Plate XXXV.
Objects of various Materials from the Crannog of Cloonfinlough, and now in the British Museum.
Fishing Implements.—It is probable that on account of the smallness of their size, many bronze fishing-hooks may have been overlooked by searchers amongst crannog sites, though a number of specimens formed of iron occurred amongst the relics of ancient Dublin during the excavations made many years ago in Christ Church-place, and Fishamble-street. Several implements of iron, evidently designed for the capture of fresh-water prey, have been found on the sites of crannogs, and may now be seen in the Museum, R. I. A. [Plate XXXVI. No. 1] is the head of an eel-spear, one of several exhumed from the debris of the Ardakillen crannogs; no trace of the handle remained. The implement consists of nine barbed prongs (the wings of the heads nearly touching each other) set in an oblong-shaped socket, composed of extremely thin iron plates or bands, that measure in width 5½ inches, in depth 2¾ inches, and are of sufficient strength to receive and secure the prongs; these average somewhat less than a quarter of an inch at their greatest diameter, which occurs near the head. The socket in its various parts is secured together by a number of rivets, irregularly set; from it descends a shaft measuring 4¾ inches. It is at first quadrangular, but midway assumes a cylindrical form, resembling sockets of crannog spears of the later “iron period,” and like them secured to wooden handles by a rivet. The implement presents altogether a rough and bizarre appearance. [No. 2] is a smaller example of an eel-spear, with socket, and having only eight barbed prongs. [No. 3] is another form of fish-spear, or gaff. It measures 9½ inches in length, and is furnished at its pointed head with two long narrow barbs designed for holding. Unlike the spear and arrow-heads used in war, or in the chase, this implement was secured to its wooden shaft by a tang. [Nos. 4, 5, 7, and 8], are darts or spear-heads of the same class. Save in size, they differ very slightly from [No. 3], but are considerably eroded by the moisture of the bog-stuff in which they were embedded. [No. 6] is a highly-finished head of the fish-spear class, though at first sight it might almost be taken for an arrow-head. Its barbs were, however, evidently intended to hold any substance into which they might be struck; the tang is solid and octangular, and just at the point where it joins the head there are three rather deep transverse notches. [No. 9] is an ordinary iron fish-hook.
Plate XXXVI.
Fishing Implements of Iron from Crannogs. Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 from Ardakillen or Strokestown Crannogs. No. 9 from Lagore. All one-third real size.
Historical Notices of Crannogs.—According to Keller, Swiss “Pfahlbauten,” or pile dwellings, attained their highest development about fifteen hundred years B.C. This statement he founds on the absence in them of traces of winter corn, hemp, and domestic fowl (unknown to the Greeks till the time of Pericles). These lacustrine sites appear to have been abandoned about, or perhaps before, the commencement of the Christian era; whilst on the other hand, although we have no account of the first erection of crannogs in Ireland, and must therefore consider their origin to date back from prehistoric times, yet we have undoubted proofs of their continued use down to the close of the seventeenth century; although now where
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