PRE-CHRISTIAN IRELAND
and spear fitments of La Tène style was discovered at
Lisnacrogher, County Antrim. Although now a bog,
the site was probably, as Raftery suggests, a votive
lake in which valuables were deposited—like Llyn
Cerrig Bach in Wales or, indeed, La Tène itself. At
another almost-dry lake, Loughnashade (Loch na
Séad; “Lake of the Valuables”), near Emain Macha,
workers in the eighteenth century found four elaborate
bronze ceremonial horns featuring late La Tène orna-
ment. Isolated finds of weapons and ornamental
objects have been made in rivers, especially in the
Bann and Shannon, a trend that is paralleled in Britain
and on the Continent. Water cults are certainly well
attested among the Celts. Disposal of valuable items
in sacred places presumably represents vicarious
sacrifice—although there are indications that animals,
and sometimes humans, were ritually deposited.
Loughnashade also produced animal remains and
several human skulls. In the 1970s, Lynn’s excavation
at “The King’s Stables” (Co. Armagh)—the site of an
artificial pond, now dry—yielded an impressive col-
lection of animal bones including cattle, deer, dog, pig,
and sheep. This was plainly not an occupation site, and
it seemed unlikely that these were food remains. The
case for ritual deposit here was greatly strengthened
by the discovery of the facial portion of a human skull.
Similarly, an enclosure at Raffin, County Meath, pro-
duced a skull burial. These finds clearly point to the
ritual deposit of bodily remains, and prompt questions
in relation to human sacrifice. The nineteenth-century
unearthing at Gallagh, County Galway, of the body of
a young man preserved in a bog provides a rather
compelling case for ritual killing. The finders’ accounts
are emphatic about a rope or ligature around the indi-
vidual’s neck, and he was evidently immersed in
water. Mistreatment of the remains at the time of dis-
covery and afterwards render it difficult to now ascer-
tain whether or not the body, when found, also bore
evidence of wounding. The closest parallels are pro-
vided by bog bodies of the first century B.C.E. from
Lindow Moss, in England, and from Tollund and other
locations in Denmark, which lie beyond what is gen-
erally construed as the “Celtic Zone.” In these
instances the individuals concerned, also young men,
were wounded (the first struck on the head with a
stone, the other stabbed in the throat), hanged, or gar-
roted, and immersed in water. Finds of this order are
significant in the light of the widely discussed “three-
fold death” motif, found in Old Irish and Welsh liter-
ature. Tales such as that of Áed Dub, king of Ulaid,
or Diarmait mac Cerbaill, king of Tara (composed, as
Borsje points out, in an explicitly Christian context),
concern an anti-hero who inescapably perishes amidst
prophesies of doom. The individual in question is
generally stabbed, and falls from wood (possibly an
image for hanging) into water, or is burned and then
“drowned.”Burials and Afterlife
Ireland’s record of general Iron Age burials is limited,
in terms of quantity and quality. Of the small number
of examples found to date, there is nothing comparable
to the impressive earthen barrows associated with the
Hallstatt and La Tène cultures of the Continent, char-
acterized by the presence of a “wagon” or “chariot” and
featuring a range of grave-goods, including weaponry,
ornaments, and abundant indicators of a funerary feast.
Often taking the form of modest “ring-barrows,” which
suggest continuity with the Bronze Age, Irish burials
display a mixture of cremation and inhumation rites,
with paltry grave-goods and no clear evidence of food
or drink to send off the deceased. Typical of the ring-
barrows so far excavated is Grannagh, County Galway,
which produced just a bronze fibula brooch, some bone
pins, and glass beads; only in one grave at Tara were
animal bones found accompanying a burial, and it is
uncertain whether or not they are primary. Nonetheless,
even such sparse grave-goods still indicate belief in an
afterlife. Old Irish literature features tales of Donn,
viewed by some as a counterpart to the Continental
deity Dis Pater, who ruled over a realm of the dead.
Donn appears as an isolated figure who has little asso-
ciation with other gods; moreover, it is clear that he was
host only to the “glorious dead”—the warrior elite.
Ordinary folk are accorded little attention in Early Irish
literature, whether in relation to this life or the next.Deities
Archaeology tells us little regarding the deities wor-
shiped in pre-Christian Ireland. The absence of inscrip-
tions, prior to the introduction of oghamin an Early
Christian context, makes it difficult to identify figural
representations—even if they could be confidently
dated, which is another issue. Stone sculptures found,
which arguably belong to the Iron Age, include a head
from Corleck (Co. Cavan), and the “Tanderagee idol,”
reportedly from Armagh. The tricephalic character of
the Corleck head, paralleled on the Continent, has led
some to view this as a representation of the god Lug—
with whom this characteristic is associated. The way
in which the Tanderagee figure holds its right arm has
prompted identification with the deity Nuadu (or
Nodens); the latter features in the Irish Mythological
Cycle in company with In Dagda—the “good god”—
as one of the Tuatha Dé Danann, or divine people.
Asking, Nuadu loses his arm and, although given a
silver replacement, ultimately abdicates in favor of Lug.