| The Corleck Head | |
|---|---|
 Two of the head's three faces | |
| Material | Limestone |
| Size |
|
| Created | 1st or 2nd century AD |
| Discovered | c. 1855 Corkick hill, County Cavan, Ireland 53°58′21″N 6°59′53″W / 53.9725°N 6.9981°W |
| Present location | National Museum of Ireland, Dublin |
| Identification | IA:1998:72[1] |
The Corleck Head is an Irish carved stone idol usually dated to the 1st or 2nd century AD. It was found c. 1855 in either Corleck Hill or in the nearby townland of Drumeague, County Cavan. It is carved from a single block of local limestone and shows a three-faced (tricephalic) stone idol whose faces have enigmatic and haunted expressions, with closely set eyes, a broad and rounded nose, and a simply drawn mouth. The Corleck Head was discovered c. 1855 during the course of the excavation of a large Neolithic site, along other but since lost stone heads. However it was not reported to archaeologists until 1948 after its prehistoric dating was realised by the local historian Thomas J. Barron; until then it had been placed on top of a gatepost.
As with most stone artifacts from the European Iron Age, its origin, cultural significance and function are unknown. The area where it was found had for millennia been a site of celebration of Lughnasadh, a three-day mid-autumn harvest festival. The head probably represents a Celtic god and may have been part of a larger shrine associated with a head-cult.[2] Its design seems influenced by contemporary Romano-British and northern European iconography. The three heads may represent a trinity representing the unity of the past, present and future, ancestral mother-figures representing "strength, power and fertility",[3] or an all-knowing, all-seeing god.
Today it is on permanent display at the archaeology branch of the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. It is listed as number 11 in the 2011 Irish Times anthology A History of Ireland in 100 Objects.[3]
The Corleck head is a relatively large example of the Irish stone idols type, being 33 cm (13 in) high and 22.5 cm (8.9 in) at its widest point.[4] Its faces, which could be male or female,[5] are similar in form and expression, but not identical; each seems to express a different mood.[6] They all have enigmatic and difficult to read expressions, and very basic and simply described facial features. Each face has a broad and flat wedge–shaped nose, bossed eyes that are closely-set but staring, and a thin, narrow, slit mouth.[7][3] One face is heavily browed, another has a small hole at the center of its mouth, a feature of several Irish contemporary stone heads, as well as examples from Yorkshire in England, Wales and Bohemia.[8][9]
The hole under the base suggests it was created for a pedestal which would have had a tenon (a joint that connects two pieces of material).[10] This further supports the theory that it was part of a larger pre–Christian shrine.[6][11]
As with most other extant Iron Age stone idols found in Ireland, it is cut from limestone.[12] Its simplicity of design and complexity of expression, it is widely considered the finest example of the type, and built .[6][13] In 1972 the archaeologist and historian Etienn Rynne described it as "unlike all others in its elegance and economy of line",[10] while in 1962 the archaeologist T.G.F. Paterson wrote that only the a triple-head idol found in Cortynan, County Armagh shares features drawn from such bare outlines. According to Paterson, the simplicity of Corleck and Cortynan heads indicates a degree of sophistication of craft when compared to the often "vigorous and...barbaric style" of other contemporary examples.[14]
Most surviving iconic (representational, as opposed to abstract) prehistoric Irish sculptures originate from the northern province of Ulster and also consist of a human head carved in the round in low relief. The majority are thought to have been produced between 300 BC and 100 AD.[15] However, the Corleck head has not received significant scholarly study,[16] and dating single pieces of Iron-Age stone sculpture is extremely difficult given that techniques such as radiocarbon dating cannot be used. In addition, the late-19th-century tendency to associate objects with mythical or a late 19th century Celtic Revival viewpoint based on medieval texts or 19th-century romanticism, has been largely discredited.[17] Thus modern archaeologists date such objects based on their resemblance to other known examples in the contemporary Northern European context.[18]
While the majority of the stone heads found in the Northern Irish counties since the 19th century are now believed to be pre-historic, a number have since been identified as either from the Early Middle Ages or examples of 17th- or 18th-century folk art.[11]
The Corleck Head was discovered among a number of other stone figures around 1855 by the local farmer James Longmore Jr while searching for building stones.[19][20] The exact find spot is unknown:[13] it was probably on or near Corleck hill, or less likely in a quarry on the nearby Drumeague Hill.[4][16] It was found along a number of other stone figures, including a ram's head, and a human bearded head, which Barron collectively named as the "Corleck Gods". Of these the ram head figure was "inadvertently smashed around 1835", while the bearded head was misplaced around 1869 until re-found in 1969.[21]
After Longmore sold the farm to Sam Hall, the Corleck Head was placed on the gatepost of a wall outside the farm house.[22] Emily Bryce, a relative of the Hall family, remembered childhood visits throwing stones at the head.[1]
The head's age and significance was first recognised in 1935 by the local historian Thomas J. Barron, then working as a researcher for the Irish Folklore Commission.[23] Having established their age, he contacted the National Museum of Ireland (NMI) in 1937,[4] after which it was taken to Dublin for study by the archaeologist and museum's director Adolf Mahr, who secured funding to acquire it into the museum's collection.[1][24] The study of the object and its provenance preoccupied Barron until his death in 1992.[25]
Corleck hill is known in Irish as Sliabh na Trí nDée or Sliabh na nDée Dána, both of which roughly translate as the "Hill of the Three Gods". Archaeological evidence indicates that it was a site of pagan worship. The site is traditionally associated with the Lughnasadh, an ancient Gaelic harvest festival celebrating the god Lugh, usually held on the last Sunday of July or first Sunday of August.[26] Archaeologists believe the head was one of a series of objects placed at the site during the festival, and according to the historian Jonathan Smyth, was likely place on top of a pillar, as part of a phallic symbol representing "strength and fertility".[4][27] Corleck is one of six areas in Ulster where clusters of presumably related stone idols have been found.[a][29] Other cult objects from the area include the wooden Ralaghan Idol (11th century BC),[30] and the contemporary stone heads from the nearby townlands of Corravilla (a small spherical head) and Corraghy (a bearded head with unusually long neck).[10][14]
The head was probably hidden at the same time as the Corraghy head (a stone bust of a bearded man, now also in the NMI).[2][4] A number of early sources record that the Corleck head was found alongside a now lost two-headed stone carving of a man with hair and a beard on one side, and a ram's head on the other.[16]
.jpg)
Although historical knowledge of the pre-Christian Celts in Ireland is, according to the archaeologist and historian Eamonn Kelly, "sketchy and incomplete", the archaeological evidence suggest a complex and prosperous society that assimilated and adapted external cultural influences.[31] Many undecorated Iron Age carved stones survive, including the c. 500 AD Lia Fáil on the Hill of Tara. A much smaller number of contemporary stones are decorated, mostly in the La Tène style, which reached Ireland c. 300 BC.[32]
The Corleck Head is one of the earliest known Irish anthropomorphic stone sculptures, although it post-dates by around a millennium the c. 1000–500 BC Tandragee Idol from nearby County Armagh and likely also produced for a cult site.[11]
.jpg)
The hole at the Corleck's base indicates that it was once attached to a larger structure, perhaps a pillar comparable to the 6-foot wooden carving found in the 1790s in a bog near Aghadowey, County Londonderry, which is now lost but known from a 19th-century drawing of an idol with four faces.[13] In Ancient Celtic religion, triple-head figures represented all-knowing and all-seeing gods, and symbolised the unity of the past, present and future;[34] according to the writer Miranda Aldhouse-Green, the Corleck head may have been used "to gain knowledge of places or events far away in time and space".[35] Cult sites where these objects were utilised were often located near holy well and sacred trees or groves.[31]
The format and design of the head was likely influenced by a wider European tradition, in particular from contemporary Roman Britain symbolism and iconography.[6][31] A small number of the faces on contemporary Irish anthropomorphic examples have similar closely-set eyes, thin mouths and flat noses to the Corleck Head.[28] Other comparable examples include a three-faced stone bust from Woodlands, County Donegal, and two carved triple-heads from Greetland in England.[4][36] Similar but janiform (a single figure with two sides)[37] idols include the "Lustymore figure" on Boa Island, and the recently discovered figure from Caldragh, on the lower part of Lough Erne.[38]
