W. G. Wood-Martin

“ Hence, without assuming that the bronze-iron age should be thrown back to the mythic period of the Tuatha dé Danann and the Fomorians, it is evident that in the ninth century there was a tradition of its characteristics and existence in Ireland, and that of so remote a date as to suit the myth of the contest of the gods of light and life with the deities of darkness and death. ”

“ What then must be the age of lake dwellings, where three and even four superincumbent floors testify to the necessity of providing against the ever-rising water level!
Lakes, marshes, and woods, have in all ages afforded shelter to the conquered, and have often enabled them to set the invader at defiance. ”

“ Weapons and utensils were placed in order in the corners.... The positions chosen for their erection are near the mouths of rivers and in shallow waters; the piles on which they rest are driven deep into the oozy bottom, and so firmly do they hold that there is no shakiness of the loftily-perched dwelling perceptible, even when crowded with people.... They are the invention, not exactly of savages, but of tribes of men in a very primitive stage of culture: such probably were the people who lived in the prehistoric lake dwellings of Switzerland. ”

“ In Ireland there is no fixed line of demarcation between the stone, the bronze, and the iron age; there was an overlapping and co-mingling as the better and more useful metal gradually superseded its predecessor. Thus a stone instrument, by itself, would be a most deceptive guide in determining the state of civilization of the inhabitants of the site on which it was discovered, because stone implements are also found associated with articles both of bronze and iron. ”

“ Improved methods of manufacture are now-a-days causing steel in some degree to supersede its parent metal, iron, even as iron superseded bronze. Excavations on the site of crannogs have demonstrated clearly the fact that some of them have had a continuous existence throughout the three ages of Stone, Bronze, and Iron. Classification of the earth’s history into those three ages does not, however, imply a defined and distinctive period when stone, bronze, or iron alone was in exclusive use, though there may possibly have been a time in which only stone and bone were available. ”

“ They found the place better manned than it was thought, and they of better courage than before that time the like men had ever shewed themselves in the like place. They found the hedge so bearded with stakes and other sharp wood, as it was not without extreme difficulty scaleable, and so ramparted as if the hedge had been burned—for doing whereof the fireworks failed—without a long time it was not to be digged down. ”

“ The Palaeolithic, or rude stone period; the Neolithic, or polished stone age, as well as the Bronze age, in all probability overlapped more, and had a longer continuance, than elsewhere in Europe. But the mere fact of the discovery of stone implements, particularly as in Ireland, in a stone-producing country, is not necessarily proof of a barbarous state of society, for, as remarked by the Duke of Argyll, the remains of the first Chaldean monarchy plainly demonstrate that a high state of civilization co-existed with the use of stone implements of a very rude character. ”

“ It is clear that chess is a game of great antiquity,
“Age cannot wither it, nor custom stale
Its infinite variety.”
From the crannog of Lagore was obtained a thin stone or slab of squarish form, measuring about 14 inches on either side. It presented upon its upper surface a number of squares as on a chess-board. ”

“ Subsequently they have adopted the following regulation: for every woman a man marries he is to drive three piles, which they procure from a mountain called Orbelus. Now, every man takes several wives. They dwell here in the following manner: each has a hut in which he lives, and a trap-door in the floor opening down to the water. To their horses and draught cattle they give as fodder fish, of which there is such an abundance that when one opens his trap-door, and lets down his empty basket into the lake by a cord, after waiting only a short time, he hauls it up full of fish. ”

“ It is practically impossible to estimate the rate at which a bog grows: if there be a fall, and consequent drainage, it will increase but little, whereas an undrained bog augments with considerable rapidity: so many contingencies are thus introduced as practically to invalidate in a great degree calculations regarding the growth of peat over prehistoric or other remains. ”

“ Let us travel back in thought some thousands of years, and picture to ourselves the aspect of Erin at that period. After all, this retrospect is comparatively short, if we take as correct the present computed period of man’s existence on this globe. Geology now assigns to the human race a duration it was long considered heterodox to imagine: generation upon generation, who shall say how many, lie beneath the sod over which our footsteps now pass. ”

“ Antique articles of gold have been turned up in the bogs of Ireland, and in various parts of the country. Is it likely that the inhabitants of “island fortresses” should alone be devoid of the precious metal, especially as in them have been found both small earthen crucibles—so diminutive as to have been useful only for gold or silver smelting,—and also small pipe-clay cupels for refining purposes, like those used in the present day for the assay of gold and silver? Fig. 156 represents a pipe-clay crucible from the crannog of Lagore, 2 inches broad, and 1 inch high. ”

“ Canoes.—Some crannogs appear to have been veritable islands, the only means of communication with the land being by canoes; of these, in Irish and Scottish waters alike, remains have been frequently found near the dwelling, in some instances alongside the landing-stage, as if sunk at their moorings. [67] A canoe formed by [Pg 47] hollowing out the trunk of a tree seems to have been almost universally the first attempt at boat-building, and to effect this, a people even in the rudest state of existence would possess sufficient ingenuity. ”

“ Subsequently, at a season when the water was exceptionally low, the locality was again examined, and a shoal or ridge, evidently the remains of a piled causeway by which the islands in Lough Eyes had been connected together, was then discovered. In the neighbourhood a tradition existed that in ancient times “a road passed through Lough Eyes.” This lingering belief would be fully explained by the existence of a kesh or causeway—and upon this, as well as upon the main crannog, was found a quantity of bones of the Bos longifrons, red deer, ass, sheep, goat, and pig. ”

“ It is easy to imagine the various daily occupations needful in his struggles for existence. Timber from the forest supplied him with materials both for his dwelling and for fuel; the skins of wild animals furnished him with clothing, he shaped them with a sharp flint flake, and sewed them with thongs, using as needle the pierced bone of some bird or small mammal. In early Irish history mention occurs of skin or leather garments: when Muircheartach MacNeill made his celebrated circuit of Ireland, A.D. 942, it is stated that his soldiers were clad in long leather cloaks. ”

“ Canoes are so universally found associated with crannogs, that their discovery in lakes and bogs in Ireland has been considered an indication of the existence of lacustrine dwellings in the immediate vicinity; but it may be safely concluded that, unless implements or articles of stone or bronze are found with “dug-outs,” they do not of themselves carry us back to prehistoric times, nor do they necessarily indicate the great antiquity commonly attributed to them. Canoes have been found of the oldest type known, and yet containing articles of iron of very modern form ”

“ The turf-cutter in Ireland finds that [Pg 7] “usually the roots and trunks of the trees under the peat, or in the lowest strata, are principally those of the oak and yew, as if prior to the growth of the peat the low country was a vast forest of these trees. It would appear that subsequently mosses and other peat-producing plants began to grow and flourish, until eventually they stopped the drainage, and formed an envelope of peat, thus killing the trees, which one by one toppled over and were buried in the succeeding growth of peat. ”

“ In the memory of persons still living, this portion of Cargaghoge was entirely covered with water. About the centre of the floor was a collection of stone slabs, closely fitted together, with a substratum of blue clay, but all laid on planks of timber forming part of the floor. On this fireplace there was a quantity of ashes, and on the edge of the hearth a small corn-crusher of stone. Underneath the planks, as far as could be observed without disturbing them, a thick deposit of hazel and birch branches formed a foundation for the support of the flooring. ”

“ To many, however, it proves most interesting to observe—despite widest variations of climatic conditions—the great similarity of the ways and habits of man while in a rude uncultivated state—acting as it were by a [Pg vi] common instinct—and again to trace his upward progress towards civilization. A wide tract in this field of archæological research is fortunately opened up by a comparison of the Irish Lake Dwellings and their “finds” with those of other countries, more especially with the discoveries brought into such prominent notice by Keller in Switzerland, and Munro in Scotland. ”

“ We are not left to mere conjecture regarding the manner in which the men of these primitive times protected themselves from the inclemency of the weather. In the year 1821 the body of a man, about six feet in height, with dark, reddish-coloured hair, short beard, and teeth in a good state of preservation, was found ten feet below the surface of a bog, on the lands of Gallagh, near Castle Blakeney, county Galway. The head, legs, and feet were bare, but the body was covered with a deer-skin tunic reaching to the knees and half-way down the arms ”

“ Loughrea is situated in the barony of same name. In the locality there lingered a tradition that a city lay buried under this lake, and indeed on a clear calm day—where the waters are shallow—there may be observed various heaps of stones, placed with a degree of regularity that renders it probable they may be remains of ancient lake dwellings. Upon examination it was ascertained that four of the islands in the lough were undoubted crannogs, and it was quite possible that another (known as Blake Island) might prove to be also of artificial formation. ”

“ In Switzerland these lake villages appear to have commenced to decay, or to have been abandoned towards the close of the bronze age, and to have almost ceased to exist on the introduction of iron. In the stone era the bones of wild animals, of stags, of urus, of aurocles, and wild boar, are [Pg 15] found, whilst in the metallic ages remains of domesticated animals preponderate more and more, till the final abandonment of these “water-towns.” The remains of human handicraft around the dwellings illustrate the habits, domestic usages, and skill, of their inhabitants during untold centuries ”

“ Although weapons of bone or flint were certainly of an earlier age than bronze and iron, yet it is more than probable that flint, bronze, and iron may have been in use at one and the same period, and even in the same locality, down to a period long subsequent to the Christian era. To this day the Esquimaux use bone implements, but they also employ iron, so that in remote countries a stone age might be said still to exist, the few iron implements in possession of the wild tribes [Pg 56] being acquired by recent contact with western civilization. ”

“ Wild Animals.—This continuous forest must have swarmed with wild animals of every description. Wolves, which even in the present day prove a scourge occasionally in parts of Europe, were numerous; the caves which abounded in the country were the home of the bear, and the boar fed beneath the deep forest shade. In these remote times, too, the Irish elk, with its huge, broad, branching antlers, a creature of immense size and strength, was existent. Remains of this gigantic deer, the Megaceros Hibernicus, have been found, covered by the peat at various depths, sometimes close to the surface ”