The object here represented ([fig. 107]), is a wooden mallet, 1 foot 7 inches in length, found about fifteen feet below the original surface of the crannog of Lisnacroghera.[120] [Fig. 108], about 10½ inches in length, may be also a mallet, but was more probably used as a peg to keep some part of the framework in position. It rested on one of the beams of the western crannog in Glencar, county Sligo.
Fig. 109.
Bone Spindle Whorl from Ardakillen.
The MS. Book of Ballymote contains an ancient Irish poem, which states “It was Tigearnmas first established in Ireland the art of dyeing cloth of purple, and many colours.” This monarch is alleged to have lived, A.M. 2816(?), therefore in Ireland the arts of weaving and dyeing are of remotest antiquity. Some bright red colouring matter (realgar?), rolled up in a piece of birch bark, was discovered in one of the crannogs of Loughrea, county Galway;[121] orpiment, a yellow sulphuret, probably used in dyeing, was found in Cloneygonnell;[122] and, whorls, or little discs, popularly called by the peasantry “fairy mill-stones,” are found in great numbers; of these [fig. 109] is a good example. The whorl was supposed to be simply a weight, used to aid the rotation of the stick fixed to a ring on the spindle: it can be seen in Egyptian, Greek, and Roman sculptures, and wall paintings, and Schliemann in his excavations at Hissarlisk found thousands of these objects. It has been suggested that a curious ovoid piece of hard polished bone, found at Ardakillen, may have been utilised in weaving, for the purpose of keeping the threads, or cords in their proper places; its longest diameter was 2½ inches, and it was perforated with ten holes of slightly different sizes.[123] Investigation has led to the belief that flax was cultivated in Egypt more than forty centuries ago, and was thence brought into Europe; it was discovered in the oldest lake dwellings in Switzerland, of the kind which is native to the Mediterranean countries; the term lin—the root of the English word linen,—is to be traced in nearly every European language: in spoken Irish it is leen, i.e. flax. The art of spinning, being of a sedentary nature, was exclusively allotted to women, which is supposed to explain the fact of such a number of whorls being found on the site of crannogs, where this peaceful occupation was carried on. In the present day, the province of Ulster seems to have monopolized an industry that may be traced back to the primitive inhabitants of the lake dwellings of Ireland.
Fig. 110.
Ovoid piece of polished Bone from Ardakillen.