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JEWELRY AND PERSONAL ORNAMENT
The history of Irish early-medieval metalworking is best
understood by examining the development of personal
ornament. At the beginning of the Christian era, the
well-to-do Irish wore cloak fastenings which derived—
like other aspects of their costume—from late Roman
Britain where there were Irish settlers and where ties of
intermarriage ensured the presence of a strong British
influence in Ireland that is reflected in language and
writing as well as in changes in religion and economy.
The basic brooch type was the zoomorphic penannular
brooch (“zoomorphic”
because the ring ends in stylized
animal heads, “pennanular” because the ring is incom-
plete). The brooch was equipped with a free-swiveling

pin and functioned by skewering the cloth of the cloak

and pressing the ring down so that the pin passed

through the gap. The ring was then rotated so that the

pin lay on top of the ring and was pulled tight against

it by the drag of the cloth. The terminals were often

raised with respect to the ring to ensure that the pin did

not slip back and pass between the terminals. As time

went on the terminals became enlarged and were used

as a field for the display of ornament.

Stick pins of bronze, but sometimes of silver, were

also manufactured—the most celebrated were the hand

pins, so-called because their heads resembled a hand

with fingers bent and pointing forwards. These had

their origin also in later Roman Britain but some exam-

ples with fine enameled ornament and millefiori dec-

orations were almost certainly manufactured as late as

the earlier seventh century. Millefiori consists of fine

rods of colored glass fused together so that when cut

into platelets, patterns show in the cross-section.

The penannular brooch seems to have been the dom-

inant type of high status ornament until the seventh

century and in broad terms we can see a development

in which ornament made of fine reserved lines of bronze

is seen against a background of red enamel. Some

brooches bear ornament that clearly derives from motifs

on provincial late Roman military equipment. Others,

such as one from Athlone that probably dates to the later

sixth or earlier seventh century, show the development

of a style that harks back to and partly reinvents a

version of the La Tène style (Ultimate La Tène) of later

prehistoric times, a repertoire that includes trumpet-

scroll spirals with occasional bird-head terminals. Dating

is difficult because of the lack of known contexts for

many examples; some are probably later in date.

An exceptional brooch found at Ballinderry Crannog

No. 2, County Offaly, heralds the major changes that

Bronze penannular brooch, Coleraine, Co. Derry.
Photograph
reproduced with the kind permission of the Trustees of the
National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland.