[Art of Ireland: Factsheet]

Film Series: Exploring the Celtic Lands
The Treasured Lands
The Art of Ireland
Prof. T. Waldeier Bizzarro

Subject Matter: Gold and bronze of Europe were partly reason why NW Isles proved so attractive to the Celts. Program traces the role of tin, copper, bronze, and gold in Celtic development.

        -Celts explored the landscape of NW Europe
        -Copper and Gold abound in Ireland
        -Copper ore in southern Ireland.
        -Early Christian artists used these metal resources to fashion gold jewelry made in "Golden Age" of Ireland (from ca. 600-800 AD e.g. Moylaugh Belt Shrine of 8th C AD.

History:

-Miners and craftsmen of Iron Age were skilled.
-On Anglesea coast of Wales (SE of Paris Mountain where Celtic tribe mined copper) is one of the oldest surviving mining villages in Britain; there remains evidence of working of iron.

Celtic Metalwork:

For making: jewelry; sacred objects for church, such as chalices; everyday things such as horse harnesses, bridle bits, etc.
horse: elevated status in Celtic cultures; horsemanship learned by Celts from Scythian peoples of Asiatic steppes; horse associated with warriors, ruling classes.
Celts - high standard of metallurgy and agricultural technology attained before Roman Emprise; not much left of iron products - do not endure. Celtic god Goibniu a blacksmith was powerful; water in which iron was quenched was thought to be efficacious in curing diseases; ill-ill of blacksmith was feared in Celtic times; eclipse of horse in relatively recent modern times as working farm animal has dethroned blacksmith.

Early Christian Metalwork:

Celtic methods persisted into Early Christian times;
Derryniflan Horde of 8th-9th C AD
        -was hidden during Viking raids
        -rediscovered in Co. Tipperary
        -Chalice: early 9th C
                -decoration riveted to silver bowl; hidden by amber studs.
                -78 separate panels on Chalice; decoration-filigree
        -Paten and Stand: older than chalice, ca. 8th C
                -ca. 300 pieces assembled together

Masonic Craft:

Introduced with Christianity
Early Christian stone churches were very imposing in their day.
House-shaped shrines of ca. 8th C were influenced by these churches. e.g. Gallarus Oratory on Dingle Peninsula in SW Ireland.
No mortar between stones.

Slate: sedimentary rock: plate-like form; used in roofing; quarried in Wales.

Tin Mining of Celtic Cornwall

Clay in Cornwall - pottery industry (N.B. demonstration of pottery wheel)

Factsheet

Food of the Celts

Arrival of the Celts was contemporary with development of bog lands in Ireland:

-bogs as source of fuel

-bogs originally harvested manually by Celts of No. Europe (and after Celts)

-bogland in Conamara, in Western Ireland

-bog of Ireland: primary export; exported, for example, to Galway City and to

Aran Islands, whose windswept limestone terraces would not allow it to grow.

-"hookers" distinctive boats adapted for transport of bog

Q. What is bog?

Q. How is it fuel?

Q. How were "hookers" adapted for transport of bog?

Celtic Religion

Migrating Celts found different land, surrounded by ocean and adapted their gods to control this new environment of water. Mananann Mac Lir was Celtic god commanding oceans; when a stormed raged, his white-maned horses could be seen heading toward the land. These gods were re-adapted to succeeding Christianity. For example, in W. Ireland, the blessing of the fleet occurs near the ancient Celtic Harvest feast, Lugnasad, celebrated during the first week of August.

Q. Celts migrated from where

Celtic Food and Environment

The Celts ate: fish, crab, lobster, porpoises, seals; attained by creel fishing. Sea overlooks in Ireland and elsewhere in no. Europe such as the Cross of the Widows in Brittany are places where women waited for the ships to return. The Bertons were born "with the waters of the sea flowing 'round their hearts." Brittany is still the most important fishing region in France.

Q: What is creel fishing?

A: Creel is a wickerwork receptacle (as for newly caught fish).

Salt: Valuable product of sea for Celts

-used in preserving meat, butter, and fish.

-contained in waters of sea in abundance; found only on favored coastline of

gently sloping shelves of rock which provide the right location for the

construction of salt pans where salt could be harvested on a large scale.

-20 locations in Brittany where salt was harvested; as well, it was harvested in many places in Ireland.

-Seaweed: used as a valuable fertilizer

-in W. Ireland, productive fields are created on bare rock provided with shell sand and seaweed hauled from the shore.

-Endangered flowers and creatures abound in Ireland: corncrake (bird that frequents grainfields.

-Gallic farming was economic and diversified; it centered on cattle. The wealth of a Gallic chieftain was judged by the size of his herds. Some Gallic chieftains had tens of thousands of cattle. Bull calves were used to breed and for plowing. The Celtic diet depended heavily upon a great diversity of milk products. Cattle were not native to Ireland; they were brought across in boats.

Potato: special place in farming economy in all Celtic lands

-historically most important in Ireland and Scotland

-able to flourish even in damp, acidic soils of bogs (Ireland and Scotland)

-1845-47: Potato Famine: a parasitic fungus which followed the potato to Europe from its native South America;

-1,000,000 died from starvation and disease

-1,000,000 fled Ireland

-still one of most important ingredients of Celtic peoples' diet today, e.g. in Brittany, Ireland.

-Traditional drink of Celts: ale (brewed from barley and other cereals) as well as wine which they imported from the south.

-Corngrowing: Porridge from oatmeal, wheatmeal, and barleymeal was a traditional Celtic dish.

|| MAIN || COURSE CURRICULUM || GALLERY || BOOK LIST || FACT SHEET || SYALLABUS||