Fig. 231.—Section of one of the Ardakillen Crannogs.
Fig. 232. Skull and Iron Fetters from the Crannog of Ardakillen. One-eighth real size.
Fig. 233. Iron Fetters from one of the Strokestown Crannogs. One-third real size.
Under a slight earthy deposit there was a deep layer of loose stones, bounded by an enclosing wall, the foundation supported by piling. The lower portion of the island consisted of clay, peat, and stones, mingled with strata of ashes, bones, and logs of timber. The various rows of oak-piling are shown in the section; the sheet-piling, driven in obliquely, formed an unbroken circle round the island. When the level of the lake was lowered, four islands became visible, and on the largest upwards of fifty tons of bones were found: this is probably the crannog mentioned in the Irish Annals, under dates 1368 and 1388 (ante, p. [154]). The scene which this site presented shortly after the lowering of the water-level was very remarkable; scores of persons visited it, at first in search of bones, for which they found a ready sale as manure, and afterwards with the view of picking up antiques, with which the bog-matter around the sheet-piling or stockade was plentifully studded. Large numbers of these were disposed of to an English collector, and amongst the objects known to have been obtained by him was a beautifully-formed vessel of wood, bound round with plates of thin golden bronze, upon which a variety of designs were displayed.[256] What appears to have been a very similar article was found many years ago in deepening the bed of the Kinnegad river, and is figured (p. 67) in Wilde’s Boyne and Blackwater. A “dug out,” eighteen feet in length, discovered lying on the bottom of the lake, was wantonly destroyed, and ultimately utilised for firewood. Near the crannog was a canoe, forty feet in length, and four feet across the bow; it was hollowed out of a single trunk of oak, and in it were a skull, a spear-head, and a bronze pin. The skull bears the mark of no less than twenty sword-cuts, showing the murderous conflict in which its owner must have been engaged. Near it was found a neck-piece of iron with twenty feet of rude chain attached[257] ([fig. 232]). Another set of “irons” ([fig. 233]) came from a crannog in the immediate neighbourhood, and from the size it is likely they were intended for ankle-fetters; it is stated that similar instruments have elsewhere occurred in Irish lacustrine sites, and, strange to say, in one instance there were traces of gilding. In Irish MSS. allusions frequently occur to the practice of putting captives in fetters; they were sometimes so severely manacled as to produce almost unbearable torture. Prisoners were often slain when fettered. One instance, though a comparatively modern one, will suffice:—According to the Annals of Loch Cé, in the year 1585, a son of Teige O’Rorke, and a son of Magnus Oge O’Currin, were captured, “placed in irons on Loch-na-cula,” in the county Leitrim, and slain.
The skull found lying in the bottom of the canoe was of the oval or elliptical (Dolicho cephalic) type, characteristic of the natives of western or southern Europe. There is a theory that in primeval times in Erin there were two races, each distinctly marked both by features and the form of the cranium. The one possessed thick elliptical skulls, low foreheads, deep orbits, high cheek-bones, prominent mouths, and narrow chins; the other had round, or globular (Brachi cephalic) skulls, possessed more intellect, and less marked features. Wilde observes that the two fragments of human skulls discovered in the crannog of Lagore[258] (ante, p. [204]) partook of the character of the long-headed race, whilst the antiquities found with them would lead to the belief that the persons to whom the skulls had belonged did not live later than the tenth century. Good examples of both races may still be seen amongst the modern Irish.
“There are reasons for considering that the Ardakillen skull belonged to a young adult, or to a man in the prime of life. This opinion is based upon the fact that the coronal and sagittal sutures were not obliterated. (The coronal suture is the name given to the line of articulation between the frontal and parietal bones; it forms a vertical transverse line over the top of the front of the skull. The sagittal, or interparietal suture, occupies a median longitudinal position between the two parietal bones.) The coalescence into one plate of bone (calvarium, or skull-cap) of the frontal and the two parietal bones, and the consequent obliteration of the sutures (coronal and sagittal), generally occurs between thirty and forty years of age; however, the period at which this union commences, and the order in which it proceeds, is subject to so much variation, that no more than an approximation to the age of the skull is attainable thereby.