- Chapter Twenty-One -
industrial science, the production of 'Egyptian Blue' (d. also p. 403, the use of red
'enamel' to make a fusion between blue glass and bronze Gope 1953)).
It is in Ireland that the real continuities into the Christian world are increasingly
being sought, and this is so for vitreous materials. The red opaque glass can illustrate
this (Henderson 1989) and we have already seen how this material was used on the
Sutton Hoo hanging-bowl escutcheons (p. 398).
The first sign we have of the written word in extenso in the Irish Christian record
is of the later fifth century, scored in Latin on wax tablets in recessed wood covers
Figure 21.12 'Celtic nobility through Celtic eyes': Stone head from Corbridge, third century
AD. A god modelled (in native sandstone) in the image of a living British nobleman, as the
mouth and expression seem to show. (Corbridge Museum. Photo Courtesy of J.M.e.
Toynbee, 2:3 natural size.)