dublin St Clerans, Galway

2

E

E

2

✓

1

X

2

E

X

2a

2a

2a

2a

2a?

1

X

X

✓

2

2a

1

1

1

X

D D

2a

1a

1

Patterned

✓

Streamstown, Westmeath Tara, Skryn, Meath

?

Quantity

1

1

D

X

Y-piece

1

2

3

1

✓

✓

X

✓ X

Table 4.1 Associations in hoards of decorated tack.

of decoration styles, as if loriners were experimenting with new ideas and symbols, and possibly new methods of manufacture. The rudimentary, unexaggerated bulband-fold is present in an almost abstract way within the mouthpiece design.

The Type D bits appear to represent an aesthetic where decoration matters. Most pieces are decorated to some extent, the curvature of the mouthpiece becomes increasingly defined, although the outer cannon shape is shorter and more rounded than the Type E, and the bulb-and-fold ceases to be abstract and becomes graphically similar to the Roman fascinum shape. This bit style suggests a tipping point of change, and that a mixture of symbols, both insular and external, were required; more was obviously more, and that the mouthpiece shape was more important than La Tènederivative decoration, as only 4 specimens, two of them from the hoard from Attymon, Co. Galway, are known to be decorated on the external lip-guard. All specimens, however, with complete cannons, display a high arched mouthpiece culminating in a fascinum shape at the inner link.

The six surviving Type C bits also lack any cast relief patterns, although like Type A, there are insufficient specimens to formulate any accurate generalization about this type. There does appear to be the suggestion they were not all quite as regimented and plain, as the piece found at Gortgole, Co. Antrim (IB4C, pl. 31) seems to be developing the arched cannon shape. Out of the 33 Type D bits, 16 are decorated with patterns on the outer part of the cannon. These are mostly of the insular La Tène-style best demonstrated on the Bann disc in the Ulster Museum, and the Petrie horned ‘crown’, in the National Museum of Ireland. Raftery (1984: 268–70) presumed this style of metalwork decoration dated to around the 1st century AD. Jope (2000: 116–17) agreed with Raftery’s dates for the Bann Disc, although extended the range into the 2nd century AD, noting its similarity to British styles of this time. The Bann disc itself was found at Loughan Island, about 3.5 km south of Coleraine, a site which has produced at least two Type D bits (IB7D and IB25D, Plates 40 and 41), a 2b Y-piece currently on display in Monaghan County Museum (Y2B:03, pl. 109) and a bit, possibly of Viking origin (UCB5, pl. 61). With such a collection of equestrian objects found at one site, it is possible that the iconic disc itself was part of a bridle or harness assemblage, as its perforations resemble those on the Late Bronze Age bridle found in Baekkedal, Denmark (Sarauw 2016).

The limiting factor in confidently proposing correlations between bits and Y-pieces is that there have been very few hoards where these objects have been found together. Table 4.1 shows that, from known hoards, decorated Type D bits were likely to be found with decorated Type 2a Y-pieces. Like the 2a Y-piece, the decorations traced on to the metal is mostly La Tène-derivative in style, so it is possible that the association of these styles of bits and Y-pieces together is about reinforcement of symbols which identify with the past. The function of the Y-piece as a bosal would mean that a fabric or leather strip would have been tied in a large knot just above the decorated butt, suggesting that this symbol would not have been entirely visible all the time, but the length of the stem ensured that the viewer knew it was there should they be allowed close enough. 40

Chapter 4 Decoration, symbolism, and evolution of Irish Iron Age tack

Location

Y-piece type

Quantity

Patterned

Associated finds

Ballykean, Offaly

1d

4

x

Kilbeg, Westmeath

1b, unknown

2

x

5 iron axe heads

Kishawanny

1b

1

x

Rings, hooks, bell

Limerick

1d

2

x

Lisnacannon fort, Glenbuck, Antrim

1b

1

x

Mullingar, Westmeath

1a, 2a

3

x

Unknown

1c

2

x

Brass pin, one other piece, lost

Table 4.2 Breakdown of associated finds in hoards.

There is the suggestion that the relief design of the Tara/Skryn bit (IB26D, pl. 42) and Y-piece (Y2A:14, pl. 104) complement each other, with the sweeping lines emanating from the designs two circular ‘eyes’ reflected in the sweep onto the stem of the Y-piece. It is very possible the Roscommon bit (IB5D, pl. 33) may have had a similar relationship to the Y-piece found with it, although most of the pattern has worn off.

and E being good bits for maximising the elegance of a horse’s paces. When combined with the Y-piece there is a strong indication that this assemblage constitutes a formal display bridle rather than an everyday one for hacking across country. Stop stud design There are six general categories of design observed in these studs: unpatterned, lentoid, star-shaped, curvilinear, zoomorphic and champlevé (Figure 4.3, see also Figure 3.10). The data obtained through inspection and examination of Irish bits is shown in Figure 4.3. It demonstrates that different rivet styles were used on B and D type bits, although one design preference is extremely noticeable which had not been observed previously. Almost all of the Type E bits use the small lentoid rivet to fasten the cheek rings in place.

Despite the scarcity of hoards containing bits, the D and E types are associated with 2a Y-pieces within bridle assemblages (see Figure 4.2 and Table 4.2). This combination of decoration of the outer cannons of Type D and E bits and 2a Y-piece complement each other, perhaps reinforcing by non-verbal means a recognisable symbol of identity, shorthand for ancestral origins or alliances. It must also be mentioned that from a functional point of view, with both Types D

Figure 4.3 Styles of stop studs on bit types.

41

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context The other possible associated stud use with a bit type is the regular use of the large plain pin in the Type D category. There are insufficient specimens in both A and C type bits to explore any correlations between rivet and bit types. Studs which may have contained enamel or other material are confined to Type D bits and those which remain uncategorized.

of traditional goods through a new cultural filter can provide an important narrative of societal flux, which Joy linked to the Scottish frontiers of the Roman Empire, although it is equally applicable to any of the European limes. Irish Iron Age tack components have equally complex meanings linked to their design and decoration, indicating multiple influences, and transformed identities of the riders. Jope (1955: 46), followed by Warner (2013: 276–78), noted Romanising influences within the shapes of later Irish bits. Warner directly compared the Type E bit with Romano-British trumpet brooches, as both have been found together at Drumanagh, Co. Dublin (Warner 2013: 279).

Judging by the results displayed in Figure 4.3, there is a possibility that the choice of stud designs and shapes for particular cheek ring types may be to cope with pressure from rein tension on the cheek rings. The small lentoid shaped studs are most common on the wideringed, generally larger Type E/ported snaffles, where pressure is diffused through the mouthpiece resulting in less pressure being placed directly onto the cheek rings. This is ongoing work, being tested by using established methods of pressure testing, using reconstructions of cheek rings and possibly mouthpieces, with attention to types of copper alloys used, and measuring results via strain gauge transducers (Clayton et al. 2003).

In Roman Britain, ornaments such as brooches were often used as markers of identity and regionality (Eckhardt 2014:129) as well as being protective talismans (Bishop and Coulston 1993:19), with a possibility that their manufacture and symbolism shares some association with tack components. The Iron Age Parisii, for example, a people inhabiting parts of Yorkshire, used bow and fan brooches with enamel designs, possibly as objects of social identification (Eckhardt 2014: 128–29). These brooches contain coloured enamel or glass, pressed into hollow cells cast in the metalwork, echoing the enamel-decorated cheek rings of bits found in Wetwang chariot burials some two or three hundred years earlier (Jay et al. 2013).

Symbolism and morphology as identity Decoration and embellishment communicate not just status and identity but indicate membership of shared social networks in a non-literary manner (Kuhn 2014). There is agency within what objects are chosen to be decorated, which also communicates the status of the object. Wells (2013: 52) illustrated this by noting the initial lack of decoration on utilitarian items such as spurs, found in burial contexts in a selection of north German Iron Age cemeteries. The gradual adoption of ornamentation on the basic objects indicated societal changes, leading Wells to conclude that visibility of symbols and motifs used was a vital method of social narrative.

The designs of connective hooks on bridle cheek pieces at Thorsberg resemble varieties of Almgren fibulae, which Pauli-Jensen (2008: 146–48) has suggested were a means of identification in Scandinavian war bands of the 1st century AD. The inference has been that pattern and form of personal objects were a shorthand for recognisable tribal alliances and occupations, with the Nordic fibulae as much warriors’ accessories as the Aucissa fibula was a badge of honour for Roman legionaries (Allison 2015).

If patterns and shapes have been recorded as being meaningful to particular groups of people (Eckhardt 2014: 129), then they can indicate: • Tribal or social identity • Specialised professional identity • Domestic or military workshops, sometimes of short lifespans, and the distribution networks set in place by alliances, which creates an overlap with tribal identities, as these fuse and transfer added meanings. • Spiritual/ideological meaningfulness.

A connection between personal adornment and tack exists in Europe from early phases of the Iron Age; the 4th century BC female burial at Reinheim, Germany, includes a copper-alloy chain (Keller 1965), cast in a similar design to the more ornate European bits, such as the Orval /Manche specimens in Normandy, France (Lepaumier et al. 2010), which themselves are strikingly similar to the unclassified bits UCB9 and 10 in the NMI. The same similarity between bit styles and personal objects is shown with the style of a metal belt found in a burial at Giubiasco, Switzerland (Lau 2014: 84 fig. 63) which has the same distinctive morphology of link as the Thorsberg Moor bits, a few centuries later.

Combinations of symbols derived from more than one culture, applied on one object can offer a specific biography of both artefact and user within their time and place. Joy (2014: 323) referred to the artefacts produced along the Roman Empire’s frontiers as ‘boundary objects’, with design being an intrinsic part of expressing renegotiated identities. The re-creation 42

Chapter 4 Decoration, symbolism, and evolution of Irish Iron Age tack

The visibility of decoration encapsulates what an individual wants to actively communicate to others about themselves, but concealed decoration indicates more about the beliefs of groups or individuals, along with a need for initiation to understand them. One need seek no further for an example of covert identity and initiation than the use of the ichthys symbol, used to communicate membership of the burgeoning religion of Christianity during the 1st century AD when persecution was rife (Goodenough and Ramsdell 2014: 49). The Irish Type D and E bits are objects with dual meaning cast into them, as the outward, visible lipguard is sometimes decorated with La Tène-derivative patterns, while the bulbous cannon and mouthpiece shape, unlike any other piece of tack in Europe, is concealed from all except the person fitting the bridle. With this in mind, the morphology of the bits is now examined, not for functionality, but for their stylised shapes.

separate analysis from the other typological differences, which are all connected to raising performance of horse and rider. Type D begins the morphological evolution to the Type E. The cannons of each type display a considerable degree of arching, while decorative relief is moulded into the outer end of the cannon, and the V-mould, where present, becomes more bulbous, with a series of moulded folds or wrinkles resembling a phallic glans more than anything else. This shape is reminiscent of the Roman fascinum talisman. Like the modern ported snaffle bits, the arched shape of both Types D and E emphasise the rider’s rein signals, minimising tongue evasions (Myler and Myler 1998), thereby encouraging the horse to relax its jaw. The sweeping external ‘wing’ of the Type E on the outside of the horses’ mouth is a lip-guard, the style of which has been recycled and presented as new in the 21st century, with the Stübben Golden Wing snaffle. However, from an engineering perspective, the exaggerated V-mould and enlarged bulbous inner cannon serve no actual functional purpose and must therefore be classified as having an ulterior purpose which can only be categorised as symbolic. This mouthpiece design may be unique, and may be the final, very ornate evolution of the curved iron loop bits found across Britain and the Netherlands. An example from Oss, Netherlands, is shown in Figure 4.4.

Mouthpiece morphology of Irish bits The morphological differences between the various cannons of Irish bits form the backbone of both Haworth’s (1971) and Raftery’s (1983) identification systems (see Figure 3.7). From the simple elongated pear-shape of the Type A snaffle to the complexity of the Type E, the shapes of the cannon indicate considerable sophistication based on knowledge of the horse’s oral anatomy (Van Lancker et al. 2007) as much as changing requirements from a mount. This differs considerably from British Iron Age bits, such as the examples from Middlebie, Scotland, and Rise, in northern Britain, which are decorative, but indicate little consideration for the animal itself. The Irish Type A bits have no moulded details. They are straightforward double-jointed snaffle bits, well made and utilitarian in a very modern way, compared to the relatively crude La Tène bits in Europe. Type B bits are similar, except that a slight arch has been added to the shape of the cannons, along with a variably defined V-shaped moulding, what Jope referred to as a ‘vestigal fold-over’ (Jope, 1955: 54). This is usually placed at the cannon’s inner edge, where it connects to the centre link. Types A and B suggest daily use, with the B variety including a little extra decoration, with a gentle V-mould, or occasionally a double V, as in the Cotton Moss example from Co. Down, to stimulate a horse into chewing, while the gentle curvature of the mouthpiece eases pressure on the palate (Manfredi et al. 2005). The Type C bits have no discernible V-mould and are considerably thinner than any of the other variations, best thought of as ancient analogues of modern training bits. The increasingly stylised form of the V-mould and inner cannon link from Type D to Type E requires

Figure 4.4 Iron ‘loop’ bits. Photograph by permission of National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden.

43

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Despite the crude manufacture and lack of decoration, both in the mullen mouth and jointed varieties of these bits, they are closest in function to the Irish specimens, spreading rein pressure across the tongue of the horse and performing a similar task as the Type D and E Irish bits. Palk referred to these as ‘Roman Type’ (Palk 1984: 21) but this may be a little narrow a description. Admittedly, these bits do not appear to be indigenous to Britain, because of their presence in the Netherlands, so may have been brought over with the various European cavalry units conscripted into the Roman military machine — not Romans as such, but within the employment of the Empire.

influences of the Roman Empire created cultural collusion as much as collision, therefore design and symbolic parallels from outside Ireland have been sought, examining equestrian and military objects of the European Romanised Iron Age. Recurring decorative relief themes on Irish La Tènederivative bits and Y-pieces In his magnum opus on Celtic art, Jope (2000: 37) suggested that the decorated metalwork of the pony head-dress found at Torrs, in southwestern Scotland, owed much of its style to a merging of British and Irish Iron Age metalwork. His opinion was that the loop and pelta design on this object was possibly the handiwork of a scabbard-maker, due to the designs being so similar to Irish scabbards found at Coleraine, Toome and Lisnacrogher (Jope 2000: 35–36; 73). He also suggested that the ornamentation of the tip of one horn is an interpretation of a shoveller duck (Jope, 2000: 74), connecting this to other bird symbols used in Irish Late Iron Age metalwork decoration of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD (Jope 2000: 114–15).

To date, apart from catalogue illustrations in Nicolay’s (2007) research into Batavian cavalry veterans in the Netherlands, there is no study of these bits; their distribution, quantities, and origin, be it British or Continental, is unknown, yet their morphology is vital in understanding the Irish bits. The Irish bits appear to have adopted the curved design of the iron loop pieces, fused them with double-jointed snaffle cannons, and thickened the loop format into solid, structured cannons, then incorporated a unique moulded shape into the mouthpiece. This effectively turned the entire bit into a talismanic work of art as much as a functional object. The V-mould, which had been a clever feature for encouraging the horse to have a relaxed jaw on earlier bit types became part of a charm, rather than remaining purely functional. Jope’s (1950: 58) theory of skeuomorphic, post-casting abrasion becomes somewhat unlikely when considering that European snaffles are either copper-alloy or iron singlejointed snaffles, with nutcracker effect, and continuity of style from the Late Bronze Age to late antiquity, yet none of these developed the features of the Irish B, D and E types. The only earlier similarity, and even this is vague, are the sharp dragonesque shapes on the La Tène cheek bars (Déchelette 1914: 1550, fig. 716).

Certainly, bird and animal imagery is present on a number of bits and Y-pieces, which is to be expected within a herding, hunting and farming society (Kelly 1997). Such a lifestyle would have provided acute observations and understanding of flora and fauna. The most comprehensive analysis of avian symbolism in La Tène-derivative art is in Anne Ross’s major work, Pagan Celtic Britain (1967: 302–78) with a complete chapter dedicated to comparing avian cult items from the Continent to British and Irish objects. Ross (1967: 351–54) suggested that the heron or crane, which has been depicted in European art since the Urnfield period, was associated with horses, possibly through the commonality of both being sacred to the ‘Celtic’ deity Esus, who was absorbed into the worship of Mars, the god of war, during the Roman conquest of Europe. Water birds such as the heron or crane were classified as unlucky creatures to encounter on the way to battle (Ross 1967: 351), so it may be that to attach its image to martial equipment was to ‘own’ and control the portent of the bird. The wearer would become part of the doom for their enemies who witnessed them preparing for battle.

Both the D and E type bits indicate the desire for display, at a time when most bits lacked decoration. Roman bits were simple, single-jointed constructions, following the lines of most of the earlier European Iron Age styles (Hyland 1990). Bits of the Italian Early Iron Age, while having very ornate cheek pieces in the shapes of birds and horses, had undecorated, single-jointed mouthpieces (Crouwel 2012: 155–58), so the Irish Iron Age creation of a noticeable and unique shape makes a considerable statement, be it about identity, belief, power or if they were meant to tick all those boxes.

Remnants of a belief in foreboding waterfowl seems to have persisted into late antiquity and was still understood during the early medieval period in Ireland at least. The Togail Bruidne Da Derga is a text which appears to be a cluster of fragments from Iron Age folklegend, viewed and perhaps interpreted through an early medieval/Christian lens (O’Connor 2007: 189–90). The narrative of the story includes distinctly unchristian

The Iron Age is mostly marked as a period when the dynamics between the material and ideological merged, creating new representations of how societies represented themselves and others. The diverse 44

Chapter 4 Decoration, symbolism, and evolution of Irish Iron Age tack

Figure 4.5 Detail of head decoration on Heidelberg carving, compared to stop stud decoration. Illustration by permission of Dr H. Chittock, Oxford (from Maguire, 2020a). Not to scale.

clout, possibly due to its ancient origins, as it was adopted by both Republicans and Loyalists in modern Northern Ireland as a symbol of territorial claims and ascendancy. Likewise, symbols do not necessarily lose or intrinsically change meaning if the potency they carry is important enough to a society or group of people to act as a rallying or unifying image — it is the emotional or ideological response to them which often is different over time.

practices such as the tarbfheis1 and admilliud2 as well as taboos, or geis, placed on the doomed king Conaire that he may not hunt waterfowl (O’Connor 2007: 50– 57). When he does, the birds transform magically into armed sidhe3 warriors who step from the sea, informing him that his own father is a shapeshifting being like themselves (Charles-Edwards 1999: 40–41). The point perhaps does not require labouring that herons are often found standing motionless in bogs, lakes and marshes, localities where equestrian items and weapons have been deposited throughout Ireland, the Netherlands, north Germany and Denmark, their dagger-like beaks rendering them effective hunters. Certainly, the terminals of the Type 1e Y-piece from Lough Fea, in Co. Monaghan (Y1E:03, pl. 96), closely resembles a heron with its elongated beak and long neck, not unlike the stylisation of the Torrs pony-cap horns.

Therefore, the continuity of symbols must be considered of some relevance, be it as memory of origins, idealisation of a past seen as more fortunate or successful, or adoption of talismans from other more powerful cultures. There is a long, almost universal principle behind amulets depicting staring eyes, such as the Middle Eastern nazar, to deflect any harm wished on the wearer back to the ill-wisher, a case of like repelling like. (Berger 2012: 1100; Dundes 1981). The back and forward gazes traced into the Streamstown bits (IB2D and 16D, pls 32 and 38) perhaps were meant to protect the wearer from psychic attack from any and all directions. Judging by the artistic merit of these bits, these must have been fine and valuable animals, easily envied.

The theme of eyes staring out is omnipresent, be they fantastical birds or humanoids. It is worth remarking that the pattern of staring eyes and curved lines on Type B cheek rings closely resemble the design on the carved back of the Heidelberg sandstone ‘warrior’ statue (Jacobsthal 1935: plate II fig. E), as shown in Figure 4.5. The spatio-temporal difference, from Germany of 450 BC to Ireland of AD 100 indicates the persistence of symbols — but not what meanings may have migrated, remained, or transformed, as time passed. While symbols can change their meaning over time, this is not always the case. The symbol of the Lámh Dhearg, the Red Hand of Ulster, in Northern Ireland, dates to at least the early medieval period, with folkloric origins of identity and dominion (O’Riain 2011: 2013). The symbol has lost none of its meaning, but certainly gained extra political

The types of possible eye decorations present on the Type 2a Y-piece are placed on non-avian stylised creatures, although most other Y-piece styles are decorated purely by the shape they are cast into. The acorn-like design on the 1a finials, and the ‘catkin’ shape on all 1b terminals are occasionally decorated with undulating lines to enhance their curves. The scant few examples of the 1c type have circular prong finials, while the 1d specimens are perhaps the most decorative of all with heavy, ornate cast terminals, well-illustrated by the hoard of four examples found at Ballykean Bog in 2000 (pls 91, 92 and 93). The Type 1d prong finials were cast with separate designs on each side, one a cross, the other a lozenge, each with added embellishment. These shapes closely resemble both British Vale brooches and northern British ‘knopped’

Ritual of bull-slaughter, ingestion of raw meat, wrapping in the raw hide to interpret subsequent prophetic dreams linked to kingship. The act of placing the ‘evil eye’ upon an individual. 3  Sidhe, the supernatural inhabitants of cairns and henges in Irish myth. Not necessarily benign fairies, as they often behave as somewhat arrogant, entitled aristocrats. 1  2 

45

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context terrets of the pre-Roman Iron Age (Maguire 2020b) as well as personal objects such as the chain-belt found at Giubiasco, Switzerland (Déchelette 1914: 1300, note 2).

persistence of design on material objects. Certainly, by the 1st century AD, the British Brigantes had been assimilated into the Roman Empire. Hassall (1970:134) stated that Roman cavalry, possibly Batavian, were operational in Brigantes territories of Britain from the middle of the 1st century AD, with full permission of the regional rulers, Venutius and Cartimandua. It is not unfeasible that such allegiances would likely be honoured by relatives living across the Irish Sea.

These solar crosses, dating to the European La Tène period of the 4th to 1st centuries BC, possibly indicate an origin for the symbols used on later Iron Age objects such as Irish tack, Vale brooches and the contemporary Romano-British kite brooches. The few specimens of the 1e type Y-piece are classical insular La Tène-style, with terminals shaped like long beaked birds, and sunken cells made for champlevé.

In England, there is sufficient faunal evidence for the domestication of the horse before the Late Iron Age, such as at Danebury and Blewburton Hill (Bendry 2007: 81). The iconic White Horse of Uffington, which dates between 1380 BC and 550 BC (Pollard 2017) implies the high status of horses on the island long before the Roman invasion. The cult of Epona arrived in Britain during the 1st century AD, brought by the cavalry units of the Roman Empire, yet Irish equine myths and legends were only recorded in the early medieval period, although it is very likely they reflect older traditions. The Irish goddess Aine’s epithet was the Lair Derg, the untiring solar red mare (O’Rahilly 1946: 286), and the divine horses drowned at Lagore are Grian /sun and Gaoth/wind (Ni Cathain 1991). The name Eochaidh, meaning horse, or stallion, is so common in Irish leaders and gods, it must be considered if this was a title rather than a name, for those associated with fertility, war and legitimised mortal kingships (O’Rahilly 1946: 203; 218; 467). It takes land to graze horses, time and effort to train them, and a degree of affluence to equip them, all adding weight to Warner’s (2002a) ‘wealthy rancher’ hypothesis. Likewise, cattle were indicative of wealth in early medieval Ireland (McCormick 2014), with this likely being a continuation of an earlier social order.

The animal-like symbols visible on the pronged terminals of the Type 2a are made in a similar art style as the Monasterevin discs, believed to date to the 2nd century AD (Stevick, 2006: 112), which in turn incorporate simplified representations of the symbols used in the 4th to 3rd centuries BC Witham shield, from Lincoln, England, as shown in Figure 4.6 (Maguire 2017: 187). Waddell has argued that the symbols embossed on the Monasterevin discs represented solar boats or carts (Waddell 2012: 343), like the Bronze Age petroglyphs at Bohuslän, Sweden (Goldhahn 2008: 17–23), interpreting the backwards swirls as birds’ heads, deliberately stripped of detail that the shapes could be understood only by a select few (Waddell 2012: 345). These solar

Affluence derived from livestock and herding is precarious, depending on continued freedom from animal and crop disease as much as favourable environmental conditions. Owning land and livestock can also attract envy, and as such, all cultures have talismans to avert negative effects of ill-wishing or envy. These may well be represented on some of the Y-pieces. However, there is no suggestion of any symbolism worked into Types A and C bits, although the relief designs of abstract eyes and birds and horses/ bovine/cervine heads on the outer edges of Type B cannons appear talismanic, as much as aesthetically pleasing. The plethora of specimens which incorporate eye shapes may well represent warding off the ‘evil eye’, incorporated with the La Tène-derivative symbols of birds and animals, of which the subtle meanings have been lost.

Figure 4.6 Comparison of Witham shield umbo (left) with Tara/Skryn Y-piece (right). After Maguire 2017: 187, fig. 3. Not to scale, Witham detail simplified to lines only.

boats and fabulous creatures may be purely spiritual images or could also represent actual mobility of groups of people during the Bronze Age, with the symbols as mnemonics of journeys undertaken. O’Rahilly (1946: 40) speculated on group mobility in prehistory as the Ptolemy map of the 2nd century AD lists Irish tribes named as the Brigantes and Menapii, like those in Britain and Europe. It is not uncommon for a society to maintain some link, however tenuous, to a foundation region, culture or cosmology through 46

Chapter 4 Decoration, symbolism, and evolution of Irish Iron Age tack

a

c

b

Irish bit morphology: superstition

Figure 4.7 Comparison of objects. a: Comparison of Type E bulb and fold (IB1E, Photograph with the kind permission of Alnwick Museum © Alnwick Museum) with b: Roman fascina (Photograph by Portable Antiquities Scheme YORYM-F0F370, CC BY 4.0), c: (Accession number 60.117.3, Photograph from Metropolitan Museum Museum Open Access collection), and d: group of fascina on display (Photograph by Wellcome collection gallery CC BY 4.0). None to scale.

d

Societal

change

The bridles and harnesses of Roman cavalry horses were decorated with amulets against ‘eye-biting’. These included trifid, lunate and boars tusk charms, but also included the fascinum (Bishop 1988: 107–09). This phallic-shaped charm, often incorporated with the manu fichu, or obscene finger gesture, was viewed as a means to ward off ill-luck and envy. Various artefacts incorporating this motif have been found at Roman military installations across Europe, with hybridisation of symbols occurring where indigenous pre-Roman Iron Age societies who had collaborated with Rome adopted the phallic cult (Turnbull 1978: 203). Examples include objects found in Bibracte and Bourges in France, and Unter-Lunkhofen in Switzerland (Déchelette 1914: 1302–03).

and

Incorporating apotropaic symbols onto equestrian items is not unusual; the Roman cavalry flaunted a range of symbols visibly, from bridle and harness. Draught horses have worn horse brasses (Vince 1981) throughout the medieval period, and Christian symbols were worked into the bridles of those who had made pilgrimages to sacred places and were therefore considered blessed (Spencer 1998: 244). The threat of the ‘evil eye’, the projection of harm onto an individual or their property by the gaze of someone believed capable of invoking malicious supernatural forces, was something very real to the ancient world. The downside of owning wonderful things is the need to defend property by whatever means one can.

Roman brooches indicate the incorporation and personalisation of phallic symbols,4 with Polden Hill and trumpet styles not being exempt from the symbol.5 As stated previously, both Jope (1955) and Warner (2013) had considered the similarity between the Type D and E bits and the Roman trumpet brooch, and it is easy to see why this association was made. However, there is more to the Type E (and D to some extent) than just reworked styles. While they do indeed share the arched

Belief in the ‘evil eye’ is pan-European. Irish myth has the demonic Balor, whose gaze causes death; King Saul in the Bible is mentioned as having the power to curse with his gaze and Sumerian texts of the 3rd century BC contain references to the power to curse by envy (Berger 2012: 1101). The Classical world, particularly Rome, created specific charms used against ‘eye biters’ — those who wished ill specifically on horses (McDaniel 1918: 36).

4  5 

47

https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/503238 https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/270861

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context the fluidity of identity within the Roman Empire and its military. The ‘butterfly’ shaped pendants, such as object LIN-2D8324, found in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, suggest the staring eyes of insular La Tène style art, interpreted in a manner which incorporates Belgic and Classical styles, but again with that pervasive phallic shaped terminal, wrinkled in a similar way to the Irish Type D and E bits (Figure 4.8). These are very much what Star and Griesemer (1989: 387) refer to as ‘boundary objects’, elaborated on by Joy (2014: 323) within the context of changing identities in Roman Britain. Familiar objects or symbols may have retained much of their original meaning, but new influences added to that narrative, re-negotiating identities and traditions. Figure 4.8 Roman period harness pendant, incorporating the manu fichu and re-imagined La Tène derivative ‘eyes’. PAS number LIN-2D8324, Photograph by permission of The Portable Antiquities Scheme / The Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY 3.0.

A similar re-negotiation of material objects on cultural frontiers was noted by Hodder (1982: 13–30) during his study of the Baringo region of Kenya. The results of his study suggested that boundaries between distinct identities and cultures produced objects with more defined identity markers on each side of the frontier, which became more emphasised during periods of social stress. Hybridisation of artefact styles also occurred, as did sudden changes in artefact distribution patterns (Hodder 1982: 37–58; 185–90). The hybrid artefacts can be considered as manipulations of identity for a variety of reasons, from social acceptance to outright challenges to social norms.

spine of the trumpet brooch, the cast folds on the cannons close to the inner link suggest that a stylised fascinum was incorporated into the design. Figure 4.7a shows a particularly fine Type E cannon from Alnwick Museum, possibly from Roscommon. The V-shaped fold is noticeably exaggerated. These moulded ‘foreskin/ frenulum’ folds resemble the cast details of Figure 4.7b (bottom left), which is a rare earthenware fascinum from York (PAS ID YORYM-F0F370) and the collection shown in Figure 4.7d (bottom right, Wellcome collection). Such objects often had the addition of equine legs. There is a plethora of examples which can be searched for online to compare more closely with the Type D and E bits. The arched shape of Figure 4.7c (centre right, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) also resembles the curvature of the Irish bit cannons.

These observations from modern anthropology and archaeological studies may well indicate that Type D and E bits represent individuals expressing a dual identity with the desire to conceal a Romanised aspect, while reinforcing their original identity with outward show of La Tène-derivative decoration. It may be that the riders considered Roman military deities as more protective than whatever supernatural beings were invoked in Iron Age Ireland but did not want their conversion to be obvious. Cahill-Wilson (2014: 43–44) has noted what she considers to be parallels between horse and dog skeletal depositions at Tara, Co. Meath and Freestone Hill, Co. Kilkenny, and Roman military cults. It may suggest the relationship between Ireland and Roman Britain was a ‘friends with benefits’ arrangement, with native Irish serving in units across Europe, returning home with non-Irish colleagues in tow after years of military service.

There are many examples of fascinum amulets displayed as pendants on horse harness within the Roman Empire (Turnbull 1978: 199–200), such as the pendants found in London’s Walbrook Street excavations, as yet unpublished, indicate.6 The fascinum as a good-luck symbol may be considered a reinforcement of the martial machismo encouraged by Roman conquest of Europe and adopted by those who became part of the Roman military, regardless of their original ethnicity or ideology.

This fits remarkably well with the pseudo-history of Túathal Techtmar’s return from exile along the northern borders of Britain, and subsequent coup (O’Rahilly 1946: 158), as well as providing a possible ending for the exiled Irish prince in Agricola’s court, mentioned by Tacitus. In his biography of Agricola,

However, this identity renegotiation was not one sided, favouring Roman culture above past traditions. Close examination of harness pendants alone shows MOLA article available at http://www.thehistoryblog.com/ archives/24528, last viewed 27th May 2021.

6 

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Chapter 4 Decoration, symbolism, and evolution of Irish Iron Age tack

Tacitus states that during Agricola’s fifth summer in Britain, which is estimated to be around AD 82.

Decorated bits are not common in Europe during the Iron Age, but they do exist, and because of their early chronology, influenced the development of bit and harness styles across later prehistoric Europe. Leeds (1933a: 118) may have believed that Irish tack was directly descended from the Hagbourne Hill specimens in Britain, but there is little similarity, apart from each being double-jointed snaffles. The Hagbourne Hill bits, considered to date between the 1st century BC and early decades of the 1st century AD (Hingley 2009: 147) may be decorated with La Tène-derivative lowrelief designs, but are cast in squat, rounded shapes, reminiscent of an infant’s pacifier, with an elongated centre link, and would function differently than Irish bits.

One of their petty kings, who had been forced to fly from the fury of a domestic faction, was received by the Roman general, and under a show of friendship, detained to be of use on some future occasion. I have often heard Agricola say that a single legion with a moderate band of auxiliaries would be sufficient to complete the conquest of Ireland (Tacitus Agricola XXIV: Murphy 1903: 368). This story is never completed. While O’Rahilly (1946: 162) considered the possibility that Techtmar’s represented a Goidelic invasion during the last two centuries BC, the chronologies offered by both the Lebar Gabála Erénn (Macalister, LGE 5: 311) and the Annals of the Four Masters place Techtmar’s return to Ireland between AD 117 and AD 76 respectively, which tallies with Tacitus rather well. If the story contained in the Annals of the Four Masters (M56.1; M76.1) of a plebeian (named as the aitheachtuatha) revolt against a traditional Irish ruling class holds even a fragment of truth, and Techtmar’s mother returned to the safety of her childhood home in Alba, then he and his refugee peers grew up on the island of Britain with Roman-influenced lifestyles, while maintaining a remembered identity of whatever defined the Irish elite. This may well have led to his request to Agricola for help in reclaiming the island, as we do know that Agricola was interested in invasion, hence his maintaining a somewhat manipulative friendship with the exiled prince.

Likewise, the cast shape and the decorations on the outer cannons of the Ringstead bits from Norfolk. The cannons are short, with wide inner loops to the centre link. The relief designs on the cannons of the bits found at Ringstead have also been suggested as connected to Irish design, even though the ‘berry’ and concave triangle details on the rivets and outer cannons are unknown in Irish tack (Clarke 1951). Like the more ornate and now-lost Ulceby bit, these would appear to be a British design. Despite the cannon decoration being in the same place as many Type B designs, and being double-jointed snaffles, they are distinctively un-Irish in their execution. Equally so the surviving fragments of the Ulceby bit, which is closer to the style of the Snettisham torc (Leeds 1933b) than anything Irish, and again, the cannons are squat and rounded.

Considering the recurring themes in art between northern Britain, Ireland and parts of Europe, it may well be there were sufficient relatives and allies from Britain and Europe to assist the effort — not an invasion, more a coup to reinstate a group of traditional leaders. It is circumspect to note that most of Rome’s cavalry units were made up loosely of Celtiberian, Germanic, Gaulish and Thracian tribes across the Empire (Bishop 1988: 113), with the Roman annalist Arrian noting that during Hadrian’s reign (AD 117–138), cavalry orders were issued in words of Celtic origin (Kiechle 1964: 89).

Even earlier examples, such as the single-jointed snaffle bits found at Hinton, in Wiltshire7 and Stockbury in Kent,8 resemble Hallstatt bits (cf. Metzner-Nebelsick 1994: fig. 7) and are contemporary with the Llyn Fawr hoard of harness objects, circa 800 BC to 600 BC, which indicates a need to address connectivity between Britain and the Continent during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. Only the very peculiar Transylvanian/Dacian interpretation of the Irish Type E bit, illustrated in Figure 2.1, can be considered similar in any way to Irish decoration, although its dragonesque curved cannons and elongated cheek connections (Rustoiu 2005) are so far re-imagined in form and use from an Irish Type E that one can but hope it was not ever used. Its origin has been hypothetically linked to Roman cavalry movement, perhaps showing that ideas and technology could spread outwards from Ireland, rather than the latter being an island of imports. However, questions need addressed about its chronology — could it be earlier than the Irish snaffles and therefore the original

This ‘return of the king’ scenario may not have been entirely welcomed. A Romanised ‘boys own’ club, returning with uncertain agendas may have been viewed initially with unease, accounting for the concealment of symbolism within their mounts tack. While a very visible association with the past was displayed with the outward-facing La Tène-derivative cast relief decorations, the hidden mouthpiece told of a very different set of beliefs and alliances. The bit sizes of the Type E are mostly of much larger animals, compared to the diminutive pre-Roman British bits such as those found at Arras (Stead 1979).

7  8 

49

https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/511174 https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/431351

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context inspiration? Currently, there is no way of determining chronological primacy, and must remain an area of further investigation.

Chronologically, the evolution appears to have happened quickly; if MacDonald (2007: 168–70) is correct in ascribing the equestrian material of Llyn Cerrig Bach to the late 1st century AD it would tally closely with the known dates of the Roman conquest of Anglesey, indicating that the Type A was contemporary with the iron loop bits and the Binchester 2c Y-piece, both of which were likely introduced from Europe. The Kishawanny Y-piece was deposited in a Kildare bog with a Roman-style harness bell and copper alloy hoops (Raftery 1983: 60; 1984: 54), implying a date range after the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43. The Drumanagh Type D and E bits, along with the 2a Y-pieces, were found with coins dating from the time of Emperor Titus (AD 79 to 81) through to Hadrian (AD 117 to 138), copper and bronze ingots, boar tusks, dolphinshaped fibulae and Wirral-style brooches (Cahill Wilson 2014: 39–40) which date to the 2nd century AD but had a short span of production of about 30 years (McIntosh and Ponting 2014).

Exchanges of technology and ideas were obviously occurring, as ways to make mounted transport more efficient and solve problems, although the decoration speaks more of the ideologies and identities which people wished to hold on to, and those they wished to project. The Roman psalion mechanical hackamore, which both the Y-piece and Germanic kehlberge are modifications of, were often decorated with multicoloured enamel flat brooch-like decorations, such as the examples at Newstead (Curle 1911) and Nijmegen (Nicolay 2007). The kehlberge remained undecorated, with only an occasional use of silver terminals, such as PG122 of Thorsberg (Lau 2014: pl. 32). The shape and decoration of Irish tack stands as a unique expression of identity in the Late Iron Age. It would seem that apotropaic symbols like the stylised fascinum, and even decorative La Tène-derivative embellishments in the shapes of eyes and fantastical creatures, were adopted or abandoned according to personal tastes or group identities. This perhaps suggests that those identities themselves were in a state of flux, as new trends in material goods, as well as ideologies and technology, were introduced from across the Roman Empire by way of trade and communication, leading to cultural hybridisation. In short, the decorative arts of Ireland during the Late Iron Age were an eclectic collection of symbols and designs out of their original time and place and fused into something unique to a particular cultural interface.

The evolution of Irish design from the basic Type A and B bits to the sophisticated Type D and E bits may reflect workshops gaining expertise over a short span of time as both Roman technology and non-indigenous horses become increasingly available. If so, the artisans were innovative and observant as well as remarkably skilful. The fascinum design of the D and E bits indicates an interpretation of established Roman lucky charms, whereas there is more emphasis on La Tène-derivative cast decoration on the relatively plain-shaped Type B. The associated finds at Drumanagh, c. 2nd century AD, place the Type D and E fascinum bits also within that time frame. It would also appear that Irish tack increased in size and sophistication, with maximum embellishment, as the art of the loriner reached its apex, and larger horses became more frequent imports.

British Late Iron Age/early Roman period tack evolved from the pre-Roman era, with antler and bone cheek pieces (Britnell 1976: 24–26) and likely organic mouthpieces. Britain, like Europe, had scope for the creation of a pre-Roman equestrian identity which is apparent from the Snettisham-style Ulceby cheek ring to the classic insular decoration of Ringstead bits.

Decoration and morphology may be responses to a newly ascended elite who wanted to display an association with earlier Iron Age symbols and patterns, with ancestral or foundation connections. This may have been for approval or acceptance, with the display of recognised symbols offering a continuity to the past. However, they also made personal decisions to include Roman-influenced symbols. By the creation of the Type E bit, the La Tène-derivative patterns were no longer as important to display. The unique winged, phallic mouthpiece shape may well represent an elite who were now in control of their own identities, as mostly, La Tène-derivative decoration was now relegated to the visible terminals of the Y-piece.

While there is the desire by the Irish equestrians to be seen using La Tène-derivative art-styles, certain embellishments, such as the fascinum contained within the mouthpiece, indicates the riders held beliefs other than whatever existed in Iron Age Ireland. The Roman fascinum symbol would indicate those beliefs were a result of regular and sustained communication with Roman Britain. The curvature of the Irish bits, apparently derived from the iron looped bits found across England and Europe again indicate influences from elsewhere, but developed beyond functionality, incorporating aesthetics, identity and talismanic symbolism.

The variations of the 2a type were being made during the 2nd century AD, as faulty pieces have been found, again at Drumanagh, with artefacts and coins dating within that period (Cahill-Wilson 2014, 34–36). The 50

Chapter 4 Decoration, symbolism, and evolution of Irish Iron Age tack

similarity of the 2a terminal designs with the Witham shield bosses makes it tempting to reconsider O’Rahilly’s (1946: 25; 30–32; 34) ideas of Irish tribes being related to both English and European equivalents. This would indicate that the recurring symbolic themes may have been a visual shorthand to identify group or regional origins, used by the arriviste elite to reassure that they were a continuation of the good old days.

elite who basically wanted attractive objects like those used by their peers across the water. More to the point, they understood how to use them correctly, implying they had past knowledge of Roman-influenced lifestyles, which is similar to the scenario proposed by Warner (2013: 276–77) to account for the Roman goods found at Clogher, Co. Tyrone. These individuals had created their own identity. The need for multiple apotropaic symbols, both visible and hidden, from two distinctly different cultures, seems to reflect not just a desire for visual impact and association with the past but also anxiety and the need for protection and good fortune. The new hybrid identity of the horse-riding elite obviously came at a personal price.

The adoption of equestrianism in Ireland was not happening in a vacuum. The Discovery Programme’s Late Iron Age and ‘Roman’ Ireland project demonstrated more than sufficient evidence of Roman and RomanoBritish material intrusions in Ireland, catering for an

51

Chapter 5

‘Horses make a landscape look more beautiful’: Distribution, deposition, and landscape zones and borders offering a feeling of unity and identity at assemblies (Ó Riain 1972:17).

A landscape of objects? Currently, 147 bits and 111 Y-pieces, both complete and fragmentary, have been recorded from various sites across Ireland, with the presence of a few specimens of demonstrably Irish style also being found in Britain. Like the tack components themselves, little objective analysis of the relationship between landscapes and artefacts has been carried out in Ireland. Presenting visual representations of artefact distribution can suggest trends in regional types, possible entry points for trade and directions for the consequential dispersal of goods by either alliance or trade, all important in examining how sophisticated equestrianism entered Ireland. Such distribution maps complement the analysis of the landscape in which the objects are found, assisting in answering the research aims of establishing possible trade routes and alliances, as well as examining any sequences of typological distribution, which may reflect the societal changes of the Irish Late Iron Age.

As a result, natural features often form parts of later formalised boundaries such as Irish townlands and parishes. These were defined by an 8th century AD text, the Breatha Comaithcesa (Laws of Neighbourhood) as consisting of twelve natural markers, with at least one boundary line being a river, spring source, or certain kinds of forest, stone feature, or marshy places (Power 1947: 220). While it is very possible some Irish townlands have maintained some of their borders since that early medieval period, baronies were formed after the Norman invasion of Ireland, and parish land units date even later within the medieval period. Baronies were prone to sub-division and alteration of borders, themselves having originated from the Gaelic cantreds and tríocha céad land units of the 11th and 12th centuries AD, contemporary with Norman land taxation systems (McCotter 2008: 13). While acknowledging that some overlaps of natural boundaries must exist as a practicality for new arrivals to the island needing to reapportion land, it is difficult to have full confidence that Iron Age metalwork was generally ‘deposited in close proximity to important boundaries, especially barony boundaries but including parish boundaries as well’ (Kelly 2006: 26–27). Depositions are complex, multireasoned actions, as Testart (2013) well demonstrated.

Equally relevant, analysis of density of finds in the landscape, and shared deposition features, complement such distribution models, creating a framework in which to examine the changes which introduced equestrian material to the island in antiquity. This chapter seeks to create such a frame to gain perspective on where tack is found, how it was disposed of, and commonalities of landscape or feature types which may indicate why the objects were placed there.

A Gaelic boundary of the 8th century AD is not automatically interchangeable with an AngloNorman one. Parish boundaries are not necessarily commutable with ancient land divisions either, as they originated as ecclesiastical divisions of land, and as such have often been altered to suit socio-political demographics (Houston 2016). In the north of Ireland in particular, the landscape has been a major political palimpsest from the Plantation period onward, making it difficult to date present day land divisions. As we can neither prove nor disprove the continuation of borders from prehistory to the post-medieval period, this chapter concerns itself with immovable features, such as bodies of water, their crossing points, hills, and marshes, which are more likely to be remnants of late prehistoric territory markers, on the grounds that they are extremely difficult to alter substantially. For this very reason, forests are not considered despite their listing in the Breatha Comaithcesa, as vegetation cover has changed through the course of Irish history. However, there is also examination of artificial features

Irish archaeology has yet to produce anything as challenging to the status quo as Testart’s (2013) provocative examination of landscape and artefact. Instead, there has mostly been a continuity of thought, presenting a standard paradigm of metalwork + wetland deposition = ritual activity. Discoveries of human remains, weapons, wooden casks of butter and tack within bogs abound. Choosing natural barriers as places to leave votive offerings was not a practice exclusive to Ireland but appears to be coterminous with European practices. The pre-Roman European Iron Age already had established boundaries comprising marshes, forests, and rivers, and it was around these natural features that cult centres developed (Ó Riain 1972: 16) It has been hypothesised that the European oppida may have been precursors of the Irish oénigi, or formal meeting places, as they have been referred to as marchés sacrés, neutral sanctuaries placed on liminal 52

Chapter 5 ‘Horses make a landscape look more beautiful’: Distribution, deposition, and landscape

within the landscape, such as earthworks, ringforts, and reused prehistoric sites, all of which can be viewed as nodal points in a social landscape where memory is part of identity reinforcement.

Landscape analysis Analysis of landscape trends here has been treated as a form of Historic Landscape Characteristics project, tailored for features rather than one specific region. The datasets of this research have been captured in tables of landscapes and features. These are presented as cultural landscapes on one hand, and natural features on the other, as a landscape is inevitably affected and/or changed by human habitation. These two sets of landscape features connect with the idea of territories and identities created by boundaries. Nonnatural features are important to consider, as they mark out habitation, memory and commemoration. There is a great sense of personal and collective cultural power within the memory and knowledge of ancestral connection to the land that you now work, and where those ancestors are interred, which possibly connects to the Iron Age phenomenon of re-using Neolithic and Early Bronze Age cairns and tumuli, such as Knockmany in County Tyrone (Coffey 1898) and notably Newgrange in Meath (Bradley 1987).

Methods of analysis To achieve a workable analytical framework for deposition and landscape associations, the following methods have been used. Distribution Each specimen with a known provenance was recorded in a database, which was processed in ArcMap 10.3.1 to display locations of finds. • Each bit and Y-piece was then mapped to establish regional distribution patterns, further broken according to typology, and then size. • Each geographical find-spot was examined, where possible, via primary sources of the 18th to 20th centuries such as Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1847), the various published OS Memoirs, and historical maps sourced from the Public Records Office NI and Ordnance Surveys Ireland, mostly employing the earliest Series 1 (1832 to 1846) and Series 2 (1846 to 1862) maps, to assess any landscape alteration from the earliest historical recorded state of the landscape. Obviously, the pre-literate society of the Late Iron Age left no records of landscape, and we must acknowledge that early medieval narratives mostly survive in a fragmentary state, as well as having issues with translation and pieces added on by other sources over time. Eskers and mountains, however, can act as georeferencing points within a landscape, as they remain basically unchanged over two millennia, allowing some frame of reference for the natural boundaries which almost certainly pre-date the 8th century AD. Drainage programmes during the 19th and early 20th centuries have certainly affected wetlands, marshes and peat bogs across the island. Therefore, geographical texts from the middle of the 19th century, primarily Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1847), and historical Ordnance Survey maps, have been used to define when drainage and historical landscape modifications occurred; this has also had the bonus of fleshing out archaeological features which no longer exist. • Spatial analysis, using kernel density models has been used to further demonstrate potential relationships between artefact distribution and the landscape.

This relationship between people and their environment is symbiotic, with memorials reinforcing hierarchy, represented by symbols which that culture fully understands. There is some probability that the land itself became anthropomorphised, a hypothesis which parallels the prehistoric symbolic ‘marriage’ of leader and land which is believed to have existed in Ireland’s prehistory (Waddell 2014:110–127). The act of votive deposition is multi-faceted – boundaries, battlefield and burial are often one and the same location, which could certainly be argued for sites such as the Tara/ Skryn valley. The human desire to memorialise personal memory manifests in similar ways through the millennia. At the time of writing, the sunken lane which leads to the Early Bronze Age site of Ballynoe stone circle, in County Down is clustered with informal memorials – some are dedicated to loved ones who have died, with shells, photographs and little symbols of the things they loved in life. Others are messages of hope, with pebbles painted brightly, often with encouraging phrases painted on them, reinforcing optimism through the COVID19 pandemic lockdowns of 2020/21. The prehistoric monument is intertwined with the present day as a repository of memory, wishes, and community spirit, giving a firm sense of place and belonging. In cases like this, natural and anthropogenic landscape features become palimpsests in which the earlier script is never entirely erased. Using the databases of the Northern Ireland Sites and Monuments Records1 and the Republic of Ireland’s https://www.communities-ni.gov.uk/services/sites-andmonuments-record

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Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context National Monuments Service,2 along with museum accession records and antiquary society records, a set of natural and artificial feature categories have been drawn up. The subsequent analysis uses methods employed in the creation of Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC) projects (Lambrick et al. 2013) especially in the classification of natural features. All HLCs are prone to personal interpretation of landscape categories, as no official standardisation of nomenclature and identification has yet been developed. However, adhering to the criteria of Lambrick et al. (2013) within the categories, the following is used:

megalithic structures such as cairns and hengiform monuments. • Standing Stones: Upright stone feature of uncertain later prehistoric date. Pastures new: where were the grazing lands of the Late Iron Age horses? Maintaining a stable of horses requires a landscape of grazing meadows and paddocks, which is partially at odds with what we know of the Late Iron Age in Ireland. There was a general decline in agriculture, combined with some degree of reforestation at this time which is now referred to as the Late Iron Age Lull. Recent evidence suggests it was not a chronologically synchronous event, but a series of sporadic land use changes, spanning from 200 BC to c AD 200 (CoyleMcClung 2013: 75) and may not have applied to the entirety of Ireland.

• Wetland: Long term natural landscape saturated with water, rendering the soil wet and spongy, including marsh, fen and salt marsh. • Peat bog: Incorporating blanket bog cut, uncut and hand cut; blanket bog enclosed/ drained; blanket bog with evidence of lazybed cultivation; lowland raised bog, cut, uncut and hand cut; lowland raised bog enclosed/ drained; raised bog with evidence of lazybed cultivation. • River: Flowing body of water • Lake: Natural inland expanse of water fed by rivers • Ford: Shallow expanse of river or water body which can be crossed by vehicle, animal or on foot • Hill: Raised upland with rough ground and moorland, or rough grazing areas on uplands. • Commonage: Specifically, fields lacking agricultural intervention, such as rough grazing fields, including farmland lying fallow for rough grazing purposes. • Coast: Incorporating coastal rough ground; coastal marsh and/or wetland; dunes; intertidal estuary and beaches sand and muds.

Weir (1993) proposed a near-apocalyptic depopulation of the island as a reason for the reforestation of the Late Iron Age, while Plunkett (2009a; 2009b) suggested that socio-political and cultural changes may well be closer to the truth. The controversial paper by Newman et al. on Emlagh Bog (2007), one of the sites which bucks the trend of Iron Age agricultural abandonment suggested that the reforestation phenomenon was due to ritual practices and the growth of ‘Druidic’ sacred groves, a provocative choice of wording, as there is no genuine understanding of religious practices in the Irish Iron Age. Newman and his co-authors suggested that the choices of tree taxa which had been burnt into charcoal were indications of ritual use, linking them to ogham symbols (Newman et al. 2007: 361). O’Donnell’s (2018) recent research appears to indicate that Newman’s hypothesis was a step in the right direction, as she had discovered that different woods were used for different activities; fuel, industry and ritual all demanded different tree taxa.

The artificial landscape features are categorised as follows: • E arthwork: Artificial changes in land levels including ringforts, ‘cup and saucer’ circular ditch features, embankments and defenses. • Heroic folklore associations: Places with strong association to pseudo-histories and folklore in texts such as the Ulster Cycle. • Shared early ecclesiastical associations for area: churches and ecclesiastical features erected from the 5th to 8th centuries AD. • Workshop: Micro-area with indications of metalwork (slag, hearths, molds) on site. • Re-used earlier prehistoric sites: Activity occurring within the precincts of earlier

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While it is feasible that reforestation could indeed be a manifestation of a new religious practice, adopted from Roman Britain as Cahill-Wilson suggested (2013: 21–23), there is a stumbling block to this theory. The Late Iron Age Lull was not confined to the period of the 1st to 2nd centuries AD (Coyle-McClung 2013: 75), when Britain was being conquered by the Roman Empire. It occurred (in places) as a contemporary event of preRoman Britain so whatever social stresses started the event in Ireland likely had little to do (initially anyway) with the Roman invasion of neighbouring Britain. No matter how or why reforestation happened, such landscapes are not suitable for horse raising and training. Horses require open space and as such, they can only have been present within cultivated

https://www.archaeology.ie/archaeological-survey-database

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Chapter 5 ‘Horses make a landscape look more beautiful’: Distribution, deposition, and landscape

settlement sites. However, identifying such sites within the archaeological record is still proving problematic. From almost a thousand National Roads Authority (Republic of Ireland) sites excavated in the decade between 1999 and 2009, only 8% can be exclusively dated to the Iron Age (McCarthy 2010: 41), with no

percentile differentiation between Early, Developed or Late Iron Age. The only landscape we have any kind of understanding of are the nucleated seasonal assembly sites, such as Tlachtga/Hill of Ward, Tailteann, Uisneach and Teamhair/Tara. These formal shared spaces appear

Figure 5.1 General distribution of bits and Y-pieces.

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Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context to have functioned as places where leaders could bring grievances in a peaceful manner, as well as for celebrations, but they cannot be called vernacular sites.

must be questioned. Although a few objects related to equestrianism have been found there, there is a general paucity of metalwork in the southernmost region of the island. Various theories have been put forward in explanation, with lack of habitation even having been suggested (Becker 2013:269). The increase in commercial archaeological excavations across the Republic of Ireland during the so-called ‘Celtic Tiger’ years, at the start of the 2000s indicates that there were settlements across Munster (Cleary 2017). However, many questions remain regarding the nature of those settlements and habitation. Certainly, the presence of an equine bone pin in a secondary Iron Age burial within the Neolithic cairn of Labbacallee (Leask et al. 1937) indicates horses in the region, which presumably would have worn bridles fitted with bits such as those found at Headfort, in Kerry and Tracton Abbey in Cork.

Sites such as the Platin/Lagavoolin 1 roundhouse near Drogheda (Walsh 2016) offer some insights into domestic life, with multi-period features, metalworking areas dating into AD 60 and possible Gaulish or Germanic red glass beads found in a gully between structures. Despite the substantial corpus of research by Becker et al. (2008) searching for habitation trends, all which can be said with any certainty is that domestic settlements were small-scale and occasionally included ringforts, such as at Tully and Dunsilly, both County Antrim, or raised earthwork structures such as Lyles Hill, County Antrim and Cathedral Hill, County Armagh (Becker et al. 2008: 59–62). As almost no research has yet examined Iron Age animal husbandry as a means of understanding what livestock was being raised, and where, we still lack knowledge of how and where the equestrians ‘stabled’ their horses, or where they may have grazed. We can suspect, however, that these small-scale homesteads, which would have had pastures as much as metalworking areas, are linked to at least some of the animals which were imported or bred here.

The general distribution pattern of bits and Y-pieces in Ireland shown in Figure 5.1 extend through both soil zones which Richard Warner (2002a: 130) proposed were key regions for La Tène-derivative metalwork. He suggested that the quality of soils in the upper two thirds of Ireland influenced the activities within the regions, with more affluent ‘ranchers’ with a taste for prestige metal goods commandeering the better soiltype for grazing animals, and poorer crop farmers settling on the less rich soil, possibly with little choice in the matter. However, tack specimens extend further to the south and west of Ireland than other metal objects, as can be seen by comparing Figure 5.1, with

Distribution of Irish Iron Age tack in Ireland, England and Wales The most recent study of tack (Maguire 2014) expanded on the distribution analysis by Haworth (1971) with regards to the Irish Y-piece. The results indicated that a high number of specimens had been found within wetlands in association with other equestrian-related objects. However, analysis has been limited by too often having only the vaguest information — townland, county, and province — for only half of the known tack specimens. The bulk of Iron Age metalwork in Ireland was discovered during the 19th and early 20th centuries, long before the current methods of recording excavated artefacts, and the lack of provenance details has proved an issue with all artefact studies. The methods used in this chapter have allowed the addition of a few extra find-spot details to objects found in the 19th century, such as the Beresford Collection Y-pieces and the Ballymoyer cheek rings. These contexts are shown in the legend on each map, Figures 5.3 to 5.8, and 5.10 to 5.17, where possible, and work in tandem with the tables available online. There is some overlap between feature and context, as few finds are found with only one defining characteristic. The regional division of artefact distributions highlights a potential techno-cultural difference between Munster and the rest of the island, although the lack of provenance means this presumption

Figure 5.2 Distribution of Irish La Tène derivative metalwork (Warner 2002a).

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Chapter 5 ‘Horses make a landscape look more beautiful’: Distribution, deposition, and landscape

Warner’s illustration of metalwork, Figure 5.2, which is based on Raftery’s catalogue of Iron Age objects (1983). It is interesting to note that tack components share the same linear pattern across the island and in a northerly pattern as metalwork as a whole, although tack is more frequently found on the north and east coastal regions, and even to some extent into Munster. Apart from bits found across Ireland, there are also three confirmed Y-piece finds in Britain — the Binchester 2c type in Durham, the decorated terminal of the Kingston Deverill 2a specimen in Wiltshire and the prong finial of a type 1b piece at Lesser Garth Caves, Wales (Alcock 1959: 26–27). There are also at least two bits found in Wales. Other fragments from across Britain, recorded in the Portable Antiquities Scheme online database, suggest they may be from Binchester-type objects. However, as the objects are in private ownership, confirmation through direct examination is basically impossible. Distribution of Bits The known provenances of the Type A bit (Figure 5.3) include the Llyn Cerrig Bach lake hoard, a peat bog at Ballymoyer in County Armagh, and within an early ecclesiastical site at Mullinacross, near Ballymagroarty, in south Donegal. Little can be derived from these findspots apart from the two Irish sites having a common denominator in both being sites which later contained some of the earliest Patrician churches; Killian of the 5th century AD at Ballymoyer and Colmcille at Mullinacross (Lewis 1837, under alphabetical entries; Deery 1948). It must also be stated that Ballymoyer may well have a much earlier ritual association, as it is the likely findspot for the presumed Iron Age stone Tandragee Idol, currently in Armagh cathedral, and the animal figures which accompanied it (Warner 2013/14).

Figure 5.3. Distribution of Type A bits.

There are more plentiful specimens of Type B (Figure 5.4) and their distribution extends across Ireland, although they seem to have some order in their distribution, following a linear pattern down the centre of Ireland, and then northwards from Lough Neagh, along the course of the River Bann. Figure 5.5 displays the solitary provenanced Type C piece, which was found in a peat bog at Gortgole, a townland in County Antrim (Buick 1903) with a natural boundary line of the River Bann on its westerly side. This townland has proved rich in Iron Age metalwork finds, with at least one cauldron found in the same peat bog (Knowles 1908). The distribution of Type D bits displayed in Figure 5.6 follows a distinct pattern of dispersal which appears to be associated with the esker ridges of the Irish midlands, which run east to west across the island. This esker route, with alternative

Figure 5.4. Distribution of Type B bits.

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Figure 5.5 Distribution of Type C bits.

Figure 5.6 Distribution of Type D bits.

Figure 5.7 Distribution of Type E bits.

Figure 5.8 Distribution of uncategorised bits.

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Chapter 5 ‘Horses make a landscape look more beautiful’: Distribution, deposition, and landscape

artery paths leading onto it, was referred to as the Slighe Mór, and is discussed in length later within this chapter.

coast of Ireland and the Midlands, as well as the Bann valley up as far as Ballymoney, Aghivey, Bushmills, and Loughan Island.

The cluster of provenanced specimens in the north Antrim and Derry area is notable, with all finds within less than 12.5 km from each other. The two specimens found in Wales, at Dolgellau and near Caerhun, in the River Conwy, are both at sites associated with metal production, as well as Roman roads and Romaninfluenced settlements (Hopewell 2013). Like the Type B, these bits are one of the more plentiful kinds. When their distribution is compared to that of the Type B, there is a more distinct pattern, suggesting some form of consolidation and organisation between the east

By the production period of Type E bits (Figure 5.7), between the last decades of the 1st century AD and into the 2nd century AD, the east and north coasts of Ireland were the focus for distribution, as is the Galway region in the west of the island. Most of the represented Type E bits in Galway cluster round the Attymon/Feerwore/Saintcleran area, within a radius of under 7 km from each other. The east coast specimens include the Drumanagh assemblage and the Newgrange fragments. Little can be gained from the distribution

Figure 5.9 Distribution of sizes of bits, indicating sizes of equids.

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Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context of the uncategorised specimens, shown in Figure 5.8. The rounded chain-type snaffles which were found at Dundrum and Drumlough near Dromore, both County Down, may be imports from Europe, or may even have been brought to Ireland as curios by any of the long series of settlers and invaders. This style of snaffle had considerable longevity as similar pieces have been found in contexts with diverse dates.

shipped in from Welsh ports, which are a short sea journey away. Smaller, possibly native breeds and types would be fitted with similar types of bits and Y-pieces, scaled to suit their sizes. The extension of equids 14 hh and over to Galway and the west of Ireland would seem to suggest a long-term association or affiliation with east coast breeders and/or metalworkers, as the presence of equestrian goods continues through the series of types.

The find spots of the bits whose mouthpiece sizes were examined in Chapter 3 were plotted onto a base map (Figure 5.9) to show what regions may have had larger animals. The cluster regions of east coast, Galway and Bann Valley indicate the use of larger horses, possibly up to 15 hh in height. The next largest animals are in the midlands of Ireland, with large pony sizes present, right across the top two-thirds of the island. Interestingly, the smallest animals are present along the Antrim/ Derry boundary of the River Bann and at Roscommon. Both areas once had native breeds or types which are now extinct or bred out, and it remains unclear if they were part of the type referred to as the Irish Hobbey (Maguire 2016). The north and east coasts may have been used as entry points for new bloodlines from other parts of the world, just as they were entrepôts for all sorts of other objects. Certainly, larger sized bits were available at the trading post of Drumanagh, at north Dublin, and it would make sense if larger, ‘luxury item’ horses from across the Roman Empire were being

Distribution of Y-pieces As the fit of the Y-piece was more fluid than that of a mouthpiece, it is not as useful as a mouthpiece to gauge the size of a horse. The Y-piece fits on the lower mandible of a horse (Maguire 2014: 86), but could be tightened further up the face, or downwards towards the nose, depending on the preference of the user. As can be noted on Figure 5.1, finds of Y-pieces do not extend as far into Munster as bits do, but they are present in limited numbers Britain. This may suggest that they were introduced during the 1st century AD by Roman cavalry conscripts, such as those stationed at Vinovia, and who would have used equipment like the Binchester 2c kehlberge hybrid, or equally, that Irish riders, and/or loriners were travelling between the islands. As the use of the objects spread across to Ireland, the Germanic style may have been adapted for Irish aesthetic preferences. This re-imagined style may

Figure 5.10 Distribution of Type 1a Y-piece.

Figure 5.11 Distribution of Type 1b Y-piece.

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Chapter 5 ‘Horses make a landscape look more beautiful’: Distribution, deposition, and landscape

Figure 5.12 Distribution of Type 1d Y-piece.

Figure 5.13 Distribution of Type 1e Y-piece.

Figure 5.14 Distribution of Type 2a Y-pieces.

Figure 5.15 Distribution of Type 2b Y-pieces.

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Figure 5.16 Distribution of Type 2c Y-piece.

Figure 5.17 Distribution of uncategorised Y-pieces.

also have been exported and used in Britain, as implied by the Kingston Deverill and Lesser Garth fragments. The Transylvanian version of the Irish Type E bit (Rustoiou 2005) may show the movement of influences outwards from Ireland, and it is possible that the Y-piece fragments in Wales and southern England were interpretations of Irish specimens too.

spot for any of the 1c types or the solitary 1f specimen held by the Hunt Museum in Limerick. There is only one cluster of 1d type Y-pieces (Figure 5.12) with a known provenance and that is the hoard of four specimens found in Ballykean Bog, near Kilbeg in Offaly. This site has produced numerous multiperiod features and artefacts, from anthropomorphic alder-wood figures like those found in bogs across Europe during the Late Bronze and Iron Ages (Stanley 2012) to actual habitation structures.3 The Ballykean specimens (Y1D:02 to 05, pls 91–93) all vary in size slightly, resembling the Germanic shape most of all, as they have short, truncated terminals perfect for a rein knot, or mecate. There are insufficient specimens of the 1e type (Figure 5.13) to formulate any opinions on.

The 1a Y-piece is perhaps the most widespread (Figure 5.10), with a similar spread of distribution as the 2a (Figure 5.14) type. There are insufficient provenance locations for the 1b variety (Figure 5.11) to say anything meaningful about regional distribution patterns, although there is a single fragment of a prong terminal, found at Lesser Garth Caves in south Wales (Hussey 1966: 30). It has been hammered almost flat, with only a slight hint at its former cast aperture, suggesting it was awaiting recycling, possibly dating between the end of the Iron Age or early medieval period. However, its presence in Wales, south of the Dolgellau and Caerhun bits, and north of the Kingston Deverill Y-piece fragment, suggests other types of Irish Y-piece may well have been present in Wales. There is no known find-

The sturdy cast frame of the Type 2a Y-piece (Figure 5.14) has resulted in successful preservation within archaeological contexts, and more finds. The decorated butt at the end of the shaft is the only component cast on separately and is the part which was found close to the river ford at Kingston Deverill, in Wiltshire. This Remains unpublished apart from this entry: http://www. excavations.ie/report/2007/Offaly/0018413/

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Chapter 5 ‘Horses make a landscape look more beautiful’: Distribution, deposition, and landscape

type seems to have been popular, and more enduring than the lightweight 2b type (Figure 5.15).

becoming the Irish Y-piece. Interestingly, the museum of Schloss Gottorf in Schleswig, in north Germany, has displays of medieval tack pieces very similar in style to the 2c, still in use into the 15th century AD, which suggests they were very much part of how north German equestrians controlled their mounts. In Ireland, however, the use of the Y-piece bosal had effectively vanished by the advent of Christianity, which may suggest the objects were viewed, by that time, as something intrusive to the island’s accepted past culture.

The unclassified specimens, shown in Figure 5.16 include the iron example from Ardnurcher, which may be a core or a test piece due its diminutive size. They are mostly from the Midlands of the island, with one piece further west, although the specimens held by the Beresford Collection in Armagh’s Robinson Library have been provenanced loosely to an unnamed ‘Danes rath’, or earthwork, in County Clare (Day and McWilliams 1990: 39). Only one specimen of the hybrid 2c type (Figure 5.17) is known at present, which is the find from Binchester, near Durham.

Hoard locations Most finds of tack across Ireland have been as single finds, with hoards (Figures 5.18 and 5.19) accounting for only 18 known sites. Nothing stands out as unusual in this, perhaps because of the small sample size, and all that can be accurately stated is that it very much conforms to Warner’s metalwork zones shown in Figure 5.2. There is a notable cluster of hoard finds in the Midlands, although no obvious regional pattern of what was placed within the hoards. Finds of a single

There is no apparent regional pattern which would suggest the pieces were confined to certain areas; in fact, quite the opposite, as there are signs of expansion and modifications across Ireland, Wales, and England. The Binchester 2c piece may represent the first phase of Germanic equestrian equipment in Britain, which presumably then spread to Ireland, where the objects underwent further modification and reinterpretation,

Figure 5.18 Breakdown of hoard distributions which include tack.

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Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Figure 5.19 Hoards and associated finds.

Y-piece and a single bit seems the most common combination. The finds mostly correspond to wetland or rough pasture areas, although nothing is known about the exact find-spots of the Limerick, Mullingar and Abbeyshrule hoards. The Saint Cleran hoard also lacks a precise find-spot, but its proximity to the Late Iron Age sites of Feerwore and Turoe (˂5km), and Farta (˂6km) would make it likely the hoard has some association with the features of the area.

Equally, it could be an heirloom, deposited out of its own time. In short, the spearhead and Y-piece may well have been found together, but be unrelated chronologically, as Ardee is built next to a large expanse of bog. The east coast promontory fort of Drumanagh produced an assemblage of both damaged and complete bits and Y-pieces. It seems likely that this was a founder’s hoard, as finds include copper ingots, broken objects, and fragments of other objects as well as the tack pieces. The Y-pieces are obviously faulty, as the alloy appears to have fragmented easily. There are significant areas of magnetic ferric response at the site, as well as burnt pits, where it is likely that metalwork was being carried out (Dowling 2014: 65–74). However, the other hoard sites are not as easily explained. The four 1d-type Y-pieces found at Ballykean Bog may be linked to votive deposition practices in sites with previous deposition activity, as the same bog has also produced so-called ‘bog idols’, dating between 1740–1531 cal. BC (Stanley 2006: 2012). Nearby Cloncreen and Ballykilleen peat bogs have also produced similar figures spanning the Late Bronze Age (Stanley 2006: 7).

The specimen from Glenbuck, County Antrim, is now lost, but was found along with a ‘brass’ pin (Raftery 1983: 60) at Lisnacannon Fort. The site itself requires some mention, as it is an unusual trivallate structure of uncertain date,4 although it would appear from the finds as having a likely Late Iron Age phase, or possibly even earlier. Such enclosures usually denote a high status, as shown by the vallate structures of Tlachtga/Hill of Ward and Tara. The Y-piece found with a spearhead in a peat bog outside Ardee (Anon RIA 1856: 194) conforms to typical wetland deposition patterns across Ireland, Britain, and Europe, and was remarkably well understood in function by one Mr Clibborn, the thencurator of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy (Anon RIA 1856: 194). No reason can be found to substantiate Raftery’s doubts (1983:54) about the authenticity of the find spot or accompanying spearhead, unless his concerns were due to the spearhead being possibly earlier than the Y-piece. Metallurgical analysis could help to ascertain if such objects were being made in the style of older weapons, but using new metalwork technologies, which may suggest a link to the Y-piece.

The Attymon, County Galway, hoard of two exquisitely worked bits and two Type 2a Y-pieces was found in a peat bog near the 19th century railway station (Raftery 1983: 71). The Aughrim hoard was also found in peat bog at a considerable depth. Other bog finds include the bits and Y-pieces found in Ballinacostello, County Mayo, at a depth of about 4.2 m, yet there is more going on with that site than just peat bog. Personal observation while field-walking this often-ignored site noted a large circular, damaged mound near the river ford, and that areas of bog are divided by the fast-moving Gweestion

SMRNI online, available at http://appsc.doeni.gov.uk/ambit/docs/ ANT/ANT_026/ANT_026_013/Public/SM7-ANT-026-013.pdf

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Chapter 5 ‘Horses make a landscape look more beautiful’: Distribution, deposition, and landscape

River. As for the selection of bit fragments drawn in a sketchbook in the National Library of Ireland (MS 4458), Haworth stated his certainty that these came from Ballymoyer Bog and had been found by the Synott family of Synott House (Haworth 1969: 43).

1983: 60–61). It is likely, by association, that the bell and metal hoops were part of a bridle and rein assemblage. Little in the way of direct archaeology had been found in Kishawanny townland prior to 2011, when a series of commercial excavations carried out by Irish Archaeological Consultants revealed two burnt mounds and two charcoal production kilns.6

The iron Y-piece found at Ardnurcher, County Westmeath, was found with another Y-piece and some iron axe-heads which Scott (1991: 81) considered anomalous in comparison to other examples of Irish ironwork. Two of the axes (NMI 1935:407 and 408), along with another of similar construction from Castlereban North, County Kildare (Raftery 1983: 219) show microstructures with multiple laminae, and high concentrations of arsenic and phosphorus (Scott 1991: 81–86). These elevated levels arise from surface enrichment during forging and welding, as iron was folded back on itself multiple times. It is also seen on the chariot tyres and sword blades from Llyn Cerrig Bach, Anglesey (Scott 1991:38). The iron Y-piece itself remains unexamined due to severe corrosion and is in a very fragile state.

Find clusters Some patterns appear to be present within the distribution of tack across Ireland. One is the presence of regional clusters, and the other landscape commonalities. It was noted from the distribution maps that there was a linear pattern, both northsouth, and east-west across the centre of the island. As the vast majority of finds pre-date modern motorway developments, a hypothesis was developed that the tack may have been found along the ancient roads, or sligheann. The coordinates of the known tack finds were placed within a kernel density model, to assess if the clusters were linked to the points which are thought by Celtic Studies scholars to represent the ancient roads (O’Lochlainn 1940). The intensity of find concentrations within these clusters is shown in Figure 5.20.

Other dry-land finds include the Tara/Skryn finds. Wilde (1861: 605) first suggested that these tack items were connected to an ancient battlefield, as Skryn is one of the purported sites of the Battle of Gabhra (MacKillop 1998: 78) as well as Túathal Techtmar’s decisive battle of Achall, which cemented his control of the region (O’Rahilly 1946: 154). The landscape is a river valley, rich in archaeological sites such as a ringfort, enclosures, and barrows,5 all of which may date between the Iron Age or Early Medieval transition period. The Lismullan wooden ‘temple’ (Prendergast 2013: 151–57) is under 2 km away. Still within the environs of ‘Royal Meath’ is the tack hoard found at Clongill, County Meath, which was found during ploughing. O’Sullivan’s survey of the townland of Clongill (1955: 19) lists a holy well at the site of an ancient early church, and a ‘tomb’ which is not elaborated on.

This image was made using ArcGis 3.10 software, applying a kernel density model as a method of artefact distribution analysis, which is an effective way to view the distribution of a variable, reflecting the intensity of use of landscapes for deposition or loss, complementing basic distribution maps. This technique was used by Baxter (2003: 35) to assess regional patterns in Middle Bronze Age drinking vessels and bowls, where he factored in bowl diameters and neck heights to the model and discovered there were in fact two different types of bowl with different distribution phases. The model chosen here is not a complex one, nor as enviable as Brigand and Weller’s (2018) multi-levelled analysis of salt exploitation, settlements and axe finds. Its purpose is purely to assess the likelihood if the sligheann routes and the tack finds could be related to each other.

There are no details of the exact location of the river depositions found in the townland of Streamstown apart from having been found on a riverbank. Likewise, the Cormongan/Durk Island hoard of bit and Y-piece, was found on the rocky shore (Raftery 1983: 71). It is possible they were washed up onto on the shore by the discharge of the River Shannon into Lough Allen, or possibly from another island. Lough Allen as a whole has an extensive history of prehistoric metalwork and human habitation (de V. Kane 1886; Condit and Gibbon 1989).

This method has been used successfully in landscape studies to analyse artefact distribution (Chapman 2006: 100; figs. 1 and 18). This spatial analysis model was chosen as, chronologically, most of the tack components are synchronous, and as such, a timelapse density cannot yet be assessed with accuracy. Also, the provenances are seldom expressed as more than a named townland, rather than a set of precise co-ordinates. Kernel density analysis applies a twodimensional probability buffer around the point representing the find-spot, acknowledging the imprecision of provenance. The utilisation of a Nearest

The Kishawanny hoard is of considerable importance as it includes a small Roman-style harness bell (Raftery ME032-032, ME032-037, ME032-038 and ME032-050 respectively, on the State Monuments listings of Republic of Ireland.

http://www.excavations.ie/report/2011/Kildare/0022473/ Accessed 21st February 2020.

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Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Figure 5.20 Bits and Y-pieces within GIS kernel density ‘hotspot’ model.

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Chapter 5 ‘Horses make a landscape look more beautiful’: Distribution, deposition, and landscape

Neighbour model would be unlikely to provide better detail, as it provides a number/statistic which tells if the distribution is clustered, but is easily criticised in archaeology as we rarely, if ever, have all points.

Roman material across Ireland (Figure 5.21) with the focus on coasts, presumably as entry points for trade with Britain and Europe, before being traded and transported across the island, possibly along with imported livestock. As the tack pieces are synchronous with the Roman occupation of Britain, it is useful to compare the distribution of Romano-British objects to that of Irish bits and Y-pieces. The Midlands of Ireland show a strong cluster trend, which may suggest the movement of goods or raw materials from the east coast across the island. The Slighe Chulann (Figure 5.22) would appear to be the one route which has no association with tack finds, even though tack finds extend much further both south and west than any currently known Roman artefacts.

The values of density are in km2. This model calculates the density, or intensity, of artefact distribution by using point features around each output raster cell. The kernel referred to is a curved surface ‘buffer’, fitted over each point. The surface value is maximised at the exact location of the point, and decreases the further the distance from the point, reaching zero at the search radius distance from that point (Silverman 1986: 76). The algorithm formula used by ArcGIS to determine the search radius, is as follows7

There is little in the way of Roman/Romano-British finds in Galway and Sligo, but there is a considerable extension of equestrian equipment there, seemingly coming from the east coast, across what Early Medieval annals refer to as the Slighe Mór (O’Brien and Bergh 2016: 199–200). Similarly, the finds along the Bann follow another route of unknown date, the Slighe Midluachra (Lawlor 1938). Where Britain had defined Roman roads, the Irish sligheann are much more fluid, with alternative feeder paths, perhaps because they followed natural drained features such as eskers which would remain marginally more passable in winter (O’Brien and Bergh 2016).

SD is the standard distance, Dm is the median distance, n is the number of points if no population field is used, or if a population field is supplied, and n is the sum of the population field values (Pro ArcGIS.com). The counties with the most density of finds in Antrim and Derry are the highest in Ireland, following the course of the Bann, down to Armagh. The number of objects found within the Camus Ford/Loughan Island area, near Coleraine, contributes greatly to this ‘hotspot’. It is unlikely that this entire result is derived from early 20th century river dredging alone, after consulting the list of dredging finds held within the archives of the Northern Ireland Historic Environment Division. Instead, the linear pattern appears to trace both the ancient roads of the Slighe Mór and Slighe Midluachra, north and west, with intensity of finds racked up in the Upper Bann, and Drumanagh, both of which had locations which would make sea trade with Britain relatively easy.

Dating is uncertain on these routes, with Halpin and Newman (2006, 392) suggesting the major routes may have prehistoric origins, due to multiple finds of Bronze Age material along their routes. This acknowledgement of antiquity is increasingly accepted, and it would not be unlikely to find the routes becoming more frequently used, and as such, more structured by the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, a period when Rome was consolidating its military power and trade by road building across conquered Britain. Accessible patrol/communication routes may well have been aspirational to the elite riders of Ireland. According to the Annals of the Four Masters, in the year AD 123

The secondary region of finds is the east coast of Ireland, which is unsurprising when considering the entrepôt of Drumanagh, where a quantity of RomanoBritish artefacts has been found (Cahill-Wilson 2014). Because of the linear pattern shown in the distribution maps, this model calculates the density of deposition in the neighbourhood of the ancient roads (which in themselves were based on natural features such as eskers), as a variable to examine any possible relationship between road and tack.

on the night of Conn’s birth were discovered five principal roads to Teamhair (Tara), which never were observed till then; these are their names — Slighe Asail, Slighe Midluachra, Slighe Cualainn, Slighe Mór and Slighe Dala. Slighe Mór is that called Eiscar Riata, the division line of Ireland into two parts between Conn and Eoghan Mor (AFM O’Donovan translation 1856: 103–04).

Most of the kernel model in Figure 5.20 suggests that Irish tack follows a similar distribution pattern of

O’Donovan explains within his translation’s footnotes (1856: 103–04) that the nuances of the story in Irish suggests that the roads were completed on Conn’s birth, most likely by his father, Feildhlimidh the

Available at http://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/tool-reference/ spatial-analyst/how-kernel-density-works.htm last accessed 27th May 2021.

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Figure 5.21 Distribution of Irish tack compared to Roman finds.

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Figure 5.22 Kernal density ‘hotspot’ model compared to projected routes of the ancient tracks, or sligheann.

Lawgiver, and not the result of supernatural activities. The reason for the division of the island by the Slighe Mór was the hostility between Eoghan Mór, the King of Munster and the descendants of Tectmhar. The division did not endure peacefully and resulted in a battle in which Eoghan, and his Iberian ally were killed. O’Donovan considered the site of the hostilities as being modern Moleany, near Tullamore,8 in County Offaly.

It is interesting to note how their burial places are described as small hillocks (AFM O’Donovan 104r), or raised areas in the landscape, what could be described as a mound or earthwork. The Annals of the Four Masters were compiled in the 17th century AD from fragments of much earlier texts, some dating to the 6th century AD. They have uncertain chronologies (Johnston 2017) which have been highlighted by scholars such as O’Donovan throughout the first volume of his translations of the text, lest we

https://www.offalyhistory.com/reading-resources/archaeology/ ordnance-survey-letters-for-offaly-in-1838/the-battle-of-moylena

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Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context fall into the same problems of literal acceptance, as past archaeologists did with the Ulster Cycle. However, Celtic scholars such as Cunningham (2010) and Johnston (2016) agree that the texts contain wisps of event memory and traditions of late prehistoric, and the earliest phases of early medieval, origins, because keeping a record of bloodlines mattered to the people. This allows exploration of the hypothesis that semiformal routes existed before the advent of Christianity and the common use of wheeled vehicles; after all, the Slighe Mór’s alternative name is the Eiscir Riata, the riders’ ridge (O’Lochlainn 1940:471). The nodal points were taken from O’Lochlainn’s seminal work (1940: 467–73) on the sligheann. These nodes were then plotted and joined over the kernel density model of Y-pieces and bits, showing what appears to be a correlation between road and deposition (Figure 5.22).

territories, then deaths, battles and skirmishes may well account for some of the find-spots along these lines; Equally, some finds may represent founders’ hoards, awaiting melting and re-casting. The cluster of artefacts along the Lower Bann could very well represent losses from river transport of scrap metal to and from workshops in north Antrim and Derry. Certainly, this may well be the case considering finds of swords listed in Eogan (1965) for the area. Equally, some of the find-spots could possibly, be related to victory displays in the manner of tack in the respective German and Danish wetlands of Thorsberg and Vimose. If techniques of equestrian warfare or reconnaissance were being adopted from diverse European cavalry units in the pay of Rome, it is likely ideas came as part of the package too. These would not have been slavishly copied, but modified, just as the equestrian equipment was interpreted to blend with the circumstances and identities of those in power.

It must also be noted that all models, no matter how precise the detail of find-spot, function purely to project possibilities onto deterministic data rather than offer definite solutions. The quantifiable information gleaned from this series of models and distribution maps are that:

Landscape features and commonalities Previous research erred in the analysis of depositions by considering them all to be ritual wetland depositions (Maguire 2014: 83). Becker (2011: 455), too, offered a similar simplified model of wetland deposition. The utilisation of GIS has shown a much more complex set of circumstances, which is now examined here. While there is representation from a diverse set of natural features, as shown in Figure 5.23, there is a fairly equal divide between two landscapes — commonage or rough grazing, and peat bog.

• Tack finds are more prevalent along the north and east coasts of Ireland. The northern route follows the Bann, and the Slighe Midluachra. • The secondary clusters within the coastal hinterlands, and the distribution extending from them, may suggest a route across the island, either for trade or territorial associations, which was not used as frequently for the spread of Roman-influenced goods.

Peat covers over 16 % of the land mass of Ireland,9 be it fen, raised or blanket bog, and as such, have been part of the natural environment for more than 10,000 years. Climatic changes during the early Holocene period

It is likely that there is no single reason why tack was found in particular landscapes, and it is unlikely that all the find-spots are necessarily ritual-related. They may equally be the result of loss, death, manufacture, or exchange. If these routes were means to patrol

Bord na Mona Factsheet 1, available at http://www.heartland.ie/ articles/peatlands-ireland or from Bord na Mona offices. Accessed 11 May 2021.

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Figure 5.23 Breakdown of landscape features to tack find spots.

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Chapter 5 ‘Horses make a landscape look more beautiful’: Distribution, deposition, and landscape

Figure 5.24 Breakdown of bits (top) and Y-piece finds (bottom).

resulted in increased amounts of vegetation growing around the edge of lakes created by glacial meltwaters, such as those in the Irish Midlands (Hammond 1981: 7–9). The ongoing accumulation of decaying vegetation created fenland peat deposits, which built up into the dome of raised bogs (Pilcher and Hall 2001: 55). Blanket bogs, which are found on hills and uplands formed between 7000 and 4000 years, and are often associated with climate deterioration, as much as tree-clearances by Neolithic farmers (Hammond 1981: 7–12). The landscape of the Céide fields, in Mayo, is a good example of this kind of landscape (Caulfield et al. 1998: 637–38).

equivalents. British tack appears in different kinds of burials, such as cremations, inhumations and complete chariot burials, none of which have parallels in tack finds of Iron Age Ireland. While the dry land hoards of Britain appear to share a loose trend with Ireland’s commonage finds, there is scant detail as to what kind of dry land contexts the British examples are, which would be a productive area for comparison. Bogs do not appear to feature heavily in Britain, which is very different from Irish deposition sites. Figures 5.25 and 5.26 show that rough grazing commonage represent over 25% of combined tack finds in Ireland. These were often found to be in artificial features such as earthworks and defensive structures, as shown in Figures 5.3 to 5.8 and 5.10 to 5.17, although sometimes are found when ploughing in areas where there are no recorded archaeological sites. Theoretically, this is not dissimilar to British tack finds, where agricultural land and hillforts are the two most regular kinds of landscape features associated with provenanced finds.10

Peatland has also been subjected to drainage schemes during the post-medieval period, and the landscape we see today may not always be how it was in prehistory before anthropogenic modifications. As an example, the Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) described that, pre-1778, the peat bog of Ballymoyer in Armagh, where several bit fragments were found, was mostly heath and scrubland. Today, because of drainage and improvements from the Victorian period onwards, the land is pasture rather than scrubland.

For many Irish find-spots, however, two or more categories of topography sometimes apply. For example, a precise find-spot of an earthwork may also be contained within a rough grazing meadow, and only metres from a river ford, which is mentioned in folklore as being a battlefield, so there is a certain amount of overlapping categories.

The significant representation of equestrian equipment deposited in peat bogs shown in Figure 5.24 is only one side of the story. While it is well known that, throughout Europe, metal objects such as weapons, cauldrons and tack were placed deliberately in bog land throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages (Bradley 1990), there is a wider, and largely unexamined, set of natural and artificial features where objects have been found. Gosden and Garrow’s results from the Celtic Art Database (2010) indicated patterns of landscape depositions in Britain, illustrating that there are major differences between the provenances of British tack finds and their Irish

10  From the Celtic Art Database, 2010, Accessed 10 May 2021. http:// www.britishmuseum.org/research/research_projects/complete_ projects/technologies_of_enchantment/the_celtic_art_database. aspx

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Figure 5.25 Percentages of provenanced Y-pieces.

Figure 5.26 Percentages of provenanced bits.

Most ford-related finds pertain to Camus Ford, which has yielded large amounts of metal objects from prehistory through to the early phases of Christianity and Viking presence. There appears to be a trend towards equestrian material being found there, although this needs a full analytical comparison with weapons and other objects. The exquisitely worked Bann Disc (Jope and Wilson 1957) was also found when dredging this part of the river. This disc may possibly be part of a bridle assemblage, as it compares closely to similar decorative discs on the bridles discovered at Baekkedal, Denmark (Sarauw 2016).

Water depositions: rivers and lakes Depositions in natural ‘clean’ water features such as lakes, rivers and their fords account for over 21% of tack finds, while established bogs account for just over 22% of bits and Y-pieces. Some of the lake depositions — Lough Inchiquin in County Clare, Cormongan in County Leitrim and the County Cork lakeshore of Tracton Abbey — could be suspected as having ornated from further up the courses of the rivers feeding into the lakes. Only Lough Beg, in County Antrim, can be considered as having originated where it was found, as the Bann leaves the lake at the shallow wetland surrounding the lough. Lough Beg shares a long association with equine myths and pseudo-histories with nearby Lough Neagh, with both of their foundation myths linked to Eochaidh, the patriarch of the Irish pantheon of gods, whose very name means stallion or male horse (O’Rahilly 1946: 291). Local myths of Eochaidh submerging his divine horses into the lake (O’Rahilly 1946: 291, note 4) are akin to those associated with Lagore, County Meath, which relates the ritual drowning of horses (Ní Chathain 1991).

Dry-land depositions: commonage Uplands are included in the overall category of commonage, with sites such Headfort in Kerry, on a slope covered in rough grasses and heather which seems to be otherwise void of any recorded archaeological features. The Tulsk example was found in the uplands of the Crúachan Aí, a landscape of forts, mounds and ritual features suggesting an important cult or ‘royal’ 72

Chapter 5 ‘Horses make a landscape look more beautiful’: Distribution, deposition, and landscape

site. Tulsk itself contains numerous mounds, the most important being the multi-period site of Carnfree, which has been used from the Bronze Age to the Early Medieval period when it became an inauguration site (Herity 1991).

in the 2nd century AD war was waged between the rulers of Tara and Munster, being on the boundary of the Slighe Mór (Mountain 1997: 478). The valley between the hills of Tara and Skryn in Meath has been believed to be the site of the battle of Gabhra, and Achall, which Wilde (1861: 605) felt was of relevance to the Y-piece and bit hoard found there. McKillop (1998: 78) has ventured to suggest the possibility of an actual hostile engagement at the site, dating to the 2nd or 3rd centuries AD, of which the earlier date option would be close enough to the purported battle of Achall (O’Rahilly 1946: 154, note 2; 155 note 4). Navan Fort, known in the Ulster Cycle as Emain Macha, was the traditional home of the Fianna, an elite band of warriors; this site has produced several tack pieces, while Camus Ford/Loughan Island also has a long and protracted history of traditional associations of battles and raids (Hamilton 1913; Warner 1973).

Linking strongly with the high percentage of finds in rough grazing land, earthwork structures rank as the most popular feature associated with equestrian equipment. Several tack pieces have been found within enclosures and circular raised mounds or ‘forts’. Ballina Costello, in Mayo, is a combination of ford and circular ditched earthwork, while the Ummeracam bit was found within the extensive ditch structures of the Dorsey. The Dorsey may be a defensive structure due to its palisade and ditch structures, which have been dated dendrochronologically to the 1st century BC (Hurl et al. 2002: 33 note 4.11). This is the age of the timber used, not necessarily the exact age of the construction, which could potentially be slightly later. The structure has been considered by Tempest (1930: 189) and Hurl et al. (2002: 10) to be on a slip-road of the Slighe Midluachra, which ran southwards from Navan Fort.

Re-use of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age sites The phenomenon of re-use of Neolithic sites during the late prehistoric period (Armit 2007; Hutton 2011) has been observed across Britain, and Ireland appears no different in that pattern. A good Irish example of this is the Kiltierney complex in Fermanagh (Foley 1988), which is a cluster of Iron Age graves contained within a Neolithic chambered cairn, demonstrating reappropriation of ancient monuments during late antiquity. The most obvious re-used Neolithic site for equestrian material is Newgrange, with its finds of Romano-British jewellery horse teeth and bone, and broken fragments of a Type E bit (Carson and O’Kelly 1977; Gibbon and Gibbon 2016). However, lesser-known sites also feature as deposition sites, such as Knockmany court cairn, in Tyrone, and Diarmid and Grainne’s Grave cairn in Drumanone, Roscommon. Knockmany especially has a secondary folklore tradition of being the burial place of Bainne, wife of the 1st century AD pseudo hero Túathal Techtmar’s (Coffey 1898: 93). Coffey suggested that the original placement of the stones had been altered at some stage in prehistory (1898: 101–03) and this is still considered likely within the most recent assessment of the site (Halpin and Newman, 2006).

Ballykilleen Fort, overlooking the river at Edenderry, County Offaly, is an unexcavated raised mound. The impressively large Lisnacannon Fort, in County Antrim, is equally unexamined but of obvious high status as it is recorded as having three concentric ditches, similar to cult sites such as Rathcroghan and Tlachtga (Waddell 2011). Other examples of earthworks which have contained tack finds include the bulk of the Galway finds which cluster around the Feerwore/Turoe region. Many other smaller enclosures and mounds are found within the provenanced townlands. ‘Heroic’ and folkloric sites The non-physical attribute of findspots having strong folklore traditions, or associations with battles detailed in the stories recorded during the early medieval period is shown in Figure 5.23. As noted in Chapter 2, the Ulster Cycle legends, and the pseudo-histories of the Annals of the Four Masters may have been recorded by early medieval clerics, but they contain grains of memory from much older oral folklore traditions. It is therefore likely that something happened to start the stories.

The mound of Carnfree in Tulsk, County Roscommon, also shows re-use in the later prehistoric period, as an inauguration site, despite having its origins in the earlier phases of the Bronze Age (Herity 1991). Leap Castle, in County Offaly, would also appear to be a re-used site. The current owner of the 15th century tower house suggests that it was built over a cairn or hengiform structure, which was present in the grounds during the medieval period (Sean Ryan, estate owner, pers. comm. 2014.).

Archaeologists have sought the material evidence of the core of truth which may lie within the oral traditions (Mallory 2016). Ardnurcher/Kilbeg in Westmeath is steeped in traditional association as the site of a battle where the High King Conor MacNessa was struck, and semi-paralysed, by a missile made of the lime-hardened brain of a past enemy (Meyer 1906: 18–21). It is also under 10 km from the alleged site of Moy Leana, where 73

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context A few townlands listed as provenances contain standing stones, although there is scant detail about these. It is very possible that some of these stones may be remnants of cairns and tumuli which were re-used during the Late Iron Age. The Ardnurcher standing stone, WM031-085,11 is supposedly commemorative of the battle mentioned earlier,12 while the now-lost tack pieces found in Mullingar, in Westmeath, could be associated with the townlands containing the earthworks and standing stones listed on the Westmeath NMR. Mullingar is also connected to the mythology of Túathal Techtmar, as one of the sites prioritised for annexation on his return to Ireland and was integral to the founding of Midhe/Meath (Callary 1955: 8). The bridges where tack pieces have been found may be related to traditional boundaries or could possibly be connected to the Romanised tradition of offerings at bridges, which was adopted from La Tène practices (Bradley 1990:181 and 184). Hundreds of metal objects — large, small, valuable, and worthless, have been found at Romanbuilt bridges across Britain and Europe (Kapesser 2012; Rhodes 1991). Considering the other selective aspects of Romanisation appearing in Ireland through the first two centuries AD, using bridges as deposition points may very well be part of a cultural package which some adopted, while others chose firmly not to.

Abbey in Cork, and Ballymoyer in Armagh (Haworth 1969: 43–44). Ballymoyer may have also been where a group of carved stone animal figures were found, which are believed to date to the Iron Age and are now housed in Armagh Cathedral (Warner 2013/14). Early Christianity chose its church sites carefully, absorbing ancient places of worship such as stone circles, holy wells, and commemorative sites and meeting places (Grinsell 1986). Pope Gregory I instructed Abbott Mellitus in AD 601 to build on pagan sacral sites as Seeing that their places of worship are not destroyed, the people will banish error from their hearts and come to places familiar and dear to them in acknowledgement and worship of the true God.13 While some have argued that the Irish version of Christianity differed from Gregory’s conversion methods (Flechner 2016: 50), there is sufficient evidence that many natural features, once sacred in pagan Ireland maintained their sanctity, but under the new ‘management’ of Christian saints (Ray 2014: 79–85). This change may have been interpreted in such a loose manner, the non-elite individual may have perceived little difference as to who they were worshipping, beseeching or paying tribute to, as Nicholls (1981:32) wryly commented that formal Christianity was a ‘slight penetration of Christian culture into Irish life’. The actual sites, perhaps, were the important aspect of where you negotiated with the supernatural, regardless of how you dressed up the administration.

Sites replaced by Early Medieval ecclesiastical installations One of the most intriguing landscape characteristics associated with tack finds has been that of later ecclesiastical sites occupying whatever the original deposition site was. This is no small representation, with just over 21% of all tack finds discovered at sites which were early ecclesiastical centres.

All roads lead to Rome: tracks, memorials and roadside gods The few tack finds in Wales and Britain must be mentioned, as their find-spots tell of trade, communication and movement of horse-riders. Two Type D bits have been found in the Conwy River in Denbighshire, Wales, one during estuary dredging in 1842 (Royal Museum of Ontario accession entry), near the copper mines of Castell Tremlydd and the Roman fort of Canovium. The numerous Roman military installations along the Lower Conwy resulted in the Sarn Elen road that runs parallel with the river towards Dolgellau, the find-spot of the other Type D bit. This is also an area where there is evidence of Iron Age forts (Hopewell 2013). The Sarn Elen is a route with considerable folkloric traditions not unlike the Irish sligheann, mentioned as an otherworldly road in the Welsh saga of the Mabinogi (Doan 1987: 47–48), texts which are not unlike the Ulster Cycle in Ireland, as they

The cannon of a Type A bit was found in a field beside the ancient ruins of Mullinmore monastery, in Ballymagroarty, County Donegal in 1845, still attached for use as a clapper inside the Drumholm Bell (Deery 1948). The site is an early, and important one, founded by Colmcille in the 6th century AD (Morris 1931). Similarly, tack has been found within the grounds of the littleknown 5th century AD abbey at Emlagh, Roscommon, near Castlerea and Tulsk. Founded by St Broccaidh, who was recorded as being a nephew of St Patrick himself, he is also associated with Ballina Costello in Mayo (Ó Riain 2011:126–27), where two batches of equestrian material were found. It is perhaps worth noting that one of the possible translations of Emlagh derives from Imleacheach: the marsh of the horses. Other ecclesiastical sites in the proximity of tack find-spots include Tracton 11  From Westmeath’s listing of recorded monuments, Office of Public Works, Ireland. 12  From http://www.libraryireland.com/IrishPlaceNames/ Ardnurcher Accessed 15 August 2019.

Gregory I, Letter to Abbot Mellitus, Epistola 76, PL 77: 1215-1216, available at https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/greg1mellitus.txt Accessed 22 August 2018.

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Chapter 5 ‘Horses make a landscape look more beautiful’: Distribution, deposition, and landscape were recorded in the 12th and 13th centuries AD. Like the Irish texts, these stories may also reflect literary contexts from the edge of prehistory amidst many overlays of myth and tradition. The reality of the Sarn Elen is somewhat more prosaic and well documented, having been constructed during the first wave of the Roman invasion of Wales in the mid-1st century AD to connect the Roman forts at the mouth of the Conwy River with southern Romano-British sites at Dolgellau (Hopewell 2005: 2013).

the sligheann, although two problems exist with this; one being the uncertainty of how old the routes actually are, and how many off-shoots from them existed. However, the density of the clusters at traditional nodes on the routes, such as Galway, Midlands and Tara hinterland, Armagh, Camus/Loughan Island, indicate that firming up the potential route ways requires considerably more examination in future. This project would require significant input from Celtic Studies and linguistics experts, as much as archaeological landscape specialisation, as much rests on identifying the place names mentioned in O’Lochlainn (1940).

The Type 2c Y-piece/kehlberge found at Binchester was found along Hadrian’s Wall, an established military barrier and route from the early 2nd century AD, which connected a series of garrisons of the late 1st century AD (Manning et al. 1997). The Irish Type 2a Y-piece, Y2A:20, pl. 107, was found in Kingston Deverill, Wiltshire, on the crossroads of two Roman roads at a ford; one is the ancient lead road from Portchester, the other road started from Poole (Hoare 1975). A hoard of RomanoBritish items, including patera and wine strainers, like those found at Moylarg, Rathlin and Bohermeen, were found there in 2005.14 The hammered-out fragment of a 1b terminal found outside Lesser Garth Caves appears to be more related to scrap metals awaiting smelting down than any ritual activity or placement (Alcock 1959), as it was found with a selection of damaged and broken objects from various dates of late prehistory into the early historic period.

There are insufficient Type A bits to formulate any opinion as to whether they moved from Ireland to Wales or vice versa, but the wide-spread distribution of the early Type B bits seem to suggest an introduction of sorts, where widespread mobility was a priority. This appears to develop into more specific area patterns, as shown by the Type D and E bits, perhaps indicating the evolution of ancient trackways into recognisable routes along ridges. The distribution patterns indicate the linear pattern becoming more stable and defined than those of the Type B, suggesting frequency of use on an established riding path. In itself, this would appear to indicate a later chronology for the Type D and E, although the time lapse may be short in archaeological terms. It is perhaps telling that the Irish-type Y-piece is present in Wales and Wiltshire, in southwestern regions to Irish-type bits found in Britain. It is also relevant to note the spread of the Y-piece much further west across Ireland than any other Roman-influenced artefact.

Depositions of tack (and arguably, depositions as a whole) are more complex than solely ritual placement in peat bogs, although many specimens do conform to this phenomenon. The connection to earthworks and ditch structures on grazing land, along with reuse of Neolithic and Bronze Age sites, and also the ecclesiastical re-use of pagan sites indicates a split in methods of disposal of tack. Deposition within water features such as peat bogs, rivers and lakes remained an option, while placement within artificial nodal points on the landscape, including ‘forts’, ditches or defensive structures appears to have been equally appropriate.

With the regular use of ancient trackways by a mounted elite who identified with some aspects of Roman Britain, it is very likely that non-insular beliefs and superstitions gradually integrated into common practice. The wooden alder figures of Corlea, Kilbeg and Ralaghan (Stanley 2006; 2012) found on toghers and bog trackways have parallels across Europe, with dates ranging from the Bronze Age through to the Late Iron Age. Their association with trackways would have merged easily with new, Roman deities of roads and boundaries. The Roman practice of venerating the Lares Compitales (spirit protectors of crossroads) and Lares Viales (spirit protectors of roads), reflected a society which depended on travel and transport for wealth and expansion. The lares of the roads in particular had cult status in Roman Iberia, where they were merged with local beliefs (Filgueiras 1984; Sopena 2005:353), and Binchester, in Durham, housed a cavalry unit of Vettonians, from northern Iberia (Tomlin 2014). The expansion of Rome created a melting pot of religions, technologies, and ideas from across the Empire. Even in Ireland, a small lar figure was found in the River Boyne, near Navan in Meath (O’Byrne 2013), an area where tack deposits have also been found along the

This division may represent two traditions. Ireland shares a long tradition of wetland deposition with Bronze Age Europe, while the Roman Empire shifted focus slightly to include bridge and road depositions, the arteries which brought trading power to the heart of the empire. The shared practice with Roman Britain of re-use of ancient sites, used for legitimisation of rulership by association with past elites (Armit 2007: 146) is also notable. The clusters of sites, analysed by the ArcGIS kernel density model suggest a connection with the routes of 14  Full details of these finds available on http://makinghistory.sal. org.uk/page.php?cat=4&sub=3. Viewed 27th May 2021.

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Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context places for travellers. We should perhaps consider that ancient peoples were equally as complex in what they memorialised, and there is no absolute right answer as to what was created and why.

river. Cosmologies migrate with population movement (Linduff 1979: 817–20), and religions from across the Roman Empire transplanted and mutated successfully because they shared commonalities with foundation beliefs right across Europe and slipped into existing belief systems easily. This would be akin to the method used by Christianity at a later date to take over pagan sacred spaces.

As pagan Ireland segued into the beginnings of Christianity, it is interesting to note how many of these sites, in the proximity of where tack has been found, became associated with early ecclesiastical settlements. We know that Christianity absorbed pagan sites; the number of monasteries and ecclesiastical sites along the medieval interpretation of the sligheann is well attested (O’Brien and Bergh 2016; O’Lochlainn 1940). It is hard not to see these smaller sites of forgotten use as being part of a melting pot of cultures and ideologies, with beliefs from the Roman Empire existing side by side with those who adhered to traditional deposition practices of consigning martial equipment into wetlands and bogs, just as their ancestors had done many centuries before.

The earthworks and defensive structures associated with artefact deposition are along the routes, beside fords and rivers, and it must be considered if they served the purpose as the small roadside shrines which one finds across routes in Ireland today (McConville and McQuillan 2005). Those little shrines of clustered flowers, crosses and icons have no single meaning. They can represent half-remembered sacred places, uncertain if their roots are in folklore, formal religion or nouveau paganism. Others mark where people died en route, and some are simply there as resting

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Under the influence: Looking for the regional and cultural origins of Late Iron Age Irish tack Finding a context The Romanised decoration styles on the Type E bits, which had also been noted by both Jope (1950; 1955) and then Warner (2013), alongside well-dated findspots such as Drumanagh, helps place Irish tack within the first two centuries AD. This means we at least know roughly when to look for comparison with European and British analogues, although anachronistic decorations also exist, and must be taken into consideration. Archaeological context can be defined as the temporal and/or spatial setting of an artefact, feature or culture. To understand where the impetus for Irish Late Iron Age tack came from, we must consider a temporal context horizon with Britain and Europe, but with a difference. Irish equestrianism is both later and different than any other part of Western Europe, making it necessary to offer a regional overview of non-insular tack, specifically that of northern Germany, southern Scandinavia, the Netherlands and England, due to the common denominator of Roman auxiliaries moving through Europe. Each overview includes a summarised comparison to Late Iron Age Irish material, identifying where there are possible connections, or equally where it can be established that the equestrian traditions are unrelated.

Figure 6.1 Detail by author of horse head in bridle, Sanctuary of Apollo, Cyprus. British Museum accession number 1910,0620.6. Not to scale.

The domestication of the horse and its subsequent use as a means of transport has a longer history in mainland Europe, with riding and driving having occurred first in Eurasia, spreading westerly as the Early Bronze Age progressed (Kuz’mina 1994). Early bridle assemblages fitted in very different ways than modern bridles, as illustrated by Cypriot figurines from the 6th and 7th centuries BC, such as the example from the Sanctuary of Apollo, Cyprus, shows (British Museum accession number 1910,0620.6) in Figure 6.1. Few of these early organic bridles have survived, although there are a few exceptions, such as the remarkably well-preserved pair of bridles from Late Bronze Age Denmark (Sarauw 2016, see Figure 6.2) which have metal cheek pieces and woven straw mouthpieces.

Figure 6.2 Detail of Baekkedal bridle, photograph by kind permission of Dr Torben Sarauw and Nordjyske Museer.

211; 242–47; Mozsolics 1953; Teržan 2014: 268–69). This continuity of bit styles indicates the gradual westerly dispersal of equestrianism, with little change in types of bits used. Similar antler and bone cheek pieces were found at Flag Fen, Norfolk (Britain and Overton 2013: 140–41), indicating that the horse was domesticated for use during the Late Bronze Age in Britain. It cannot be discounted that antler and bone bridle components pertain more to agricultural or recreational use, being more readily available materials than metal, which was likely the material of choice for high status individuals.

Antler and ivory cheek piece specimens from Alaca Höyük, Anatolia, from the 2nd millennium BC (Foltiny 1967: 20; Güneri 2016: 155) closely resemble the styles of iron examples found in burials at Budinjak, Croatia, and Kapitaliskja njiva, which range in dates from the 10th to early 8th centuries BC (Metzer-Nebelsick 2002: 77

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context The similarity of the Flag Fen cheek pieces to those of the Levant and Mediterranean represent perhaps the final phase of unmodified Eurasian and eastern Mediterranean equestrian influences.

This chapter cannot, and does not, yet attempt to replace or amend the current British classification systems yet, although it acknowledges that they require standardisation and simplification based on equestrian know-how. However, British tack generally has a solid chronology, which offers a starting point for comparisons between Britain and Ireland. The major British and Welsh tack collections of Stanwick, Polden Hill, Hagbourne Hill, Ringstead, Seven Sisters and Llyn Cerrig Bach all appear to date between the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, within the period of Roman occupation.

A degree of stylistic stagnation is evident in European Late Bronze Age tack and harness, so therefore, when innovation and change occur, it can potentially offer insight into the origins of that change. Britain, as the closest landmass to Ireland, has seemed the most likely point of entry for equestrian influences into Ireland and, as such, some researchers such as Palk (1984; 1991) and to some extent Perkins (1939) and Joseph Raftery (1940) have sought parallels between Irish and British tack.

The particular importance of the lake site of Llyn Cerrig Bach on Anglesey, Wales (McDonald, 2007) is the recognisably different regional/cultural styles of bits clustered in one site. This hoard may offer the best snapshot of cultural and chronological contact between European, British, and possibly Irish, tack. If these were the types of tack being employed around AD 50, then the origins of those equestrians need examination. Likewise, both Rome and the Germanic/Scandinavian styles of Thorsberg are also examined, due to the longobserved similarity between the kehlberge bridle fitting and the Irish Y-piece (Haworth, 1971; Maguire, 2014).

Since Haworth (1971), there has not been any recent comparison of Irish tack to European specimens, perhaps because there was always uncertainty as whether the Irish pieces were Bronze Age or Iron Age. European equestrian-focussed research has mostly dealt with early phases of equitation on the Steppes and Levant, or on the tack and vehicles of Hallstatt and La Tène. Past research by Thrane (1963), on Danish, Hungarian and central European Late Bronze Age tack, along with Kossack’s (1954) study of Iron Age Bavarian burials, which included bits, offer a solid starting point of tack styles. More recently, research by Lau on Thorsberg Moor (2014), Dietz on Caspian and Pontic bits of the 10th to 7th centuries BC (1998) and Nicolay on the Roman period of Iron Age in the Netherlands (2007) stand out as exceptions in modern archaeological research into Iron Age equitation and lorinery.

British Tack: form and function British tack finds have been compared to their Irish counterparts simply because they are highly decorative, although there is little functional or stylistic similarity. England, Scotland and Wales have a wider variety of mouthpiece styles, including double-jointed snaffles, single links, and single bars with inflexible cheek rings, and even mullen mouths, which do not appear to have existed in Ireland. Most British bits are made of copper alloy, although some, like Ringstead, also have iron cores coated in copper alloy (Clarke 1951). Some even have cast decoration on the cannons, such as those of Wetwang Slack. Britain also used iron much more, and much earlier, than Ireland within tack manufacture. Examples from the later Iron Age of northern England and Scotland, such as the bits from Middlebie in Scotland (MacGregor 1976 Vol 2; 1), and Rise, near Hull (Jope 2000, also see Figure 6.3), incorporate coloured glass or enamel inserts, just like the Wetwang Slack and Arras snaffles from a couple of hundred years earlier (Jay et al. 2013).

Classification and analyses of British bits has progressed little since the 1930s, with Palk’s research (1991) attempting an update on the early works of Fox (1946) and Perkins (1939) and an enhancement of Spratling’s focus on metal artefacts from the south of Britain (1972). Recently, Anna Lewis’s work on chariot terrets (2015) provided a helpful addition to the substantial gaps in knowledge of British driving methods but did not address bitting in any detail. Palk’s catalogue (1984), as the most recent study, has been chosen as the reference system of choice for British, Scottish and Welsh tack items. Despite the ‘Celtic’ metalwork database1 containing more specimens, it has not been possible to view and examine all of these to ascertain that they are actually what they are categorised as. Therefore, erring on the side of caution, this work uses only ‘known knowns’ and has based measurements and mapping in Figures 6.8 and 6.9 on the measurements provided in Palk’s 1984 catalogue.

Early examples of bits dating between 800 and 600 BC, such as those found at Parc Y Meirch and Llyn Fawr (O’Connor 2007) show simple, efficient single-jointed snaffles, just the right size for small native ponies. The plain style of bit is found across Europe in the Hallstatt period (Boughton and Maguire 2015: 10–11), leaving little doubt of interactions between Britain and the Continent during this time. In his work on the Arras chariot burials of the 3rd century BC, Stead (1979: 50)

https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/research_projects/ technologies_of_enchantment.aspx accessed 11th May 2021.

1 

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Chapter 6 Under the influence: Looking for the regional and cultural origins of Late Iron Age Irish tack

Figure 6.3 Single bar snaffle from Rise, Kingston on Hull, authors drawing. British Museum accession number 1866,0714.2, scale provided.

those from Birrenswarke and Middlebie (MacGregor 1976 Vol 2, 1 and 7). As some of these bits show wear, it can only be implied that they fitted or were used in an alternative way.

considered the British and Irish bits to share a common design lineage from the bridle bit found at Somme Tourbe, in France, which dates between the 4th and 5th centuries BC. During the Developed Iron Age in Britain, the territories encompassed by the Arras culture, and possibly their neighbours, maintained a specific evolutionary path of bitting, partially derived from Europe, made for driving rather than riding.

Legge (1991: 144) had noted what he considered to be bit-wear on the teeth of a horse buried at Kirkton Iron Age cemetery, in Scotland, which he compared to Anthony and Browne’s (1989: 102–04) research on very early bits in Eurasia where there were indications of bits being loosely fitted low in the mouth, allowing some slip over the tongue of the animal. On closer inspection of the Lady’s Barrow bit from Arras, this looks possible, due to the nips on the sides of the links, which would be more likely to be made by incisors or canines, or possibly even pushed back towards wolf teeth, which usually grow only on stallions. This is an avenue of investigation which needs to be developed further, as any difference between the Arras and Marnian snaffle bits, from which they supposedly derived, may highlight lifestyle differences between the European Belgic peoples and those of Yorkshire. This would add an extra dimension to the conclusions of the isotopic analysis by Jay et al. (2013: 287–88) of human remains from the chariot burials at Wetwang Slack and Kirkburn, which indicated the individuals may have been born in the region but differed from the rest of the population in that there are signs of regular mobility between two unspecified locations through their lives.

These solid cast British bits present considerable challenges in understanding their use and fit. Giles (2012: 195) may have suggested these bits were not severe in use but if they were used as we do today, they would be impossibly savage. The cheek rings on the Birrenswark, Rise and Stanwick (see Figure 6.4) examples are fixed and incorporated into a short pseudo-cannon with a bar mouthpiece which is too small to be functional. As such, the cheek ring would sit at a sharp-edged angle inside the mouth, with the decorated sides partially within the inside cheek of the animal, cutting and chafing into the skin with applied pressure (Figure 6.3). A good estimate of the size of the ponies can be gained from the angle of the central shaft of a vehicle such as that of Newbridge, in Scotland, which indicates a typical native breed size of between 11 and 12 hh.2 The size of the bits found with that chariot burial also confirms the use of small ponies. Other bits found across Britain are not as straightforward. Native ponies, such as those from Exmoor and Dartmoor have chunky heads, and no amount of prehistoric selective breeding will create an internal palate size of less than 3″/7.5cm, which is the mouthpiece size of several of these bits, such as

Summarised comparison There is nothing in these bits which resembles Irish tack. The inflexibility of the cheek rings of the highly decorated Birrenswark-type bits, which appear to date to the 1st century AD like the Irish pieces, suggest a bridle which fitted very differently than the rest of Europe, Ireland included. Equally, the earlier

An intuitive reconstruction of the Newbridge chariot is available from Mike Loades, via British Museum, or a shorter version online at http://www.mikeloades.com/wp-content/uploads/British_Chariot. pdf.

2 

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Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Figure 6.4 Stanwick Hoard snaffle mouthpiece, authors drawing. British Museum accession number 1847,0208.72.a–b, scale provided.

Arras pieces are closer in style to ‘drop shaped’ early Hallstatt-period (8th and 9th centuries BC) bits of the Carpathian region (cf. Metzner-Nebelsick 2002: 232) than anything present in Late Iron Age Ireland. There is a case for seeking parallels with these Carpathian pieces for Britain and Marne, in that they represent a westerly diffusion of equestrianism, and as such, are the origin point for all styles across Europe, but direct comparisons to Irish tack cannot be found with either the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC Arras bits, or the 1st century AD enamelled specimens from Rise or Middlebie.

be impossible to use on even the smallest pony, as the functional mouthpiece bar measures under 5cm. This is roughly the width of a small terrier’s mouth, and even smaller than the tiny 7cm bits from Hallstatt A graves in central Europe (cf. Teržan 2014: 258). Therefore, the options are, that either there are links missing from the centre of the broken bits, or these objects were never meant to be used on a living, breathing horse, but perhaps as toys or even personal adornments. The other option, of course, is that their use was as ritual objects on other animals, such as deer, as there are records of a harnessed stag in a La Tène burial at Villeneuve-Renneville (Bretz-Mahler and Brisson 1958). If the hoard was indeed originally placed in a wooden vessel, then this collection of harness pieces may represent a ritual deposition. This may not be unlikely, as one of the Arras bits, found in the Kings Barrow, was unusable (Stead 1979: 49). Certainly, the fragmentary nature of the pieces does not allow for easy identification of use-wear, added to the fact that the objects had been subjected to burning as well (Fitts et al. 1999).

British single-bar bits What Palk (1984; 1991) defines as single-bar bits differ little from the British double-joint bit, with both having inflexible cheek rings cast as part of the sidelinks, for these cannot be thought of as cannons. The four identifiable bits of the Stanwick hoard contain aspects of the earlier Arras style and other RomanoBritish designs (Figure 6.4). The cheek rings are heavily decorated on only one side, implying they fitted on a pair of matched driving ponies. MacGregor (1962), stated that the designs on the cheek rings suggest that the ornate metalwork indicated Belgic influence, affirming the argument for earlier alliances with Europe (Williams 2001; Champion 2016: 150–53). Three of the Stanwick bits are made of brass, with only one of them — Specimen D — being made of a more conventional copper/tin alloy. The brass, obviously, indicates a date range commencing with the 1st century AD (Fitts et al. 1999: 40–48) and, as such, makes them contemporary with Irish tack.

Palk observed that these single-bar bits were the only category of British bit displaying drastic modifications, rather than partial repairs present on other mouthpieces (Palk 1984: 91). The Hurly Hawkin double link fragment (accession number X.HHA 22) in the National Museum of Scotland also seems to consist of damaged pieces fitted together, which may imply that at least some of these objects were deliberately disposable. This burial of objects, still within a recognisable form, but rendered unusable, reinforces the importance of understanding the context in which objects are found.

The presence of terret rings within the hoard confirms that the material represents a driving assemblage, and the decorative mounts found with the bit fragments are believed to have been on the wooden vessel which possibly contained the bit fragments (Fitts et al. 1999). Closer scrutiny shows that the reconstructed bits would

Of course, not all single bar snaffles have any hint of ritual. Some of the pieces such as the Lochlee Crannog piece (Palk 1984: SB5), and the Ham Hill twisted snaffle bar (Palk 1984: R1) are absolutely viable for practical use, bearing great similarity to specimens found across 80

Chapter 6 Under the influence: Looking for the regional and cultural origins of Late Iron Age Irish tack

Figure 6.5 Polden Hill ‘fletchling’ cuff detail, compared to cheek ring detail from Siebenbürgen. After Thrane (1963: 79). Not to scale.

Figure 6.6 Hagbourne Hill snaffle detail, authors drawing. British Museum accession number 1861,0920.2, scale provided.

early Roman-influenced Europe (Ritterling 1912). It must be said that from a cursory examination of some of the mouthpieces, the animals which these fitted were smaller than their Irish contemporaries or Roman cavalry animals from the second half of the 1st century AD, when there was a preference for animals between 14 hh and 15.2 hh (Hyland 1990: 68–70).

found in a pit, lined in burnt clay (Harford 1803). The bit type is distinctive with a fletchling-shaped cuff at the cheek ring connection. Each cuff has a small hole, where red enamel was placed as added decoration. The bits are made of copper alloy and are reminiscent of more practical variations of the Stanwick bits. Based on Palk’s 1984 catalogue, almost all mouthpieces found across England, Scotland and Wales indicate the use of small ponies, likely between 10 and 11 hh. The distinctive fletchling shape on the outer part of the cannon is reminiscent of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Baltic, Eastern European and Hungarian cheek pieces, detailed by Thrane (1963: 79), demonstrated by the specimens from Siebenbürgen, which share a similar cast form (Figure 6.5). The outer cannon design of the Polden Hill may be based on this style of cheek piece, as though folded on itself. These single-joint bits are similar to Hallstatt-period bits across Europe, although they are believed to date to the 1st century AD by way of associated finds in the hoard (Brailsford 1975: 234), making them reasonably contemporary with Irish tack. The psalion found within the hoard, which appears

Summarised comparison No commonalities can be found between these pieces and Irish tack specimens. British single-jointed bits The Polden Hill style bit (Figure 6.5) is one of the commonest found bit types in England and named for a site close to the village of Edington, Somerset, where a hoard of metalwork was found by chance in 1800, during field-ploughing. Polden Hill itself was also an early Roman fort (Brailsford 1975). The hoard, which included terrets, pins and weapons as well as tack, was 81

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context to be a Roman cavalry type (Davis 2014: 82) is useful in that it offers the earliest date of AD 43 and Roman invasion for deposition.

tongue of the animal. A prototype central French link was inserted to create a gentler mouthpiece. It is not an ideal bit by any standards but preferable to those of Polden Hill or Birrenswark types.

Palk rightly indicates the severity of the Polden Hill type (1984: 90), as a manual examination of these pieces quickly shows how sharp the fletchling edges are. The use-wear Palk noted on these bits suggests that these may have been partially trained animals with a level of expendability, adding weight to theories that the animals were periodically rounded up off the moorlands at times of the year (Moore-Colyer, 1994), with a ‘use them up, wear them out’ mentality.

The bulbous cannons show influences from Continental La Tène styles, such as the specimens found at Orval (Lepaumier et al. 2011: 328–29) and Montéqueux à Beine (Verger 1996: 668), both in France. This is perhaps not surprising, as they also share some similarities with the earlier bits of Arras. The Ringstead, Walthamstow (Clarke 1951; Perkins 1939) and highly decorated Ulceby bit (Leeds 1933b: 466–68) are all this distinctive design.

Summarised comparison

Summarised comparison

Chronologically, the Polden Hill bits may well equate to those of the Irish Type A bit at around AD 50, yet there is no indication of common use of a single-joint bit in Ireland. The only known single-joint bit is the iron specimen from Aughinish, which is likely an import.

In terms of function, these bits are closer to the Irish Type A style, yet have some aspects in common with Arras, such as the bulbous cannons as well as the Irish Type A. It is notable that the single bar shortened to become an enlarged centre link, resembling an oversized French or Dr Bristol link.

British double-joint bits

Of unknown origins: iron loop bits

The Hagbourne Hill hoard, which consisted of bits, terrets and weapons, was found in a series of pits. The bits within the hoard are made up of a short inner link with bulbous side link pseudo-cannons which resemble an infants’ pacifier (Figure 6.6, a drawing made of the British Museum specimen 1861,0920.2). They develop on the Rise and Stanwick shapes, except that there is some movement in the cheek rings. This looks like a modification onwards from mouthpieces like Birrenswark or Rise, which would easily cut the

The iron loop bits (see Figure 4.4), found at Llyn Cerrig Bach, and Lesser Garth, in Wales, and Cricklade in England, are possibly not indigenous to Britain, as they are also found in Europe, and are discussed in the section on Batavian/Roman tack. Their style may be basic, but their functionality as a mouthpiece is exactly what an Irish Type D or E bit would achieve. The curvature of the Arras-style bit of the 3rd century BC obviously could not fit across the bars within the mouth of a horse, but

Figure 6.7 Estimates of British equid sizes, using same method as used on Irish snaffles.

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Chapter 6 Under the influence: Looking for the regional and cultural origins of Late Iron Age Irish tack

Figure 6.8 Distribution of bits, compiled from data in Palk 1984 and 1991.

83

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context that curvature is taken, and made functional by the iron loop bits. It is very possible to envisage the basic design of the loop bit being taken and developed into the arched Irish bits, the shape allowing the decorative apotropaic shape to take form.

force, or as displaced settlers, or even as an Irish native elite who were able to import both goods and metalworkers to the island. The overall distribution in England of tack shows the double-link bit prevalent in the east and south of Britain, tracing the paths of rivers and coastlines, presumably where trade routes existed. The distribution of the iron-loop bits is confined to the south-west of Britain, sharing similar regions as three Irish-related tack pieces — the Type A bit in Llyn Cerrig Bach and the Y-piece fragments from south Wales and Wiltshire.

Summarised comparison While there is no exact analogue in Ireland to these overlooked artefacts, the curvature shows that the shape is highly influential on how the Type D and E Irish bits would function. These must be considered the closest parallel in function if not design to Irish bits.

Based on the illustrations in Palk’s (1984) catalogue, functional mouthpiece sizes were measured and presented in the same manner as the Irish bits (Figure 6.7), to assess possible sizes of animals, if those sizes may relate to native breeds in Britain, or if there were any regional trends. The results are very different from Ireland. Most ponies are, as expected small, measuring between 11 hh and 13 hh, and some mouthpieces obviously did not fit as we would understand a bit today, or even as it was understood across Europe of the Late Iron Age. A cursory cross reference of the areas of England and Wales which are home to native breeds, with distribution of Figure 6.8, indicates a frequency of finds in the areas where extant native breeds and types still roam, namely Dartmoor and Exmoor to the south of the Severn, the borders and Pennines for the Dale, Fell and Highland ponies, and the Welsh pony varieties along the west coast. We must also factor in what unknown types are now extinct or bred out, and what may have been imported from the Continent, especially on the south and east coasts.

British bit types: distribution and estimated animal size The lake deposition hoard of Llyn Cerrig Bach, in Anglesey, Wales contained a selection of different bit types, including an ‘Irish’ Type A bit, some iron loop bits which may well be European, and jointed snaffle British types. The suggested date of AD 50 does not appear out of place with any of these (MacDonald 2007: figs. 13 and 14). The Roman military attack of Ynys Mon, the name used to identify Anglesey in the Late Iron Age, may account for the war booty style depositions, but the question is, carried out by which side? Tacitus (Agricola XIVIII: Murphy 1903: 364) described how, at Ynys Mon, the Roman military vanquished the local people in one fell swoop, although this seems something of an exaggeration, as Anglesey was not conquered in a single event, with ongoing skirmishes between AD 47 and AD 60 (Manning 2003: 60–67). Contrary to Roman propaganda of the time, it would be more likely that the inhabitants of Anglesey won at least some of the skirmishes, which may possibly account for some of the depositions in the lake. There is no absolute date on the equestrian artefacts of the hoard, but metallurgical analysis has indicated two distinctive chronological groups of metalwork deposited — one dating to the 3rd or 4th centuries BC, and another within the middle of the 1st century AD (MacDonald 2007: 168–70), which would tally closely to the known dates of Roman attacks on Wales. The presence of an ‘Irish’ Type A bit in a hoard along with Romano-British and Roman styles raises certain questions. Could its presence imply Irish recruits fighting on the side of the Roman Empire? Cunliffe (2013: 384–86) certainly has not discounted the idea of Irish auxiliaries within the Roman army between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, as the 4th century AD Attacotti may well have contained Irish warriors (Bland 2012). Equally, the possibility exists that, if the Type A bit is Welsh or British in origin, they may represent the material goods of those who introduced developed equestrianism to Ireland, either as a mobile mercenary

Figure 6.9 Irish 2a Y-piece butt terminal, Kingston Deverill, Wiltshire. PAS WILT-9E5865. Photograph by permission of Portable Antiquities Scheme, CC BY 3.0.

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Chapter 6 Under the influence: Looking for the regional and cultural origins of Late Iron Age Irish tack

Lab Number

ID

Material

14C Age (BP) uncal

± St Dev

Calibrated date (2sigma)

F 14 C

±

UBA 30133

DBin1

Leather

2015

24

52 BC to AD 68

0.7781

0.00023

Table 6.1 Calibration of radiocarbon dates for leather found in the Binchester 2c/kehlberge, using Calib (Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., and Reimer, R.W., 2021) IntCal20 (Reimer et al. 2020)

first cavalry units in England (Galestin 2015: 687) and were the unit who allegedly subdued Anglesey in the mid-1st century AD. The early presence of the group in Britain is indicated by the burial of a Cuneus Frisorm cavalryman at Cirencester, dating between AD 45 and 70 (Morris 2015: 418). There is also evidence of preRoman civilian settlement by the North Sea tribes in the Cotswolds, with what appears to be Germanic bear claw cremations in Welwyn Garden City and Baldock, both in Hertfordshire (Morris 2015: 417).

Hackamores and Y-pieces in England, Scotland, and Wales There is increasing evidence, albeit fragmentary, that the Irish Y-piece was known in Roman-period Britain. A decorated stem butt of an Irish 2a Y-piece was found recently at Kingston Deverill in Gloucester (Figure 6.9, WILT-9E5865 in Portable Antiquity Scheme database) and what appears to be a fragment of a 1b terminal was discovered at Lesser Garth in Wales (Hussey 1964: 30). It is dubious if the ‘rein hooks’ described by Palk (1991) acted as hackamore or bosal fittings, although there is fresh evidence of a British-styled hackamore.

While Rance (2005: 123) classified the Cuneus Frisorum as having a more regular presence in Britain during the 3rd century AD, it must be acknowledged that dating the occupation of forts by specific units is difficult. The itemised list of military and civil administrative hierarchies, the Notitia Dignitatum (Kulikowski 2000: 358), only offers insight to the Roman military during the 4th century AD, so movement before this period, unless otherwise documented, offers chronological challenges to the archaeologist (Kulikowski 2000: 358– 60). The Gask Project in Scotland has questioned the assumed chronology of the arrival of Roman conscripts to the borders of northern Britain and Scotland, placing the first wave of military, including cavalry, to the early AD 70s, rather than the mid-80s (Winlow 2010: 51). This would fit better with the dates obtained for the leather found in the Binchester 2c, as a leather rein or fitting would be older than the date it was being used. This increases the likelihood of the Binchester hackamore being associated with one of the units stationed there in the late decades of the 1st century AD, or even living in the vicus of Vinovia.

During excavations near Durham in June 2015, a well preserved and complete Y-piece of a new type was discovered in Binchester (D. Petts, site director, pers. comm.), at the fortified Roman settlement of Vinovia. It was found in a pit, where animal bones were in situ, but these are yet to be examined or identified. The object is a hybrid between the Irish Y-piece and the Germanic kehlberge, similar to examples contained in the wetland depositions of Thorsberg Moor, Vimose, and Ilerup Ådal. The upper part is made like an Irish 2a type, with sturdy circular holes on the prong and finely traced geometric patterning on the terminals, where Irish objects often have ornate La Tène-derivative style art in relief. This piece is too worn to ascertain if there was once a more ornate decoration of which the geometric design is all that remains. It has the flexible swivel fitting of the Thorsberg kehlberge, and this swivel fitting had fragments of leather still caught in it, which was removed, and radiocarbon dated at the QUB Chrono Centre using protocols by Stuiver and the Reimers (2021) with the results shown in Table 6.1.

Excavations during the early part of the 20th century at the similar Roman fort and settlement of Newstead, on the Scottish borders, also produced a hybrid bridle fitting, which has a flexible, articulated frame, with multiple perforations or fittings. Curle remarked in his chapter on equestrian equipment and transport on its similarity to other examples found in Germany, such as at Hofheim (Ritterling 1904: pl. XIX; Curle 1911: 296). More straightforward psalia were also found at Newstead, which is one of the earlier forts and settlements in northern Britain. This early presence of European equipment in the British Isles may well suggest a skilled group of newly arrived equestrians and metalworkers instigating changes in tack styles across the islands.

The similarity between the Germanic kehlberge and the Binchester specimen is most likely due to the influence of the cavalry units stationed there. The units which occupied Vinovia were the Cuneus Frisorum, and the cavalry unit of the Ala Hispaniorum Vettonum (Ferris 2011: 28–50), which had occupied south Wales, at Y Gaer, now Brecon Gaer, during the mid-1st century AD (Davies 2004: 97), while the Cuneus Frisorum were enlisted from the Batavi, Frisii and Frisiavone tribes who occupied parts of the Netherlands, north western Germany and the borderland between Germany and Denmark (Rance 2005:123). The Batavi were among the 85

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Further affirmation is provided by the known context of Drumanagh, where coins and brooches all suggest communication and trade with Roman Britain. Cunliffe’s (2013: 384–86) vision of adventure-seeking young men joining the Roman military would neatly explain the presence of the Kingston Deverill piece in Britain, as much as the further-flung Transylvanian pseudo-Type E bit. Ireland may not have been invaded, but certainly was part of a much bigger story, in a similar manner to Scandinavia and the parts of Germany beyond the limes.

Summarised comparison The early date for the introduction of a Germanic-style Y-piece at Binchester in Durham would suggest that the vanguard cavalry units to arrive in Britain brought the objects with them from Europe or Scandinavia. Among the earliest cavalry units were the Ala Indiana Gallorum, who may well be one of the earliest cavalry units, arriving around AD 54 (Knight 1991), the Ala Augusta Gallorum Petriana, who arrived in Northumberland around AD 71, but moved to Carlisle on the west coast,3 and the Ala Augusta Sebosiana, which was mentioned by Agricola in the late 1st century AD (Tomlin 1992: 153). The Ala Hispanorum Vettonum civium Romanorum were present in Wales around AD 70 but moved to the Durham region sometime between the late 1st to early 3rd centuries AD (DuBois 2015: 431–32). This list is not definitive, as there were many other auxiliary cavalry wings present throughout Britain, but the dates of their occupation are unknown. The recorded associations with Agricola, believed to be the governor of Britain roughly between AD 77 and AD 84, appears to be the common denominator between the early-arrival auxiliary cavalry units. Agricola’s campaigns included the crippling defeat of the inhabitants of Anglesey in AD 78, supposedly swimming his cavalry horses across to the island, a practice which the Batavi were famous for (Tacitus XIVIII: Murphy trans: 364). Agricola then defeated the Brigantes of northern Britain the following year and of course, as related by his son-in-law Tacitus, had some interest in expansion to Ireland, going as far as planning to use an exiled Irish aristocrat as a pretext for invasion (Tacitus XXIV Murphy trans. 368: Warner 1995).

Look homewards, angel: tracing Irish tack through Europe Bronze Age European bridle assemblages were basic single-jointed snaffles mostly used for small draft animals, judging by the sizes of the functional mouthpieces (Marien 1961: fig. 68). These basic single jointed snaffles changed little with time, showing evidence of some refinement, but no intrinsic change in shape. The Bavarian and central European bits illustrated by Kossack (1954) are no more or less harsh than their recognisable equivalents today. There is even an indication of the origins of the Y-piece/kehlberge during the Late Bronze Age/ Early Iron Age period, as the peculiar device found in Grave 1 at Lengenfeld, Oberfaltz (Kossack 1954: 175, pl. 26) and the Y-shaped object from Manching (Jacobi 1974: 196–98) show, as well as the device mentioned by Joffroy and BretzMehler (1959). The development of equestrian skills in the Champagne region, central Europe and Rhineland of the 4th century BC discussed earlier in this chapter would have included the territories of the Frisii and Frisiavones, who Pliny considered as a Belgic people anyway, inhabiting islets in the Rhine and regions of Gaul (Galestin 2015: 688). The commonality of a shared European method of bridling seems to have resulted in shared styles of tack, with occasional new features or modifications.

Exact dates may be uncertain, but the campaigns of Agricola are perhaps the key to the adoption of sophisticated tack in Ireland. His interest in expansion to Ireland was obvious, and it would be remarkable if he did not establish some form of regular communications with the island. It may not have gone as far as invasion, but would almost certainly have involved trade, and at the very least, diplomatic relations. It may well be that when the exiled Irish noble did finally return, he returned with assistance in the form of Roman/RomanoBritish technology and equipment, in return for other commodities, be it slaves or livestock. If Raftery (1974: 9) was correct that sophisticated equestrian objects were introduced swiftly, and then modified to insular tastes, it would offer a remarkably clean narrative for the insular interpretation and adoption of the Irish Y-piece, as well as the Roman-influenced designs of the snaffles.

A basic mouthpiece was quite sufficient for most cultures — the snaffles from the early La Tène chariot burials at Semide (Lambot and Verger 1995) and LivryLouvercy (Verger and Thouvenot 2009: 383–87) France, are the same single-jointed snaffles seen across Late Bronze Age Europe, and into the Hallstatt period. By the latter part of the Iron Age bridles became more complex and specialised, possibly to address more frequent and different use of the horse than draught. It is through this period that riding, rather than driving, became a high-status activity connected with military pursuits (Speidel 1994: 1–25). As a result, some groups and regions become highly adept at horse breeding, training, and riding, as a response to increased demands for such animals. These equine societies included the Germani, who were a vital element of Julius Caesar’s cavalry (Speidel 1994: 6), the Brigantes

https://perlineamvalli.wordpress.com/2014/08/02/the-garrisonpart-i/ Blog by Dr M Bishop. Last viewed 27th May 2021.

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of northern Britain, who were associated with the Gabrantovici, warriors described as horse riders, rather than charioteers (Harding 2004: 23), and the Batavi of the 1st century AD (Speidel 1994: 27). The Netherlands: the psalion/mechanical hackamore and bits

All these bits are drably utilitarian in design and would have been severe if used by an inexperienced rider. The ring holes for the cheek rings are set far enough apart to allow that important centimetre leeway at the corners of an animal’s mouth, to prevent nipping. In this respect, they are closer to what would become the Irish type bits.

The Frisiavones, Frisii and Batavi were assimilated into the Roman Empire as cavalry riders at a relatively early stage of expansion (Nicolay 2007) and as a result the riding, training, and breeding equestrian expertise developed further, and possibly faster, than what they had acquired during their pre-Roman history. Their military presence in Roman Britain, combined with the Binchester Y-piece, and possible association with the iron looped bits suggests an examination of the equipment they used is required to compare to Irish material.

The Netherlands bits could be used for either riding or driving. These plain mouthpieces appear to have been adopted by the Roman mounted military, as they are found across Roman-occupied Europe, and not just in those areas where the Batavian cavalry were stationed. No comprehensive analysis of size or use-wear has been produced yet, so only conjecture can be made about size of animals used, although it would be presumed that most were sized above 14 hh, and were riding animals, with smaller animals being used for drawing carts or as pack animals (Nicolay 2007: 217, 218).

Substantial investigation by Nicolay (2007) of Roman military equipment, including tack, stands unique in current European archaeology as he attempted to create a classification system for regional bits and hackamores. However, he omitted the curved looped iron bits, from Oss and Empel (Driel-Murray 1994: 97; Nicolay 2003: 345–46), which are found throughout Britain as well. Nicolay (2007: 44–47) divided the military Roman-type bits in use into four sub-categories, listed below:

The Netherland cavalry units used a psalion in conjunction with a bit, with the headstall placing direct pressure on the nose, rather than the jaw, much more forcefully than the Irish Y-piece and kehlberge would have done (Nicolay 2007: 48–49). The various styles of psalia/hackamores are the only indications of changing styles of tack. These corrective tack components have also been found in British hoards such as the Polden Hill assemblage (Davis 2014: fig. 6.3), and Newstead (Curle 1911) which confirms the chronology of these finds as 1st century AD, especially as they comprise British and Roman-influenced objects. The psalia from Empel (Driel-Murray 1994), and Kessel-Lith (Roymans 2004: 113) are also estimated to date to the mid-1st century AD, synchronous with the Batavian cavalry’s activity in Wales.

• Type A: Basic single jointed snaffle, usually made in iron. This type of bit is found regularly at Roman forts and sites across Britain, as well as much of Europe, attesting to its success in function and likely economic manufacturing process. The Type A bits found in river courses at Dreumel, Empel and Wijchen (Nicolay 2007: 46–47) are basically identical to some of the bits at Llyn Cerrig Bach in Wales, but also bear a striking resemblance to the perplexing ‘miniature’ bit of uncertain chronology found at the platform/crannog structure at Lough Ravel, at Derryhollagh, Antrim (UCB1 pl. 60). • Type B: A simple curb bit with shanks which can be subdivided into two variants, B1 with longer shanks and B2 without. • Type C: A single-jointed snaffle with a curved bar beneath the lower jaw. • Type D: A single bar, occasionally twisted, with a curved metal bar beneath the lower jaw. The single bar, which was placed within the animals’ mouth, allows room to fit, not unlike a modern double bridle curb chain. This bit type is also present in Newstead, Scotland, along with associated mechanical hackamores (Curle 1911: 295–97).

Both Nicolay (2007) and Willems (1992) indicate that the objects display regional differences. The Pannonian styles have been observed as very different from other areas, with the rhomboidally-shaped noseband hackamore of the Rhineland being the type most commonly found. It is unclear due to lack of research if the differences were based on diverse horse breeds being used, or if the types were purely decorative, reflecting traditional regional designs. The variations of psalia suggest differences in riding styles, which may be related to the use of the stirrupfree Roman saddle. Use of a saddle with no stirrups will often cause the rider to tilt slightly more forward, with their legs less extended than riding bareback, or to overcompensate, and tilt backwards, extending legs forwards. In either case, this is a precarious position in a battle scenario, creating instability of the rider’s seat and over-reliance on reins. Willems (1992: 62–63) suggests that the use of bit and/or hackamore allowed 87

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context as literacy enhanced the self-awareness that they were different from the invading forces of the empire (Derks 2009: 241), their traditional identity re-constructed and bolstered by Roman approval (Fernández-Götz and Roymans 2015: 27–28).

maximum control of a horse when riding with one hand. Roman cavalry riders could choose minimal input from reins, or to ride with no reins whatsoever, as they carried and used weapons, be it as a military display or in actual combat (Junkelmann 1992: 130–73). The stirrupless Roman saddle had two enlarged pommels, complemented by a raised and curved cantle at the back, making it easier to maintain balance even with no control from reins (Junkelmann 1992: 34–35), just as the leg rest of a side saddle works, or a Western saddle. Moira Watson’s (2021) recent experimental work is extremely useful in understanding the riding methods and balance of the Roman ales.

The present-day stretch of river which runs between Kessel and Lith was the Iron Age riverbed of the Meuse (Nicolay 2007: 171), with a possible sanctuary, similar to Empel, nearby (Driel-Murray, 1994; Nicolay 2007: 188). The Kops Plateau, which is included in this landscape, is typical of the abandoned Roman forts and sanctuaries of the area which have proved to be rich in finds of weapons and horse-riding equipment (Willems 1992; Nicolay 2007: 182). Cahill-Wilson (2014: 43–44) examined similarities between Romano-British equivalents of these sanctuary sites, and that of depositions at Newgrange and other cult sites across Ireland. The question must be asked if the Batavian model is in fact a template for selective Romanisation, while maintaining a sense of original culture.

Identity, militarism and ritual deposition of tack Nicolay’s (2007) research has produced a valuable indication of tack styles used in the later prehistoric and Roman-period Netherlands. Equally valuable is how his study offers a snapshot of a society where military life and domestic farming practice were inseparable, providing a wider picture of a culture which had maintained its own identity and traditions as well as adopting Roman ways of life. Equestrianism effectively became part of their identity, as livestock breeding intensified with a focus on horse-breeding, and with it, an increase in grain production to cater for feeding demands (Vossen and Groot 2009: 87–88). PreRoman stocks indicated that horses made up around 5% of livestock, whereas under Roman rule, from the 1st century AD onwards, they represented over 20% (Nicolay 2007: 218). As many cavalry officers were recruited from the Batavi, each would require horses, and there would also need to be replacements for animal mortalities in battle. Smaller animals would be required for pulling vehicles and as pack animals.

If so, then the density of equestrian-related artefacts found at Camus Ford, at Loughan Island, outside Coleraine, Ballina Costello, County Mayo, Lough Beg and Aghivey at the boundary of present-day counties of Derry and Antrim, and the ford of Moyfin in County Meath, may well indicate the adoption of even some of the European veterans’ practices. If Agricola sent representatives from cavalry units to Ireland, either as reconnaissance, or as overseers and military back-up for a Romanised reinstated aristocracy, there may well have been some degree of transmission of ideologies as well as technologies, between native elite and ‘guests’, with a military ‘old boys’ attitude uniting them. Nicolay saw the disposal of tack and weapons as part of a life cycle of the warrior, with retirement allowing weapons to be brought home to the rural settlements, with occasional giving up of arms at sanctuaries and cult sites, while death saw their deposition in either homestead or wetland (Nicolay 2003: 367; Roymans 2004: 233; fig. 10.7). The plethora of tack finds, especially in the Boyne and Bann rivers may be part of this practice, but equally could be the result of fords creating bottlenecks of silt, in which objects from further up-river got caught in mud. Equally possible is that rivers were often direct routes of entry and export, and scrap metal objects may well have fallen from boats en route to workshops for recycling.

The Batavi, like the Frisii and Frisiavones, had a strong sense of identity, with part of that identity being a belief that, as a group of people, they were descended from a deity which the Romans associated with Heracles (Roymans 2009: 221). This was a belief shared with several Gaulish peoples, such as the Arverni, Aedui and Remi, some of whom enjoyed a similar privileged status of civitates under Roman rule (Roymans 2009: 221). Ritual sites were marked by the creation of sanctuaries, such as those at Empel and Elst, which were part ‘old boys’ veteran’s clubs and part religio-political foci, vital in relating the importance of a divine bloodline of warriors who were equal with those who were born Roman. Feasting was carried out on a large scale, judging by the cattle bones butchered at these sites (Robeerst 2008: 23–24). Finds from the sand-bank sanctuary of Empel indicate that weapons and harness were frequently deposited together (Nicolay 2003: 347, 363, 366). For the Batavians, Roman cultural additions such

While the recurring phenomenon of depositions at fords and cult sites is a pan-European practice during the Late La Tène period (Fitzpatrick 1984) and may also be due to modern-era dredging activities, other sites are less easy to explain. Many finds of high-quality tack and militaria have been found in farming areas 88

Chapter 6 Under the influence: Looking for the regional and cultural origins of Late Iron Age Irish tack

discs such as those found at the Bann and Killeevan, which resemble ornately decorated versions of those on the Danish bridle.

of the Netherlands, far removed from the movers and shakers of military elites, a pattern which could potentially run parallel with tack finds in Ireland at raths and earthworks. Nicolay listed a range of possible explanations for these finds, ranging from ‘dredging pits’, places where short term military presence may have occurred, through to war trophies, founders’ hoards for metal workshops, heirlooms, military ‘sanctuaries ‘and conflict sites (Nicolay 2007: 190). Meanwhile, depositions in rivers or fords declined from the late 2nd century AD (Nicolay 2003: 367), just as war booty depositions were starting to intensify beyond the limes in northern Germany. Early equestrian Scandinavian tack

influences

on

The slightly ungainly cheek pieces of the Baekeddal bridle (Figure 6.2) with their cuffed shanks, appear to indicate the start of a Danish/northern Germanic style which persisted through to the Roman era, as shown by the Thorsberg Moor finds. The copper alloy components are chunky and substantial, with the rounded-edged cuff terminals suggesting that the Nordic fletchling shape (Thrane 1963; also see Figure 6.5) may be a skeuomorph of the elongated cheek piece shank being folded down on itself. This was possibly re-interpreted centuries later, on the British 1st century AD Polden Hill bits, with their fletchling-shaped cuffs at the edge of the cheek ring. This may indicate Germanic cavalry influences being introduced to England and Wales during the Roman invasion, which is not so unlikely considering the Germanic-type burials in Hertforshire (Morris 2015: 417)

Germanic/

The most obvious place to look for comparisons have been the northern German and southern Danish war booty depositions, as Engelhardt (1866: 62) had originally noted the similarity between the Irish Y-piece and the Germanic kehlberge. Thrane’s (1963) work on Bronze Age Nordic and Hungarian bits shows that there is an extensive history of early equestrianism in the Baltic and Nordic regions. Randsborg (2010) considered the Gallemose hoard, in Denmark, as an indication of chariotry in the region, from the Early Bronze Age. The cist grave in Husby, northern Germany, which has been estimated to date circa 120–50 BC (Raddatz 1967: 25; Schöenfelder 1994: 221) contained a pair of driving bits with attached pseudo-curb chain fittings which Raddatz considered to be Iberian in style (Raddadtz 1967: 25), whereas the other grave goods, such as the bear claws and metal vessel handles, while not common, resemble a number of high-status Germanic graves of the pre-Roman Iron Age of northern Europe. However, the double ringed style of the Husby bits has also been found at much earlier Hallstatt-period sites across central Europe, such as burials at Mindelheim and Schöengeising (Kossack 1954:165 and 168), in Upper Bavaria, Germany, so would seem likely to have originated in the 8th or 9th centuries BC.

Mobility was no problem on the Jutland peninsula during prehistory, and the people of prehistoric Denmark would have been in communication with those in northern Germany. It is not surprising, then, that bit styles overlap considerably, with small modifications on a similar theme when it comes to the Romaninfluenced phase of the region’s Iron Age. The Late Iron Age wetland sites of Thorsberg, Vimose, Ilerup and Nydam have provided many well-preserved specimens of horse-riding equipment, and on occasions full bridle assemblages with leather (Lau 2014). The equestrianrelated finds from Thorsberg are very typical of the Baltic regional styles, which may have influenced the lorinery of various regions of the Roman Empire, and as such were chosen as a sample set for comparison with Irish material. Thorsberg Moor war booty depositions as a template for Baltic Iron Age tack A comprehensive palynological study has shown that during the period spanning the major depositional events at Thorsberg Moor, Germany, the site was open moorland with some deep pools rather than today’s lake. Derks (1998: 132–85) has defined a cult site as one separated by some means from the rest of society, even if only by a symbolic boundary. Pollen scatter in the core depths representing the 1st century AD landscape suggest a barrier of trees around the depositional area, which Dorfler (2014: 350–87) has chosen to interpret as a ritual boundary, as the pollen patterns remain present until the early 5th century AD

The recent discovery of a complete Bronze Age bridle assemblage at Bækkedal, Denmark (Sarauw 2016) is perhaps the more accurate reflection of pre-Roman influenced Germanic and Scandinavian equestrian material. It is an important piece of evidence in understanding the development of tack and harness on the Jutland peninsula. The mouthpiece used on this early set of harness was made of densely woven rope, which, due to remarkably good preservation, was still within the metal cheek rings. This use of organic material may also offer a reason for why there is a lack of metal lorinery in Ireland earlier than the Late Iron Age (Maguire 2019; Scott 2019). The assemblage also stimulates reconsideration of the function of decorative

The site has produced some pre-Roman period objects, dating to the early 1st century BC, although most of the 89

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Figure 6.10 Metal snaffle and rein rings from Thorsberg Moor. Raddatz 607, R0607.1-2, Lau PG 13-15, Inv.-Nr. SH1858-1.3–4 (F.S. 6335). Photograph by kind permission of M. Höflinger, ©Museum für Archäologie Schloss Gottorf, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen, Schleswig.

metal and leather artefacts date from the first decades of the 1st century AD through to the late 3rd (Lau 2014: 237). Coins dating to the reign of Vespasian (AD 69 to 79), have been associated with the silver cavalry parade mask, offering at least a terminus post quem for an early war booty phase (Horsnaes 2003: 333). Certainly, some equestrian material within the bog dates to that early phase, including kehlbergen. This may also be the period when an anomalous Irish-style cheek-ring, PG80 (Lau 2014: table 17) was deposited alongside the wealth of Germanic bits, metal link reins and weapons.

The Thorsberg bits The bits found in Thorsberg Moor are as distinctive and unique in their own way as Irish material. The outer link of the cannons is almost all of a particular shape — large, block, or wedge shaped, with a curvature to edges, with decorative lines cast into the metal, which defines the shape (Figure 6.10). Because of their large size, they are, by necessity, hollow. Their thickness is reminiscent of Irish Type E bits, though it is unfortunate that no complete specimen survives. The cheek rings are uniformly large, thick, and hollow, with ridges traced in low relief on the outer facing surface. The copper-alloy is pale golden in colour. The rings appear to be cast whole, with no articulation for fitting into the cannon link.

Coin finds persist until the reign of Antoninus Pius (AD 152–153) (Horsnaes 2003: 333), which are contemporaneous with coins found in shared contexts with bits at the Drumanagh/Loughshinny promontory fort near Dublin in Ireland (Cahill-Wilson 2014: 35–42). These coins have provided a chronological frame for the finds, as wetlands have no definite stratigraphy, and amidst a plethora of broken metal objects, dating is problematic, relying on associated, and datable, finds such as coins. Producing accurate dates for equestrian objects has the added complication of the objects often being re-used over a long period of time.

Unlike the Irish sequence of bits, there are no rivets or articulation to allow for modification of the position of the cheek ring. This makes the single example of an Irishstyle cheek ring found at Thorsberg very distinctive. This cheek ring (Accession number RAD 600, SH1858-113) is broken in two, but the difference in manufacture is clear, from its narrowness, lightness — especially compared to the heavy rings of the Thorsberg objects — and lack of external cast lines along the outer diameter 90

Chapter 6 Under the influence: Looking for the regional and cultural origins of Late Iron Age Irish tack

of the rings. This anomalous piece, even if Irish-style and not of Irish origin, shows, like the Binchester and Cluj Napoca tack pieces, that technological and skillsrelated exchanges of knowledge were occurring across Europe. However, as has been seen from Irish material, creating a chronology from style alone is not always possible, even in sites with a wealth of artefacts. Some of the Nydam bits (Lau 2014: fig. 85), examined to understand the regional tack styles of northern Germany are stylistically similar to two undated bits, UCB 9 and 10, found in Ireland (Raftery 1983: 50), as well as to examples from Llyn Cerrig Bach, probably dating to AD 50, as well as the Gaulish Orval bits, dating to the 3rd century BC. The style and shape may be the same, but the Nydam depositions likely date to the earliest site phase, c. AD 250, much later than Irish or British bits, which both date from the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. If the Irish-style cheek ring found at Thorsberg is also taken into consideration, there are various options to take into account. Workshops may have continued to produce traditional styles long past their original time phase. Equally possible is that trade and communication networks between Ireland, Britain, and a constantly changing Europe continued to be independently active during the 3rd century AD, despite an increasingly burdened Roman Empire. Figure 6.11 Kehlberge. Raddatz 634, R0634, Lau PG 118, Inv.-Nr. SH1858-1.30 (F.S. 3758). Photograph by kind permission of M. Höflinger, ©Museum für Archäologie Schloss Gottorf, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen, Schleswig.

Ornate cheek piece connections are present in the later Iron Age bits of Thorsberg. A distinctive feature is the unusual, hooked fitting which connects the cheek rings to the leather or fabric cheek piece strappings (see Figure 6.11, detail is circled). These connective hooks resemble the shape of the Almgren VII series of fibulae (Böhme-Schönberger 1994: 511), with the T-shape curving into a zoomorphic bull’s head which is then lightly embossed with circular patterns.

The conclusion that horse harness and personal decorations were made by artisans in specialised regional workshops, each portraying group identity, must remain a strong possibility in both Ireland and north-western Europe of the Late Iron Age.

This similarity between fibulae and tack manufacture had been noted by Perkins (1939) regarding bits found across England and Wales, and by Warner, specifically for Irish typologies (Warner 2013a: 280). There have been many fibulae deposited at major Germanic and Danish war booty sites, with the variations on the Almgren shape considered as displays of regional identity and tribal allegiances (Pauli-Jensen 2008: 146). Their apotropaic qualities have been remarked upon in several substantial pieces of research; Coulson (2009: 315) has noted the use of amulets and regional identity incorporated into personal items. Almost all the fibulae, like the equestrian material, are made of copper alloy, which was the habitual material of north German and southern Denmark tribes. Iron was more commonly used south of the Baltic region (Ilkjaer 1998: 494–95).

Comparison to Ireland The bits themselves have little in common with Irish counterparts of the same period, though the Irish-type cheek ring hints at shared technological knowledge. If anything, Germanic bits have a more powerful influence on Roman-period British tack than Irish, when looking at the block-shaped cannons of the Garton Slack snaffle (Brewster 1971). The recurring theme of personal adornment and tack of the Late Iron Age sharing styles and shapes merits further examination, as to what aspects of identity or association these shapes actually represent.

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Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context The Thorsberg kehlbergen Conrad Engelhardt’s (1866: 62) observation that the Irish Y-piece and the Germanic kehlberge may be the same object, just styled differently, has proven to be correct. As the Germanic/Scandinavian kehlbergen are the closest analogues to Irish material, it was a priority to examine these objects to assess use-wear, construction, and fit. With the kind permission and co-operation of the Zentrum für Baltische und Skandinavische Archäologie, Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig, the complete collection of artefacts was made available for inspection. Most of the objects are made up of two curved bars of metal connected at the bottom with a small horizontal hoop, through which a rein or strap was attached (Figure 6.11). A few are solid curved U-shaped metal bands with cast-on loops instead, like the Type 2c found at Binchester. These are less flexible and are reminiscent of the Irish Type 2a Y-piece. The terminals which would attach to the bridle are either fixed into place with small rivets or incorporated into the cast shape. There is no perceptible decoration on these, and almost all are triangular or deltoid in shape. Use-wear caused by friction is evident at both the upper terminals and the bottom rein loop on the specimens which are solid U-shapes, just as the terminals and stems of the Irish Y-pieces are worn from pressure.

Figure 6.12 Roman psalion/mechanical hackamore, reconstructed by Ala Batavorum group, Netherlands. Photograph by permission of Jurjen Draaisma. Modelled by Magic.

The kehlberge frames are made of a copper alloy, but the terminals of catalogue numbers PG 123 and PG 20 specimens are made of silver, with silver studs, most of which are intact. The silver or copper-alloy clips are studded into place over the leather rein, although one piece4 has a remarkably sophisticated hinge which is so fragile, it would be unlikely to withstand any protracted reining. This piece also has all its rivets in place, again suggesting it was made for occasional use.

used as regularly, but perhaps were more for display purposes than their northern counterparts, which indicates two very different societies, reflected by their use of the horse. Tack comparisons from the Roman Empire No comparison of tack from the 1st and 2nd century AD can be complete without reference to Rome. The Romans themselves were not particularly skilled equestrians, and most cavalry units came from conquered nations who had more effective traditions of riding and driving. However, with the expansion of the Empire and with conscripts relocating, methods of equitation from across Europe spread out rapidly. As a result, there are few bits which would be identified as purely Roman, with most falling into Nicolay’s (2007) categories. Mostly made of iron, the bits are usually single-jointed snaffles.

Comparison to Ireland These objects were obviously constructed to be light and flexible, but perhaps more importantly, they are made to fit any size of animal; the horizontal base hoop allows them to fit a wide jaw or a narrow one. Where Irish tack would appear to have been custom-made for a particular horse, or pair of horses, with matching decoration, the Thorsberg bosals are prêt-à-porter with one size fitting all. The implication of having tack to fit any size of a mount must be considered here, perhaps indicating the need to have equipment to fit different sizes of replacement animal, due to a higher mortality from regular hostilities, or the presence of herds of animals obtained from raiding or acquired from defeated enemies. The Irish Y-piece, however, is much more inflexible and enduring, suggesting they were not 4 

Occasionally there are equally harsh curbs, and it is to be suspected that the iron loop bits of Europe and Britain stem from one of Rome’s cavalry units. Roman military equitation, therefore, was a result of the merged skills of the conquered equestrian peoples from Europe, Eurasia, even Africa (Hyland 1990: 170–86),

Cat. no. PG 24 Thorsberg Hoard, Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig.

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Chapter 6 Under the influence: Looking for the regional and cultural origins of Late Iron Age Irish tack

resulting in many kinds of hybrid tack solutions. The anomaly of the Type E styled bit found in Transylvania (Rustoiu 2005) may possibly indicate that the Roman Empire facilitated the export of new styles and ideas as much as their import. It is a re-interpretation of the Irish style, but in a very different way, with a very different leverage action in its use — if it could be used.

of Roman horse management they wanted, leaving the rest to the Empire itself. British tack shares most of its pre-Roman equestrian influences, such as the single-jointed bit, and vehicle use, with central Europe. Arras vehicles are lighter than the original Hallstatt carts of the 8th century BC (Pare 1992), and more akin to the 5th century BC Champagne and Belgic two-wheeled carts (Verger 1999: 280–82). A certain amount of Rhenish influence was incorporated into the Champagne-area vehicles, with Verger considering them as homogenous by the 4th century BC (Verger 1999, 280–89). The bits found in the chariot burials of Bouvandeau, in Somme-Tourbe, Malinet, and St-Jean-sur-Tourbe (Verger 2010: figs 30 and 46) are simple jointed snaffles, like many British examples.

The psalion, or mechanical hackamore (Figure 6.12, and cf. Figure 3.6), appears throughout Roman Europe, as much as Britain, although may very well have a prototype made for chariot horses by the SintashtaArkhaim-Petrovka culture c. 2000 BC (LambergKarlovsky et al. 2002: 68). The evolution of the means to control a horse beyond a simple bit, and its spread into Europe, resulted in constant modifications, from the early Hallstatt Europe hybrid cheek piece types (Kossack 1954: 120) through to the remarkable unique hackamore/capistrum found in Ljubuski, in Bosnia (Lau 2014: 147, fig. 15) which has decorations equally as extravagant as the Transylvanian pseudo-Type E bit. At any rate, the spread of the Roman Empire resulted in the restrictive psalion being adopted and developed across Britain and Europe, at such sites of Newstead (Curle 1911), and Polden Hill, and it was not long before Ireland, and the unconquered regions of northern Germany, adopted the Y-piece and kehlberge respectively.

Bits developed differently in Britain, however, as wheeled vehicles were used well into the 1st century AD, while the rest of Europe had adopted riding as a more flexible means of transport and warfare (MooreColyer 1994: 7). Polden Hill bits of the 1st century AD may possibly represent some degree of Germanic or Nordic influences being introduced with the arrival of Roman auxiliary cavalry units to Britain, although they may also be linked to the arrival of Germanic peoples even before that. Denmark, and Scandinavia as a whole, has a different tradition of tack styles from central Europe, which may have more to do with influences from Eurasia. The war booty depositions of northern Germany and Denmark’s Late Iron Age contain the kehlberge, a hackamore contemporary with the Irish Y-piece. The importance of the Binchester kehlberge/Y-piece is that it shows the potential transmission of upgraded equestrian skills and technology between Ireland and Roman Britain. Someone had to see the equipment used, trial its use for themselves, then set out to interpret and recreate it in a regional manner. The cultural diversity of the very mobile Roman military machine is likely to have been the stimulus for change, noted by Raftery (1974:9).

There is little evident use-wear on these objects, suggesting that they may very well have been part of the equipment for cavalry displays rather than active duty. Such displays, the hippika gymnasia, were ritual (with a very small ‘r’) displays of equitation skills, where metal masks were worn by the riders (Bartman 2005). Certainly, these masks have been found at sites which have also produced psalion specimens (Enckevort 2004). Roman tack was about display, and as such, many ornaments, amulets, and bells were hung from strapping, with small phalerae attached to the bridles to create a flamboyant impression. Comparison to Ireland

Regional designs evolved through the Iron Age, and designs mattered. Small personal adornments such as fibulae reflect patterns on Germanic, British and Irish tack in their respective regions. This would suggest that tack and personal items shared workshop manufacturing skills and traditions, although it must remain unknown if the display of identity on these objects was regional, status-related or talismanic – or a combination of these.

Without a date for the Transylvanian bit, we cannot really tell if the Type E shape came into Ireland or was exported out of it. The Roman cavalry psalion was never adopted in Ireland, which would reinforce the notion that no actual Roman invasion occurred, and that the number of Roman boots on the ground was minimal, as the Y-piece is an interpretation, not replication. We do know that the Roman cavalry was mostly made up of peoples from across the Empire, some from ‘Celtic’ tribes and regions (Bishop 1988: 113), and the use of talismans and bells were commonplace. Irish equestrianism basically picked and chose what aspects

The extensive studies on the archaeology of the Late Iron Age Netherlands allows a snapshot of a culture which maintained a dual identity, which gives a relatively complete social comparator for Iron Age Ireland. The 93

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Batavians and associated social groups used simple bits, though the curved loop bits, which would seem to be the prototype for the Irish shape, may well trace their origin to the Netherlands and Germanic regions. There has been no archaeological examination of these pieces in any country where they are found.

no prior knowledge of riding before communication with Roman Britain. Something is missing from the archaeological record, in that there is no visible indication of early equestrianism in Ireland, as there is in the pre-Roman Iron Age of Britain or Europe. There is no evidence of a vehicle culture, be it the lightweight dog-carts or sulkies of Arras or the Marne region in France, or the solid wagons of the Hallstatt period, although British vehicles may have been imported or gifted (Maguire 2020). There is no ready appropriation of actual Roman equestrian equipment, such as the capistrum or mechanical hackamore/psalion during the Late Iron Age either. Instead, there is a selectivity which indicates the maintenance of an identity, combined with enough knowledge to make the most responsive and function-specific bits of the ancient world, with subtle additions of non-indigenous motifs.

The Roman Empire inevitably appears to have provided the motivation for many 1st century AD innovations, diffusing material goods across Europe and parts of Eurasia, into regions where they would not have usually found their way. The peculiar Transylvanian bit suggests that members of the Roman military may have taken the insular Irish designs and re-interpreted them their own way, demonstrating that ideas and technology moved from Ireland to other parts of Europe, rather than Ireland being the final recipient of technological changes. This is reinforced by early Migration period bits such as those found at Sösdala in Sweden (Lau 2014: 62), dating to the 4th and 5th centuries AD, which closely resemble the rounded cannons of the Irish Type B in particular.

The curvature of the iron loop bits was taken and developed into not just a functional snaffle, but a work of talismanic art, as no other bit in Europe is shaped thus, enhancing the likelihood that the apotropaic symbols incorporated into the design were intentional and understood. The principle of the kehlberge was reimagined into a highly ornate object, and possibly not used apart from warfare or display.

Based on the circumstances of Roman cavalry arrivals and the morphology of the D and E Irish bits, it seems likely that Iron Age Irish tack is the final innovation in late prehistoric Europe and Britain, borrowing its efficacy as a snaffle from other cultures. Even so, a highly distinctive character is obvious. However, the Transylvanian pseudo-Type E bit may well be the very last representative of those who wished to adopt the Irish style, as it is obvious that it is not an Irish specimen, and there must remain an outlier possibility that it represents an earlier tradition which has either been overlooked or undiscovered.

The disposal of tack, however, complies to European depositions of late antiquity, with enough questions to indicate that ideas and iconography were brought to Ireland during the Roman period, perhaps from mutual interests of mounted warriors. Larger horses, with better equipment and technology presumably gave the native Irish elite an advantage to maintain (or regain) control. Therefore, while some European influences of the late 1st and 2nd centuries AD became a catalyst for the unique style, not everything was adopted, reinforcing that invasion did not occur, but an exchange of ideas, technology and ideologies certainly did.

There are some important things to take from the comparisons. Given the sophistication of the Type D and E bits in Ireland, it is difficult to believe that there was

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Conclusions and future directions Somewhere in time’s own space There must be some sweet, pastured place Where creeks sing on and tall trees grow Some paradise where horses go, For by the love that guides my pen I know great horses live again Stanley Harrison

and an experimental project is currently being implemented, from manufacture to fitting and riding style. One thing is clear — when the bits were combined with the Y-piece, the effect was about collection of paces, control and display, with every aspect of tack suggesting the prevalence of riding. These were not the kinds of bits which could be successfully used with the rider in a slouched position, as the balance of seat required is similar to a modern, upright balance. It is to be suspected that we are missing, or overlooking, some kind of saddle from the archaeological record, even a rudimentary organic one.

Jumping the hurdles: assessing the achievement of aims and objectives The primary research question of this project was if Irish tack objects were likely to be a cultural intrusion to Ireland from Britain or Europe; it would certainly appear that this hypothesis can be confidently defended. The unexpected theme of reworked identity, however, became of considerable importance as research progressed, as it was inseparable from the sudden flourish of the unique tack of the Late Iron Age. Acknowledging this surge of introduced technology used to create the bits and Y-pieces does not mean dismissing any possibility of equitation practiced during the Irish Late Bronze Age, or the phase of the Iron Age before Rome invaded nearby Britain. The re-examination of Irish objects made from organic materials, which may represent a different means of control and steering the domesticated horse has already commenced, born from the questions raised in this research (Maguire 2019; Scott 2019).

There is some limited and indirect evidence of driving from a few surviving bits, and surprisingly, one Y-piece. Vehicles may have been imported objects (Maguire 2020b), although an insular variation may also have existed, although this is currently speculative based on two linchpin fittings, connected with driving. The various sizes of horses used, indicated by the variety of bit sizes, highlights the need to look at the breeds — or maybe more accurately, ‘types’ — of animals which may have been present in Ireland during the Iron Age. Unlike Britain and parts of Europe, Ireland has little information on past breeds. The equids which existed in pre-Ice Age Ireland were not the direct, uninterrupted ancestors of the animals introduced at some stage of prehistoric human colonisation. As an example, the Connemara pony has changed greatly within the past hundred or so years, with photographic evidence (Ewart 1904) of several different, distinctive types which we would be hard pushed to think of as the Connemara we know today. The modern version shares more genetic commonalities to the Scottish Highland pony (Winton et al. 2020). Likewise, the modern Kerry Bog owes more to Iberian bloodlines introduced in the 20th century. The origin or stem type of the extinct Irish Hobbey remains unknown. Likewise, the Cushendall, Roscommon and Achill ponies and horses slipped into extinction before modern science could pinpoint their haplogroups. How could we even recognise these

Each objective is reconsidered here by way of the results of analysis, as the evidence points to various design aspects of the sophisticated Irish Late Iron Age equipment being introduced from Roman-controlled Europe, then interpreted regionally. It had been expected that the thorniest issue would be placing the objects in their correct temporal framework. While finding some answers on his matter, other questions appeared. The theoretical reconstruction of the Irish Iron Age bridle (Figure 3.15) was created by building upwards from the identification and function of the bits, and their effect within the formal Iron Age bridle assemblage beside the Y-piece and was a matter of practical ‘fitting and bitting’. In fairness, it was a delightful puzzle for any modern equestrian to present replicable results. By observing the use-wear patterns of friction and repetitive use, it is quite possible to approximate the fit of a functional Irish Iron Age bridle assemblage, 95

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context animals today within animal bone assemblages? There is much more work yet to be done here.

the other took inspiration from the cultural diversity which made up the Roman Empire.

Finding possible origins by way of the cast relief designs on the metalwork has proved difficult, as there is some truth in Joy’s (2015: 59) statement that all La Tène-style patterns share the same issue of not appearing to have just one place of origin within one-time frame. We may be able to show the re-use of solar cow/horse symbols on the 2a type of Y-piece, which is also on the pair of decorated umbos of the Witham shield, but the design itself is present in southern Europe even earlier than the Middle Iron Age (Jope 1971: 61, 68, note 14). Likewise, there is the well-replicated European La Tène-period ‘solar cross’ symbol present on the Ballykean Bog Y-pieces, but this symbol is also reworked on RomanoBritish kite brooches and ‘Vale’ brooches.

There appears to be a technological horizon in Ireland which coincides with Roman occupation of Britain, even though most of the Irish objects appear to have been locally made catering for a unique identity agenda, confirming to some extent Becker’s ideas (2012: 10–11). Perhaps most importantly, we can now state with some certitude that Becker’s (2012: 9) proposed year 1 BC/AD for the start of the Late Iron Age, which she herself was uncomfortable with, is closer to AD 43. The recorded provenances of finds challenge the idea of all being wetland depositions., with the landscapes and features in which the objects were found telling a more complicated story. Without doubt, there are many specimens which have been found in bogs, but there are also dry-land finds, which follow British deposition patterns. The evolution of one style of artefact by another, and variations of distribution patterns, can possibly indicate changes occurring over time, which would appear to be the case, from an islandwide random scatter of tack to a steady gathering of depositions in a linear pattern.

Hassall’s suggestion (1970: 134) of cooperation between the Brigantes of Roman Britain and the cavalry units of Batavians may represent part of the answers to the movement of designs across Britain and into Ireland. Scholars such as O’Rahilly (1946: 30) and Jope (2000: 221–23) had suspected that insular Irish design of later prehistory had strong links to earlier European La Tène artwork, by way of Britain, so recurring protective symbols on Irish tack, such as the staring eyes, like those on the so-called Prince of Glauberg, or the similar Heidelberg statue, is not altogether unexpected. These traditional apotropaic symbols of eyes, bouncing back negativity to the ill-wisher, need to be visible, so as the ‘eyes’ can literally look out for the wearer’s protection.

The application of a GIS model and its use as a base layer indicated these island-wide paths conformed closely to the hypothesised routes of the five ancient sligheann. Without omitting that some degree of ritual may well be a factor with the wetland finds, it is hard to ignore the possibility of at least some dry land finds being associated with roadside ‘shrines’, or nodal points for remembrance of skirmishes and battles. There may even be overlaps with wetlands, particularly at river fords. Certainly, there is an indication of boundaries, but more complex than Kelly’s (2006) townland hypothesis, although certainly complementary to his knowledge of early medieval boundaries. The land divisions of Ireland are more reminiscent of Hunter’s (1997: 122) reminder that there are many kinds of boundaries other than checkpoints between territories. There are boundaries between life and death, between social stratifications, between the natural and supernatural — there is still much to learn about how Late Iron Age society functioned, what beliefs were most prevalent, how they defined society and how they were observed.

Not so with the hidden shape of the Type D and E mouthpiece, however. A broad bit would work as well within the mouth of a horse and has been shown to do so in many examples across Europe, especially the looped iron bits of unknown origin. The extended lip guard of Types D and E is an ingenious piece of design, enjoying rediscovery in the 21st century with modern ported snaffles. The Iron Age mouthpieces manage to incorporate function within the bulb and fold structure which is strongly reminiscent of the Roman phallic fascinum. It must be considered if Jope and Warner have been too gentlemanly to point the similarity out, instead comparing them to RomanoBritish trumpet brooches, which have been known to also incorporate phallic talismans. The fascinum amulet was used in everyday life by Romans, and as such, appears on tack assemblages across the Empire. Its use in Ireland, in such a hidden manner, may indicate not only reinforcement of Roman themes being interpreted in an insular manner, but also that such symbols were not entirely welcome to others. The riders, therefore, may effectively have held a self-created dual identity, one aspect being represented by traditional insular La Tène-style, like that used in pre-Roman Britain, while

The possible road depositions in Ireland may owe something to the emulation of Roman road and travel deities, the divine boundary keepers (Muir 2011: 36, 43), as non-native ideologies are likely to have arrived with new technologies. There would have been only a slight change of nuanced belief between the Bronze Age alder figures found on bog paths, such as the Ralaghan and Kilbeg figures, and the Roman road guardians. Equally, the finds may represent memorial depositions. If this is 96

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the case, the earthworks and ringforts associated with finds would pre-date the early medieval period they are often associated with, adding to questions which have been raised that ringfort/barrows, such as at Bruff, in Limerick (Gleeson 2014), and obviously Lisnacannon in County Antrim,1 among others, often contain evidence of Late Iron Age activity.

influences lies with the movement of Roman cavalry units. Raftery (1974: 9) was likely correct when he suggested that Irish tack styles were introduced over a short span of time, with artisans customising the original equipment leaving their own distinctive mark on the pieces. These objects have a foot in both the Roman world and that of the past.

Although Irish tack shapes remain unique, they apparently took a degree of inspiration in terms of function from the iron looped bits which appear in Britain and the Netherlands. There is currently no known origin point for these simple bits, as they have never been studied. Despite their crude appearance, they likely hold the key to understanding the development of Irish tack, as they fuse the curvature of early British bits with the function of a normal snaffle, moving the bit action to the bar of the mouth, as opposed to the strange triple-linked bits in Britain.

Apart from the technological mastery, these snaffles and bridle fittings display a remarkable knowledge of horse physiognomy and riding techniques which begs the question as to where this knowledge actually came from, and why was it adopted so easily and swiftly — and why did it not catch on elsewhere? Ireland certainly had horses during the period before the Roman invasion of Britain, as the intricate Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age horse-hair sash from Armoy, County Antrim, indicates (Wincott 1998), but there is no concrete evidence of tack used for riding or driving during that period. A fragment here and there, perhaps but nothing yet which can state firmly equitation was being practiced regularly and not as an imported novelty. Archaeology is a business of constant updates and reassessment and the author is well aware that by tomorrow that evidence could be found. Two related questions must then be asked, which cannot be answered yet: was there equitation before the Romanisation of Ireland, which allowed rapid development when new metalwork techniques were introduced from Roman Britain? Or were there European bits, akin to the Irish Type D and E, which have either not been found or melted down for re-use?

Stylistically, British and Irish tack have little in common, as British bit types seem to owe more to Nordic designs, with the Polden Hill type, and to the pre-Roman Gaulish models, with the Arras nutcracker types. The theme of design echoing that of personal adornment is again evident in the similar design of the Ulceby bit to the Snettisham torc. Roman Britain may possibly have adopted aspects of Irish equipment, with the finds of Y-piece fragments across England and Wales, although this could equally represent the movement of Irish riders in England. Mobility and shared technology appear to be a regular theme in equestrian equipment of Late Iron Age Europe. Englehardt (1866: 62) and Haworth (1969; 1971) both noted that Irish Y-pieces have much in common with the kehlberge, which have been found in the war booty deposition hoards of Thorsberg Moor, Ilerup and Vimose, all located between north Germany and Denmark. It is worth noting that an Irish-style cheek ring was also found in the Thorsberg depositions, and a distinctly Germanic-style cheek ring was found in the hoard of Llyn Cerrig Bach. The Irish Y-piece, however, would appear to evolve rapidly from the Germanic model, as demonstrated by the chance find of the Binchester kehlberge/Y-piece in 2015, which was dated to the mid-1st century AD, making it contemporaneous with some of the Thorsberg specimens.

There has been an increasing acceptance that some of what is recorded in the ancient Irish annals is based loosely on actual events, but the chronology is skewed from generations of embroidered retelling and exaggeration, along with a bias towards proving the purity of bloodlines of Irish nobility (Cunningham 2010). The annals contain a narrative of a low-grade civil war, accompanied by an uprising of an underclass during the Late Iron Age. This was followed by a hasty relocation to family ‘across the water’ by the surviving members of the past elite. The survivors, and their children, would have grown up exposed to Roman beliefs and lifestyles if they inhabited Britain or any part of Europe within the limes, but still be aware that they were displaced.

The interplay of influences brought by Rome is omnipresent in Irish tack. Whether it is the creation of the Y-piece as a spin-off from the Germanic kehlberge, or the presence of a Haworth/Raftery Type A snaffle at Llyn Cerrig Bach, the common denominator of

1 

All this fits with remarkable comfort into the frame of the pseudohistory of Túathal Techtmar, the deposed princeling of the Annals, and likely The Agricola. Even if displaced aristocracy did return and regain control of regions of the island, perhaps with a little informal help from Roman militia, they would still be viewed as

NISMR Number ANT 026:013.

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Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context with crossroads, travel and moving beyond boundaries into unprotected places (Muir 2011, 36).

strangers in what they perceived as their own land. On one hand, they would project assurance that they were culturally the same as their ancestors, but they also knew they had grown up with exposure to different sets of values and beliefs in Roman Britain, where identity was equally complex. Their technology would be different, and the horses which were their means of transport would have been different from native British ponies, more likely to have been either imported or bred from European stock, which would account for the wide range of animal sizes. Their tack reflected the two worlds they existed in — the iconography of the La Tène-style past, and the talismans of Roman military men. If this was indeed a sudden introduction to equestrianism, Ireland skipped the chariot use of Marne and Yorkshire and went straight to riding, which would account for the lack of driving equipment, although it would seem almost that certain vehicles would have existed, even as exotic imports.

The leap of faith across time is not a large one to imagine, when wooden ‘guardian’ figures are found across bogland tracks in Ireland and Europe (Coles 1990). Early Christianity shamelessly adopted pagan sites such as groves and holy wells, and equated the supernatural beings once worshipped there with saints and holy men and women. It would not be particularly unusual if those who held even hybrid beliefs, derived from across the Roman Empire, did something similar with earlier sacred or commemorative sites. Equally possible is that the dry land finds along the roads may simply represent memorials, similar to roadside shrines across Ireland today, which mark out where travellers died, or where they once loved to visit, or sometimes just as a traditional sanctuary, where gifts and offerings are placed for hope of safe passage (McConville and McQuillan 2005).

The roads, or sligheann, are also associated with Techtmar, and while they almost certainly were originally (Newman and Halpin 2006: 372) early prehistoric tracks along less waterlogged stretches of eskers, their being thought of as roads, or routes, in the annals could be viewed as concessions to Romanisation, where roads were vital.

It is fair to say that the Roman Empire was key to the diffusion of ideas and technology across Europe, with a high degree of mobility for those who were on horseback and presumably attached to the military. Still, there was a need for non-Roman frontier dwellers, such as the inhabitants of Scotland, northern Germany, Denmark and now Ireland, to hold on to their own pasts, their own identities. Bishop (1988: 113) has already noted how, by the time of Hadrian (AD 117 to 138, well within the period of Irish tack manufacture) many Roman cavalry units issued commands not in Latin, but in the languages of Germania, Dacia, Thrace, Pannonia — all regions which had been subject to preRoman La Tène influences.

The distribution maps seem to show a progression from an island-wide scatter of bits, with no discernible pattern, to organised routes across the island. It indicates some sort of progression or set of changing circumstances, as the widely spread finds of the Type B consolidate into linear patterns by the deposition of Types D and E. If these patterns indicate placement of objects along the sligheann, then the annals have the timing of their establishment surprisingly accurate, in the early 2nd century AD, as the consolidation starts from the later, Type D and E ported snaffles.

The road goes ever on: future research directions A complete analysis of all tack, via pXRF and EDXRF, is very much required to determine if there is a regional difference in the copper alloys used, not just on tack, but weapons and personal objects. This is currently being worked on by the author. It is a long-term task.

The kernel model highlighted especially the intensity of finds at the terminus of the northerly Slighe Midluachra, at Loughan Island, Ballymoney, Bushmills and Aghivey, as well as at Emain Macha/ Navan Fort. Could the patterns suggest responses to initial civil unrest, with stability gained as time went by? Wilde (1861: 609) had taken it as common knowledge that the Tara/ Skryn Valley finds of the 19th century were related to some ancient hostilities in the area. Certainly, there is some indication that many find-spots are identified as places mentioned as battlegrounds, so this must remain a possibility, which would require an analysis and comparison with known provenances of weapon finds. However, the depositions along roads could also relate to the Roman activity of offerings to the spiritual protectors of roads, the lares viales, often associated

None of the horse skulls from Ireland are radiocarbon dated, so there is no knowledge if they are in fact early medieval, Late Iron Age or earlier. This makes it difficult to make an informed guess as to the types and breeds which were likely imported to Ireland. Haplogroup analysis of the horse bones found at the medieval horse stud site of Mullaghmast would be useful to gain insight into what may be the likely remains of the Irish Hobbey (Bolger 2017), and then use as a comparator for the skulls of unknown dates — working again, from the known to unknown. A database of radiocarbon 98

Chapter 7 Conclusions and future directions

dates pertaining to equine skeletal remains, with accompanying observation of dental wear, and where possible stable isotope analysis, would be useful as a resource of dates and breeds, which could indicate where the animals were sourced, and introductions of new stock. The zooarchaeological aspect was not examined within this project, but it would prove to be an excellent addition to knowledge, inserting Irish data into the framework currently being created in European research, regarding prehistoric selective breeding (Wutke et al. 2016)

A clear round: concluding thoughts on Ireland’s equitation The time of thinking that Rome had no effect on Ireland is effectively over. Trade and communication continued between Britain, Europe, and Ireland, which no doubt had existed from the Bronze Age, but politics and changing identities, perhaps, became more relevant in all interactions. After the 2nd century AD, the Marcomannic Wars slowed the progression of Roman expansion down substantially. Had this not occurred, it may well be that Ireland would have slipped into some kind of client status with the Empire. The presence of Mediterranean Bii pottery at 3rd/4th century AD sites such as Cashlandoo,2 County Derry, and Millmount,3 County Down, suggest the trade routes opened in the Late Iron Age remained open for quite some time.

The testing of leverage on cheek rings will prove helpful in looking for evidence of pressure which may suggest riding or driving and could be applied to all Bronze and Iron Age bits, not just from Ireland. The routes suggested by intensity of finds, tallying with the sligheann were surprising, and it is acknowledged that while the results look promising, more work will be required, especially against the distribution of other artefact types. Research by Bergh and O’Brien (2016) has already indicated a change of thought that the origins of the sligheann is indeed Late Iron Age, and it would seem circumspect to examine how other artefacts and features line up on the routes. Equally, re-examination of dates for ringforts and circular earthworks is required, with an eye to continuity of use into the Early Medieval period, contributing to building a better picture of Ireland’s late prehistory. However, much of the establishment of place names along the sligheann lies in the realms of the Celtic Studies scholar. A call to arms for collaboration between Celtic Studies, manuscript scholars and material culture archaeologists is likely the way forward to test the events in texts such as the Annals of the Four Masters. There are truths to be gained there but will require multi-disciplinary approaches.

Some answers have been obtained, but many new questions are raised. It is almost certain that at least some of the answers lie in storage cupboards and shelves in museums, of previously unidentified fragments of tack. There can be no doubt that the Irish bits and Y-pieces are the equipment of an elite, and most likely a defensive one, influenced by Rome and European cavalry conscripts, yet retaining their insular identities and expressing them in a unique manner. It is ironic that the hidden facets of the tack — the fascinum incorporated into the mouthpiece — has been the means of bringing one social class of the Irish Iron Age into focus. The combination of dates and styles have allowed the Irish horses and riders to be placed, at last, into the much wider picture of a dynamic and turbulent Europe, constantly changing with the fortunes of a diverse Roman Empire.

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Northern Ireland Sites and Monuments Reports LDY 003:006. Northern Ireland Sites and Monuments Reports DOW 005:058.

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Catalogue

Foreword The written lists of bits and Y-pieces have employed the following system of abbreviations: Example: IB1A IB = Irish bits 1 = Numerical position in catalogue A = Type A bits Therefore, IB5E would be the fifth entry of the category Type E. The abbreviation of UCB represents, as expected unclassified bits. Y-pieces follow a similar scheme: Example Y1B:01 Y = Y-piece 1B = type of Y-piece 01 = numerical position in catalogue. As Y-pieces have been found more recently, and are still being added to on a UK basis, the choice to allow more sequenced numerical entries was made, with the addition of: 001 etc. The sequence of objects in the catalogue originally followed the accession numbers and the order in which they were drawn at each museum visited.

113

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Details: In his unpublished dissertation, Haworth (1969, 43-44) identified a number of bit fragments and Y-piece fragments from a 19th century sketch in the National Library of Ireland, MS4458. Haworth was certain that after further research, the objects had been found within Ballymoyer Bog, Co. Armagh, on the estate of the Synnet family. Considering the other Iron Age objects found within the bog through the 19th and 20th century, including the Tandragee Idol (Warner 2014), there is little reason to doubt Haworth’s suggestions. Raftery 1983: 6, 12. Pl. 1.

Type A bits The most basic, unadorned double-jointed snaffle. Simple, rounded, cannons with no known decoration. IB1A Museum: National Museum of Wales Accession number: 44.32/55 Provenance: Llyn Cerrig Bach, Anglesey, Wales Measurements: Full length 21.6cm/ functional mouthpiece 10.4cm/ centre link 3.4cm/ cheek ring diameter 7.8cm Weight and material: Copper alloy bronze Details: Part of a substantial and multi-phasal lake deposition, containing tack and harness objects from various backgrounds. Believed to be dated to about AD 50 (MacDonald 2007). Raftery 1983: 1, 11. Pl 1.

IB5A Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W78 Provenance: Ballymoyer Bog, Co. Armagh Measurements: Cheek ring only, 7.2cm diameter Weight and material: 56.2g. Copper alloy Details: See entry W77 above. Haworth 1969, 43-44. Raftery 1983: 6, 12. Pl. 1.

IB2A Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: Rossknowlagh museum number 60. Presumed unrecognised, still within Drumholm Bell in NMI Provenance: Mullinacross ruined church, Ballymagroarty, south Donegal, presumed ferta feature by description of mound Measurements: One cannon, 7.3cm Weight and material: Unknown. Copper alloy Details: Found by a local farmer called Kelly in 1840, in a field which was believed to be part of a mound beside Columba’s early church in Mullinacross, Ballymagroarty (Morris 1931, 63). Described as being attached to the interior of the Drumholm bell as its clapper. Considerable wear present, but uncertain if this is connected to use as a clapper or use on a horse, as distortion on image atypical of equestrian use. Raftery 1983: 2, 11. Pl. 2.

IB6A Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W81 Provenance: Ballymoyer Bog, Co. Armagh Measurements: Pair of cannons, combined length 15.2cm/ estimated functional mouthpiece size 10.4cm Weight and material: 115.1g. Copper alloy Details: See entry W77. Haworth 1969, 43-44. Raftery 1983: 6, 12 Pl. 2. IB7A Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W85 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: cannon 7.8cm, Weight and material: 64.2g. Copper alloy Details: Single cannon, traces of clay core still remain. Estimated size of functional mouthpiece circa 11cm. Considerable distortion of cannon apertures. May possibly be the same as IB2A. Raftery 1983: 4, 12. Pl. 3.

IB3A Museum: LOST Accession Number: MS4458 Provenance: Ballymoyer Bog, Co. Armagh Measurements: Unknown Weight and material: Unknown Details: Part of the assemblage detailed in W77 entry. Raftery 1983: 5, 12. Pl. 3.

Type B bits Double-jointed snaffles with the beginning of the cannon arch which makes Irish Iron Age bits unique. Some degree of v-moulding usually visible, starting the evolution of shape to the bulb and fold of the final stages of bits.

IB4A Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W77 Provenance: Ballymoyer Bog, Co. Armagh Measurements: Cheek ring only, 7.0cm diameter Weight and material: 56.8g. Copper alloy

IB1B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1879.02.00 114

Catalogue

Provenance: BallinaCostello, Mayo. Measurements: Full length 30.4cm/functional mouthpiece 11.1cm/ centre link 3.1cm /cheek ring diameter 9.1cm Weight and material: 252.1g. Copper alloy Details: Complete and in good condition. A gracefully made slender bit. Holes for stop studs not the same on each side of bit. Raftery (1983: 17) related how the piece was ‘found in a bog’ some 8km west of Ballyhaunis, Mayo, at a depth of about 4.2m, where it was found with Y-piece Y1A:13. Fieldwalking the site, however, shows a more complex story, with two rath/earthworks separated from a peat bog by a river ford. Raftery 1983: 24, 17. Pl. 4.

and abrasions on centre link. None of these deep cuts would appear to relate to bites or chewing from a horse. Raftery 1983: 56, 26. Pl. 5. IB5B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1880.5 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 14.8cm/ functional mouthpiece estimate 12.1cm/ centre link 3.8cm Weight and material: 84.4g Unknown Details: Mouthpiece. Blackened patina. Unusual slightly sinister, skewed anthropomorphic ‘Kilroy’ detail at outer tips of cannon. La Tène-derivative closer in style to the Northern/Scottish ‘giant’ armlets, such as the Pitkelloney and Stanhope pieces (MacGregor 1976, nos 243 and 245). Some use wear indicated, so despite the highly ornate decoration, this piece was in fact used. One cannon partially broken. Raftery 1983: 42, 22. Pl. 6.

IB2B Museum: Armagh County Museum Accession Number: 215.1935 Provenance: County Armagh Measurements: Full length 17.5cm/estimated functional mouthpiece 12cm/ centre link 3.2cm/ cheek ring diameter 9.1cm Weight and material: 104.4g. Copper alloy identified as leaded bronze Details: Beautifully made, with subtle cast linear detail along mouthpiece, giving an overall impression of refinement. Even the ramshackle repair job of the cheek ring, with a clumsy metal pivot inserted, presumably during the 19th or early 20th century, cannot detract from the elegance of this piece. Curvilinear pattern on stop studs. Raftery 1983: 11, 14. Pl. 4.

IB6B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1886.291 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 10.8cm/cannon 7.8cm/centre link 3cm/estimated functional mouthpiece 11.5cm Weight and material: 83.8g. Copper alloy Details: Single cannon and centre link. Crudely made, with a badly made v-mould, lacking much refinement or skill. Squared-off centre link, with evidence of considerable grinding wear. Raftery 1983: 44, 23. Pl. 6.

IB3B Museum: Armagh County Museum Accession Number: 216.1935 Provenance: County Armagh Measurements: Full length 12.4cm/ estimated functional mouthpiece 11cm (cannon 4.2cm)/ centre link 2.7cm/ stop studs 0.7cm Weight and material: Copper alloy identified as leaded bronze Details: Similar to IB2B, echoing its style of simple linear decoration. Raftery 1983: 12, 14. Pl. 5.

IB7B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1897.19 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 17.7cm/ centre link 3.7cm/ functional mouthpiece 11.4cm Weight and material: 108.7g. Copper alloy Details: Mouthpiece. Poor condition. One cannon replaced, but fitted upside down. Evidence of modern repair to damaged centre link (possibly from curation?). Possible indication of hammering or melting of centre link as each side slightly different shape, and blotchy metal surface. Uneven wear present on cannons and rings, but uncertain if due to genuine combined use, or due to replacement pieces. Raftery 1983: 45, 23. Pl. 7.

IB4B Museum: Alnwick Museum, Northumberland Accession Number: 1880.472 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 10.1cm/cannon 4.1cm/ centre link 3.3cm, estimated full functional mouthpiece size 11.4cm Weight and material: 77.2g. Copper alloy Details: Partial, with only one cannon and centre link. Considerable hacks on cannon, with similar scratches

IB8B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1933.19 Provenance: Lough Beg, River Bann, junction of Co. Antrim and Derry 115

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Measurements: Full length 32.5cm Weight and material: Unknown Details: Missing. Raftery stated this complete piece has traces of enamel within stop studs, with casting flaws present (Raftery 1983: number 8, 13). The site of L Beg is multi-period, having evidence of Early Medieval churches and bullauns. It is surrounded by a peat bog. Raftery 1983: 8, 13. Pl. 8.

Y-piece Y1A:09, in peat-bog. This find spot is beside commonage and a small hill. Raftery 1983: 20, 16. Pl. 9. IB12B Museum: Monaghan County Museum Accession Number: 1975.181 Provenance: Annashanco, County Fermanagh Measurements: Full length 10.5cm/estimated functional mouthpiece 11cm/centre link 3.9cm Weight and material: 78.3g. Copper alloy Details: One complete cannon, a fragment of a second, and centre link. Centre link damaged, and held together by a pin, not of a modern alloy. Found in lakeland. Raftery 1983: 19, 16. Pl. 8.

IB9B Museum: North Down Museum, Bangor Castle grounds, County Down Accession Number: 1937.45 Provenance: Cotton Moss, Newtownards, County Down Measurements: Full length 14.4cm/ Functional mouthpiece 11cm / centre link 2.7cm Weight and material: 97g. Copper alloy Details: Mouthpiece, good condition. Diamond patterned double V mould. Curator (H McGuikian, 2015) relates how acquisition records state when object was found, it was cleaned up and used by the turf cutter who found it. The donkey which was fitted with it bit through part of the cannon, creating the post-depositional damage now visible on the surface. Hollow cast. Raftery 1983: 17, 15. Pl. 8.

IB13B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1000.2465 (W160) Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 9.9cm/ estimated functional mouthpiece 11.7cm/ centre link 3.7cm Weight and material: 89g. Copper alloy Details: Cannon and centre link only. Sturdy and nofrills bit with signs of light wear at apertures. Raftery 1983: 40, 22. Pl. 10.

IB10B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1944.295 Provenance: County Meath (part of an early collection, by Barnes, acquired in the 1940s, hence no exact details) Measurements: Full length 32.1cm/ functional mouthpiece 11.3cm/centre link 2.9cm/cheek-ring diameter 8.7cm/stop-stud size 1.1cm Weight and material: 384g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Metal appears to have cracked during deposition. Repairs also visible on cannon, at some stage of antiquity. Very prominent stop studs. Overall appearance is of a poor quality brittle alloy. Raftery 1983: 46, 23. Pl. 9.

IB14B Museum: British Museum Accession Number: 1854.0714.293 Provenance: Grounds of Leap Castle, Leap, County Offaly Measurements: Full length 16cm/ functional mouthpiece 10.9cm/centre link 3.6cm Weight and material: 155g. Copper alloy Details: Mouthpiece. Small and narrower than most Type B bits. Some slight distortion of metal possibly due to deposition. Small nips on cannon showing use in antiquity. Found in the demesne around to the tower house of Leap Castle, which supposedly once had some form of hengiform structure, only referred to as a ‘druidic circle’ in BM’s accession records Raftery 1983: 27,18. Pl. 12.

IB11B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1969.746 Provenance: Urraghry, Aughrim, County Galway Measurements: Full length 31.4cm/functional mouthpiece 11.2cm/centre link 3.1cm/ cheek-ring diameter 8.2cm/stop-stud size 0.8cm Weight and material: 270g. Copper alloy Details: Complete, good condition. A very solid and sensible bit. One of the cheek-rings appears to have been replaced in antiquity, as the alloy it is made from is visibly different from the rest of the bit. Found with

IB15B Museum: British Museum Accession Number: 1868.0709.16 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Cheek ring diameter identical at 10.5cm/ stop stud size 1.5cm Weight and material: 147g and 142g respectively. Copper alloy Details: Two cheek rings, extremely solid. Golden patina. Stop stud detail particularly interesting due to the curvilinear ‘owl-eyes’ design, identical to the pattern 116

Catalogue

on the back of the head of the Glauberg and Heidelberg stone figures in Gerrmany, of much earlier La Tène date. The tiny rivet fastening the stop stud in place is positioned horizontally. Raftery 1983: 62-63, 28. Pl. 11.

Measurements: Full length 14.2cm (Raftery 1983: 16) Weight and material: Unknown Details: Missing. Raftery (1983: 21,16) stated that it was found at a depth of 4ft (1.3m) in a turf bog on a mountain, opposite Headford train station. The station has been derelict and on private land since 1960, but there is still blanket bog on the small hill almost directly opposite the old guard house. It is a peculiar fact that there is no evidence of any prehistoric activity, with all historic monuments referring to the 1920s ambush of British soldiers by the Kerry Flying Column of the IRA. In short, there is no indication of why Iron Age tack would be found here. Pl. 27

IB16B Museum: British Museum Accession Number: 1868.0709.14 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 18.4cm/ functional mouthpiece 12.5cm/ centre link 3.5cm/cheek ring diameter 10cm/stop stud size 1.1cm Weight and material: 249.8g. Copper alloy Details: Complete apart from one cheek ring. Noticeably hollow cast, with clay cores remaining. Elegant V-mouldings on cannons. Raftery 1983: 57, 27. Pl. 28.

IB20B Museum: British Museum Accession Number: 1896.0807.3 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 15.4cm/Functional mouthpiece 10.3cm/centre link3.4cm Weight and material: 129g. Copper alloy Details: Mouthpiece. Excellent condition. Small, slender and refined, not unlike the Ballina Costello or Leap pieces. Very clear uneven wear on cannon heads, substantiated by equally uneven wear on link. Likely a driving bit. Raftery 1983: 51, 25. Pl. 10.

IB17B Museum: British Museum Accession Number: 1868.0709.15 Provenance: Toomevara, County Tipperary Measurements: Full length 15.6cm/Functional mouthpiece 10.4cm Weight and material: 158.4g. Copper alloy Details: Mouthpiece. Considerable damage, with one cannon hammered almost flat at the top, with large gash in the inner section, and some indication of a sharp tool used for leverage. Other cannon damaged with severe cracks. Extremely fragile condition. Found (allegedly) with spear heads and a chisel, which Raftery (1983: 28, 18) was doubtful of. Pl. 25.

IB21B Museum: Ashmolean Museum Oxford Accession Number: 1927.2906 Provenance: Armagh Measurements: Full length 17.2cm/ Functional mouthpiece 10.8cm/ centre link 3.8cm Weight and material: 153.3g. Copper alloy Details: Mouthpiece. Indications of uneven wear on cannons. A sturdy and well-made bit, again, smaller and more slender than most Type B bits. Some scratches and nips showing this must have been a comfortable and well-used bit. Raftery 1983: 10, 14. Pl. 12.

IB18B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1881.301 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 27.1cm/Functional mouthpiece 12cm/centre link 3.8cm/cheek ring diameter 6.8cm/stop stud size 0.4cm Weight and material: 322.8g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Well made, but badly damaged at parts. One cannon is entirely corroded and peeling, while the other has a considerable hole in it. A beautifully made centre link, squared and reminiscent of a Greek key design, perfectly intact but appears of a different alloy than the cannons. Small cheek rings with slight bending from deposition. Raftery 1983: 43, 22-23. Pl. 11.

IB22B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1932.6452 Provenance: Glenleslie, Clough, County Antrim Measurements: Full length 6.4cm/ centre link 3.8cm Weight and material: 28.2g. Copper alloy Details: Fragment of cannon and centre link. Shows sign of grinding wear as would be expected. Raftery 1983: 7, 13. Pl. 27.

IB19B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1889.21 Provenance: Headford, near Kenmare, County Kerry

IB23B Museum: British Museum Accession Number: 1936.0611.8 117

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 15.3cm/Functional mouthpiece 10.6cm/ centre link 3. 2cm Weight and material: 83.2g Copper alloy Details: Mouthpiece. Another slender and refined Type B, with small nips on the intact cannon. However, one of the cannons is ripped and slashed, suggesting a deliberate action rather than accidental or corrosive. Attractive gold patina. Possibility that defective cannon was a different alloy as slightly blackened and different texture to the other. Raftery 1983: 52, 25. Pl. 12.

Measurements: Full length 31.7cm/Functional mouthpiece 11.1.cm/ centre link 2.7cm/ cheek ring diameter 9.8cm/ stop stud size 0.9cm Weight and material: 157.2g. Copper alloy Details: Complete, and in perfect condition, with traces of light wear at cannon apertures. Dark patina. Extremely unusual piece as that it does not quite conform to the typical Type B shape, but incorporates the narrowness of a Type C with a developing curvature closer to a Type D. Unusual stop studs with a charming and beautifully executed hedgehog-esque design. The entire specimen is playful in its themes, with the outer cannons cast as little duck-like heads. Extraordinary and refined piece of art. Raftery 1983: 49, 24. Pl. 25.

IB24B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1938: 8576 Provenance: Abbeyshrule, County Longford Measurements: Full length 31.1cm/Functional mouthpiece 11.4cm/centre link 3.4cm/cheek ring diameter 9.6cm/stop stud size 1.1cm Weight and material: 345g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Beautiful details within the bit construction such as the fine traced lines on the cannons and the elegantly executed V moulds. Some modifications carried out in antiquity, as extra holes bored within metal for rivets. Some damage on upper parts of cannon which would appear to be corrosion. Raftery 1983: 22, 17. Pl. 13.

IB27B Museum: Ulster Museum, held by Downpatrick regional museum Accession Number: BELUM 945.1910. Provenance: Ballynahinch, County Down Measurements: 24.6cm/ ring diameter 4.4cm Weight and material: Copper alloy Details: Uncharacteristically small cheek rings, similar to the Loughan Island unclassified bit UCB5. Hollow cannons, but what appear to be iron cheek rings which may possibly be of a later date than the mouthpiece. Small piece of metal coiled around one cannon. Raftery 1983: 16, 15. Pl. 29.

IB25B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1938: 8577 Provenance: Abbeyshrule, County Longford Measurements: Full length28.9cm/ Functional mouthpiece 11.7cm/centre link 3.5cm/ cheek ring diameter 9.6cm/ stop stud size 0.9cm Weight and material: 337g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Some erosion damage, different from its counterpart, suggestive of two different alloy blends, one which coped better with deposition conditions than the other. Equally well-made with a subtle double V mould, although some deep scratches on one cannon indicate attempted scraping of the surface. The nearby Cloonbrin bog, which incorporates the River Inny within its system, has produced numerous antiquities, and it must remain a possibility that the pieces were found within this area. Raftery 1983: 23, 17. Pl. 13.

IB28B Museum: Ulster Museum Accession Number: BELUM A 5553 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 9.6cm/Centre link 3cm Weight and material: 34.6g. Copper alloy identified as gunmetal Details: Fragmented. Obviously a fine and slender piece with well-developed V moulds when intact. Parts of cannons and intact centre link. Damaged and corroded metal, with little evidence this was deliberate, with no slashed cuts, rather raw edges indicative of breakage. Raftery 1983: 47, 24. Pl. 14. IB29B Museum: Ulster Museum Accession Number: BELUM A 654.1910 Provenance: Kilmore, County Antrim Measurements: Full length 10.9cm/ estimated functional mouthpiece 11.3cm/ centre link 3.1cm/ cannon 4.6cm Weight and material: 88.2g. Two alloy blends used; a tin free brass for the cannon, and a leaded bronze for the link.

IB26B Museum: Teaching Collection University College of Dublin Accession Number: 98.3.2405 Provenance: Unknown

118

Catalogue

Details: One cannon and centre link. Some depositional scratches and damage but little actual corrosion. Raftery 1983: 9, 13. Pl. 14.

IB34B Museum: National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh Accession Number: MM20 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 8.9cm/centre link 3.4cm/ cheek ring diameter 8.1cm Weight and material: 122.3g. Copper alloy Details: Unusual geometric design, like a skewed Grecian key, on outward facing parts of cannon. Traces of red staining indicating the cells once contained red glass or enamel within the champlevé cells. Metal very yellow and bright, suspected high zinc content. Cannon outer wall squared off, slightly reminiscent of the Thorsbergtype squared block cannon ends. Raftery 1983: 54, 26. Pl. 16.

IB30B Museum: Unknown Accession Number: n/a Provenance: Lough Inchiquin, County Clare Measurements: 18.2cm approximation Weight and material: Unknown Details: Raftery 1983: 14, 15 who took his drawing from a photograph in Macnamara 1901, 358 Pl. 28. IB31B Museum: Pitt Rivers, Oxford Accession Number: Unknown Provenance: County Dublin Measurements: 16cm Weight and material: Unknown Details: Raftery 1983: 18, 16. Pl. 27.

IB35B Museum: National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh Accession Number: MM22 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 15.2cm/Functional mouthpiece 10.3cm/ centre link 3.2cm Weight and material: 116.1g. Copper alloy Details: Mouthpiece. Uneven wear on cannon apertures. Considerable damage and now held together by wire. Fragile state and metal ‘gives’ under even slight pressure from fingers. Distortion of metal as a whole questions if this uneven wear is in fact due to alloy rather than possible driving. Raftery 1983: 55, 26. Pl. 15.

IB32B Museum: National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh Accession Number: MM17 Provenance: Tracton Abbey, Cork Measurements: Full length 28.9cm/Functional mouthpiece 10.9cm/centre link 3.3cm/cheek ring 8.4cm/ stop stud size 0.7cm Weight and material: 143.6g. Copper alloy Details: Complete apart from one cheek ring which is broken with a piece missing. The slender, refined ‘palfrey’ type B bit, obviously made for fine headed equids with little need for extreme control. A sophisticated example of the type. Found in the river close to Tracton Abbey itself. The area around the abbey incudes an historic lead mine, at Aghnacarriga, and an iron rich (chalybeate) spring beside the ruins of the abbey (Lewis 1837). Raftery 1983: 15, 15. Pl. 15.

IB36B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: P510 Provenance: Unknown Weight and material: 315.7g Copper alloy Measurements: Full length 28.1cm/Functional mouthpiece 12.8cm/ centre link 3.4cm/ cheek ring diameter 9.6cm/ stop stud size1.6cm Details: Complete apart from a cheek ring. Beautifully made with strong cannons and developed V moulds. Loose fit at the centre link. Stop studs with La Tènestyle ‘owl eyes’. Light wear throughout the piece at all points of flexibility. Raftery 1983: 41, 22. Pl. 19.

IB33B Museum: National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh Accession Number: MM19 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 15.2cm/ Functional mouthpiece 10.4cm/centre link 3.2cm Weight and material: 119.3g. Copper alloy Details: Mouthpiece. A very well-made piece, with some slight damage at one cannon, possibly heat damage, as slight bubbling of metal. Could equally be a flaw in casting. Attractive golden patina. Raftery 1983: 53, 25. Pl. 15.

IB37B Museum: Cork City Museum Accession Number: Reg number16 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 30.9cm/ Functional mouthpiece 10.5cm/centre link 3.3cm/ cheek ring diameter 8.4cm/stop stud size 1.4cm Weight and material: 292g. Copper alloy identified as red brass Details: Complete. Unique trapezoidal centre link. Post depositional damage done to cheek ring, which is now 119

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context snapped with jagged edges, indicating some fragility or brittleness of metal alloy. Raftery 1983: 48, 24. Pl. 19.

IB42B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W56 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 29.8cm/ functional mouthpiece 11.3cm/centre link 3.1cm/cheek ring diameter 9.6cm/stop stud size 1.2cm Weight and material: 352g. Copper alloy Details: Complete although one cheek ring is broken. Graceful curved lines traced down the length of cannon to accentuate the shape. Slightly squared-off outer cannon. Slightly damaged inner cannon on one side close to centre link. Hollow, and internal structure visible. Stop studs with zoomorphic La Tène-derivative ‘eyes’ pattern. Blackened patina. Raftery 1983: 30, 19. Pl. 17.

IB38B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: SA1913.751 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Cheek ring diameter 9.8cm/ stop stud size 1.4cm Weight and material: 156g. Copper alloy Details: Cheek ring. Poor condition with considerable oxidisation and metal damage. Notable for zoomorphic ‘owl eyes’ similar to the Glauberg idol shape. Raftery 1983: 61-63, 28. Pl. 16. IB39B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: SA1913.752 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Cheek ring diameter 9.9cm/ stop stud size 1.4cm Weight and material: 151g. Copper alloy Details: Likely part of a pair with SA1913.751. Equally poor state, with corrosion and oxidisation, suggesting made from same casting of metal. Raftery 1983: 61-63, 28 Pl. 16.

IB43B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W59 Provenance: Navan County Meath Measurements: Full length 16.3cm/Functional mouthpiece 11.3cm/centre link 3.2cm Weight and material: 145g. Copper alloy Details: Originally part of the Simm collection of the 19th century. A robust specimen showing some use-wear damage and use on the cannon. Dark patina. Unusual centre link with ridged squared edges. Raftery 1983: 25,17. Pl. 18.

IB40B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W161 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Cheek ring diameter 9.9cm/stop stud size 1.4cm Weight and material: 102.7g. Copper alloy Details: Cheek ring only. Reasonable condition. Pl. 22.

IB44B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W61 Provenance: Kinefad Bridge, County Offaly Measurements: Full length 28.3cm/ Functional mouthpiece 10.9cm/ centre link 3.4cm/ cheek ring diameter 7.8cm Weight and material: 270.7g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Some light wear and scratches. Two sets of holes in cheek rings for (missing) stop studs) suggesting modification of size at some stage in the past. Found in the shallows of the River Boyne in the gravel beneath Kinefad Bridge. This shallow part of the river is recorded as being a traditional boundary marker (Hamond 2005, 81). Raftery 1983: 26.17. Pl. 18.

IB41B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W49 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 22.7cm/Functional mouthpiece 11.6cm/ centre link 3.1cm/cheek ring diameter 4.8cm/ stop stud size 0.6cm Weight and material: 327.1g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Unusual small D-shaped cheek rings appear made of iron (or at the very least, veneered with iron). Cheek rings are slightly bent. They may well be replacements on the originals as they are considerably smaller and of different shape than normal Irish Iron Age cheek rings. Mouthpiece itself is a sturdy and typical Type B with developed V moulds. Raftery 1983: 29, 18. Pl. 17.

IB45B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W62 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 31.2cm/Functional mouthpiece 11.2cm/ centre link 3.4cm/ cheek ring diameter 9.1cm/stop stud size 1.1cm Weight and material: 391.4g. Copper alloy

120

Catalogue

Details: Complete. Fine condition, and well-made bit showing considerable skill. Subtle V mould and plain stop studs with a rivet or nail in the centre, clearly visible. Some flattening and distortion of one cheek ring, possibly due to deposition. Raftery 1983: 31,19. Pl. 20.

Accession Number: W70 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 31.4cm/ Functional mouthpiece 11.2cm/ centre link 2.9cm/ cheek ring diameter 9.2cm/ stop stud size 1.1cm Weight and material: 219g. Copper alloy Details: Complete, although cheek rings corroded and flaking, it is impossible to ascertain if wear is even or uneven. Considerable damage to cannons, with scratches, hacks and almost total destruction of outer cannon. Star-shaped or concentric circle stop studs. Raftery 1983: 35, 20. Pl. 22.

IB46B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W63 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 32.6cm/Functional mouthpiece 11cm/ centre link 3.4cm/ cheek ring diameter 10.1cm/ stop stud size 1.1cm Weight and material: 438.7g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Excellent condition, with indications of light wear. Some mid-cannon wear suggesting regular use by a forward horse. Unusual concentric circle, or star-like, design on stop studs. Raftery 1983: 32, 19. Pl. 20.

IB50B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W72 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Cheek ring diameter 9.8cm/ stop stud size 1.2cm Weight and material: 149g. Copper alloy Details: Cheek ring, broken in two. Stop studs the ‘owl eyes’ style of curvilinear design. Raftery 1983: 61-63, 28. Pl. 22.

IB47B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W64 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 31.2cm/Functional mouthpiece10.9cm/ centre link 3.7cm/ cheek ring diameter 9.2cm/ stop stud size 0.9cm Weight and material: 341g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Refined design and exceptionally well made. Light use wear. Unique stop studs shaped like tiny funnels or cups, which bear residual traces of red enamel or glass. Simple cheek rings with some damage or scratches on one, and subtle V-moulds close to the inner part of the cannon which is closest to the centre link. Raftery 1983: 33, 20. Pl. 21.

IB51B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W74 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: 12.4cm/Functional mouthpiece estimated 10.3cm/ centre link 3.7cm/chek ring diameter 7.1cm/ stop stud size 0.4cm Weight and material: 151g. Copper alloy Details: One cannon and cheek ring with centre link intact. Well- made, with a golden patina. Little damage and light use wear on cannon and centre link. Raftery 1983: 36, 20-21. Pl. 24.

IB48B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W65 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 33cm/Functional mouthpiece 11.3cm/centre link 3.4cm/cheek ring diameter 9.8cm/ stop stud size 1.2cm Weight and material: 349g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. One cannon aperture shows signs of deliberate distortion of metal to make a larger aperture, not by natural wear but by force. Damage to one cannon, with the impression it has been a replacement at some stage in antiquity as it lacks the refinement of the other cannon. Several folds on the V moulding. Concentric or star-shaped stop studs. Raftery 1983: 34, 20. Pl. 21.

IB52B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W76 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 23.4cm/ Functional mouthpiece 10.2cm/centre link 3.4cm/ cheek ring 9.5cm/stop stud size 1.2cm Weight and material: 301.1g. Copper alloy Details: Mouthpiece and cheek ring. Excellent condition and made with considerable refinement. Unusual squared centre link repaired with small stud or rivet. Stop studs with central rivet. Raftery 1983: 37, 21. Pl. 24. IB53B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W83 Provenance: Unknown

IB49B Museum: National Museum of Ireland 121

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Measurements: Full length 10.4cm/estimated functional mouthpiece 11cm/ centre link 3.4cm Weight and material: 69.6g. Copper alloy Details: One cannon and centre link. Cannon includes La Tène derivative style decoration of simple traced lines on outer side. Raftery 1983: 38, 21. Pl. 23.

Details: Mouthpiece. Remarkably light alloy weighing around half (72.9g) what most mouthpieces weigh (upwards of 160g). Suspected training piece, very little wear. Raftery 1983: 65, 29. Pl. 30. IB2C Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1932.6471 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 8.3cm/ Functional length 5.3cm Weight and material: 48g. Copper alloy Details: Single cannon, damaged at both ends. Estimated mouthpiece size is likely to have been close to 11cm. Raftery 1983: 86, 29. Pl. 30.

IB54B Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W84 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 6.3cm Weight and material: 38.6g. Copper alloy Details: Fragment of cannon, badly damaged. Raftery 1983: 39, 21-22. Pl. 23.

IB3C Museum: Ulster Museum Accession Number: BELUM 93.1935 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 6.5cm/ Functional length 4.2cm Weight and material: 33.1g. Copper alloy identified as tin bronze Details: Single cannon. Projected mouthpiece size likely to be close to 11cm, Raftery 1983: 67, 29. Pl. 30.

IB55B Museum: National Library of Ireland Accession Number: Unknown Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 32.5cm (Raftery 1983: 27) Weight and material: Unknown Details: Lost. Complete specimen. Raftery 1983: 59, 27. Pl. 26. IB56B Museum: Wallington House Museum, Northumberland Accession Number: NT 583525 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 14.5cm Weight and material: Unknown Details: Raftery (1983: 30) questioned if this specimen was in fact a Type D, his number 88. However, the sketch is almost exactly the shape of the Wallington piece, which is portrayed as being in a bent position in Raftery. It has, however, lost its cheek rings. Unexamined by author. Not illustrated.

IB4C Museum: Ulster Museum Accession Number: BELUM 16.1936 Provenance: Gortgole, County Antrim Measurements: Full length 15.4cm/Functional mouthpiece 10.1cm/centre link 2.9cm/cheek ring diameter estimated7.3cm/stop stud size 0.6cm Weight and material: 144.8g. Both cannon and ring identified as semi-red brass Details: Mouthpiece and broken cheek rings. Rings damaged and weakened through faulty stud connective plate. Plain and pronounced stop studs. Parts of the cannon ridged as though stressed at some stage. Some light wear at both centre link and cannon apertures, Raftery 1983: 64, 28. Pl. 31.

Type C bits Fine and slender double-jointed snaffles with simple, slightly curved cannons, generally indicative of use on smaller or younger animals. Narrower than all other Irish Iron Age bits and smaller in size as well. Undecorated. Their use as training bits cannot be discounted.

IB5C Museum: CML, but currently lost Accession Number: Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Unknown Weight and material: Unknown Details: Lost. All details and image from Raftery 1983: number 68, 29, and 22 Pl. 31.

IB1C Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1000.2944 (W 159) Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 15.1cm/Functional mouthpiece 10.2cm/2.9cm/7.8cm Weight and material: 72.9g. Copper alloy 122

Catalogue

IB4D Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1881.302 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 17.3cm/Functional mouthpiece 11.6cm/ centre link 2.4cm Weight and material: 184g. Copper alloy Details: Mouthpiece. Dramatic arch of cannons, which are in reasonably good condition. Some considerable wear on cannons and the centre link in particular. Outer parts of cannons quite angular. La Tène-derivative cast design on cannons, consisting of two lyre-like scrolls which then make up some kind of serpentine ‘face’ when viewed from the top. Good condition overall. Raftery 1983: 93, 37. Pl. 34.

Type D bits This type of double jointed snaffle is marked by dramatically arched cannons, and more ornate La Tènederivative decoration is common. The outer section of the cannons are blunter than the subsequent Type E. The presence of V-moulding on the cannons is variable, but the beginnings of a lip-guard are present. These are almost all solid and broad bits. IB1D Museum: Cork City Museum Accession Number: 83 Provenance: Streamstown, Westmeath Measurements: 28.2cm (Raftery 1983: number 83, 34) Weight and material: Unknown Details: Currently missing. Details of bits in Raftery’s entries for his numbers 83 and 84 must remain unclear, as he refers to them as being identical, yet illustrations (Pl. 30) and recorded information indicate there are indeed differences of wear in particular. Part of a pair found, see IB16D. Pl. 32.

IB5D Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1882.222 Provenance: Roscommon – unspecified if town or county. Measurements: Full length 25.8cm/ Functional mouthpiece 9.7cm/ centre link 2.8cm/ cheek ring diameter 7.1cm/ stop stud size 0.5cm Weight and material: 371.6g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Worn trace of simple linear cast design on cannons. Dark blackish-bronze patina on both mouthpiece and cheek rings. Mouthpiece cannot be flexed outwards as it is either soldered into a bent position or it has corroded into this shape. Outer cannons starting to take a more elongated form, towards the Type E shape. Some damage to cheek rings, along with some flaking of metal. It seems likely that deposition has resulted in some warping of the cheek rings in particular which are quite fine. Found with Y-piece Y2A:05. Raftery 1983: 81, 33. Pl. 33.

IB2D Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: Provenance: Drumanagh, Co. Dublin. Measurements: Weight and material: Details: Details embargoed by NMI Not illustrated IB3D Museum: Alnwick Museum, Northumberland Accession Number: 1880.471 Provenance: Unknown, although possibly Roscommon due to most of collection sourced from region in 19th century Measurements: Full length 26.6cm/Functional mouthpiece 11.4cm/centre link 3cm/ cheek ring diameter 7.1cm/ stop stud size 0.4cm Weight and material: 329.4g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. A very fine specimen with some damage, both from wear and time. Small hacks in cheek rings have allowed corrosion of the metal, and as such the rings are not in good condition. Average use wear on cannons and centre link. Same small cuts, almost razorlike, on side of one cannon. Some remains of a sinuous La Tène-derivative pattern on one the cannons, but this has entirely worn off the other. Small and understated V mould, but the arch of the cannons is noticeable. Raftery 1983: 98, 39. Pl. 32.

IB6D Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1969.832 Provenance: Durk Island, Cormongan, County Leitrim Measurements: Full length 26.4cm/ Functional mouthpiece 10.7cm/centre link 3.3cm/ cheek ring diameter 7.1cm/ stop stud size 0.3cm Weight and material: 357g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Well-made sturdy specimen, with some corrosion and oxidisation of metal. Silvery patina. Cannon decorated with a La Tène-derivative cast pattern loosely resembling the eye shape on British bits such as Middlebie, and cheek pieces found at Newstead. Found on the rocky shore of a small island, close to the discharge point of the river Shannon into the lake. Part of a hoard, with a Y-piece, Y2A:10. Raftery 1983: 77, 32. Pl. 33.

123

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context IB7D Museum: Private collection – unseen. Accession Number: n/a Provenance: Loughan Island, River Bann, near Coleraine Measurements: Full length 25.9cm Weight and material: Unknown Details: Raftery 1983 Number 74, 31. Memory from local boating group in Coleraine (T Flood, Crannagh Marina, 2016) is that this piece was found in the mud of Loughan Island in the late 1920s, and was of such a strong golden patina, its find sparked something of a treasure hunt. Whereabouts currently unknown. Raftery 1983: 73, 31. Pl. 40.

Weight and material: 36.7g. Copper alloy Details: Single cannon, likely the other part of IB11D. Dark and rich brown patina. Traces of decoration on outer cannon, with two very small perforations which may suggest some decorative veneer or inset was pinned to the outer cannon. Raftery 1983: 70, 30. Pl. 34. IB11D Museum: Hunterian Museum Glasgow Accession Number: B1914.323 Provenance: Garry Bog, Ballymoney, County Antrim Measurements: Full length 13.5cm/ functional size of cannon 11cm Weight and material: 37.2g Copper alloy Details: Single cannon, with IB10D. Dark patina, no small perforations, but a hint of decoration which has worn off. Small nicks out of inner part of cannon. Raftery 1983: 70, 30 Pl. 34.

IB8D Museum: British Museum Accession Number: 1902.1219.1 Provenance: Killucan, Westmeath Measurements: Full length 15.3cm/ Functional mouthpiece 10.1cm/centre link 3.4cm/ cheek ring diameter 7cm/ stop stud size 0.4cm Weight and material: 277.6g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Elegant curved ‘diamond’-shaped cast pattern on outer cannons, tapering to simple curved lines up the length of the cannon. Some damage to one of the cannons, in the form of blistering of the metal. Replacement cannon as V mould not the same on each side. Cannons arched and well-made. Small lentoid stop studs. Considerable use-wear on both cannon apertures and centre link. Some blistering of metal and flaking on cheek rings, leading to a roughness of appearance on what once must have been a very refined and sophisticated bit. Exact find spot not stated, but a ‘fairy fort’ (aka earthwork) between Rathwire and Killucan, believed to be the fort of an ancient chieftain, Guaire must be suspected. This site was adopted by early Christianity in the early 6t century AD by an abbot, Lucan (Editorial, Irish Archaeological Society, 1846 Vol 10 280-281). Raftery 1983: 82, 33. Pl. 35.

IB12D Museum: Ulster Museum Accession Number: BELUM A18.1944 Provenance: Bushmills, County Antrim Measurements: Full length 14.3cm/ Functional mouthpiece 9.2cm/ centre link 3cm Weight and material: 189.6g. Copper alloy identified as brass Details: Mouthpiece. Robust specimen, rich dark patina. Angular outer cannons and well defined linear design on the outer cannon, tapering to a single line highlighting the cannon. Considerable wear on outer cannon apertures, with one of these holes slightly cracked, with a very small nick out of it. Raftery 1983: 71, 30-31. Pl. 35.

IB9D Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1963.101 Provenance: Clongill, County Meath Measurements: Full length 26.8cm Weight and material: Unknown Details: Currently missing. Complete. Found in a ploughed field with Y-piece Y2B:10. Raftery 1983: 78, 32. Pl. 40.

IB13D Museum: Ulster Museum Accession Number: BELUM A5552 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 12.3cm/ functional size of cannon 4.2cm/ Cheek ring 7.7cm Weight and material: 112.1g. Copper alloy on both cheek ring and cannon as leaded bronze Details: Cannon and cheek ring only. A simple and undecorated piece. Has been identified as Raftery’s number 95 (1983: 38) which lacked a catalogue number. Pl. 35.

IB10D Museum: Hunterian Museum Glasgow Accession Number: B1914.322 Provenance: Garry Bog, Ballymoney, County Antrim Measurements: Full length 13.5cm/ functional size of cannon 11cm

IB14D Museum: Unknown Accession Number: Unknown Provenance: County Dublin Measurements: Unknown Weight and material: Unknown 124

Catalogue

Details: Recorded in Herity 1969 (33) and Raftery (1983:76,31) Believed lost, but may possibly be the Drumanagh Type D specimen as the similarity, plus the fact both are iron, is strikingly similar. Pl. 40.

IB19D Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: Unknown Provenance: Loughane West, Cork Measurements: Unknown Weight and material: Unknown Details: LOST/MISSING Raftery 1983: number 71, 31 and Haworth 1971, 46 both make reference to a MS of this bit. Not illustrated.

IB15D Museum: National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh Accession Number: MM24 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 15.7cm/Functional mouthpiece 10.6cm/ centre link 2.2cm Weight and material: 127.4g. Copper alloy Details: Mouthpiece. Badly damaged outer cannons, where the metal has broken, exposing the hollow casting of the piece. Pale silvery patina, possibly due to restoration. Raftery 1983: 97, 38. Pl. 37.

IB20D Museum: Ulster Museum Accession Number: RS1990.14 Provenance: Aghivey, Derry Measurements: Full length 26.7cm/ Functional mouthpiece 11.2cm/ centre link 3.2cm/ cheek ring diameter 7.1cm/ stop stud size 0.7cm Weight and material: 312.8g. Copper alloy identified as brass with an elevated iron content Details: Complete. Well-made, although unremarkable bit with a slight pinkish tinge to alloy. Aghivey is a ford of the Bann, and once had a shallow lake where the rivers met before flowing into Lough Beg and Lough Neagh. There is a record of a gold patera being found here which may have belonged to the 7th century AD church of St Goarcus (Lewis 1837). Eogan (1965, 51) lists sword find Cat 123, of presumably Bronze Age dates at the same spot on the ford. Lewis also noted the presence of chalybete springs with high iron content in this area. Raftery 1983: 75, 31. Pl. 36.

IB16D Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1948.174 Provenance: Streamstown, County Westmeath Measurements: Weight and material: Details: Complete. Part of hoard with IBID. Considerable evidence of repairs, with iron rivets still in place on cheek rings, and other modifications showing long term use and mending (Raftery 1983: No 84, 34). The decoration of the outer cannon takes the form of outward/upwards swirls which resemble eyes, directly the opposite of IB1D’s inwards and downwards decorative ‘eye’ swirls. Raftery 1983: 84, 34. Pl. 38.

IB21D Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: S1913.76 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 16.9cm/Functional mouthpiece estimation 12cm/centre link 2.9cm/ cheek ring diameter 6.9cm/ stop stud size 0.5cm Weight and material: 194g. Copper alloy Details: Cheek ring, cannon and centre link. Damaged centre link, obvious corrosion and cheek ring. Raftery 1983: 94, 38. Pl. 39.

IB17D Museum: National Museum of Ireland: currently missing. Accession Number: P512 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Unknown Weight and material: Unknown Details: Complete. Raftery 1983: 91, 36. Pl. 45. IB18D Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: P513 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 8.8cm/ functional size of cannon 4.3cm (estimated mouthpiece size 11.5cm/ Weight and material: 113.8g. Copper alloy Details: Single cannon .Original decoration scraped off, and an interpretation of La Tène style placed over it. However, two alloys are clearly visible, with darker banding, and bright golden alloy beneath it. Raftery 1983: 92, 37. Pl. 37.

IB22D Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W50 Provenance: Ballynaminton, County Offaly Measurements: Full length 25.2cm/Functional mouthpiece 9.7cm/centre link 3.1cm/ cheek ring diameter 7.3cm/ stop stud size 0.6cm Weight and material: 349.3g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Gently rounded eggbutt cheek rings. Finely made with slightly angular cannons. Plain stop

125

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context studs with rivets or pins in the centre of them. Sturdy, well preserved bit. Raftery 1983: 80, 33. Pl. 36.

Details: Complete but damaged. Mouthpiece shows damage and repair, and therefore longevity of use, with stop studs replaced in antiquity. Uneven wear on both cannon and cheek rings. Part of a hoard, with Y-pieces which Wilde (1861, 605) classified as part of the debris after the battle/s of either Achall or Gabhra. Distinctive zoomorphic cast pattern on cannon, and a stud placed through the top of a cannon to keep it place. Raftery 1983: 79, 32. Pl. 42.

IB23D Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W51 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 26.7cm/Functional mouthpiece 11.5cm/centre link 2.9cm/cheek ring diameter 6.4cm/ stop stud size 0.9cm Weight and material: 366.8g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Slightly warped shape. Some damage and many sharp, angular cuts on both cannons. Stop stud missing from pre-deposition period, as indications of soldering of gap in antiquity. A stop stud missing, with a rivet placed and welded into the cheek ring through antiquity. Raftery 1983: 86, 35. Pl. 39.

IB27D Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W69 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 29.8cm/ Functional mouthpiece 13.6cm/ centre link 3.3cm/ cheek ring diameter 8cm/ stop stud size 0.9cm Weight and material: 340g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Fine eggbutt cheek rings, warped slightly due to their narrowness. Some light wear but this does not appear to be a bit which ever exerted great control, as it is finer than most Type D pieces. Some scratches and bites present on cannons, the bites on one cannon suggesting that at some stage this was too large for an animal it was used on. Raftery 1983: 88, 36. Pl. 42.

IB24D Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W52 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 25.1cm/Functional mouthpiece 10.6cm/centre link 2.9cm/ cheek ring diameter 6.8cm/stop stud size 0.6cm Weight and material: 299.3g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Cannon decorated with quite a serpentine La Tène derivative cast design. Plain stop studs. Small cracks in cannons but no actual breakage. Signs of considerable wear at the outer cannon apertures. Small rings, slightly bent. Bright yellow gold patina. Raftery 1983: 87, 35. Pl. 41.

IB28D Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W80 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 17cm (8.4cm and 8.6cm)/ estimated functional mouthpiece 12cm Weight and material: 122.6g Copper alloy Details: Two cannons. If from the same bit, then they each have unique and uneven wear around the apertures. One cannon has blistering of metal, as if subjected to extreme heat at some stage in the past. Many cracks around the inner cannon apertures on both pieces. Lightly traced cast design on each. Base of inner cannons squared off, a design more typical of the Type E. Raftery 1983: 89, 36. Pl. 43.

IB25D Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W54 Provenance: Loughan Island, near Coleraine, Derry. Measurements: Full length 25.4cm/Functional mouthpiece 11.1cm/ centre link 3.1cm/ cheek ring diameter 6.9cm/ stop stud size 0.4cm Weight and material: 393.8g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Trace of La Tène derivative style casting on cannon, but unclear what the design actually was. Sturdy rounded cannons. Bright gold. Corrosion of cheek rings which do not appear to be of the same alloy as mouthpiece. Raftery 1983: 74, 31. Pl. 41.

IB29D Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W82 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length of cannon 9.1cm/ estimated functional mouthpiece 12cm Weight and material: 111g. Copper alloy Details: Single cannon. La Tène-derivative decoration which may not be dissimilar to that of IB18D/P513, as the circular design could be viewed as the stylised eyes

IB26D Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W55 Provenance: Tara, Skryn valley, County Meath Measurements: 26.8cm/11.5cm/3.2cm/7.3cm/1.2cm Weight and material: 357g Copper alloy 126

Catalogue

of a cow or horse. Numerous cuts and damaged inner cannon aperture. Raftery 1983: 90, 36. Pl. 43.

Type E bits The most sophisticated and innovative bit of the ancient world, the Type E is characterised by a dramatically arched cannons, with a pronounced outer lip guard which is dragonesque or serpentine in shape. The inner cannon is often highly stylised with a phallic bulb and fold shape. Decoration is infrequent but is present on a few specimens.

IB30D Museum: Royal Ontario Museum Accession Number: 935.12.50 (AF342) Provenance: Conwy River, near Caerhun, Wales Measurements: 24.5cm Weight and material: Unknown. Copper alloy Details: Dredged in 1842 from the river near Caerhun, Wales. Cast and hammered elements of bit noted by Dr Kay Sunahama (curator, pers comm, 2015). Not quite ‘Irish’ in its design, being much narrower and sharper in design, with a very different kind of loose centre link. Two alloys appear to be present, one on cannons and one on centre link. Raftery 1983: number 135, 49. Not illustrated, see for online image: https://collections.rom.

IB1E Museum: Alnwick Museum, Northumberland Accession Number: 1882.470 Provenance: Unknown, but possibly Roscommon, as most of collection allegedly sourced from Roscommon and Midlands Measurements: Full length 29.1cm/ functional mouthpiece 10.7cm/ centre link 3.8cm/ cheek ring diameter 7.1cm/ stop stud size 0.3cm Weight and material: 277.9g Copper alloy Details: Complete. Arguably the most dramatic and aesthetically pleasing of entire catalogue, made with considerable eye to detail. Blackened patina, strongly defined cast La Tène derivative design on cannons. Fascinum stylisation highly defined with pronounced ‘folds’ within mouthpiece. Unusual raised ‘spots’ at bottom of inner cannon. Raftery 1983: 127, 46. Pl. 46.

on.ca/objects/394842/threelinked-snafflebit?ctx=ac589fde2457-403a-ad17-eb1ea6b37791&idx=7

IB31D Museum: Private possession Accession Number: n/a Provenance: Possibly Tenbury Wells, Worcester, England Measurements: 29.4cm Weight and material: Unknown Details: See Raftery 1983: 96, 38. Pl. 44.

IB2E Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: Provenance: Drumanagh. County Dublin Measurements: Weight and material: Details: Details embargoed by National Museum of Ireland Not illustrated due to current embargo

IB32D Museum: Private collection Accession Number: n/a Provenance: Dolgellau, Wales Measurements: 25.3cm Weight and material: Unknown Details: Authenticity questioned according to Raftery (1983: 136, 49), although nothing about its shape or style would alert to forgery. Pl. 38.

IB3E Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: Provenance: Drumanagh, County Dublin Measurements: Weight and material: Details: Details embargoed by National Museum of Ireland Not illustrated due to current embargo

IB33D Museum: University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography Accession Number: 99.238 Provenance: Ballykilleen Hill, Edenderry, County Offaly Measurements: Full length 28.1cm/ Functional mouthpiece 10.4cm/ centre link 3.1cm/cheek-ring diameter 6.8cm Weight and material: 311.3g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Almost all Irish pieces in collection come from the earthwork/mound of Ballykilleen Hill, which overlooks a river ford. Raftery 1983: 85, 34. Pl. 45.

IB4E Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1891.9a Provenance: Attymon, County Galway Measurements: Full length 31.1cm Weight and material: Unknown. Copper alloy Details: Not inspected as still on ‘Kingship and Sacrifice’ display at NMI, Dublin. Raftery 1983: 102, 40. Pl. 47. 127

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context IB5E Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1891.9 Provenance: Attymon, County Galway Measurements: Full length 31.6cm Weight and material: Unknown. Copper alloy Details: Not inspected as still on ‘Kingship and Sacrifice’ display at NMI, Dublin. Raftery 1983: 103, 40 Pl. 47

collection. Alloy surface rough and irregular, as one would expect rust to affect iron, yet this is obviously a copper alloy of some kind. No indication of wear at the outer aperture of the cannon. Small lentoid stop studs, in equally bad condition. Raftery 1983: 104, 41. Pl. 48. IB10E Museum: British Museum Accession Number: 1854.1227.44 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 11.8cm/ estimated functional mouthpiece size 14cm/ centre link 3.2cm/ cheek ring diameter 7.7cm/ stop stud size 0.3cm Weight and material: 169g. Copper alloy Details: Single cannon with centre link and one cheek ring. Well made, darkened golden patina, light usewear at centre link. Outer tip of cannon rounded, but lip guard well-proportioned without being extreme. Multiple folds on inner cannon fascinum bulb, with small raised spot at squared off base. This raised spot is not easily visible and only really detected by running fingers over the piece. Cheek ring slightly misshapen with some small cracks. Pl. 50.

IB6E Museum: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford Accession Number: 1927.2905 Provenance: ‘Northern Ireland’ Measurements: Full length 21.3cm/functional mouthpiece 13.1cm/centre link 3.3cm/ cheek ring diameter 8.1cm/ stop stud size 0.6cm Weight and material: 152.5g. Copper alloy Details: Almost complete but missing a cheek ring and part of a cannon. Refined piece, more slender than most Type Es. Darkened bronze patina. Damage to remaining cheek ring and some flaking of metal. Understated bulb and fold, and damage to both inner cannon areas – the fragmentary cannon appears to have been hacked off, from its clean cut. Raftery 1983: 110, 42. Pl. 46.

IB11E Museum: British Museum Accession Number: 1868.0709.12 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: 10.2cm/estimated functional mouthpiece size 13cm (cannon 5.6cm)/ cheek ring diameter 8cm/ stop stud size 0.3cm Weight and material: 143g. Copper alloy Details: Cannon and cheek ring. Triangulated lip guard, with squared off base. Visible raised spot at bottom of inner cannon. Multiple folds at bulb section. Small lentoid stop studs. Grinding use-wear at inner cannon link. Cheek ring damaged slightly with some cuts which appear to be post-depositional. A somewhat utilitarian piece for all its flamboyant shape. Raftery 1983: 124, 45. Pl. 48.

IB7E Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1931.3 Provenance: Cong South, County Mayo Measurements: 30.8cm Weight and material: Unknown Details: MISSING. Found on the shore of Lough Corrib’s inlet across Abbey Street, near Cong Abbey. Illustration from Raftery 1983 106, 41, Pl. 34. Pl. 49. IB8E Museum: Pitt Rivers, Oxford Accession Number: unknown Provenance: Possibly Devon, England Measurements: Unknown Weight and material: Unknown Details: LOST (Raftery 1983: number 111, 42) Not Illustrated

IB12E Museum: British Museum Accession Number: 1868.0709.13 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 22.7cm/Functional mouthpiece11.5cm/cheek ring diameter 7cm Weight and material: 213g. Copper alloy Details: Two slightly different shaped cannons, indicating replacement in the past, one of them more rounded than the other. Numerous scratches and hack marks on the surface of both cannons. Centre link missing, and cannons held together with a piece of metal wire. Bubbling and cracks within alloy of cannons and some distortion of one cannon plus the cheek ring, as if it

IB9E Museum: British Museum Accession Number: 1853.0528.3 Provenance: ‘Near Galway’. Unspecified if town or county Measurements: Full length 10.1cm/ estimated functional mouthpiece 13cm (cannon 5.4cm)/ cheek ring diameter 7.8cm/ stop stud size 0.6cm Weight and material: 103g. Copper alloy Details: Cannon and cheek ring. Very poor condition, possibly the poorest condition of any specimen in any 128

Catalogue

had been subjected to weight or pressure. Small lentoid stop studs. Simple fold and bulb shape of cannon. An attractive dull gold patina. Raftery 1983: 123, 45. Pl. 51.

IB16E Museum: British Museum Accession Number: 1921.1206.37 Provenance: ‘County Antrim’ Measurements: Full length 16.8cm/ functional mouthpiece 9.1cm/ centre link 2.5cm Weight and material: 131g. Copper alloy Details: Mouthpiece. Indications that the surface of the bit was hacked at, as deep cuts, certainly not modern, are present across the mouthpiece. Metal has a strong yellowish colour at surface. Centre link appears to be a modern reconstruction, possibly curatorial decision. Multiple folds at bulb area of cannon. Raftery 1983: 100, 40. Pl. 52.

IB13E Museum: British Museum Accession Number: 1896.0807.4 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 10.3cm/estimated functional mouthpiece size 14.5cm (cannon 6.4cm) Weight and material: 54g. Copper alloy Details: Single cannon, very poor condition. Two small perforations at the inner link side of the cannon suggests ancient modification and/or repair, even possibly used for some other function. Considerable corrosion and damage to the lip guard has caused the elongated tip to break. Numerous cuts and scratches. Simple single bulb and fold shape at inner cannon area. Raftery 1983: 125, 45. Pl. 50.

IB17E Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1932.6453 Provenance: Glenleslie, County Antrim Measurements: Full length 9.4cm (estimated functional mouthpiece size) Weight and material: 69g. Copper alloy Details: Cannon with ring cut through it. Reasonable condition despite some hack marks visible. Ring modern. Bulb and fold subtle and not exaggerated. Raftery 1983: 99, 39. Pl. 53.

IB14E Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1897.189 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 27.7cm/ functional mouthpiece 11.8/centre link 3.2cm/cheek ring diameter 7.2cm/stop stud size 1.3cm Weight and material: 174.8g. Copper alloy Details: Complete but broken. Some indication of a veneer on bit, which also may account for the rough hacking visible on the cannons. Lightweight and graceful bit, narrower than most Type E pieces. Curved lip guard tips soften the overall effect. Bulb and fold simple, single and unexaggerated. Very small pin-like stop studs. Raftery 1983: 119, 44. Pl. 51.

IB18E Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1932.6470 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 11.7cm/ cheek ring diameter 7.1cm/ stop stud size 1.2cm Weight and material: 101.9g. Copper alloy Details: Cheek ring and fragment of cannon. Cut clean from rest of cannon, with only lip guard remaining, tiny pin like stop studs. Raftery 1983: 120, 44. Pl. 56.

IB15E Museum: British Museum Accession Number: 1904.0312.2 Provenance: ‘County Wicklow’ Measurements: Full length 28.2cm/functional mouthpiece 11.4cm/centre link 3.4cm/ cheek ring diameter 8cm/ stop stud size 0.3cm Weight and material: 202.1g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Sturdy, chunky construction, with dramatic inner bulb and fold on inner cannons. Unusually small apertures connecting to the centre link. Signs of light use wear throughout. Metal starting to corrode, with flakiness and oxidisation of a bluegreen colour. Cheek rings slightly bent, with expected depositional damage of rougher surface, but still in reasonably good condition. Small lentoid stop studs. Raftery 1983: 109, 42. Pl. 52.

IB19E Museum: Ulster Museum Accession Number: BELUM A5551 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 10.2cm/ functional cannon size 5.3cm, therefore estimated mouthpiece size approximately 12.6cm. Weight and material: 72.2g. Copper alloy identified as red brass Details: Single cannon. Broken at inner end of cannon, missing the bulb and fold which would connect to the centre link. Rounded lip guard. Not listed in Raftery Iron Age catalogue Pl. 53.

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Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context IB20E Museum: Ulster Museum Accession Number: BELUM A7134 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 10.4cm/ functional cannon size 6cm, therefore estimated mouthpiece size approximately 13cm Weight and material: 66.1g. Copper alloy Details: Single cannon. Has been identified as Raftery’s uncatalogued entry 122 (Raftery 1983: 48). Damaged at aperture beneath lip guard and at inner link. Severe oxidisation. Pl. 54.

Details: The only details furnished by Raftery (1983: 126, 45) is that this piece was complete and undecorated. Missing and whereabouts unknown. Not illustrated IB25E Museum: Louth County Museum, Dundalk Accession Number: RSAI1 Provenance: Ummeracam, County Armagh Measurements: uncertain. Weight and material: Copper alloy Details: Viewed on display, as specimen still part of an attended exhibition in Louth Museum. Repairs evident to cheek rings and centre link, which appear to be more modern alloys, a greyish, silver colour. Supposedly used by farmer who found it, before repair and sale. Raftery 1983: 101, 40. Tempest 1930, 214. Pl. 56.

IB21E Museum: Unknown Accession Number: n/a Provenance: St Clerans, County Galway Measurements: unknown Weight and material: Unknown Details: Only details are scant, and provided by Haworth 1971, 45 and Raftery 1983: 105, 41. Not illustrated

IB26E Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W53 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 19.4cm/ functional mouthpiece 11.4cm/centre link 3.1cm Weight and material: 151g. Copper alloy Details: Mouthpiece. Solid, chunky piece, with La Tène-derivative pattern on upper surface of cannon. Triangulated tips of cannons. Squared off bottoms of inner cannons. Bulb and fold simple and resembling wings more than folds. Raftery 1983: 112, 42. Pl. 57.

IB22E Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: P511 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 31cm/ functional mouthpiece 14.2cm/ centre link 3.1cm/ cheek ring diameter7.8cm/ stop stud size 1.7cm Weight and material: 286.9g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Graceful, well defined lip guards, with multiple folds at inner cannon. Squared centre link. Cheek rings appear to have taken considerable damage from deposition, being both discoloured and bent slightly out of shape. Raftery 1983: 117, 44. Pl. 55.

IB27E Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W57 Provenance: County Roscommon (‘near Tulsk’) Measurements: Full length 30.1cm/ functional mouthpiece 12.7cm/centre link 3.4cm/cheek ring diameter 8.1cm/ stop stud size 0.4cm Weight and material: 278g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Cheek ring alloy different from mouthpiece, and showing signs of considerable corrosion and oxidisation. Raftery 1983: 113, 43. Pl. 55.

IB23E Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: R2263 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 9.1cm/ estimated functional mouthpiece size 11cm, as functional cannon 4.2cm Weight and material: 88.1g. Copper alloy Details: Single cannon. Broken beneath the lip guard. Multiple folds at bulb area of inner cannon. Raftery 1983: 118, 44. Pl. 54.

IB28E Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W58 Provenance: Tulsk, County Roscommon Measurements: Full length 31cm/ functional mouthpiece 13.8cm/ centre link 3.5cm/ cheek ring diameter 8.1cm/ stop stud 0.4cm Weight and material: 266.4g. Copper alloy Details: One of the true ‘statement’ stylised Type E bits, with narrow, elongated lip guards, slightly triangulated upper cannon tips and exceptionally dramatic bulbous

IB24E Museum: CML. Accession Number: Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Unknown Weight and material: Unknown 130

Catalogue

inner cannon link to the centre link. Some hack marks as if from a pen knife on the upper parts of the cannons. Bright golden patina. Excellent condition. Raftery 1983: 108, 42. Pl. 57.

IB32E Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: X3882 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 23.3cm/ functional mouthpiece 11.6cm/ centre link 3.4cm/cheek ring diameter 7.2cm/stop stud size 0.9cm Weight and material: 238g. Copper alloy Details: Complete apart from one cheek ring. Golden, attractive patina. A visibly different alloy on cannon head. A fitted pin through the top of the cannon decreases movement of the cheek ring. Subtle and simple Considerable damage to aperture. A clumsily made piece, looking more like a modified Type D, apart from the lip guards, which are not strongly defined. Pl. 59.

IB29E Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W68 Provenance: Unknown, though possibly Mullingar/ Midlands, due to recorded tag of being presented by a Dr Kelly of Mullingar Measurements: Full length 26.1cm/ functional mouthpiece 12.3cm/ centre link 3.5cm/cheek ring diameter 6.9cm/ stop stud size 0.8cm Weight and material: 336g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Almost a hybrid piece between a D and E type, as more curved than most Type E variations. Bulb and fold subtle, with slightly squared off bases to the cannons. Small circular stop studs with star-like radiating lines from the central pin. Very small cheek rings, which appear to be of a different alloy. La Tènederivative decoration on cannon upper surface. Some blistering and damage to metal, although it is minimal. Raftery 1983: 114, 43. Pl. 58.

Unclassified bit types UCB1 Museum: Ulster Museum Accession Number: BELUM A6.1918 Provenance: Lough Ravel Crannog, Derryhollagh, near Randalstown County Antrim Measurements: Full length 15.2cm/ functional mouthpiece 7.2cm Weight and material: 43.6g. Iron Details: Apart from the tag on the artefact within the museum there is no extra information on the find of this piece at all (Bourke 1988). However, it is similar enough to the basic iron bit types which remain in use from the Roman period into the early medieval period. It is extremely small, and must be questioned if a miniature, such as some cheek pieces recently found in Britain (PAS number IOW-346A62 ), or was a demonstration piece. Pl. 60.

IB30E Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W73 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 9.9cm/ cheek ring diameter 7.3cm/ stop stud size 0.3cm Weight and material: 124g. Copper alloy Details: Fragment of cannon, insufficient to estimate a functional mouthpiece size, with cheek ring. Small lentoid stop studs. Raftery 1983: 115, 43. Pl. 58.

UCB2 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1883.123 Provenance: Killeevan, County Monaghan Measurements: Full length 29.1cm/ functional mouthpiece 10.1cm/centre link 3.7cm/ cheek rings diameter ( both different) 8.1cm and 8.9cm Weight and material: 376.4g. Copper alloys Details: Complete. Found in a graveyard at Killeevan, under a tree, with a repousse copper alloy disc, of equally uncertain origins (Jope 1955, 44). Made up of numerous different types of bits, which in itself is of some interest. One cannon appears to be a Type A, while the other cannon may well be a British one. The Type A cannon is fitted upside down, making it unusable as a functioning bit. The cheek rings are heavily patterned, one with a ‘running dog’ design, the other with a Grecian Key type design, which also contains traces of

IB31E Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W75 Provenance: Newgrange, near Drogheda, County Meath Measurements: Full length 15.7cm/ estimated functional mouthpiece of 15cm, as functional part of cannon 6.6cm/ cheek ring diameter 7.7cm/ stop stud size 0.5cm Weight and material: 89.3g. Copper alloy Details: Cannon and cheek ring. Poor condition, with hacks and damage suggesting deliberate destruction or cuts. One oddity on this specimen is that there is no perforation for a centre link to fit into, so either made to be destroyed, or faulty. At any rate, it would be unusable. An extreme lip guard, a dramatic and exaggerated inner bulb and fold structure. The cheek ring is damaged with cuts and scratches. Raftery 1983: 107, 41. Pl. 59. 131

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context red enamel. The Black Pigs Dyke terminates close to this graveyard. Raftery 1983: 132, 47. Pl. 61.

UCB7 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: 1000.377 Provenance: Kilmallock County Limerick Measurements: 8.2cm Weight and material: Unknown Details: Cheek ring which has been turned into a pennanular brooch. Pin missing. Raftery 1983: 131, 47. Pl. 60.

UCB3 Museum: Ulster Museum Accession Number: BELUM A189.1952 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Cheek ring diameter 6.9cm Weight and material: 62.2g. Copper alloy Details: Cheek ring. Substantial damage caused by corrosion. Missing stop studs. Pl. 60.

UCB8 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W60 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 28.3cm/ functional mouthpiece 11cm/ centre link 4.4cm/cheek ring diameter 7.8cm/stop stud size 0/7cm Weight and material: 180g. Copper alloy Details: British style, almost identical to Llyn Cerrig Bach specimens. Damage to cheek ring. Raftery 1983: 133, 48. Pl. 62.

UCB4 Museum: Ulster Museum Accession Number: BELUM A5541 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Cheek ring diameter 7.1cm Weight and material: 22.3g. Copper alloy identified as brass Details: Broken cheek ring with one stop stud, which has a star shaped decoration on it. Pl. 60.

UCB9 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W66 Provenance: Dundrum County Down Measurements: Full length 29.1cm/ functional mouthpiece 8.8cm/cheek ring diameter 8.4cm Weight and material: 488.4g. Copper alloy Details: A generic style of bit which is present in Europe for over 300 years, having analogues in Gaul and Germany from 3rd century BC to Roman Germany and pre-Migration Denmark. Driving bits. Analogue also exists in Llyn Cerrig Bach hoard of 1st century AD. Raftery 1983: 137, 50. Haworth 1969 appendices for provenance. Pl. 62.

UCB5 Museum: Ulster Museum Accession Number: BELUM A LJ40 Provenance: Loughan Island, Near Coleraine, Derry. Measurements: Full length 21.2cm/ Functional mouthpiece 11.4cm/ Cheek ring diameter 4.1cm Weight and material: 119.8g. Copper alloy with high aluminium content Details: Complete and in remarkable condition. Elegant single joint snaffle with slightly rounded cannons. No visible bite marks or damage. Exact parallel of the mouthpiece style can be seen on the NMI’s W71 specimen (Harrison and O’ Floinn 2014,189), however, the author has noted bits identical without additional ornate cheek pieces in museums from Avaldsnes to Bergen, and ebay is saturated with the style, referring to the style as Rus. A 19th century fake cannot be ruled out as yet. Raftery 1983: 138, 50. Pl. 61.

UCB10 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: W67 Provenance: Drumlough Moss, Dromore County Down Measurements: Full length 29.3cm/ Functional mouthpiece 8.9cm / cheek ring diameter 8.2cm Weight and material: 513g. Copper alloy Details: A generic style of bit which is present in Europe for over 300 years, having analogues in Gaul and Germany from 3rd century BC to Roman Germany and pre-Migration Denmark. Driving bits. Raftery 1983: 137, 50. Haworth 1969 appendices for provenance. Pl. 63.

UCB6 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: Unknown Provenance: Corofin County Clare Measurements: Unknown Weight and material: Unknown Details: Lost. Raftery 1983: number 139, 51. Described as decorated in a similar manner as Attymon bits. Broken and discarded by finder when used on a horse. Raftery 1983: 139, 51. Not illustrated

UCB11 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession Number: Provenance: Aughinish Island Measurements: Uncertain 132

Catalogue

Weight and material: Unknown. Iron. Details: Kelly 1974. Much presumption that this simple piece was La Tène. It is possible this is Raftery’s number 134 (Raftery 1983: 48). Not examined by author. Not illustrated.

Raftery 1983: 140, 52. Pl. 65. Y1A:002 Museum: Armagh County Museum Accession number: 170.1998 Provenance: Navan Fort County Armagh Measurements: Full length 4.3cm/breadth at widest point: 1.4cm Weight and material: 12g. Copper alloy Details: Fragment of forked terminal retainer. Rich deep bronze in colour. Rounded petal shaped waisted bud. Perforation at bottom of fragment where connection to pronged fork of Y- piece would have been. Perforation of inner bud measuring 1mm. Found in a lower pasture at the foot of Navan fort mound. Recorded details of find in Emania (Warner, 2002). Pl. 65.

UCB12 Museum: National Museum of Scotland Accession Number: None Provenance: Believed to be from a bog in Dungannon County Tyrone, part of the Bell Collection. Considerable doubt has to be cast upon this claim,. Measurements: Full length 10.3cm Weight and material: Unknown Details: Extreme decoration which would make this an unlikely bit to use. Perfect condition. Vibrant golden yellow metal. Fake cannot be ruled out. Pl. 63. UCB13. Museum: Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Accession Number: 1620-P7831 Provenance: Transylvania, possibly a Roman fort. Measurements: 23.5cm length/ functional mouthpiece approximately 9.1cm/ cheek rings 6cm/ centre link 4cm Weight and material: Copper alloy Details: All details from Rustoiu 2005. Great uncertainty must remain if this is a copy of the Irish style by Roman cavalry, or if it is the sole survivor of an earlier bit style Pl. 64.

Y1A:003 Museum: Armagh County Museum: Accession number: 137.1956 Provenance: Knockmany cairn, County Tyrone Measurements: Full length 29.8cm/shaft breadth: 0.7cm/ terminal length: 4.8cm/terminal diameter 2.2cm/ width of fork 9.1cm Weight and material: Copper alloy identified as brass Description: Almost blackened smooth patina. Complete and showing no obvious signs of wear or repairs. Forked terminal retainers and butt terminal matching in shape, comprising of waisted droplet shape. Evidence of zigzag pattern on butt terminal. Inverted V moulding at junction of fork and shaft. While the Armagh County Museum holds no details about this piece further than its donor, Dorothy Gervais Rhodes of Tyrone, the NMI records that this piece was found at Knockmany passage tomb, known in the 19th century as the Druids Alter. Ms Rhodes’s relative, Rev Francis Gervais had found the piece in 1883. Raftery 1983: 150, 55. Pl. 66.

Y-Pieces Type 1a This variation of Y-piece usually has matching terminal buds and shaft styles, reminiscent in shape of acorns in their cups. Y1A:001 Museum: Armagh County Museum Accession number: 205.1935 Provenance: Portnelligan County Armagh Measurements: Length13.6cm/Breadth of shaft 0.6cm/ terminal: 4.9cm/width of fork: 12.4cm Weight and material: 69g. Copper alloy identified as brass Details: Deep bronze in colour. Fragment. Shaft, terminal and inverted V-moulding of forked junction, with small indentation at centre of junction. Damage evident to terminal, revealing it to be hollow. Shaft circular. Terminal waisted and capped with small protrusion. Actual provenance unknown, but donor (Rev F. Gervais) resided in Portnelligan, Armagh. It is likely the object was found within or at least very close to Gervais’s own property like the rest of his collection which was donated to Armagh Museum.

Y1A:004 Museum: British Museum Accession number: 1854.0714.294 Provenance: Ballina Costello, County Mayo Measurements: Full length 32.8cm/ Width of fork: 16.9cm Weight and material: Copper alloy Complete. Members circular in section. Separately cast, acorn shaped terminals; prong terminals hollow along inner surfaces. Considerable wear on stem’ (Raftery 1983: 54). Raftery 1983: 146, 54 Pl. 67. Y1A:005 Museum: British Museum Accession number: OA 10952 133

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length: 30.4cm/width of fork 10.6cm Weight and materials: copper alloy Details: Missing one prong. The shape of the finial on the remaining prong is remarkably similar to that of the Knockmany piece, Y1A:003, with similar zigzag decoration cast into the butt and prong. Similar blackened patina as well, although widths of the pieces are different. Raftery 1983: 163, 59. Pl. 65.

Not illustrated. Y1A:009 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1969:746/ Habitat D42.8 Provenance: Urraghry, Aughrim County Galway Measurements: Full length 31.2cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 11.8cm/shaft breadth 0.6cm/terminal length 3.9cm/ terminal diameter 1.4cm/width of fork 14.9cm Weight and material: 200g. Copper alloy Description: Deep bronze, described on the museum card as being made of copper alloy. Intact. Retainer buds oval shaped and hollow inner surface. Cast separately from main body of piece. Inverted V casting seam at junction. Found in Aughrim, in bogland, with a snaffle, IB11B. Raftery 1983: 141, 53. Pl. 69.

YIA: 006 Museum: Hunt Museum, Limerick Accession number: HCA 463 Provenance: ‘Limerick’ Measurements: Full length: 30.3cm/width of fork: 13.8cm Weight and material: copper alloy Details: A set of two, which Raftery considered to be a pair. However, there are differences. This piece is lighter in style, with less solidity at the prong junction. Typical gentle bend in shaft. Strongly dished prong terminals, oval in shape. Raftery 1983: 142, 53 Pl. 68

Y1A:010 Museum: National Museum of Ireland, displayed Louth County Museum Accession number: 1929:1357 Provenance: Ardee, County Louth Measurements: Full lengths24.3cm/Shaft length (incl terminal) 6.2cm/shaft breadth 5.3cm/width of fork 13.8cm Weight and material: 104g. Copper alloy Details: Rich bronze patina. Wear apparent on inner perforations at prong finials. Zigzag pattern worn on outer surface. Bending of frame from junction. Butt terminal missing. Refined construction. Currently on loan to Louth County Museum in Dundalk, Ireland. Stated as having been found in Ardee, with a bronze spear-head. Raftery 1983: 144, 53. Pl. 69.

Y1A:007 Museum: Hunt Museum Limerick Accession number: HCA 464 Provenance: ‘County Limerick’ Measurements: Full length 30.8cm/width of fork: 15.0cm Details: Similar to Y1A:006, but more robust and heavier to handle. The axis of the prongs is thicker and more solid. Similar finials, with light use wear evident. Raftery 1983: 143, 53. Pl. 68. Y1A:008 Museum: NationalMuseet, Copenhagen, Denmark Accession number: 13040.1 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length: 330mm Weight and material: Unknown Details: ‘Spur shaped object, possibly a bridle pendant. The base of the stem terminal is bulbous, separated by a constriction from the upper portion which is mushroom-head-shaped. Each prong has been broken across, apparently after discovery. The upper part of each terminal is spoon shaped. The lower portion is convex externally and on its inside there is a perforated projection. All members have a rounded cross section’ (Eogan, 1991, 159). Nationalmuseet,however, are currently uncertain if objects have been moved elsewhere, as there is no photographic evidence of their being in storage, and no memory currently among staff of ever having seen them. Quality of image by Eogan too poor for relication.

Y1A:011 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1920:33 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 30.2cm/width of fork11.9cm Weight and material: Unknown Details: ‘Complete. Members circular in section. Terminals separately cast; each one possesses a cylindrical socket into which ends of “pendant” have been fitted. A tiny transverse rivet secures each in place. Prong-terminals end in solid, diminutive subcircular elements, flat on the inside and of D-shaped section. Narrow series of worn, transverse lines engraved arou7nd prongs at junction with terminals. Stem terminal ends in small, flattened-spherical boss. Fine engraved lines occur on socket close to boss, and also on stem, near junction with terminal’ (Raftery 1983: 58). Raftery 1983: 162, 58. 134

Catalogue

Pl. 70.

the junction at top of shaft. Cut marks on one arm of fork where damage had already occurred in the past. Inner surface of terminal retainer buds shallowly hollow. Perforations in inner sides delta shaped, approximately 4-5mm. Surrounding metal squared and sturdy although worn smooth. Butt terminal has an oblique slice cut into the side. Provenance unknown. Raftery 1983: 159, 58 Pl. 71.

Y1A:012 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1880:53/Habitat D16.6 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 27.3cm/shaft length (incl terminal):11.4cm/shaft breadth: 0.5cm/terminal length 2.8cm/terminal diameter 1.6cm/width of fork 7.2cm Weight and material: 82g. Copper alloy Details: Deep brownish bronze colour. Smooth surface. Terminal prongs and any retainer buds missing. No visible casting seam. Trace of red enamel in small deep indentation on junction of shaft and fork. Butt terminal is a droplet shape. Highly polished. Signs of wear at shaft – smooth worn area above butt terminal. Shaft bent from butt terminal. Only detail of provenance is Sligo. Raftery 1983: 149, 55. Pl. 70.

Y1A:015 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: P508/Habitat D15.6 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 32.5cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 14.5cm/ Shaft breadth 0.4cm/terminal length 2.5cm/terminal diameter 2.2cm/ estimated width of fork 14.2cm Weight and material: 124g. Copper alloy Details: Deep bronze colour, with blackened shaft. Smooth patina. Partial retainer bud on one fork arm, suggesting a rounded retainer bud. Casting seam visible at junction of shaft and fork, but not on arms. Butt terminal intact and undamaged, with base of terminal perforated by small hole. Butt terminal shaped like slightly elongated hazelnut. No indication of use wear. Provenance unknown. Raftery 1983: 160, 58. Pl. 72.

Y1A:013 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1879.1 Provenance: Ballina Costello, County Mayo Measurements: Full length 32.7cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 12.5cm/shaft breadth 0.4cm/terminal length 4.7cm/terminal diameter 1.1cm/width of fork 10.6cm Weight and material: 140g. Copper alloy Description: Dark bronze with patches of scraping on otherwise smooth patina. Very lightweight and slender arms of fork. Retainer buds of forked terminals rounded on outside and with shallow indentation on the inner surface. Perforations facing each other and very narrow – approximately 2-3mm. Traces of some sort of pattern on outer surface of buds. One terminal bud damaged. Indications of wear and pressure on central shaft, and bending at connecting junction of shaft and fork. Acorn or droplet styled butt terminal with corrosive damage of small holes. Found in Ballina Costello, Mayo with a snaffle bit. IB1B. Raftery, 1983: 145, 54. Pl. 71.

Y1A:016 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: P508.1/ Habitat D 16.5 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 22.9cm/shaft length 8.9cm/ shaft breadth 0.5cm/width of fork 11.4cm Weight and material: 60g. Copper alloy Details: Almost black in colour. Smooth surface. Terminal prongs and retainer buds broken, apart from the inner surface perforation at the base of one prong. Perforation rounded and large in comparison with size of artefact, at apx 4mm. This inward facing hoop of metal would suggest the retainer buds were curved. Casting seam of shaft beaten almost flat. Damage and wear to junction of shaft and fork. Cuts made at top of prongs. Butt terminal missing, but connecting rivet hole still there although damaged. Raftery 1983: 161, 58. Pl. 72.

Y1A:014 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: P506/ Habitat D16.7 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 32.1cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 12.9cm/shaft breadth 0.6cm/terminal length 4.1cm/terminal diameter 1.8cm/width of fork 14.6cm Weight and material: 182g. Copper alloy Description: Almost black in colour. Smooth patina except where damage and/or repairs have occurred. No visible casting seams. Elongated acorn shape matching on prong terminal buds and butt terminal. Considerable wear and repair at shaft/fork junction, and just below

Y1A:017 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W156 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 29.1cm/width of fork 11.5cm Weight and material: Unknown

135

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Details: ‘One prong-end and part of stem-terminal missing. Members circular in section. Surviving terminal, which has been cast with prong more or less almond shaped with rounded tip. Four fine, transverse mouldings mark junction with prong. Inner surface of terminal hollow; in place of projecting loop, inner edges of terminal hammered together at lower end so that they almost touch. Stem-terminal is separate casting’ (Raftery 1983: 56). Raftery 1983: 152, 56. Pl. 73

Details: Intact. Bright golden bronze colour. Retainer buds acorn shaped. Badly bent with holes worn in outer surface. Cast separately of different, paler metal alloy. Wear evident on inner surface perforation retainer hoop. Large deep scrape down shaft. Central casting seam partially visible at junction. Butt terminal smaller than retainer buds and damaged with small holes. Arms of fork bent back and curved. Provenance unknown. Raftery, 1983: 154, 56. Pl. 74. Y1A:021 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W165/Habitat D16.9 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 30.1cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 12.4cm/shaft breadth 0.6cm/terminal length 3.6cm/terminal diameter 2.2cm/width of fork 13.5cm Weight and material: 177g. Copper alloy Details: Rich golden bronze colour. Well finished but damage evident at prong terminals. Retainer buds intact but large hole in one bud. Rounded berry shape. Considerable wear on inner perforation retainer on damaged side than non-damaged. Bending and wear on both arms of fork. Central casting seam at junction. Butt terminal hollow and cast separately, with shaft spike visible through hole. Raftery 1983: 155, 56. Pl. 75.

Y1A:018 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W162/Habitat D16.5 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 31.4cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 12.4cm/shaft breadth 0.5cm/terminal length 3.1cm/terminal diameter 1.9cm Weight and material: 174g. Copper alloy Details: Bright bronze colour. Smooth surface. One arm of fork missing. Retainer bud at prong terminal berry shaped with hollow inner surface. Scratches on bud. No visible casting seam. Bending on ridge at centre of junction. Metal bent at shaft. Butt terminal rounded acorn shape, with small damaged indentation. Raftery 1983: 153, 56. Pl. 73. Y1A:019 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W163/Habitat D16.8 Provenance: Moyfin County Meath Measurements: Full length 33.7cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 14.1cm/shaft breadth 0.6cm/terminal length 4.4cm/terminal diameter1.6cm/width of fork 14.8cm Weight and material: 230g. Copper alloy Details: Rich bronze colour with greenish colouration at central seam on junction. Prong terminals bent slightly with scrapes. Retainer buds intact but showing some wear at inner perforations. Visible casting seam inverted V shaped at junction. Wear and damage apparent at junction and shaft. Butt terminal shows signs of melting and modifications, perhaps to fill in past holes, due to the presence of small indentations. Found in the River Boyne at Moyfin, County Meath. Raftery 1983: 147, 54. Pl. 74.

Y1A:022 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W168/Habitat D16.8 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 28.6cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 11.1cm/shaft breadth 0.4cm/terminal length 0.5cm/terminal diameter 1.6cm/width of fork 12.2cm Weight and material: 174g. Copper alloy Details: Brownish bronze in colour. Intact. Smooth surface. Prong terminal retainer buds wide petal shaped with polished finish. Inner surface concave and shallow, with small perforations and metal worn thin at perforation points. Small holes are present in the outer surfaces of retainer buds. Arms of fork are cut and scratched and also bent. Inverted V casting seam on central junction, with pronounced raised seam on shaft and on arms of fork. Butt terminal is droplet shaped, with a break in the lower part showing the terminal to be hollow and cast separately from shaft. Raftery 1983: 156, 57. Pl. 75.

Y1A:020 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W164/Habitat D16.9 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 32.7cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 12.4cm/shaft breadth 0.5cm/terminal length 3.8cm/terminal diameter 1.7cm/width of fork 11.7cm Weight and material: 169g. Copper alloy

Y1A:023 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W169/Habitat D16.5 Provenance: Creggan, County Roscommon

136

Catalogue

Measurements: Full length 26.8cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 10.6cm/shaft breadth 0.5cm/terminal length 3.9cm/terminal diameter 1.2cm/width of fork 14.8cm Weight and material: 149g. Copper alloy Description: Bronze colour, smooth surface. Intact though some damage to tips of retainer buds of prong terminals. Prong terminals cast separately. Small petal shaped buds with concave inner surface. Inner perforation small, rounded and worn thinner at projecting side. No casting seam visible on junction, fork or shaft. Butt terminal elongated acorn shape with an oblique cut showing a hollow interior and separate casting from shaft. Raftery, 1983: 148, 54. Pl. 76.

Raftery 1983: 158, 57. Pl. 77. Y1A:026 Museum: Ulster Museum Accession number: BELUM A5043 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Shaft length (incl terminal) 12.4cm/ shaft breadth 2.3cm/terminal length 2.3cm/terminal diameter 2.1cm Weight and material: 74g. Copper alloy identified as brass Details: Bright gold colour, but with greenish copper alloy corrosion visible through the many cracks of the surface. Fractured and bumpy surface. Cut visible at top of shaft. Butt terminal nut-shaped with punctures and cracks along the base. Butt terminal cast separately from shaft. Pl. 78.

Y1A:024 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W174/Habitat D16.6 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 30cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 12.1cm/shaft breadth 0.5cm/terminal length 3.4cm/terminal diameter 1.9cm/width of fork15.2cm Weight and material: 188g Details: Rich brownish bronze in colour with some tinge of green at terminals. Intact. Prong terminal retainer buds berry shaped with smooth inner surface, although signs of twisting and wear of perforation area. Some bending and evidence of scratches on arms of fork. Casting seam visible on one side of piece, but beaten flat on other side. Some wear and damage on lower arm of fork and along shaft. Butt terminal droplet shaped, cast separately and visibly hollow from a gash at the base of the butt. Raftery 1983: 157, 57. Pl. 76.

Y1A:027 Museum: University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Accession number: 27.625 Provenance: Mullingar, County Westmeath Measurements: Full length 24.5cm/width of fork 13.6cm Weight and material: Unknown ‘Mullingar, County Westmeath. Stem-end damaged and terminal missing. Members oval in section. Small solid separately cast prong-terminals. These are D-shaped in section roughly circular in shape with thin, transverse moulding at junction with prong. Inner surfaces flat. Inverted V-moulding at junction of stem and fork.’ (Raftery 1983: 55) Found with now-lost specimen Y2A: 017. Raftery 1983: 151, 55. Pl. 77.

Y1A:025 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W175/Habitat D16.8 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Length 32.6cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 12.3cm/shaft breadth 0.5cm/terminal length 4.3cm/terminal diameter 1.7cm/width of fork15.9cm Weight and material: 180g. Copper alloy Details: Rich deep bronze colour. Smooth polished patina. Made with considerable refinement and attention to small details. Intact. Prong terminals simple and symmetrical. Both arms of fork perfectly symmetrical. No bending. Deep concave inner surface highly polished outer surface of retainer buds which are petal shaped. No sign of wear. No visible seam on junction or shaft. Unusual cleft butt terminal, with both pieces perforated by a small rivet hole, which must have held some other decorative detail in place at the butt. Butt terminal elegant elongated acorn shape and cast separate from the shaft.

YIA: 028 Unknown provenance. Lost. Considered as being attached to the QUB Belfast teaching laboratories (Raftery 1983: 59) it is believed that this piece was borrowed briefly during the 1970s by Prof Jope, from an unknown private source. There has been doubt cast on whether it was a Y-piece (pers. comm., Dr. B Hartwell). Not illustrated. Type 1b Characteristics: This typology is defined by moulded ribbed terminals, both at prongs and shaft. Similar in many ways to the structure of the 1a, it is relatively lightweight as a result of being cast as several components which were then welded together. Y1B:001 Museum: Alnwick Castle Northumberland 137

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Accession number: 1880. 481 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: 10.7cm extended Weight and materials: copper alloy Details: Stem of prong bent into a ‘u’ shape. Considerable blistering and corrosion of stem. Terminal ribbed and cast separately. Poor condition makes it hard to ascertain use-wear, although it would appear to have some pre-depositional wear at the inner perforations Raftery 1983: 184, 65. Pl. 78.

Raftery 1983: 177, 63. Pl. 80. Y1B:004 Museum: National Museum of Ireland (Collins Barracks) Accession number: 1935.404/ Habitat C3.21 Provenance: Kilbeg, between Ardnurcher and Horseleap, CountyWestmeath Measurements: Full length 29.1cm/shaft length (incl terminal): 11.3cm/shaft breadth 0.4cm/terminal length 6.1cm/terminal diameter 0.8cm/ estimated width of fork 15cm Weight and material: 120g. Copper alloy Details: Deep bronze in colour. Smooth surface. One arm missing. Terminal prong retainer bud of catkin style, with shallow concave inner surface. Inner perforation narrow, at 2mm. Shaft attached to fork via rounded casting seam. Butt terminal also catkin style with small cap on final bead. Wear and repairs on shaft, with smoothed areas and others bent from pressure. Found with the only known iron Y-piece and 3 shaft-hole iron axe heads in thick clayish soil at a depth of around 90cm. Raftery 1983: 170, 63. Pl. 81

Y1B:002 Museum: Armagh County Museum Accession number: 223.1935 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 27.8cm/shaft breadth 0.5cm/ shaft length (inclusive of terminal) 11.8cm/terminal length 6.3cm/terminal diameter 1.2cm/width of fork 15.9cm Weight and material: copper alloy identified as a tin bronze with lead Details: Golden coloured. Square rather than curved in shape of fork. Central junction of fork showing signs of repair due to reinforcement by added metal of slightly deeper colour. Cheek retainers hollow moulded on inner surface. Butt terminal and cheek retainers both a series of curved, stacked beads to resemble alder tree seed pods. One cheek retainer bud damaged. Raftery, 1983: 168, 60. Pl. 79.

Y1B:005 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W154. Habitat D16.6 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 29.4cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 13.1cm/shaft breadth 0.4cm/terminal length 0.8cm/terminal diameter 0.8cm/ estimated width of fork 9.7cm) Weight and material: 80g. Copper alloy Description: Damaged. One arm of fork missing. Dark bronze in colour. Crude and poorly made. Prong terminals more reminiscent of screw-nails than retainer buds. Great deal of wear on inner surface perforation retainers. No casting seam visible. Considerable amount of horizontal hacks and scratches on shaft. Butt terminal screw-nail shaped and heavily ridged. Raftery 1983: 172, 61. Pl. 81.

Y1B:003 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1882.224/ Habitat D16.5 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 31.5cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 12cm/shaft breadth 0.5cm/terminal length 6.4cm/terminal diameter 1.5cm/width of fork estimated 18cm Weight and material: 247g. Copper alloy Details: Bright bronze colour. Smooth surface. High polish on terminal. Broken in three pieces. Prong terminals intact with retainer buds. Well-formed curved berry shaped retainer buds, with hollow inner surface. Perforations of inner surface rounded, width of almost 4 mm. Inner surfaces of buds show signs of chaffing and wear at perforation area. No visible casting seam but considerable indications of repair. Junction broken at one repair, where metal alloy of similar colour has been wrapped around lower arm of fork closest to junction. Other fragment has a dark, soft metallic substance resembling lead soldered into it, with punctures which are rivet shaped. Greenish tinge of butt terminal, suggesting a different alloy than shaft. Butt terminal catkin shaped. Signs of pressure on butt terminal, resulting in bending of metal.

Y1B:006 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W159/D16.5 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 11.3cm/width 0.5cm Weight and material: 83g. Copper alloy Details: Stem only. Roughly truncated. An enclosed note in NMI archives states ‘This # refers to a complete (sic) pendant; ie, to the one in 16:6’. Raftery identifies this as only a piece of stem, but to be certain, a process of elimination confirmed this fragment to be W159. Raftery 1983: 173, 62. 138

Catalogue

Pl. 82.

Measurements: Full length 21.9cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 10.9cm/shaft breadth 0.4cm/terminal length 3.6cm/terminal diameter 1.4cm/width of fork 8.6cm Weight and material: 98g. Copper alloy Details: Bronze in colour, with a darker, more polished metal added to one of the fork arms. Terminal prongs and retainer buds missing. No visible casting seams. Ragged rough surface at arms, along with small cuts and scrapes. Butt terminal elongated acorn shape, with small cracks and areas of corrosion. Raftery 1983: 175, 62. Pl. 83.

Y1B:007 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W160/ Habitat D7.2 Provenance: River Shannon Measurements: Full length: 6.6cm/Width 0.5cm Weight and material: 27g. Copper alloy Description: fragment of prong terminal. One retainer bud remaining. Stacked berry shaped. Hollow inner surface. Found in River Shannon with W161. Raftery 1983: 171, 61. Pl. 82.

Y1B:011 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W173/ Habitat D Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 34.8cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 13.6cm/shaft breadth 0.5cm/terminal length 4.6cm/terminal diameter 1.8cm/width of fork 7.9cm Weight and material: 148g. Copper alloy Details: Golden bronze colour with no discolouration or corrosion. Smooth patina and well polished. Unique style of prong terminal and retainer buds in that the perforations face backwards, and not inwards facing each other as with every other known piece. Retainer buds are small catkin shape with partially concave inner surface. Perforations are squared and small at approximately 2mm. Arms of fork bent slightly from junction. Wear on one arm very obvious, with a cylindrical shaped piece of bronze wrapped round damage, with scraping either side of reinforcement. Damage and scarping also visible to top of shaft and junction. Small cut beside visible inverted V casting seam at junction. Butt terminal is hollow, cast separately and also catkin shaped with damage to bottom bead. Raftery, 1983: 176, 63 Pl. 84.

Y1B:008 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W161/Habitat D7.2 Provenance: ‘River Shannon’ Measurements: Full length 12.6cm/width 0.6cm/ terminal length 3.5cm/terminal diameter 2cm Weight and material: 87g. Copper alloy Details: Fragment. Shaft only. Rich bronze colour. Damage at top of terminal. It may be they belong to the same Y-piece as W160 but it is almost impossible to confirm. Raftery 1983: 171b, 62 Pl. 82. Y1B:009 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W170 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 30.5cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 12.7cm/shaft breadth 0.6cm/terminal length 3.8cm/terminal diameter 2.7cm (excluding jet of unworked material)/width of fork 9.9cm Weight and material: 144g. Copper alloy Details: Rich dark bronze. Unpolished. No copper alloy corrosion apparent, but reddish rust like material visible on jet and butt terminal. Intact. Prong terminal retainer buds are small, rounded stacked berry design. Inner surface is concave and unworked, very raw in appearance. No wear to perforation area or buds. Arms of fork are symmetrical and unbent. Wide inverted V seam visible at junction of shaft and junction. Butt terminal alder seed shaped, with casting seam ridges as yet unpolished or worked. Casting jet still attached to side of butt terminal. Jet is circular in shape, with concentric circular indentations. Raftery, 1983: 174, 62 Pl. 83.

Y1B:012 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1944.296/Habitat B1.6 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 35.6cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 14.8cm/shaft breadth 0.6cm/terminal length 4.6cm/terminal diameter 1cm/width of fork 16.4cm Weight and material: 280g. Copper alloy Details: bright bronze in colour. Shiny smooth patina. No sign of wear. Prong terminals and retainer buds intact. Elongated graduated ridge decoration, consisting of 12 rings. Inverted V casting seam on shaft, suggesting shaft was cast separately. Butt terminal also of stacked and graduated ring structure. High quality finish and highly polished. Raftery 1983: 178, 63. Pl. 84.

Y1B:010 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W172/ Habitat D16.5 Provenance: Unknown

139

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Y1B:013 Museum: Queens University Belfast teaching collection Accession number: QAD 6/5 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 19.5cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 13.1cm/terminal length 7.4cm/shaft breadth 0.4cm Weight and material: 84.8g. Copper alloy Details: Missing both prong finials. Reddish patina. Oxidised on surface. Finely ribbed terminal. Wear and puncture marks on shaft. Some minor bending at junction. Raftery 1983: 181, 64. Pl. 85

Measurements: Full length 25.4cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 12.4cm/shaft breadth 0.7cm/terminal length 4.8cm/terminal diameter 1.6cm/width of fork 12.5cm Weight: 97g. Copper alloy identified as leaded bronze Description: Dark bronze colour. Smooth surface. Terminal prongs and retainers missing. Some bending evident on arms of fork. Trace of casting seam at junction of shaft and fork. Wear on junction and at top of shaft. Butt terminal lightly ridged on shaft, with berry shaped bottom. Join of terminal and shaft jagged and showing signs of modification. Bottom of butt terminal missing, showing sharp prong running up into shaft. Raftery 1983: 183, 64. Pl. 86.

Y1B: 014 Museum: Unknown Accession number: Lost Provenance: Lisnacannon Fort, Glenbuck, County Antrim Measurements: Full length 27cm/width of fork 13.7cm Weight and material: Unknown ‘MS drawing of complete specimen. Prong terminals decorated with close-set ribbing along outer surfaces, hollow along inner surfaces. Stem terminal is decorated with three prominent ribs separated from one another by pronounced concavities’ (Raftery 1983: 60). Found at Lisnacannon Fort, a multi-vallate earthwork, near Glenbuck, Co. Antrim with a ‘brass’ pin. Raftery, 1983: 167, 60. Specimen Lost. Pl. 85.

Y1B: 017 Museum: Ulster Museum Accession number: BELUM A5550 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length: 33.5cm/ shaft length (incl terminal) 12.5cm/shaft breadth 0.5cm/terminal length 6.5cm/terminal diameter 1.4cm/width of fork 13.3cm Weight and material: 221g. Copper alloy identified as brass Details: Pale gold patina, smooth highly polished surface. Intact. Prong terminal retainer buds catkin shaped and highly polished outer surface. Inner surface unpolished, somewhat raw-looking and concave. Rounded perforation of some 35mm. No visible casting seam. Signs of wear and damage at upper part of shaft, close to junction. This wear has been repaired with a wrap of reinforcing metal of a paler golden colour, which has been easier corroded than the original material. There are several small corroded holes in repair metal. Damage exists underneath the additional metal, further down the shaft. Butt terminal is catkin shaped and intact, with highly polished surface. Raftery 1983: 179, 63. Pl. 87.

Y1B:015 Museum: Ulster Museum Accession number: BELUMA 113.1.1906 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 20.3cm/shaft’ length 3.9cm/ shaft breadth 0.4cm/width of fork 10.3cm Weight and material: 78g. Details: Rich deep bronze colour. Twisted bumpy surface. Badly damaged, obviously deliberately. Arms of fork have been twisted back upon themselves from the junction, with the butt terminal turned into an arm of a fork. Remaining prong terminal has small modified hole drilled through metal. Reconstruction would suggest an original length of around 279mm, a fork width of 122mm and a shaft of around 133mm, inclusive of butt terminal. The butt terminal has been cast with the piece, and is not added on. Raftery, 1983: 180, 64. Pl. 86.

Y1B: 018 Museum: University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Accession number: 99.248 Provenance: Kishawanny County Kildare Measurements: Full length 31.2cm/width of fork 15cm ‘Kishawanny, County Kildare. Complete; stem bent out of shape. Members circular in section. Separately-cast terminals decorated with series of prominent subspherical mouldings. Tiny cylindrical nipple at tip of each, that at stem being hollow. Prong-terminals hollow along inner surfaces. Inverted V-moulding at junction of fork and stem. Found with bronze hook, handbell of bronze and two bronze rings’ (Raftery 1983: 61). Raftery 1983: 169, 60. Pl. 87.

Y1B:016 Museum: Ulster Museum Accession number: BELUMA 113.2.1906 Provenance: Unknown 140

Catalogue

Y1B:019 Museum: National Library of Ireland (Lost) Accession number: Unknown Provenance: Likely Magee’s Bog, Ballymoyer, County Armagh Measurements: Unknown Weight and material: Unknown Details: ‘MS drawing of ribbed prong-terminal shown wrapped around ring of bridle bit No. 5’ (Raftery 1983: 64). Likely provenance Magee’s Bog, Ballymoyer, Armagh (Haworth 1969, 43) Raftery 1983: 182, 64. Pl. 88.

Measurements: Full length 32.2cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 11.5cm/shaft breadth 0.5cm/terminal length 4.2cm/terminal width 3.2cm/width of fork 13.6cm Weight and material: 151g. Copper alloy Details: Deep bronze colour. Intact. Prong terminal retainer buds intact. Polished smooth on inner surface as well as outer. Small circular decoration top and bottom of hoop, again reminiscent of the Claddagh ring. Inner perforations worn smooth and thin. One hoop has also been thinned. No visible casting seam. Butt terminal slightly bent from shaft. One of a pair with Y1C:003 (A668.2.1910). Raftery 1983: 185, 65. Pl. 89.

YIB: 020 Museum: Now unknown, but originally NMW. Accession number: unknown Provenance: Lesser Garth Caves, Wales. Details: A brief entry in Alcock (1959) and a sketch in the NMW records, which is drawn in Pl. 88, is all that remains of this fragment. Pl. 88.

Y1C:003 Museum: Ulster Museum Accession number: BELUM A668.2.1910 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 32cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 11.4cm/shaft breadth 5.2cm/terminal length 4.1cm/terminal width 3cm/width of fork 13.4cm Weight and material: 148g. Copper alloy identified as combined brass Details: Dark bronze colour. Smooth surface. One prong terminal retainer bud intact, the other damaged and partially missing. Hoop shaped with small circle details at top and bottom of hoop, overall shape reminiscent of a Claddagh ring. Small inner surface perforation of 26mm in a deltoid metal ring. Smooth inner surface. Signs of wear on buds and perforation, one of which is worn quite thin. No visible casting seam, but signs of beating of metal at junction. Butt terminal cast separately. Similar ‘Claddagh’ style with hoop and circular pattern top and bottom of ring. Part of a pair. Provenance unknown. Raftery 1983: 186, 65. Pl. 90.

Type 1c The 1c type has circular terminals, reminiscent of the modern day ‘Cladagh Ring’, minus any anthropomorphic or zoomorphic imagery incorporated into the design. They are one of the less well represented categories of Y-piece. Y1C: 001 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W158/Habitat D16.9 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 33.8cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 13.9cm/shaft breadth 0.4cm/terminal length 4.9cm/terminal width 2.9cm/estimated width of fork 15cm Weight: 151g Description: almost black in colour. Smooth patina. One arm of fork missing. Retainer bud styled as an elegant hoop with central circular detail, still containing visible bright red enamel. Considerable wear on inner surface perforation retainer. Inner surface smooth. Scratches on outer surface of prong terminal beneath hoop. Central casting seam. Originally owned by RDS, who did not record details of location found. Raftery 1983: 187, 65. Pl. 89.

Type 1d The most ornate of all Y-pieces, usually with a notably shorter shaft, and highly decorative La Tène-derivative ornamentation on terminals. Most similar in shape to the Nordic and Germanic examples at Thorsberg and Vimose, although usually much larger and ornate. Y1D:001 Museum: British Museum, now at Royal Armoury, Leeds Accession number: 47 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 27.5cm/width of fork 15.4cm Weight and material: Unknown Details: ‘Complete. Members circular in section. Each terminal is a complex, individual casting. Prong terminals make up of two separate units, mounted on ends of prongs with space between. The units on one

Y1C:002 Museum: Ulster Museum Accession number: BELUM A668.1.1910 Provenance: Unknown

141

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context face bear snail-shell scrolls; those on the other simpler, moulded curves. The design of the stem terminal repeated on both faces and on the base is that of an elaborate S-form combined with solid circular motifs. One prong is pierced along its lower curve by an opposed pair of teardrop-shaped openings, separated from one another by a transverse cylindrical bar. Both openings defined by a thin beaded line which continues centrally along the prong and along the stem. On the same side, on both prong and stem is a series of shallow rectangular facets. Near end of each prong, riveted to inner face is small moveable rectangular box shaped mount; tiny rivet-holes in sides of these ‘boxes’ suggest that a leather strap may once have been fastened inside each one’ (Raftery 1983: 67). Raftery, 1983: 191, 67. Pl. 91.Photographs provided by Dr J Farley, British Museum.

the base of the retainer. The other is cruciform, with dish-like circular termination of arms, set on heavily patterned ridged base. Inner surface is hollow and shallow. Perforation on inner surface is squared and small, 3 mm. Casting seam visible at both junctions of shaft and fork and on the shaft itself. Butt terminal missing, with connecting stub where it once fitted undamaged. Ratchet ridges on stub very visible, but bent sideways, perhaps from either forced removal of terminal piece or pressure of bog. Found in Ballykean bog, Ballyduff, Co. Offaly with Y1D: 002/4/5. Pl. 92. Y1D:004 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 2000.18 Provenance: Ballykean Bog, Ballyduff, County Offaly Measurements: Full length 22.6cm/shaft length 4.7cm/ shaft breadth 0.7cm/width of fork 12.9cm Weight and material: 226g. Copper alloy Details: Greenish coppery colour, with some areas of golden patina still visible. Heavy and ornately decorated. Butt terminal missing. Retainer buds of terminal prongs both different, one being a circle with floral crown shaped decoration, the other cruciform with circular terminations of the arms of the cross. Inner surface of bud retainers hollow and slightly crude. Perforation of inner surface squared and crude, measuring 4mm. Casting seams visible on both shaft and fork. Junction of shaft and fork has an inverted V casting. Butt terminal missing or deliberately destroyed before deposition in bog. No sign of wear or repair. Found with Y1D:002/3/5 in Ballykean Bog, Ballyduff, Co. Offaly. Pl. 92.

Y1D:002 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 2000.16 Provenance: Ballykean Bog, Ballyduff, County Offaly Measurements: Full length 25.7cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 6.3cm/shaft breadth 0.8cm/terminal length 3.2cm/terminal width 3.8cm/width of fork 13.7cm Weight and material: 224g. Copper alloy Description: Bright gold colour with some green copper alloy patches. Smooth patina. No sign of use or wear. Retainer buds of terminal prongs displaying two different patterns, one a rounded arm cruciform pattern, with heavy base ridges, the other a monstrance shaped circle with crown-like protrusions on three sides. A few small flaws or air bubbles are visible in the terminals. Inner surface shows crude casting and is concave and unpolished. Inner surface perforation is circular, of about 4mm contained by a squared box of metal. Casting seams are visible on fork and shaft, with a deep inverted V casting seam at the junction of shaft and fork. Most of the terminal is missing, but would suggest a La Tène ornate circular design. Found in Ballykean bog, Ballyduff, Co. Offaly as part of a wetland deposition hoard with Y1D: 003/4/5. Pl. 91.

Y1D:005 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 2000.19 Provenance: Ballykean Bog, Ballyduff, County Offaly Measurements: Full length 28.8cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 8.6cm/shaft breadth 0.7cm/terminal length 5.6cm/terminal width 4.2cm/width of fork 13.8cm Weight and material: 247g. Copper alloy Details: Golden patina, with coppery green patches on surface. Smooth surface. Heavy but beautifully made ornate decoration of La Tène style. Complete and undamaged, apart from twisting of fork prongs. Retainer buds of prong terminals both different – one serpentine in shape, the other cruciform. Inner surface of retainer buds shallow and showing more crudeness of mould than the rest of the artefact. Perforation of inner surface 4mm and rounded. Central casting seam. Butt terminal ornate serpentine pattern, with detail of floral raised edges round entire circumference. No sign of wear or repair. Found in Ballykean Bog, Ballyduff,

Y1D:003 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 2000.17 Provenance: Ballykean Bog, Ballyduff, County Offaly Measurements: Full length 24.1cm/shaft length 4.7cm/ shaft breadth 0.7cm/width of fork 13.9cm Weight and material: 210g. Copper alloy Details: Smooth, highly polished and bright golden coloured patina. Some areas of greenish copper colour on arms of fork. Retainer buds ornate although different patterns. One a circle, surrounded by crown shaped protrusions, reminiscent of an Early Christian period monstrance. An unusual protruding lip creates 142

Catalogue

Co. Offaly as part of a wetland deposition hoard 2000:16/17/18. Pl. 93.

Y1D:008 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: P509/ Habitat D16.6 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 24.2cm/shaft length 6.3cm/ shaft breadth 0.5cm/width of fork 14.4cm Weight and material: 112g. Copper alloy Description: Golden bronze colour. Badly damaged with rough, bumpy surface. Terminal prongs broken, both retainer buds missing, although the remains of a connecting rivet hole for the terminal buds is apparent. Forks squared in shape. No casting seam visible. Repair and damage at junction of shaft/fork very visible, with darker metal wrapped around the junction and the shaft, then beaten crudely into place. A rivet is also visible in the darker metal. Arms of fork badly bent from the junction upwards. Butt terminal missing, although small scrolled detail would suggest it was of a well-made and ornate La Tène derivative style. Raftery 1983: 190, 66-67. Pl. 94.

Y1D:006 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W176/Habitat D16.8 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length: 30.2cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 93cm/shaft breadth 0.7cm/terminal length 6.1cm/terminal width 4.5cm/width of fork 18.3cm Weight and material: 189g. Copper alloy Description: Dark bronze colour with greenish tinge at terminals. Prong terminals intact, but damage to one of the retainer buds. Both retainer buds are firmly cruciate in shape, with a heavier art style reminiscent of pre-Migration Jutland/Angle metalwork fused with crude la Tène-derivative elements. Inner surface is concave and rawly finished. Inner perforations are 4mm approximately, and showing some sign of thinning from wear. No visible seam on shaft, but a slight casting seam raised on junction. The shaft terminal is of La Tène style and more sophisticated in execution than the prong terminals, being almost identical to the Ballykean bog finds of Offaly. It is serpentine in form, with edges of raised floral ‘crowns’. Terminals of both prongs and butt are cast separately, of different alloy. No provenance given. Raftery 1983: 188, 66. Pl. 93.

Type 1e The most obviously insular-La Tène styled of the artefacts, connecting into a harness with hooks rather than perforations on the prong terminals. The terminals are cast with cells for champlevé inserts of enamel. Y1E:001 Museum: Armagh Robinson Library Accession number: Beresford collection Provenance: ‘County Clare’ Measurements: Full length 25.6cm/width of fork 4.8cm Weight and material: 125.7g. Copper alloy identified as brass Details: Presumed decorative terminals removed at some stage, likely post deposition due to metal still shiny at removal points. Sturdy axis, but numerous scratch marks which may suggest a once-highly decorative piece. Raftery 1983: 195, 69. Pl. 95.

Y1D:007 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W177. Habitat D16.8 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 26.3cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 8.6cm/shaft breadth 0.7cm/terminal length 5.8cm/terminal width 4.9cm/width of fork 15.3cm Weight and material: 304g. Copper alloy Details: Dark brownish bronze. Reddish corrosion around the butt terminal and shaft. Strong smell of rust from piece. Intact. Prong terminal retainer buds heavy and crudely cast in one piece. Retainer buds cruciate in shape. Inner surface concave and rough surfaced. Inner perforations approximately 3mm and set in worn, dense curves of metal. No visible seams. Some wear at middle of shaft, as surface is very smooth compared to the slightly grainy texture of rest of metal. Butt terminal cast with shaft, and is ornate and circular, consisting of concentric rings flanked by floral ‘crown’ raised motif. The overall effect is of an older, less skilful prototype of the exquisite Ballykean pieces. Reddish corrosion especially noticeable in ridges of terminal. Raftery 1983: 189, 66 Pl. 94

Y1E:002 Museum: Monaghan County Museum Accession number: 138.1956 Provenance: Loughan Island, near Coleraine Measurements: Full length 30.6cm/shaft breadth 0.5cm/ shaft length (inclusive of terminal) 11.8cm/terminal length 4.6cm/width of fork 7.3cm Weight and material: 89g. Copper alloy Details: On loan from Ulster Museum. Central seam beaten flat. Butt terminal also beaten flat. Twisted out of shape very badly. Damage appears to be ancient as edges are same blackened patina as rest of frame. Considerable evidence of friction wear on prong finials 143

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context and wear on junction. Zoomorphic hooks resembling bird heads, with slight discolouration inside one prong indicating enamel inlays. Loughan Island has produced a plethora of tack from several eras, this is a particularly interesting and elegant one, with its obvious La Tènederivative patterns Raftery 1983: 194, 68 Pl. 95.

Provenance: ‘Limerick’ Measurements: Full length 11.7cm/length of stem 7.6cm/ length of terminal 4.1cm Weight and material: 78.3g. Copper alloy Details: Single stem, previously identified by Raftery as a Type B. However, no Type B has any substantial insert of material included within it. The terminal of this stem shows it was cast with a large oval cell, suitable for the placement of glass, coral, semi-precious stone. It is perhaps too large for enamel, and there is no residue of red colouring inside it. Pl. 97.

Y1E:003 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1965.179/ Habitat D17.7 Provenance: Lough Fea, Farney, County Monaghan Measurements: Full length 28.9cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 14.3cm/shaft breadth 0.6cm/terminal length 2.8cm/terminal width 1.5cm/width of fork 12.6cm Weight and material: 126g. Copper alloy Details: Dark bronze colour with reddish tinge on arms of fork and greenish tinge on shaft and butt terminal. Prong terminals missing. One arm of fork broken off. Double inverted V casting seam at junction. Ornamental butt terminal in scrolled La Tène style. Rivet attaching terminal to shaft. Found in Lough Fea, in the Farney barony of Monaghan. Attached paper tag bears the letters LF, perhaps standing for Lough Fea. Raftery 1983: 192, 67. Pl. 96.

Type 2a Characteristics: The most robust of Y-pieces, with a single cast frame, circular holes in the pronged terminals, often decorated with La Tène derivative styled relief around the holes, strikingly similar to the Turoe Stone decorations and also those on the Bann and Monasterevan discs. Only on some exceptional specimens, such as the Attymon pieces, is there any evidence of the shaft terminal being decorated. Y2A:001 Museum: British Museum Accession number: 1921.1206.36 Provenance: ‘County Antrim’ Measurements: Full length 15.8cm Weight and material: copper alloy. Details: Only a stem with terminal remaining. Rubbing friction has rendered the stem smooth close to top. Raftery 1983: 197, 70. Pl. 97.

Y1E:004 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W167/ Habitat D16.8 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 35.4cm/shaft length (incl terminal) 14.7cm/shaft breadth 0.5cm/terminal length 4.4cm/terminal width 2.9cm/width of fork 15.8cm Weight and material: 250g. Copper alloy Details: Dark bronze patina. Highly polished. Retainer buds of prongs of fork intact and ornate La Tène style scroll, with small amounts of red enamel still visible in casting seam of pattern. Wear on inner perforation retainers. Inner surface worn and scraped. Damage to arms of fork, with cuts, scrapes and holes as well as gentle bending. Central casting seam. Butt terminal similar to retainer buds. Small hole in top. Cast separately from body of piece. Raftery 1983: 193, 68. Pl. 96.

Y2A:002 Museum: British Museum Accession number: 1853.0528.4 Provenance: ‘Near Galway’ Measurements: Full length 25.7cm/width of fork 15.1cm/ length of stem 14.3cm /size of terminal 1.7cm Weight and material: 136g. Copper alloy Details: Part of a hoard. A lighter piece than most 2A specimens, Not in good condition. Missing upper prongs and considerable erosion. Raftery 1983: 204, 71. Pl. 98 Y2A:003 Museum: British Museum Accession number: 1853.0528.5 Provenance: ‘Near Galway’ Measurements: Full length 25.4cm/ width of fork 15.3cm/ length of stem 15.3cm/size of terminal 1.5cm Weight and material: 129g. Copper alloy

Type 1f So far, characteristics are unknown, but would seem likely by this terminal that inset material in finials would be the main identifying feature. May be a subcategory of Type 1a. Museum: Hunt Museum Limerick Accession number: 144

Catalogue

Details: Found with Y2A:02. Appears to be made of same alloy, as Y2A:002, as similar blistering and corrosion is visible. Pl. 98.

decoration cast relief. Currently on display in ‘Kingship and Sacrifice’ exhibition of the National Museum of Ireland, Kildare St, Dublin. No use-wear visible on Y-pieces, suggesting perhaps either seldom or never used. Raftery 1983: 200, 71. Pl. 100.

Y2A:004 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1881.311/ Habitat D16.8 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 33.9cm/width of fork 16.2cm/ length of stem 16.5cm Weight and material: 184g. Copper alloy Description: Dark bronze in colour. Smooth surface. Prong terminals damaged. La Tène style pattern on terminals. Inner surface would suggest the terminals were worked using a repoussé technique. Upper part of circle missing from terminal prongs. Visible casting seam on shaft, junction and either side of fork arms. Junction shows sign of being worn smooth. Arms and shaft both bent. Butt terminal missing. End of shaft badly damaged, with ragged cut marks and scraping. End of shaft ripped and twisted as if considerable force used upon it. Provenance unknown but was donated to NMI by the RDS antiquarian Mr J Perry. Raftery 1983: 213, 74. Pl. 99.

Y2A:007 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1891.10a Provenance: Attymon County Galway Measurements: Full length 35.6cm/width of fork 15.6cm Weight and material: Details: The Attymon hoard. Currently in secure display case as part of the NMI’s ‘Kingship and Sacrifice’ exhibition. ‘Pair. Complete. Members oval to pointedoval in section. Fine curvilinear ornament on prongends and stem terminal, cast but finished off by tooling. End of stem visible on each terminal base and the design has been completed across it in each instance by chiselling. Traces of casting seams detectable on stems and prongs. Fine golden patina throughout. Found with a pair of bridle bits on hard turf bottom of a bog at a depth of 24ft about 1.5 miles from Attymon station’ (Raftery 1983: 71). No obvious signs of use-wear. Design on prongs most similar to Monasterevin disc Raftery 1983: 201, 71. Pl. 100.

Y2A:005 Museum: Accession number: 1882.223/ Habitat D16.6 Provenance: Roscommon Measurements: Full length 30.8cm/width of fork 17.3cm/ length of stem 11.7cm/size of terminal 2.2cm Weight and material: 288g. Copper alloy Details: Dark blackish bronze in colour. Smooth patina. Well worked although simple in shape. Intact, with prong terminals displaying finely worked repoussé detail in La Tène style. Possible bovine motif at perforation making a circle over the head. Large perforations of some 5mm diameter. Some bending of arms of fork, and cuts visible on junction. No visible casting seams. Butt terminal alder seed shaped and cast separately. A piece of considerable sophistication despite simplicity. Found in Roscommon along with a snaffle bit IB5D (Raftery 1983: 73). Raftery 1983: 209, 72-73. Pl. 99.

Y2A:008 Museum: Clare Museum Accession number: 1931.313 Provenance: Ballyalla, Lissan West, County Clare Measurements: Full length 33.4cm/ width of fork 17.9cm Weight and material: Unknown Details: Currently in Clare County Museum. ‘Ballyalla, County Clare. Prong ends and stem terminal badly damaged. Traces of cast, curvilinear decoration survive at prong-ends. Stem terminal pear-shaped; square sectioned stem-end visible through break. It pierces the terminal and is held in place by burring of the tip. Traces of casting seam detectable on the stem’ (Raftery 1983: 70). Ballyalla is between two lakes and the widening mouth of the Shannon before it enters the sea. Raftery 1983: 198, 70. Pl. 101.

Y2A:006 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1891.10. Display cabinet Kingship and Sacrifice Exhibition Provenance: Attymon, County Galway Measurements: Full length 35.1cm/width of fork 15cm Weight and material: Copper alloy Details: Part of Attymon hoard with Y2A:007 and pair of bridle bits with matching insular La Tene-style

Y2A:009 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1934.10279/ Habitat C26.2 Provenance: Inishowen Barony, County Donegal Measuerements: Full length 32.6cm/width of fork 14.8cm/length of stem 11.5cm / size of terminal 2.8cm Weight and material: 186g. Copper alloy Description: Brownish green coloured smooth surface. Missing prong terminals. Arms of fork slightly bent. 145

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context No apparent signs of wear or repair. Heavy central casting seam running from junction down shaft. Cast in one piece. Alder seed shaped butt terminal, small puncture in side of terminal, where greenish colour is very visible. Solid terminal. Donated to the NMI from Mr Knowles of Ballymena, Antrim. Only given location for find is Inishowen Barony, Co. Donegal. Raftery 1983: 199, 70. Pl. 102.

Y2A:012 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: P505/ Habitat 16.7 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 33.5cm/ width of fork 15.9cm/ length of stem 12.5cm/size of terminal 2.5cm Weight and material: 280g. Copper alloy Description: Rich golden bronze in colour, but with evidence of considerable deliberate scraping and filing of surface. Heavy but well made and refined in structure. Visible casting seam at shaft/fork junction. Cast in one piece. Terminal prongs of fork show signs of filing, scraping and beating flat from the original slightly concave inner surface. Striations of filing over entire surface of piece. Bending and wear at shaft, just below junction. Terminal refined, slightly elongated hazelnut shape. Raftery 1983: 212, 73-74. Pl. 103.

Y2A:010 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1969.833/Habitat D42.8 Provenance: Durk Island, Lough Allen, Cormongan, County Leitrim Measurements: Full length 33.7cm/width of fork 15.6cm/ length of stem 12.3cm/ size of terminal 2.4cm Weight and material: 332g. Copper alloy Details: Light bronze colour. Patina worn off. Smooth even surface. Well-made although basic. Prong terminals large and circular. Perforations also large at 7mm. Terminal prongs must once have been decorated, as two sets of small holes on outer surface suggest rivets. Two of these small holes perforate through to the inner surface; the other two merely puncture the outer surface. Signs of wear on arms of fork and at prong terminals. Deep double inverted V seam present at junction. Nut shaped butt terminal which has rounded base, perforated by a central rivet and three small punctures. Found at Durk Island, on Lough Allen, Cormongan, Leitrim, on a shore of pebbles. Find included a snaffle bit. Raftery 1983: 205, 72. Pl. 102.

Y2A: 013 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W166/ Habitat D16.6 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 36.6cm/width of fork 17.4cm/ length of stem 12.8cm/size of terminal 3.5cm Weight and material: 329g. Copper alloy Details: Bright coppery bronze patina. Smooth surface. Refined, high quality detail throughout. Prong terminals worked with La Tène style design. Inner surface hollow and scraped. Central casting seam visible, extending down shaft and along axis of arms and junction. Butt terminal embossed with design reminiscent of the Turoe stone, and seen on Attymon Y- pieces as well. Raftery 1983: 211, 73. Pl. 104.

Y2A:011 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: P504/ Habitat D16.9 Provenance: Drumanone cairn, Boyle County Roscommon Measurements: Full length 31.4cm/ width of fork 15cm/ length of stem 14.5cm/size of terminal 0.9cm Weight and material: 380g Details: Dark bronze in colour, smooth patina. Flat terminals at prongs of fork with 7mm holes in centres. Flattened seams on arms of fork. Heavy, basic yet well made. Visible central casting seam. Butt terminal cast separately from the shaft. Butt terminal base is hazelnut shaped. It has a tiny raised area, which has corroded, showing terminal to be hollow. Cracks also radiate from the butt terminal. Part of the Petrie collection of the NMI, this piece was found at Drumanone portal tomb, recorded in the NMI’s records as the cromlech of Diarmud and Grainne, near Boyle, Roscommon, in 1867. Raftery 1983: 209, 73. Pl. 103.

Y2A:014 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W171 Provenance: The Skryn valley at Tara, County Meath Measurements: Full length 33cm/ width of fork 11cm Weight and material: Details: Complete. Missing. Tara/Skryn, County Meath. Found with a horse bit and another lost Y-piece specimen.’ Complete. Members circular to oval in section. Simple cast curvilinear ornament on prongends. Flattened spherical knob with short concavesided socket into which stem fits. Slightly raised, roughly circular area on base of knob. Large circular hole in one side, through which a square sectioned tang, can be seen. Faint transverse moulding marks junction of stem and fork’ (Raftery 1983: 72). Raftery 1983: 207, 72. Pl. 104.

146

Catalogue

Y2A:015 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: E92.444 Provenance: Ballybrown, near Clarina County Limerick Measurements: Full length 34.4cm. Lost specimen. ‘Ballybrown, Clarina, County Limerick. Portion of one prong missing. Surviving prongterminal defective. Members circular-to-flattened oval in section. Spherical knob at stem end with short cylindrical socket into which stem fits. End of stem visible on base of knob. There appears to be wear on lower concavity of fork’ (Raftery 1983: 72). It is interesting to note that three ‘mixed metal trumpets’ which closely resemble those of Loughnashade, were found in Ballybrown’s Carrigogunnell Bog, and sold to a brass worker in Limerick in 1797 – two of these are now in the NMI. The fate of the third is unknown. Raftery 1983: 206, 72. Pl. 105.

Y2A:018 Museum: Unknown Accession number: Lost Provenance: St Clerans, Loughrea, County Galway Measurements: Unknown Weight and material: Unknown Details: Our only knowledge of this piece is as described by Haworth (1971, 45) and its current whereabouts are unknown. Raftery 1983: 201, 73. Not illustrated. Y2A:019 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1939.82/Habitat C24.5 Provenance: ‘Northern Ireland’ Measurements: Full length 32.2cm/width of fork 16.4cm/ length of shaft 10.9cm/ size of terminal 3.6cm Weight and material: 312g. Copper alloy Details: Dark almost blackened colour with dark greenish tinge at butt terminal. Smooth surface. Crudely made. Terminal prongs circular and basic, about 7mm wide. Shallow concave surface on inner surface of terminal prongs. Scratch marks and filing visible on outer surface of terminals. Visible casting seam on central junction and shaft, as well as on edges of fork arms. Terminal butt alder seed shaped, cast separately from rest of piece as connecting seam very visible. Dark green coppery rivet visible at base of butt terminal. Only known provenance is Northern Ireland. Pl. 107.

Y2A: 016 Museum: Ulster Museum Accession number: BELUM A532.1924 Provenance: Clonetrace, near Ballymena, County Antrim Measurements: Full length 24.7cm/ width of fork 17.2cm/ length of stem 7.7cm Weight and material: 194g. Copper alloy identified as brass Details: Deep golden bronze colour with greenish tinge to worn areas of metal. Smooth surface. Very simple design, but made with some refinement. Circular prong terminals with wide perforation of some 67mm. Inner surface of prong terminals concave and polished as much as the outer surface. Wear on sides of prong terminals from worn smooth areas and also some small jagged parts where it appears something had chaffed and dented the metal. Visible casting seams at junction and on shaft. Shaft bent double on itself. Found in Clonetrace (once known as Glenatrace), Ballymena, and donated by Mr Knowles of Ballymena. Raftery 1983: 196, 70. Pl. 106.

Y2A: 020 Museum: British Museum Accession number: None yet assigned. PAS number WILT9E5865 Provenance: Kingston Deverill, Wiltshire. Weight and material: copper alloy Details: Found by metal detector near a ford of the River Wylye. Kingston Deverill, in the Deverill valley has been inhabited since at least the Neolithic period, and has produced considerable artefactual evidence of continuous settlement. Keysley Farm is an important iron Age site in the area, although two Roman roads,one from Porchester, the other from Poole, cross at the ford itself1. This same area has produced a hoard of paterae. This terminal is a different metal appearance than most other 2a pieces, and has a nail driven up the centre to keep it in shape. The rendering of the ‘Turoe’ style is a good representation of typical designs, but not exactly like, it is executed more coarsely with less refinement. Examined and drawn by author in British Museum January 2017. Pl. 107.

Y2A:017 Museum: British Museum Accession number: 1913.0713.1 Provenance: Mullingar County Westmeath Measurements: Full length 22.3cm/ width of fork 14cm/ length of shaft 8.2cm extended Weight and material: Copper alloy. Details: Once held by University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and believed lost, in fact was in the British Museum Hackney storage area. Found with Y1A:027, and another lost specimen. Shaft bent in on itself, in a similar manner as Y2A:16, despite their different find-spots. Raftery 1983: 210, 73. Pl. 106.

1 

147

https://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getcom.php?id=128

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Y2A: 021 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: Provenance: Drumanagh, County Dublin Measurements: Weight and materials: Details: Currently details embargoed by National Museum of Ireland Not illustrated

facet. Abrasion on seam of stem, suggesting it was filed down smooth in antiquity. Raftery 1983: 230, 78. Pl. 108. Y2B: 003 Museum: Monaghan County Museum Accession number: BELUM A3. 1947 Provenance: Loughan Island, Camus Ford, near Coleraine County Derry Measurements: Full length 32cm/ width of fork 14cm/ length of stem 11.5cm/size of terminal 1.3cm Weight and material: 184g.Copper alloy Details: On loan from Ulster Museum. Found in river dredging at Loughan Island/Camus Ford. Pale gold patina. No centre seam. Beaten flat, although use-wear and scraping visible at junction. Delta shaped prong finials, missing closure of narrow tips. Friction wear very visible at corners of prong finials. Pattern faintly discernible but mostly beaten out of prong ends. Raftery 1983: 215, 74. Pl. 109.

Y2A: 022 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: Provenance: Drumanagh, County Dublin Measurements: Weight and materials: Details: Currently details embargoed by National Museum of Ireland Not illustrated Type 2b The circular holes are mostly replaced with delicate D-shaped, or peltate, prong terminals which are cast on, meaning that few are intact. This category are considerably lighter than the unitary cast 2a.

Y2B:004 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1880.54/ Habitat D16.7 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 33.2cm/ width of fork 13.6cm/ length of stem 13.4cm/ size of terminal 1.5cm Weight and material: 281g. Copper alloy Details: Brownish dull bronze in colour. Smooth, well polished patina on shaft. Prong terminals are delta shaped with large crescent shaped perforations of some 10mm in length and 8mm in height. Below the crescent perforations is an unusual decoration of a triple concentric circle made of minute pricks in the metal, with two vertical tiny perforations which penetrate to the inner surface. This gives the impression some more ornate decoration may have clipped on to the outer surface. Inner surface shows signs of modifications and filing. Inner surface of arms of fork beaten flat rather crudely. Inner surface of crescent perforations worn smooth and thin at top. Visible double inverted V seam at junction. Butt terminal berry shaped, with ornate base of triple curved lines around a small central protrubance. Minute airholes or bubbles visible. Raftery 1983: 225, 77. Pl. 110.

Y2B: 001 Museum: Alnwick Castle, Northumberland Accession number: 1880.479 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 27.5cm/width of fork 10.2cm/ length of stem Weight and material: 90.2g. Copper alloy Details: Very poor condition. Prong terminals are missing. Obvious pressure bend on shaft. Entire specimen badly corroded. Asymmetrically-spherical stem-knob. Inverted V-moulding at junction of fork and stem, although this is hard to discern from the badly pitted surface. Raftery 1983: 229, 78. Pl. 108. Y2B:002 Museum: Hunt Museum, Limerick Accession number: HCA 465 Provenance: ‘Limerick’ Measurements: Full length 26.1cm/ width of fork 14.1cm/ length of stem 9.3cm/size of terminal 0.8cm Weight and material: 177.8g. Copper alloy Details: Complete. Extensively corroded. Prong terminals on fork uneven. Each prong-end pierced by tiny cylindrical perforation. On one prong the perforation is between the notches, on the other prong it is above them. Trace of an inverted V-moulding at junction of stem and fork on one face, absent on the other face where there is a flattened sub-triangular

Y2B:005 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1881.312/ Habitat D16.7 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 30.5cm/ width of fork 10.3cm/ length of stem 12.1cm/ size of terminal 0.9cm Weight and material: 163g. Copper alloy

148

Catalogue

Details: Bronze in colour. Rough surface with the appearance of much scraping, especially at the junction of the shaft and fork. Flat prong terminals missing. Trace of finely etched chevron pattern still remaining on what is left of the prong terminals. No visible casting seam. Junction of shaft and fork has been beaten and modified to a flat surface. Junction also damaged and scraped. Fork shows signs of pressure with bending from junction to arms of fork. Butt terminal small and undecorated, with a slightly curved base. Part of the 1881 Perry Collection, formerly of the RDS. Raftery 1983: 226, 77. Pl. 111.

fork arms. No visible casting seams. No signs of wear, but much modification. Butt terminal has been cut on two sides, presumably in modern times. These oblique cuts show the butt terminal to be solid. Considerable filing and scratches on shaft. Butt terminal has been cut to resemble a modern blunt spur. . Raftery 1983: 221, 76. Pl. 112. Y2B:009 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1958.57/ Habitat B16.6 Provenance: Derlangan, County Meath Measurements: Full length 32.3cm/width of forth 13.2cm/length of stem 12.2cm/ size of terminal 1.2cm Weight and materials: 221g. Copper alloy Details: Rich deep bronze colour. Smooth patina. Well made. Broken prong terminals on both arms. La Tène style decoration on outer surface of prong terminals. Small hole beneath the main perforation would suggest added decoration. No sign of wear on arms. Central casting seam, which has been partially flattened. Slight pressure twist on arms of fork and on lower part of shaft. Butt terminal undecorated and basic, with slight curved base. Found in Derlangan, Co. Meath in a pasture known locally as the Pony Field, despite no ponies or horses having been known to graze there in living memory. Raftery 1983: 218, 75. Pl. 113.

Y2B:006 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1897.105/ Habitat D16.6 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 26.2cm/width of fork 8.2cm/ length of stem 12.4cm Weight and materials: 89g. Copper alloy Details: Bright golden bronze colour. Uneven and cracked surface. Prong terminals missing. Casting seam visible on shaft, commencing from a central point of junction. Scratches and striations on metal at junction of shaft and fork. Multiple cuts, hacks and scratches up one arm of fork. Terminal missing. Shaft visibly hollow when viewed from bottom. End of terminal has several deep cuts visible in the metal. Provenance unknown. Raftery 1983: 227, 77. Pl. 111.

Y2B:010 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1963.102/ Habitat D16.1 Provenance: Clongill County Meath Measurements: Full length 33.4cm/ width of fork 12.4cm/ length of stem 12.8cm/ size of terminal 1.9cm Weight and material: 243g. Copper alloy Details: Dark bronze in colour. Smooth patina. Prong terminals are small and delta shaped, with crescent shaped perforations in them. Deep V shaped pattern etched into metal below the crescents, tracing down the arm of each fork. Scraping and small cuts around the perforations, rendering their surface rough. Definite signs of repair and modification to junction of shaft and fork. One side of casting seam on fork is visible; the other has been beaten flat, giving a bumpy appearance to the junction. Butt terminal berry shaped. Air holes and cracks at the bottom of the terminal. Found in a ploughed field in Clongill, Co. Meath, with a snaffle bit IB9D. Raftery 1983: 217, 75. Pl. 113.

Y2B:007 Museum: Ulster Museum Accession number: BELUM A5549 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 20cm/ width of fork 10.1cm/ length of stem 1.9cm Weight and material: 186g. Copper alloy Details: Rich golden bronze patina. Only partial remains of shaft. Fork intact. Prong terminals intact and delta shaped, with crescent shaped perforations 5mm. Trace of decorative pattern on outer surface of prong terminals. Visible central casting seam. Shaft broken close to the junction of fork. Raftery 1983: 228, 78. Pl. 112. Y2B:008 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1939.83/ Habitat C24.5 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 23.6cm/width of fork 8.2cm/ length of stem 9.7cm/size of terminal 1.7cm Weight and materials: 191g. Copper alloy Details: Brownish bronze in colour. Smooth patina. Terminal prongs missing. Clean cut marks at top of

Y2B:011 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: P507/ Habitat D16.8 149

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 28.6cm/ width of fork 14.7cm/ length of stem 14.5cm/size of terminal 1cm Weight and material: 215g. Copper alloy Details: Rich reddish bronze in colour. Smooth patina, with considerable evidence of beating and flattening of arms of fork. Terminal prongs both missing. Visible casting seam on shaft and also on flattened arms of fork. Considerable bolstering of shaft/fork junction, due to beaten appearance of area, as if metal has been added at some time in the past. Terminal small and rounded, with a slightly rounded base. Three small deliberate holes perforate the base. Provenance unknown. Raftery 1983: 224, 77. Pl. 114.

Details: Deep bronze colour with greenish tinge at terminal and on shaft. Prong terminals engraved with crude triple circular pattern. Damaged prong terminals with missing an enclosing top. Considerable wear on inner surface. Raised centre casting seam at junction. Found at Cloonconra, Co. Roscommon. Raftery 1983: 219, 75. Pl. 115. Y2B:015 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W155/Habitat D16.7 Provenance: Emlagh Abbey, County Tipperary Measurements: Full length 26.5cm/width of fork 15.8cm/ length of stem 11.2cm Weight and material: 150g. Copper Alloy Details: Rich golden bronze in colour. Beautifully decorated deltoid shaped La Tène style prong terminals. Upper enclosing metal missing. Much scraping and wear on arms of fork and junction. No visible seam. Butt terminal missing, but highly decorated band of bright alloy where butt would have connected to shaft. Some bending from shaft. Two sets of recorded details conflicted with the circumstances of this specimen. After further research in the antiquary records of the NMI, it can be said with some certainty that the abbey it was found in, within a mound, was Emlagh Abbey, Tipperary. Raftery 1983: 220, 76. Pl. 116.

Y2B:012 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: RSAI 6/ Habitat D16.6 Provenance: Coolgreany, County Kilkenny Measurements: Full length 29.4cm/width of fork 12.1cm/ length of stem 13cm/size of terminal 0.7cm Weight and material: 122g. Copper alloy Details: Mottled bronze patina. Prong terminals missing. Cracks and scrapes, with some indication of having been coated in black paint in the past. Casting seam has been a central inverted V at junction but has been modified many times. Badly scratched and rasped. Found in Coolgreany, Co. Kilkenny. Raftery 1983: 216, 75. Pl. 114.

Y2B:016 Museum: Ulster Museum Accession number: BELUM A107.1954 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 29cm/width of fork 12.7cm/ length of stem/size of terminal 1cm Weight and material: 227g. Copper alloy identified as brass Details: Deep brown bronze colour. Smooth patina. Terminal prongs oval shaped, with plain oval perforations. Smooth wear on loops, with small scratches on one inner surface. No sign of modification. Visible inverted V shaped central seam at junction. Berry shaped butt terminal cast with shaft. Raftery 1983: 222, 76. Pl. 116.

Y2B:013 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W152/ Habitat D16.9 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Full length 30.9cm/width of fork 13.8cm/ length of stem 12.9cm/size of terminal 0.7cm Weight and material: 212g. Copper alloy Details: Deep bronze colour. Prong terminals delta shaped and basic with no pattern or detail remaining on outer or inner surface. Evidence of modification on inside surface with scrapes and filing marks. Deep scratches and file marks on both arms. Deep cut on junction, with lesser cuts on inverted V shaped casting seam. Raftery 1983: 223, 77 Pl. 115.

Type 2c

Y2B:014 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W153/Habitat D16.9 Provenance: Cloonconra County Roscommon Measurements: Full length 29.9cm/width of fork 14.9cm/ length of stem 12.5cm/size of terminal 0.9cm Weight and material: 216g. Copper alloy

Not perhaps entirely a Y-piece, nor a Germanic kehlberg, this single example appears to be a mixture of Irish and Germanic hackamore styles. It is unknown if this is an example of a British mutation, or is in fact the beginnings of the Irish Y-piece. Therefore future classification may possibly alter. A solid bodied U-shaped piece, with a swivel at the bottom of the ‘U’ to 150

Catalogue

contain the single rein, it also is decorated with simple lines traced into the metal.

Provenance: Ballymoyer County Armagh Measurements: Full length 10.2cm/length of stem 4.7cm Weight and material: 68g. Copper alloy Description: Fragment. Dark bronze colour with greenish coppery tinge at junction. Prong terminals damaged and that which remains turned inwards. Shaft broken. Cuts and scrapes on entire piece. Part of a group of artefacts Haworth (1969, 45) was confident was from Magee’s Bog in Ballymoyer, Armagh. Raftery 1983: 233, 79. Pl. 119.

Y2C:01 Museum: University of Durham archaeology department Accession number: n/a Provenance: Binchester Roman Camp (Vinovium), Durham Measurements: Full length 13.7cm/width of fork 10.6cm/ length of stem 3.7cm Weight and material: 144.2g. Copper alloy Details: Discovered during Dr D Petts’ excavation of Binchester Roman Camp in June 2015. Found with (as yet) unexamined or undifferentiated animal bones close to what may be a Roman bath house. Radiocarbon dates from piece of leather within the swivel indicate greatest likelihood of mid-1st century AD. Morphologically, piece resembles Thorsberg analogues. Unlike the Germanic pieces, however, it has a hint that once there were simple curvilinear liners decorating the metal. The apertures also resemble Irish 2a Y-pieces more than Germanic kehbergen. This object would seem to fuse both styles of hackamore into one hybrid piece. Pl. 117.

YUC: 004 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1935.405/ Collins Barracks Provenance: Kilbeg/ Ardnurcher townland boundary, County Westmeath Measurements: Full length: 20.1cm Weight and material: iron The only known iron specimen. Badly corroded and twisted. Extremely fragile condition. Found with Y1B:04 and three iron axe-heads on boundary of Kilbeg bogland. Prong finials missing. Currently in preservation at Collins Barracks, NMI, Dublin. Raftery, 1983: 232, 79. Pl. 118.

Uncategorised specimens YUC: 001 Museum: Armagh Robinson Library Accession number: Beresford Collection 49 Provenance: ‘County Clare’ Measurements: Full length 21.8cm/width of fork 10.7cm/ length of stem 6.4cm Weight and material: 177.3g. Copper alloy identified as red brass Prongs only intact. No terminals included on piece. Prongs forced inwards that they almost meet. Raftery 1983: 234, 79. Pl. 118.

YUC: 005 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: 1956.367/ Habitat C3.21 Provenance: Drombo, County Monaghan Measurements: Full length 2.4cm Weight and material: 19g. Copper alloy Details: Butt terminal. Cut away from shaft cleanly at top, solid. Rivet up base of terminal. Found in Drombo, Co. Monaghan in a Mr Kelly’s field in 1864. Donated to NMI by G Morant. Pl. 119. YUC: 006 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: IA/88/1995 Provenance: Liliput, County Westmeath Measurements: Unknown Weight and material: Unknown Details: Unavailable for inspection, and remains unseen specimen. Recorded in accessions files in NMI, Dublin. Found in Liliput, County Westmeath during field drainage. Believed to be a fragment, not complete. Not illustrated.

YUC: 002 Museum: National Museet Denmark Accession number: 13040.2 Provenance: Unknown Measurements: Unknown Weight and material: Unknown Details: ‘Spur shaped object. Only the round-sectioned stem and a small portion of the prong on each side survive. At the top of the stem is a low V-shaped ridge. The fractured face of one prong has a dark patination like that on the surface so the break may be ancient. On the other side most of the surface break is fresh’ (Eogan, 1991, 160). Not illustrated.

YUC: 007 Detailed as part of the 1868 Brackstone Collection by Haworth (1971, 47), provenance Claremorris, Co. Mayo, but no other details exist of this lost specimen. Raftery 1983: No. 231. Not illustrated.

YUC: 003 Museum: National Museum of Ireland Accession number: W157/ Habitat D16.5 151

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Lists and Indices Plate Index Cat. No.

Plate No.

Cat. No.

Plate No.

Cat. No.

Plate No.

Cat. No.

Plate No.

IB1A

1

IB22B

27

IB50B

22

IB17D

45

IB2A

2

IB23B

12

IB51B

24

IB18D

37

IB3A

3

IB24B

13

IB52B

24

IB19D

n/a

IB4A

1

IB25B

13

IB53B

23

IB20D

36

IB5A

1

IB26B

25

IB54B

23

IB21D

39

IB6A

2

IB27B

29

IB55B

26

IB22D

36

IB7A

3

IB28B

14

IB56B

n/a

IB23D

39

IB1B

4

IB29B

14

IB1C

30

IB24E

n/a

IB2B

4

IB30B

28

IB2C

30

IB25E

56

IB3B

5

IB31B

27

IB3C

30

IB26E

57

IB4B

5

IB32B

15

IB4C

31

IB27E

55

IB5B

6

IB33B

15

IB5C

31

IB28E

57

IB6B

6

IB34B

16

IB1D

32

IB29E

58

IB7B

7

IB35B

15

IB2D

n/a

IB30E

58

IB8B

7

IB36B

19

IB3D

32

IB31E

59

IB9B

8

IB37B

19

IB4D

34

IB32E

59

IB10B

9

IB38B

16

IB5D

33

UCB1

60

IB11B

9

IB39B

16

IB6D

33

UCB2

61

IB12B

8

IB40B

22

IB7D

40

UCB3

60

IB13B

10

IB41B

17

IB8D

35

UCB4

60

IB14B

12

IB42B

17

IB9D

40

UCB5

61

IB15B

11

IB43B

18

IB10D

34

UCB6

n/a

IB16B

28

IB44B

18

IB11D

34

UCB7

60

IB17B

25

1B45B

20

IB12D

35

UCB8

62

IB18B

11

IB46B

20

IB13D

35

UCB9

62

IB19B

27

IB47B

21

IB14D

40

UCB10

63

IB20B

10

IB48B

21

IB15D

37

UCB11

n/a

IB21B

12

IB49B

22

IB16D

38

UCB12

63

152

Lists and Indices

Plate Index cont. Cat. No.

Plate No.

Cat. No.

Plate No.

Cat. No.

Plate No

Cat No.

Plate No.

UCB13

64

Y1A:28

n/a

Y1D:05

93

Y2A:20

107

Y1A:01

65

Y1B:01

78

Y1D:06

93

Y2A:21

n/a

Y1A:02

65

Y1B:02

79

Y1D:07

94

Y2A:22

n/a

Y1A:03

66

Y1B:03

80

Y1D:08

94

Y2B:01

108

Y1A:04

67

Y1B:04

81

Y1E:01

95

Y2B:02

108

Y1A:05

66

Y1B:05

81

Y1E:02

95

Y2B:03

109

Y1A:06

68

Y1B:06

82

Y1E:03

96

Y2B:04

110

Y1A:07

68

Y1B:07

82

Y1E:04

96

Y2B:05

111

Y1A:08

n/a

Y1B:08

82

Y1F:01

97

Y2B:06

111

Y1A:09

69

Y1B:09

83

Y2A:01

97

Y2B:07

112

Y1A:10

69

Y1B:10

83

Y2A:02

98

Y2B:08

112

Y1A:11

70

Y1B:11

84

Y2A:03

98

Y2B:09

113

Y1A:12

70

Y1B:12

84

Y2A:04

99

Y2B:10

113

Y1A:13

71

Y1B:13

85

Y2A:05

99

Y2B:11

114

Y1A:14

71

Y1B:14

85

Y2A:06

100

Y2B:12

114

Y1A:15

72

Y1B:15

86

Y2A:07

100

Y2B:13

115

Y1A:16

72

Y1B:16

86

Y2A:08

101

Y2B:14

115

Y1A:17

73

Y1B:17

87

Y2A:09

102

Y2B:15

116

Y1A:18

73

Y1B:18

87

Y2A:10

102

Y2B:16

116

Y1A:19

74

Y1B:19

88

Y2A:11

103

Y2C.01

117

Y1A:20

74

Y1B:20

88

Y2A:12

103

YUC:01

118

Y1A:21

75

Y1C:01

89

Y2A:13

104

YUC:02

n/a

Y1A:22

75

Y1C:02

89

Y2A:14

104

YUC:03

119

Y1A:23

76

Y1C:03

90

Y2A:15

105

YUC:04

118

Y1A:24

76

Y1D:01

91

Y2A:16

106

YUC:05

119

Y1A:25

77

Y1D:02

91

Y2A:17

106

YUC:06

n/a

Y1A:26

78

Y1D:03

92

Y2A:18

n/a

YUC:07

n/a

Y1A:27

77

Y1D:04

92

Y2A:19

107

153

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Site Index Provenance

Cat. Nos

Plate Nos

IB20D

36

Annashanco, Fermanagh

IB12B

8

Antrim Ardee, Louth Armagh

IB16E, Y2A:01 Y1A:10 IB2B, IB3B,IB21B, Y1B:02

Attymon, Galway

IB4E, IB5E, Y2A:06, Y2A:07 (H)

Aughinish Island

UCB11

Ballina Costello, Mayo

IB1B, Y1A:04, Y1A:13

Cat. Nos

Inishowen peninsula, Donegal

Abbeyshrule Longford IB24B, IB25B (H) 13 Aghivey, Derry

Provenance

Kilbeg, Westmeath

Y2A:09 Y1B:04, YUC:04

Plate Nos 102 81, 118

Killeevan, Monaghan

UCB2

61

52,97

Killucan Westmeath

IB8D

35

69

Kilmallock, Limerick

UCB7

60

Kilmore, Antrim

IB29B

14

Kinefad Bridge, Offaly

IB44B

18

Kingston Deverill, Wiltshire

Y2A:20

107

Kishawanny, Kildare

Y1B:18 (H)

87

5, 12, 79,

47, 100 Not illustrated 4, 67, 71

Ballyalla, Co. Clare

Y2A:08

101

Knockmany, Tyrone

Y1A:03

66

Ballybrown, Limerick

Y2A:15

105

Leap, Offaly

IB14B

12

Ballykean Bog, Offaly

Y1D:02, Y1D:03, Y1D:04, Y1D:05 (H)

Lesser Garth, Glamorgan, Wales

Y1B:20

88

YUC:06

Not illustrated

Ballykilleen Hil, Edenderry Offaly

91,92,93

IB33D

45

Liliput, Westmeath

Ballymoney, Antrim

IB10D, IB11D

34

Limerick

Ballymoyer , Armagh

IB4A, IB5A, IB6A, Y1B:19, YUC:03 (H)

1, 6, 88, 119

Ballynahinch, Down

IB27B

29

Ballynaminton, Offaly

IB22D

Binchester Roman Fort, Britain Bushmills, Antrim Clare Claremorris, Mayo

Lisnacannon Fort, Drumack, Antrim

Y1A:06, Y1A:07, Y1F:01

68, 97

Y1B:14 (H)

85

Llyn Cerrig Bach, Wales

IB1A

1

36

Lough Beg, River Bann

IB8B

7

Y2C.01

117

Lough Fea, Monaghan

Y1E:03

96

IB12D

35

Lough Inchiquin, Roscommon

IB30B

28

95, 118

Lough Ravel Crannog, Derryhollagh, Antrim

UCB1

60

Not illustrated

Loughan Island, Derry

IB7D, IB25D, UCB5, Y2B:03, Y1E:02

Y1E:01, YUC:01 YUC:07

154

40, 41, 61, 95,109

Lists and Indices

Site index cont. Provenance

Cat. Nos

Clonetrace, Antrim

Y2A:16

Plate Nos 106

Clongill Meath IB9D, Y2B:10 (H) 40, 113 Cloonconra, Roscommon

Y2B:14

115

Cong South, Mayo

IB7E

49

Conwy River, Wales

IB30D

Not illustrated

Coolgreaney

Y2B:12

114

Corofin

UCB6

Not illustrated

CottonBog, N’ards

IB9B

8

Creggan, Roscommon

Y1A:23

76

Derlangan, Co. Meath

Y2B:09

113 Not illustrated

Dolgellau, Wales

IB32D

38

Drombo, Monaghan

YUC:05

119

Drumlough Moss, Dromore

UCB10

63

Dublin

IB31B, IB14D

IB19D

Not illustrated

Meath

IB10B

9

Moyfin, Meath

Y1A:19

74

IB2A

2

Mullingar, Co. Westmeath

Y1A:27, Y2A:17

77, 106

Navan Fort Armagh

Y1A:02

65

Navan, Meath

IB43B

18

Newgrange, Meath

IB31E

59

Northern Ireland

IB6E, Y2A:19

Roscommon, near Tulsk

46, 107

Y1A:01

65

Y1B:07,Y1B:08

82

IB27E

55

Roscommon IB5D, Y2A:05 (H) 33, 99 St Clerans, Galway

IB2D, IB2E, IB3E, Not Y2A:21, Y2A:22 illustrated (H) 103

Loughane West, Cork

River Shannon

IB8E

Y2A:11

Plate Nos

Portnelligan, Armagh

Devon

Drumanone cromlech, Boyle, Roscommon

Cat. Nos

Mullinacross, Ballymagroarty

Cormongan, Durk Island, Y2A:10, IB6D (H) 33, 102 Leitrim

Drumanagh

Provenance

27,40

Sligo

IB21E, Y2A:18 (H) Y1A:12

Not illustrated 70

Streamstown, Westmeath

IB1D, IB16D (H)

32,38

Tara Skreen, Meath

IB26D, Y2A:14 (H)

42, 104

Toomevara, Tipperary

IB17B

25

Dundrum, Down

UCB9

62

Tracton Abbey, Cork

IB32B

15

Dungannon?

UCB12

63

Transylvania, Romania

UCB13

64

Emlagh Abbey, Tipperary

Y2B:15

116

Tulsk, Roscommon

IB28E

57

IB25E

56

Galway Glen Leslie, Antrim

Y2A:02, Y2A:03, IB9E (H)

48, 98

Ummeracam

IB22B, IB17E

27, 53

Urraghry, Galway

Gortgole, Antrim

IB4C

31

Headfort, Kerry

IB19B

27

Wicklow

155

IB11B, Y1A:09 IB15E

9, 69 52

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Unknown Provenance Cat. Nos

Plate No.

Cat. Nos

Plate No.

Cat. Nos

Plate No.

Cat. Nos

Plate No.

IB3A, IB7A

3

IB56B

n/a

IB26E

58

Y1B:015, Y1B:016

86

IB4B

5

IB1C, IB2C, IB3C

30

IB29E, IB30E

59

Y1B:017

87

IB5B, IB6B

6

IB5C

31

IB32E

60

Y1C:01,Y1C:02

89

IB7B

7

IB3D

32

UCB3, UCB4

60

Y1C:03

90

IB13B, IB20B

10

IB4D

34

Y1A:005

66

Y1D:01

91

IB15B, IB18B

11

IB13D

35

Y1A:011

70

Y1D:06

93

IB16B

28

IB15D, IB18D

37

Y1A:014

71

Y1D:07,Y1D:08

94

IB23B

12

IB17D

39

Y1A:015, Y1A:016

72

Y1E:04

96

IB26B

25

IB21D, IB23D

41

Y1A:017, Y1A:018

73

Y2A:04

99

IB28B

14

IB24D

42

Y1A:020

74

Y2A:012

103

IB33B, IB35B

15

IB27D

43

Y1A:021, Y1A:022

75

Y2A:013

104

IB34B, IB38B, IB39B

16

IB28D, IB29D

46

Y1A:024

76

Y2B:001, Y2B:002

108

IB36B, IB37B

19

IB1E

50

Y1A:025

77

Y2B:004

110

IB40B, IB49B, IB50B

22

IB10E, IB13E

48

Y1A:026, Y1B:001

78

Y2B:005, Y2B:006

111

IB41B, IB42B

17

IB11E

51

Y1B:003

80

Y2B:007, Y2B:008

112

1B45B, IB46B

20

IB12E, IB14E

56

Y1B:005

81

Y2B:011

114

IB47B, IB48B

21

IB18E

53

Y1B:006

82

Y2B:013

115

IB51B, IB52B

24

IB19E

54

Y1B:009, Y1B:010

83

Y2B:016

116

IB53B, IB54B

23

IB20E, IB23E

55

Y1B:011, Y1B:012

84

IB55B

26

IB22E

57

Y1B:013

85

156

Lists and Indices

Museum Index Alnwick Castle Collection, Alnwick, Great Britain

Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen, Denmark.

IB4B,IB3D,IB1E

Y1A:008, YUC:02

Y1B:01, Y2B:01

National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, Republic of Ireland.

Armagh County Museum, Armagh, Northern Ireland

IB2A, IB4A, IB5A, IB6A, IB7A,

IB2B, IB3B

IB1B, IB5B,IB6B,IB7B,IB8B,IB9B,IB10B,IB11B, IB12B,IB13B,IB18B

Y1A:01,Y1A:02,Y1A:03, Y1B:02

IB19B,IB22B,IB24B,IB25B,IB36B,IB38B, IB39B, IB40B,IB41B,IB43B

Armagh Robinson Library, Armagh, Northern Ireland

IB44B, IB45B,IB46B,IB47B,IB48B,IB49B, IB50B,IB51B,IB52B,IB53B,IB54B

Y1E:01, YUC:01 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Great Britain

IB2C,IB3C

IB21B, IB6E

IB2D,IB4D,IB5D,IB6D,IB9D,IB16D, IB17D,IB18D,IB21D,IB22D,IB23D

British Museum, London, Great Britain

IB24D, IB25D,IB26D,IB27D,IB28D,IB29D

IB14B, IB15B, IB18B, IB17B, IB20B, IB23B, IB8D, IB9E, IB10E, IB11E,

IB2E, IB3E,IB4E,IB5E, IB7E, IB14E,IB18E,IB22E,IB24E, IB25E,IB26E

Y1A:04,Y1A:05,

IB27E,IB28E,IB29E,IB30E, IB31E, IB32E

Y2A:01,Y2A:02, Y2A:03, Y2A:17, Y2A:20 City Museum Limerick, Limerick, Republic of Ireland

Y1A:09, Y1A:10, Y1A:12, Y1A:13, Y1A:14,Y1A:15,Y1A:1 6,Y1A:17,Y1A:18

IB5C

Y1A:19, Y1A:20,Y1A:21,Y1A:22,Y1A:23, Y1A:24,Y1A:25

Cork City Museum, Cork, Republic of Ireland

Y1B:03, Y1B:04,Y1B:05,Y1B:06,Y1B:07,Y1B:09, Y1B:10, Y1B:11,Y1B:12

IB37B, IB1D

Y1C:01

Durham University, Durham, Great Britain

Y1D:02,Y1D:03, Y1D:04,Y1D:05,Y1D:06,Y1D:07, Y1D:08

Y2C:01

Y1E:03,Y1E:04

Hunt Museum, Limerick, Republic of Ireland Y1A:06,Y1A:07, Y1F:01,Y2B:02

Y2A:04,Y2A:05,Y2A:06,Y2A:07,Y2A:08,Y2A:09, Y2A:10,Y2A:11, Y2A:12

Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, Scotland.

Y2A:13,Y2A14,Y2A:19,Y2A:21, Y2A:22

IB10D, IB11D

Y2B:14,Y2B:15

Museum of Transylvanian History, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

YUC:03,YUC:04,YUC:05,YUC:06

UCB13

National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland

National Library of Ireland, Dublin, Republic of Ireland

IB32B.IB33B,IB34B,IB35B,IB15D,UCB12

IB55B

National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, Wales

Y1B:19

IB1A, Y1A:20

157

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context Museum Index cont.

Hoard associations including bits and Y-pieces Y-pieces only

Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, Great Britain IB31B, IB8E

Ballykean Bog, Offaly

Y1D: 002, 003,004,005

Private Collections (Unknown whereabouts)

Mullingar, Westmeath

IB7D,IB31D,IB32D

Y1A:027, Y2A:017. Another, unrecorded lost specimen

Co. Limerick

Y1A:006, Y1A: 007, Y1F:01

QUB Teaching Collection, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Bits only

Y1B:13 Royal Armoury, Leeds, Great Britain Y1D:01 Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Abbeyshrule, Longford

IB24B, IB25B

Ballymoney, Antrim

IB10D, IB11D

Streamstown, Westmeath

IB1D, IB16D

Y-pieces and single bit

IB27B,IB28B,IB29B,IB3C,IB4C,IB12D,IB13D,IB20D, IB19E,IB20E

Aughrim, Co. Galway

Y1A:009 with bit IB11B

St Clerans, Co. Galway

Y2B:03,Y2B:07,Y2B:16

Type 2 unrecorded Y-piece with bit IB21E

Cormongan, Co. Leitrim

Y2A:010 with bit IB6D

University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge, Great Britain

Clongill, Co. Meath

Y2B:010 with bit IB9D

IB33D

Roscommon

Y2A:005 with bit IB5D

Tara-Skryn Meath

Y1A:26, Y1B:15, Y1B:16, Y1B:17, Y1C:02,Y1C:03, Y1E:02, Y2A:16

Y1A:27, Y1B:18 University College of Dublin, Belfield, Republic of Ireland

Valley,

Co.

‘Near Galway’

IB26B

Y2A:014, an unrecorded lost Y-piece specimen and bit IB26D Y2A:02, Y2A:03, IB9E

Y-pieces and multiple bits

Wallington Museum, Northumbria, Great Britain IB56B

Attymon, Co. Galway

Y2A:006 and Y2A:007, with bits IB4E and IB5E

Ballymoyer, Armagh

IB4A, IB5A, IB6A, Y1B:19, YUC: 03

Drumanagh, Dublin

IB2D, IB2E, IB3E, Y2A:21, Y2A:22

Y-pieces and miscellaneous items

158

Ardee, Co. Louth

Y1A:010 with a bronze spearhead

Glenbuck, Co. Antrim

Y1B:014 with ‘brass’ pin.

Kilbeg, Co. Westmeath

Y1B:004, with YUC: 004 and a selection of iron axe-heads

Kishawanny, Co. Kildare

Y1B:018 with a complex collection of bronze rings, and a small bell.

Plates

159

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB1A

IB4A

IB5A3

Plate 1. Type A bits. IB1A, Llyn Cerrig Bach. IB4A, IB5A, both Ballymoyer Bog, Armagh. Actual size.

160

Plates

IB2A

IB6A

Plate 2. IB2A, not to scale, from Rossknowlagh Museum. IB6A Ballymoyer Bog, Armagh. Actual size.

161

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB3A

IB7A

Plate 3. IB3A, after Raftery 1983, fig. 1, no. 5. IB7A, unknown. Actual size.

162

Plates

IB1B

IB2B

Plate 4. IB1B. Ballina Costello, Mayo IB2B, after Raftery 1983, fig. 7, no. 11. Scale 1:2.

163

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB3B

IB4B

Plate 5. IB3B, Armagh. IB4B, unknown. Actual size.

164

Plates

IB6B

IB5B

Plate 6. IB5B, unknown. IB6B, unknown. Actual size.

165

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB7B

IB8B

Plate 7. IB7B, unknown. IB8B, Lough Beg after Raftery 1983, fig. 4, no. 8. Scale 1:2.

166

Plates

IB9B

IB12B

Plate 8. IB9B, Cotton Bog, Newtownards. IB12B, Annashanco, Fermanagh. Actual size.

167

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB10B

IB11B

Plate 9. IB10B. Meath. IB11B, Urraghry, Aughrim, Galway. Scale 1:2.

168

Plates

IB13B

IB20B

Plate 10. IB13B, unknown. IB20B, unknown. Actual size.

169

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB15B

IB18B

Plate 11. IB15B, unknown. IB18B, unknown. Scale 1:2.

170

Plates

IB14B

IB21B

IB23B

Plate 12. IB14B, Leap, Offaly. IB21B, Armagh. IB23B, unknown. Scale 1:2.

171

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB24B

IB25B

Plate 13. IB24B. IB25B. Both Abbeyshrule, Longford. Scale 1:2.

172

Plates

IB28B

IB29B

Plate 14. IB28B, unknown. IB29B, Kilmore, Antrim. Actual size

173

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB32B

IB33B

IB35B

Plate 15. IB32B, Tracton Abbey. IB33B, unknown. IB35B, unknown. Scale 1:2.

174

Plates

IB34B

IB38B

IB39B

Plate 16. IB34B, unknown. IB38B, unknown. IB39B, unknown. Scale 1:2.

175

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB41B

IB42B

Plate 17. IB41B, unknown. IB42B, unknown. Scale 1:2.

176

Plates

IB43B

IB44B

Plate 18. IB43B, Navan, Meath. IB44B, Kinnefad, Offaly. Scale 1:2.

177

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB36B

IB37B

Plate 19. IB36B, unknown. IB37B, unknown. Scale 1:2.

178

Plates

IB45B

IB46B

Plate 20. IB45B, unknown. IB46B, unknown. Scale 1:2.

179

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB47B

IB48B

Plate 21. IB47B, unknown. IB48B, unknown. Scale 1:2.

180

Plates

IB49B

IB40B

IB50B

Plate 22. IB49B, unknown. IB40B, unknown. IB50B. Scale 1:2.

181

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB53B

IB54B

Plate 23. IB53B, unknown. IB54B, unknown. Actual size.

182

Plates

IB51B

IB52B

Plate 24. IB51B, unknown. IB52B, unknown. Scale 1:2.

183

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB17B

IB26B

Plate 25. IB17B, Toomevara. IB26B, unknown. Scale 1:2.

184

Plates

IB55B

Plate 26. IB55B, after Raftery 1983, fig. 8, no. 59. IB. Scale 1:2.

185

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB22B

IB19B

IB31B

Plate 27. IB22B, Glenleslie, Antrim. IB19B, Headfort, Kerry and IB31B, Dublin, after Raftery 1983, fig 13, no. 21 and fig. 15, no. 18. Actual size.

186

Plates

IB30B

IB16B

Plate 28. IB30B, L Inchiquin, after Raftery 1983, fig. 8, no 14. IB16B, after Raftery 1983, fig. 3, no. 57. Scale 1:2.

187

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB27B

Plate 29. IB27B, Ballynahinchafter Raftery 1983, fig. 10, no. 16. Scale 1:2.

188

Plates

IB1C

IB2C

IB3C

Plate 30. IB1C, unknown. IB2C, unknown. IB3C, unknown. Actual size.

189

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB4C

IB5C

Plate 31. IB4C, Gortgole, Antrim. IB5C after Raftery 1983, fig. 22, no. 68. Scale 1:2.

190

Plates

IB1D

IB3D

Plate 32. IB1D Streamstown, Westmeath after Raftery 1983, fig. 30, no. 83. IB3D, unknown. Scale 1:2.

191

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB5D

IB6D

Plate 33. IB5D, Roscommon. IB6D, DurkIsland, Cormongan. Scale 1:2.

192

Plates

IB4D

IB10D

IB11D

Plate 34. IB4D, unknown. IB10D and IB11D, Ballymoney, Garry Bog. Actual size.

193

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB8D

IB12D

IB13D

Plate 35. IB8D, Killucan, Westmeath. IB12D, Bushmills, Antrim. IB13D, unknown. Scale 1:2.

194

Plates

IB20D

IB22D

Plate 36. IB20D, Aghivey, Derry. IB22D, Ballynaminton, Offaly. Scale 1:2.

195

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB15D

IB18D

Plate 37. IB15D, unknown. IB18D, unknown. Actual size.

196

Plates

IB32D

IB16D

Plate 38. IB32D, Dolgellau, Wales after Raftery 1983, fig. 33, no. 136. IB16D, Streamstown after Raftery 1983, fig. 30, no. 84. Scale 1:2.

197

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB21D

IB23D

Plate 39. IB21D, unknown. IB23D, unknown. Scale 1:2.

198

Plates

IB7D

IB14D

IB9D

Plate 40. IB7D, Loughan Island, Derry. IB14D, Co. Dublin, after Raftery 1983, fig. 24, no. 76. IB9D Clongill, Meath after Raftery 1983 fig. 27, no. 98. Scale 1:2.

199

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB24D

IB25D

Plate 41. IB24D, unknown. IB25D, Loughan Island. Scale 1:2.

200

Plates

IB26D

IB27D

Plate 42. IB26D, Tara/Skryn Valley, Meath. IB27D, unknown. Scale 1:2.

201

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB28D

IB29D

Plate 43. IB28D, unknown. IB29D, unknown. Actual size.

202

Plates

IB31D

Plate 44. IB31D, Tensbury Wells, England. After Raftery 1983, fig. 26, 96. Scale 1:2.

203

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB17D

IB33D

Plate 45. IB17D, unknown. After Raftery 1983, fig. 32, no. 92. IB33D after Raftery 1983, fig. 32, no. 85. Scale 1:2.

204

Plates

IB1E

IB6E

Plate 46. IB1E, unknown. IB6E, ‘Northern Ireland’. Scale 1:2.

205

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB4E

IB5E

Plate 47. IB4E and IB5E. Both Attymon, Galway. Scale 1:2.

206

Plates

IB9E

IB11E

Plate 48. IB9E, unknown. IB11E, Galway. Scale 1:2.

207

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB7E

Plate 49. IB7E, Cong, Mayo, from Raftery 1983, fig. 34, no. 106. Scale 1:2.

208

Plates

IB10E

IB13E

Plate 50. IB10E, unknown. IB13E, unknown. Actual size.

209

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB12E

IB14E

Plate 51. IB12E, unknown. IB14E, unknown. Scale 1:2.

210

Plates

IB15E

IB16E

Plate 52. IB15E, Co. Wicklow. IB16E, Co. Antrim. Scale 1:2.

211

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB17E

IB19E

Plate 53. IB17E, Glenleslie, Antrim. IB19E, unknown, Scale 1:2.

212

Plates

IB20E

IB23E

Plate 54. IB20E, unknown. IB23E, unknown. Scale 1:2.

213

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB22E

IB27E

Plate 55. IB22E, unknown. IB27E, Roscommon, near Tulsk. Scale 1:2.

214

Plates

IB25E

IB18E

Plate 56. IB25E, Ummeracam, Armagh. IB18E, unknown. Scale 1:2.

215

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB26E

IB28E

Plate 57. IB26E, unknown. IB28E, Tulsk, Roscommon. Scale 1:2.

216

Plates

IB29E

IB30E

Plate 58. IB29E, unknown. IB30E, unknown. Scale 1:2.

217

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

IB31E

IB32E

Plate 59. IB31E, Newgrange, Meath. IB32E, unknown. Scale 1:2.

218

Plates

UCB1

UCB3 UCB4

UCB7

Plate 60. UCB1, Derryhollagh, Antrim. UCB3 and UCB4 unknown. UCB7, Kilmallock, Limerick. Actual size.

219

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

UCB2

UCB5

Plate 61. UCB2 Killeevan, Monaghan. UCB5, Loughan Island. Scale 1:2.

220

Plates

UCB8

UCB9

Plate 62. UCB8, unknown. UCB9, Dundrum, Down. Scale 1:2.

221

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

UCB10

UCB12

Plate 63. UCB10, DrumloughMoss, Down. UCB12, possibly Dungannon (Bell Collection). Scale 1:2.

222

Plates

UCB13

Plate 64. UCB13, Transylvania. After Rustoiu 2005.

223

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y1A:001

Y1A:002

Plate 65. Y1A: 001, Portnelligan, Armagh. Y1A:002, Navan Fort, Armagh. Actual size.

224

Plates

Y1A:003

Y1A:005

Plate 66. Y1A:003 Knockmanycairn, Tyrone. YIA:005, unknown. Scale 1:2.

225

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y1A:004

Plate 67. Y1A:004, Ballina Costello, after Raftery 1983, fig 54, no. 146. Scale 1:2.

226

Plates

Y1A:006

Y1A:007

Plate 68. Y1A:006, Co. Limerick. Y1A:007, Co. Limerick. Scale 1:2.

227

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y1A:009

Y1A:010

Plate 69. Y1A:009, Aughrim, Galway. Y1A:010, Ardee, Louth. Scale 1:2.

228

Plates

Y1A:011

Y1A:012

Plate 70. Y1A:011, unknown. After Raftery 1983 fig. 58, no. 162. Y1A:012, Co. Sligo. Scale 1:2.

229

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y1A:013

Y1A:014

Plate 71. Y1A:013, Ballina Costello, Co. Mayo, Y1A:014, unknown. Scale 1:2.

230

Plates

Y1A:015

Y1A:016

Plate 72 . Y1A:015, unknown. Y1A:016, unknown. Scale 1:2.

231

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y1A:017

Y1A:018

Plate 73. Y1A:017, unknown. After Raftery 1983, 56, no. 152. Y1A:018, unknown. Scale 1:2.

232

Plates

Y1A:019

Y1A:020

Plate 74. Y1A: 019. Moyfin, Co. Meath. Y1A:020, unknown. Scale 1:2.

233

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y1A:021

Y1A:022

Plate 75. Y1A:021, unknown. Y1A:022, unknown. Scale 1:2.

234

Plates

Y1A:023

Y1A:024

Plate 76. Y1A: 023, Creggan, Co. Roscommon. Y1A:024, unknown. Scale 1:2.

235

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y1A:025

Y1A:027

Plate 77. Y1A:025, unknown. Y1A:027, Mullingar, Westmeath. After Raftery 1983, 55, no. 151. Scale 1:2.

236

Plates

Y1A:026

Y1B:01

Plate 78. Y1A:026, unknown. Y1B:01, unknown. Actual size.

237

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y1B:02

Plate 79. Y1B:02, Armagh. Scale 1:2.

238

Plates

Y1B:03

Plate 80. Y1A:08, unknown. Scale 1:2.

239

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y1B:04

Y1B:05

Plate 81. Y1B:04, Kilbeg, Westmeath. Y1B:05, unknown. Scale 1:2.

240

Plates

Y1B:06

Y1B:07

Y1B:08

Plate 82. Y1B:06, unknown. Y1B:07 and Y1B:08, ‘River Shannon’. Actual size.

241

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y1B:09

Y1B:10

Plate 83. Y1B:09, unknown. Y1B:10, unknown. Scale 1:2.

242

Plates

Y1B:11

Y1B:12

Plate 84. Y1B:11, unknown. Y1B:12, unknown. Scale 1:2.

243

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y1B:13

Y1B:14 Plate 85. Y1B:13, unknown. Scale 1:2. Y1B: 14 Lisnacannonfort, Antrim. MS from Raftery 1983, no. 167. Scale unknown.

244

Plates

Y1B:15

Y1B:16

Plate 86. Y1B:15, unknown. Y1B:16, unknown. Scale 1:2.

245

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y1B:17

Y1B:18

Plate 87. Y1B:17, unknown. Y1B:18, Kishawanny, Kildare, after Raftery 1983, fig. 45, no. 169. Scale 1:2.

246

Plates

Y1B:19

Y1B:20

Plate 88. Y1B:19, Ballymoyer Bog, Armagh. Y1B:20, Lesser Garth Cave, Wales. Scale uncertain as both from MS sketches, with actual objects missing.

247

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y1C:01

Y1C:02

Plate 89. Y1C:01, unknown. Y1C:02, unknown. Scale 1:2.

248

Plates

Y1C:03

Plate 90. Y1C:03, unknown. Scale 1:2.

249

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y1D:02

Plate 91. Y1D:02, Ballykean Bog, Offaly. Scale 1:2.

250

Plates

Y1D:03

Y1D:04

Plate 92. Y1D:03 and Y1D:04, Ballykean Bog, Offaly. Scale 1:2.

251

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y1D:05

Y1D:06

Plate 93. Y1D:05, Ballykean Bog, Offaly. Y1D:06, unknown. Scale 1:2.

252

Plates

Y1D:07

Y1D:08

Plate 94. Y1D:07, unknown. Y1D:08, unknown. Scale 1:2.

253

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y1E:01

Y1E:02

Plate 95. Y1E:01, Co. Clare. Y1E:02, Fish Loughan, near Coleraine. Scale 1:2.

254

Plates

Y1E:03

Y1E:04

Plate 96. Y1E:03, Lough Fea, Monaghan. Y1E:04, unknown. Scale 1:2.

255

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y1F:01

Y2A:01

Plate 97. Y1F:01, Limerick. Y2A:01, Co. Antrim. Actual size.

256

Plates

Y2A:02

Y2A:03

Plate 98. Y2A:02 and Y2A:03, ‘Near Galway’. Scale 1:2.

257

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y2A:04

Y2A:05

Plate 99. Y2A:04, unknown, Y2A:05, Roscommon. Scale 1:2.

258

Plates

Y2A:06

Y2A:07

Plate 100. Y2A:06 and Y2A:07, Attymon, Galway. Scale 1:2.

259

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y2A:08

Plate 101. Y2A:08, Ballyalla, Clare. After Raftery 1983, no. 198, Scale 1:2.

260

Plates

Y2A:09

Y2A:10

Plate 102. Y2A:09, Inishowen Barony, Donegal. Y2A:10, Cormongan, Leitrim. Scale 1:2.

261

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y2A:11

Y2A:12

Plate 103. Y2A:11, Drumanone, Roscommon. Y2A:12, unknown. Scale 1:2.

262

Plates

Y2A:13

Y2A:14

Plate 104. Y2A:13, unknown. Y2A:14, Tara/Skryn, after Raftery 1983, fig. 83, no. 207. Scale 1:2.

263

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y2A:15

Plate 105. Y2A:15, Ballybrown, Limerick. After Raftery 1983, fig. 82, no. 206. Scale 1:2.

264

Plates

Y2A:17

Y2A:16

Plate 106. Y2A:16, Clonetrace, Antrim. Y2A:17, Mullingar, Westmeath. Scale 1:2.

265

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y2A:20

Y2A:19

Plate 107. Y2A:19, ‘Northern Ireland’, Scale 1:2. Y2A:20, Kingston Deverill, Wiltshire. Actual size.

266

Plates

Y2B:02

Y2B:01

Plate 108. Y2B:01, unknown. Y2B:02, unknown. Scale 1:2.

267

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y2B:03

Plate 109. Y2B:03, Loughan Island, Derry. Scale 1:2.

268

Plates

Y2B:04

Plate 110. Y2B:04, unknown. Scale 1:2.

269

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y2B:05

Y2B:06

Plate 111. Y2B:05, unknown. Y2B:06, unknown. Scale 1:2.

270

Plates

Y2B:07

Y2B:08

Plate 112. Y2B:07, unknown. Y2B:08, unknown. Scale 1:2.

271

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y2B:09

Y2B:10

Plate 113. Y2B:09, Derlangan, Meath. Y2B:10 Clongill, Meath. Scale 1:2.

272

Plates

Y2B:11

Y2B:12

Plate 114. Y2B:11, unknown. Y2B:12, Coolgreaney, Wexford. Scale 1:2.

273

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y2B:13

Y2B:14

Plate 115. Y2B:13, unknown. Y2B:14, Cloonconra, Roscommon. Scale 1:2.

274

Plates

Y2B:15

Y2B:16

Plate 116. Y2B:15, Emlagh Abbey, Tipperary. Y2B:16, unknown. Scale 1:2.

275

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

Y2C:01

Plate 117. Y2C:01, Binchester Roman Fort, Durham. Scale 1:2.

276

Plates

YUC:01

YUC:04

Plate 118. YUC:01, Co. Clare. YUC:04, Kilbeg, Westmeath. Scale 1:2.

277

Irish Late Iron Age Equestrian Equipment in its Insular and Continental Context

YUC:03

YUC:05

Plate 119. YUC:03, Ballymoyer Bog, Armagh. YUC:05, Drombo, Monaghan. Actual size.

278