Fig. 25. Bronze Skean from Loughran Island.
The distinguishing characteristic of the bronze dagger or skean from Lagore ([fig. 24]) consists in its openwork handle forming one piece with the blade. The weapon is 9¾ inches in length; the handle, 3⅛. The blade, 1⅜ inches in width, is flat, with broad bevelled edges. [Fig. 25], found at Loughran Island, in the Lower Bann, is 4⅞ inches in length by 1¾ in width. It is a thin, flat, angular-shaped dagger blade, decorated on the surface of the mid-rib with a series of dotted lines, and pierced at the broad end by four small rivet-holes.[93] Daggers or skeans of bone, as well as of bronze and iron, have been frequently found in Irish lake dwellings, and knives formed of flint are not uncommon. The iron knives found in the crannog of Ballinderry, and now in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, resembled those figured in Munro’s Ancient Scottish Lake Dwellings.[94]
At the time the Catalogue of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy was compiled by the late Sir W. Wilde, although some objects of bronze, supposed to have been ornaments on leather or wooden dagger sheaths, are mentioned by him, yet he was unable to point to any example composed altogether of bronze. Since that period, however, three sword-sheaths of that metal have been discovered in the crannog of Lisnacroghera, county Antrim. Their workmanship is exquisite. They bear traces of enamel, and one of them contained a sword of iron so firmly attached to it by corrugation that any attempt to withdraw it must have involved the mutilation or utter destruction of the bronze in which it was encased.
The decoration of the sheath, [plate XII, No. 2], is very remarkable; the distinctive peculiarity being its spiral character, a perfect specimen of those combinations of involved circles and curvilinear lines, supposed to be characteristic of early Celtic art. Some portions of the sheath, near its end, still retain settings in enamel, the colour of which, though now faded, must have been rich vermillion. Enamel of the same hue and material once occupied the little saucer-like depressions which occur on the terminating snake-suggesting head. One of the circles (that had been, doubtless, intended to represent eyes) shows that it had been so filled, as were, probably, the little raised bosses, two in number, that may be observed at the opposite extremity. The interior of what might be styled the crescent-shaped patterns, nine in number, which occupy the chief plane of the sheath, as also the minor spirals of their adjacent spaces in the general figure, exhibit a design suggestive of basket-work. It is now impossible to determine whether the sheaths had been formed by casting, or were beaten into shape from a plain sheet of copper. It is evident that for the production of the ornamentation a graver had been used. The lines are sharply and deeply incised, and appear to have been intended for the reception of enamel of a black shade, some traces of which appear here and there. The enamel on the sheath “was, in all probability, niello, a composition of silver, copper, sulphur, and lead, the nigellum of ancient writers. It was not so hard or lasting as the ordinary enamel of glass or vitrified paste, some examples of which may be seen on several early ecclesiastical remains. The art of enamelling in niello is of the very highest antiquity; it was practised by the Egyptians. Specimens of it, of various ages, even of modern times, are numerous, and it appears to have been known to the Anglo-Saxons, as a ring of Bishop Ethelwulf (ninth century) is ornamented with it.”
Although the decoration of the third sheath is similar in style, yet some of its features are peculiar, especially the dot and circle pattern along one of the edges, and which appears to have extended from handle to extremity.
Plate XII.
Fig. 1.—Sides of Bronze Sheath, containing an Iron Sword.