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Course: Ancient Mediterranean + Europe > Unit 7
Lesson 1: Pre-CelticGolden lunula and two gold discs (Coggalbeg hoard)
Golden lunula and two gold discs (Coggalbeg hoard), c. 2300–2000 B.C.E., gold, Coggalbeg, County Roscommon, Ireland (National Museum of Ireland, Archaeology)
A conversation between Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Smarthistory.
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Video transcript
(playful jazz music) - [Narrator 1] We're in
the archeological museum part of the National Museum of Ireland surrounded by gold objects. The object that we're looking at we believe may be from 2200 BCE. That is, it's over 4,000 years old. - [Narrator 2] And the
one that we're looking at is from the Coggalbeg hoard, which means that it was found in a
deposit with other objects. And in fact this particular
crescent shaped object was supposedly found
with two circular discs that have this cross shaped motif. - [Narrator 1] Before we go any further, let's unpack for a moment what this word hoard means. It refers to a cache. It refers to a deposit of
objects that may have ended up in a particular place accidentally,
or perhaps purposefully. In this case, this treasure
was found in a bog, that is in a swampy area that
was filled with peat. - [Narrator 2] Around 22, 2300 BCE this is what we know as the Bronze Age. And just to put this in a
broader historical context this is the time of the
Middle Kingdom in Egypt. This is the time when
you have similar types of objects being fashioned
and made in parts of the Aegean with the
Minoans and the Mycenaeans. There's not a direct
correlation between them but we do see these crescent
shaped objects appear in other parts of the world. - [Narrator 1] We're looking at gold that we think was local to Ireland and was fashioned presumably
for high status individuals, but we're quickly on thin ice. We don't know much about the people and we don't know much about
how these objects were used. - [Narrator 2] Some
people think this was worn around the neck. Others
claim that it was used as a decoration in the
hair. We really don't know. - [Narrator 1] But because they're gold, they remain luminous and like they would've appeared
to the people who made them. And so they are so intriguing because we have so little
collateral information. - [Narrator 2] And these are a form that is very much associated with Ireland's early history
in that, as we noted earlier we're standing in a
room where we find many of these crescent shaped lunula. We find many of them
in the early bronze age in Ireland of about the
hundred that exist still today more than 80 of them come from Ireland and so these were local traditions. This was gold that was being found here and likely the ones that are in England or in continental
Europe were coming from Ireland, meaning they
were being brought elsewhere. - [Narrator 1] An important
reminder that even at this early date,
people were not isolated. There was trade and there was travel. - [Narrator 2] And if we look
closely, we can see just how thin the gold has been hammered. It almost looks like a sheet of paper. - [Narrator 1] And there's a
broad area in the main part of the crescent that is unadorned, but if you look carefully you can see that the edging is inscribed. As the crescent tapers at
both ends, there is more and more elaborate decoration
that has been etched into the surface. - [Narrator 2] And that's not unique to this particular lunula we see that in many of the other
examples that we're surrounded by here in the museum. Again, we don't know how these functioned but we assume based on the material based on the fact that
there are so many of them that this was some type
of high status object - [Narrator 1] And these
are challenging objects because historians often
refer to the innovations in metal work that come with the Celtic invasions
later in Irish history. But these predate that Celtic contact. And yet we have very sophisticated metal working that is clearly evident here. (playful jazz music)