Corleck Head

The Corleck Head
Two of the head's three faces
Material	Limestone
Size	Height: 33 cm (13 in) Width (max): 22.5 cm (8.9 in)
Created	1st or 2nd century AD
Discovered	c. 1855 Corleck Hill, County Cavan, Ireland 53.9725°N 6.9981°W / 53.9725; -6.9981
Present location	National Museum of Ireland, Dublin

The Corleck Head is a 1st or 2nd century AD three-faced Irish stone idol discovered in Drumeague in County Cavan c. 1855. Its dating to the Iron Age is based on its iconography, which is similar to that of contemporary northern European Celtic artefacts. Archaeologists agree that it probably depicts a Celtic god and was intended to be placed on top of a larger shrine associated with a Celtic head cult.

The head is carved in the round from a single block of limestone. It contains three relatively simply described faces, each with similar features, including protuding eyes, thin and narrow mouths and enigmatic expressions. Its dating and cultural significance are difficult to establish. The faces may depict all-knowing, all-seeing gods representing the unity of the past, present and future. Corleck Hill was a major religious centre during the late Iron Age and continued in use as such for the celebration of the Lughnasadh, a pre-Christian harvest festival.

Archaeologists assume that the head was buried in the Early Middle Ages, perhaps c. 900–1200 AD, due to its obvious paganism and association with human sacrifice. When unearthed, the sculpture was regarded as an insignificant local curiosity and for decades was placed on a farm gatepost. Its age and significance was realised in 1937 by the local historian Thomas J. Barron and Adolf Mahr, then director of the National Museum of Ireland, which acquired it that year; it is usually on display there.

Discovery

The Corleck Head was unearthed around 1855 by the farmer James Longmore while looking for stones to build a farmhouse later known colloquially as the "Corleck Ghost House".^[1][2] While the exact find spot is unknown,^[3] it was probably on Corleck Hill in the townland of Drumeague, the site of a large c. 2500 BC passage grave that was then under excavation to make way for farming land.^[4][5] The head was uncovered alongside the Corraghy Heads—a stylistically very different janiform sculpture with a ram's head on one side and a human head on the other.^[1] Archaeologists assume the Corleck and Corraghy Heads were intended as elements of a larger shrine and were buried around the same time, probably to hide them from Christian iconoclasts who sought to suppress the memory of older pagan idols, and especially, according to the archaeologist Ann Ross, the suggestion of "surrogate sacrificial heads".^[6][7]

The local historian and folklorist Thomas J. Barron recognised the Corleck Head's age and significance after seeing it in 1934 while a researcher for the Irish Folklore Commission. Barron found that, after Longmore sold the lease on the farm to Thomas Hall in 1865, Hall's son, Sam, placed the Corleck head on a gatepost. He interviewed Emily Bryce, a relative of the Halls, who remembered childhood visits to the farm and throwing stones at the head, having no idea of its age.^[8] Barron also discovered that around this time Sam Hall had inadvertently destroyed a large part of the Corraghy Heads while trying to separate its heads.^[7] Barron contacted the National Museum of Ireland (NMI) in 1937, after which its director Adolf Mahr arranged the Corleck Head's permanent loan to the museum for study.^[4][9] Mahr presented and described the head in a lecture to the Prehistoric Society that year.^[10] He secured funding to acquire it for the museum, and study of the head and similar stone idols preoccupied Barron until his death in 1992.^[11]

Corleck Hill's Irish name is Sliabh na Trí nDée (the "Hill of the Three Gods").^[12] The literary evidence indicates that the hill was a significant druidic (the priestly caste in ancient Celtic cultures) site of worship during the Iron Age,^[13][14] and was traditionally known as once being "the pulse of Ireland".^[13][12] From the early Christian period, it became a major site for the Lughnasadh, an ancient harvest festival celebrating the Celtic god Lugh, a warrior king and master craftsman of the Tuatha Dé Danann—one of the foundational Irish tribes in Irish mythology.^[a][16] Corleck is one of six areas in Ulster where clusters of apparently related stone idols have been found.^[b][18] Other ancient objects found near Corleck include the 1st century BC wooden Ralaghan Idol (also brought to attention by Barron),^[c][19][20] a small contemporary spherical stone head from the nearby townlands of Corravilla, and the Corraghy Heads.^[21][22]

Description

Face with a small hole at the centre of its mouth.

Narrow face with heavy eyebrows.

The Corleck Head consists of a circular piece of local limestone^[23] carved into a tricephalic skull^[24] with three faces.^[25] It is a relatively large example of the type, being 33 cm (13 in) high and 22.5 cm (8.9 in) at its widest point.^[4] The head cuts off just below the chin,^[26] and the low relief faces could be male or female.^[27][28] They are similar in form and their enigmatic expressions. Each has basic and simply described features, yet they appear to convey slightly different moods.^[29] They all have a broad and flat wedge-shaped nose and a thin, narrow, slit mouth. The protruding eyes are wide yet closely set and seem to stare at the viewer; they lack facial hair or ears.^[24][30] One has heavy eyebrows, and another has a small hole at the centre of its mouth, a feature of unknown significance found on several contemporary Irish stone heads and examples from England, Wales and Bohemia.^[31][32]

Archaeologists assume the Corleck Head was intended as a prominent element of a larger structure containing other stone or wooden sculptures.^[26] It has a hole on its base indicating that it may have been intended to be placed on top of a pedestal, likely on a tenon (a joint connecting two pieces of material).^[21]

The Corleck Head is widely considered the finest of the Celtic stone idols, largely due to its contrasting simplicity of design and complexity of expression.^[29][3] In 1962 the archaeologist Thomas G. F. Paterson wrote that only the triple-head idol found in Cortynan, County Armagh, shares features drawn from such bare outlines. According to Paterson, the simplicity of the Corleck Head indicates a degree of sophistication of craft absent in the often "vigorous and ... barbaric style" of other contemporary Irish examples.^[22] In 1972, the archaeologist Etienn Rynne described the Corleck Head as "unlike all others in its elegance and economy of line".^[21]

Composite view of the three faces showing them as they would appear if the viewer walked from left to right around the head

Dating

Most surviving iconic—that is, representational as opposed to abstract—prehistoric Irish sculptures originate from the northern province of Ulster. The majority consist of human heads carved in the round (free-standing without a side attached to a flat background) with relatively shallow carving to depict the faces. Although most are thought to originate from between 300 BC and 100 AD, dating stone sculpture is difficult given that techniques such as radiocarbon dating cannot be used.^[33][34][35] Stone heads are thus dated on the grounds of their on stylistic similarities to works whose dating has been established, in particular to contemporary iconography in Romano-British (between 43 and 410 AD) and Gallo-Roman (1st century BC to the 5th century AD) art.^[29][36]

The archaeologist and scholar Anne Ross points out that the Corleck Head's style corresponds closely to other Iron Age representations of the head from the late La Tène period".^[37][38] The number three seems to have been especially significant to the Celts.^[39] Three-headed figures such as the Corleck Head are a common feature of Celtic art and according to Ross had a religious significance "fundamental to early Celtic thought and outlook".^[40] Triple "mother goddesses" are common, as are sculptures of the hooded figures known as the Genii Cuucullati.^[7]

From surviving artefacts, it can be assumed that multi-headed (as with the "Dreenan" figure and the Corraghy Heads) and multi-faced idols (such as the Corleck Head) were a common part of Irish Celtic iconography. According to the archaeologist Miranda Aldhouse-Green, the Corleck Head may have been used "to gain knowledge of places or events far away in time and space".^[26] The faces are assumed to represent all-knowing and all-seeing gods, symbolising the unity of the past, present and future.^[41] These may have been the Irish mythological gods Conn,^[d] the Dagda and Ogma, whom archaeologists assume were venerated at Corleck Hill.^[12] In addition, a small number of other contemporary Irish and British anthropomorphic examples have two or three faces with similar expressions.^[17][42] These include a three-faced stone bust from Woodlands, County Donegal, and two carved triple heads from Greetland in West Yorkshire, England.^[4][43]

The Iron Age dating has been challenged by the archaeologist Ian Armit, who points out that there was a folk art revival of stone head carvings in the 17th- or 18th-centuries.^[44] Although many of the Ulster group of heads are believed to be pre-Christian, others have since been identified as from the Middle Ages or early modern period.^[45][46]

Function

Main article: Celtic stone idols

See also: Triple deity

The Tandragee Idol,c. 1000 – c. 500 BC. St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh^[20]

The Corleck head is one of the earliest known figurative stone sculptures found in Ireland, with the exceptions of the Tandragee Idol from nearby County Armagh, dated c. 1000 – c. 400 BC,^[45] and the Ralaghan Idol, of c. 1100 – c. 900 BC, found less than five miles east of Corleck Hill.^[21] Archaeological evidence suggests a complex and prosperous Iron Age society in the Corleck area that assimilated many external cultural influences.^[36]

Stone idols were typically used as part of larger worship sites, and many of the surviving Irish examples were unearthed near sacred wells, rivers or trees, usually on sites later adapted by early Christians for churches and monasteries.^[36][47] The hole at the Corleck Head's base indicates that it was at least periodically attached to a larger structure, perhaps a pillar comparable to the now-lost 1.8-metre (6 ft) wooden structure found in the 1790s in a bog near Aghadowey, County Londonderry, which was originally capped with a figure with four heads.^[e][48] Archaeologists speculate if the larger structure represented a phallus—a common Iron Age fertility symbol.^[45][29][49]

Many of the surviving Celtic stone idols are of human heads, sometimes with multiple faces.^[50] The modern consensus, as articulated by Ross, is that the Celts venerated the head as a "symbol of divinity" and believed it to be "the seat of the soul".^[51][52][53]

• 
  Early 3rd century AD depiction of the Hooded Spirits. Housesteads Roman Fort, Northumberland, England.^[54]
• 
  Three-headed figure on an altar found in Reims, France, in 1852
• 
  The Janus "Dreenan" figure (back) and "Lustymore" figure (front), Boa Island^[55]

Notes

1. The Lughnasadh was one of the quarterly Gaelic calendar festivals, the others being the Samhain (beginning of winter), Imbolc (spring) and Bealtaine (summer).^[15]
2. The others are Cathedral Hill in Armagh town, the Newtownhamilton and Tynan areas in County Armagh, the southernmost part of Lough Erne in County Fermanagh, and the Raphoe region in north-west County Donegal.^[17]
3. The townland of Ralaghan is about 7 km (4.3 mi) south-east of Corleck Hill.^[3] Barron recalled being approached in a bog by a man holding a large stick-like object which turned out to be the Ralaghan Idol. The man told him that he intended to throw it back into the bog and that "we're getting dozens of these carved sticks and putting them back. You see, you can't take what's been offered ... the other day one of us got a beautiful bowl, bronze or gold ... carved and decorated all over." When Barron asked him where the bowl was now, he said they had thrown it back "at once", fearing bad luck to have kept it.^[19]
4. The son of Ler from the legend of the Children of Lir.^[12]
5. The Aghadowey pillar was carved from a tree trunk and had four heads, each with hair. It is today known only from a very simple 19th-century drawing annotated as a "Heathen image found in the bog of Ballybritoan Parish Aghadowey".^[48]

References

Citations

1. Waddell (2023), p. 320
2. Barron (1976), pp. 98–99
3. Waddell (1998), p. 360
4. Kelly (2002), p. 142
5. Waddell (1998), p. 371
6. Ó hÓgáin (2000), p. 20
7. Ross (2010), p. 66
8. Ross (2010), pp. 65–66
9. "Thomas J. Barron. Cavan County Libraries. Retrieved 3 March 2024
10. Mahr (1937), p. 415
11. Duffy (2012), p. 153
12. MacKillop (2004), p. 104
13. Barron (1976), p. 100
14. Ross (1998), p. 200
15. Waddell (2023), p. 247
16. Ross (2010), p. 111
17. Rynne (1972), p. 80
18. Rynne (1972), p. 78
19. Ross (2010), p. 65
20. Warner (2003), p. 27
21. Rynne (1972), p. 84
22. Paterson (1962), p. 82
23. Rynne (1972), pp. 79–93
24. O'Toole, Fintan. "A history of Ireland in 100 objects: Corleck Head". The Irish Times, 25 June 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2022
25. Aldhouse-Green (2015), p. 43
26. Aldhouse-Green (2015), p. 46
27. Cooney (2023), p. 349
28. Ross (1960), p. 13
29. Kelly (2002), p. 132
30. Ross (1960), pp. 13–14, 24
31. Waddell (1998), pp. 360, 371
32. Kelly (2002), pp. 132, 142
33. Rynne (1972), p. 79
34. Ross (1960), p. 14
35. Gleeson (2022), p. 20
36. Kelly (1984), p. 10
37. Ross (1967), p. 124
38. Armit (2012), pp. 34, 54
39. Aldhouse-Green (2015), p. 47
40. Ross (1960), p. 15
41. Ó hÓgáin (2000), p. 23
42. Waddell (2023), p. 321
43. Rynne (1972), plate X
44. Armit (2012), p. 37
45. Waddell (1998), p. 362
46. Morahan (1987–1988), p. 149
47. Aldhouse-Green (2015), p. 48
48. Waddell (1998), pp. 361, 374
49. Ross (1960), p. 22
50. "A Face From The Past: A possible Iron Age anthropomorphic stone carving from Trabolgan, Co. Cork". National Museum of Ireland. Retrieved 22 April 2023
51. Ross (1960), p. 11
52. Eogan; Herity (2013), p. 245
53. Zachrisson (2017), pp. 359–60
54. Davidson (1989), p. 138
55. Welsh (2022), p. 215

Sources

• Aldhouse-Green, Miranda. The Celtic Myths: A Guide to the Ancient Gods and Legends. London: Thames and Hudson, 2015. ISBN 978-0-5002-5209-3
• Armit, Ian. Headhunting and the Body in Iron Age Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-5218-7756-5
• Barron, Thomas J. "Some Beehive Quernstones from Counties Cavan and Monaghan". Clogher Record, volume 9, number 1, 1976. JSTOR 27695733 doi:10.2307/27695733
• Cooney, Gabriel. Death in Irish Prehistory. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2023. ISBN 978-1-8020-5009-7
• Davidson, Hilda Ellis. "Myths and Symbols in Religion and Folklore". Folklore, volume 100, number 2, 1989. JSTOR 1260292
• Duffy, Patrick. "Reviewed Work: Landholding, Society and Settlement In Ireland: a historical geographer's perspective by T. Jones Hughes". Clogher Record, volume 21, number 1, 2012. JSTOR 41917586
• Eogan, George; Herity, Michael. Ireland in Prehistory. London: Routledge, 2013. ISBN 978-1-3158-8762-3
• Gleeson, Patrick. "Reframing the first millennium AD in Ireland: archaeology, history, landscape". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 2022. ISSN 0302-7597
• Kelly, Eamonn. "The Iron Age". In Ó Floinn, Raghnall; Wallace, Patrick (eds). Treasures of the National Museum of Ireland: Irish Antiquities. Dublin: National Museum of Ireland, 2002. ISBN 978-0-7171-2829-7
• Kelly, Eamonn. "The Archaeology of Ireland 3: The Pagan Celts". Ireland Today, no. 1006, 1984. ISSN 0332-0103
• Kelly, Eamonn. "Late Bronze Age and Iron Age Antiquities". In: Ryan, Micheal (ed). Treasures of Ireland: Irish Art 3000 BC – 1500 AD. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1983. ISBN 978-0-9017-1428-2
• Koch, John. Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. New York: ABC-CLIO, 2006. ISBN 978-1-8510-9440-0
• MacKillop, James. A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-1986-0967-4
• Mahr, Adolf. "A Head from Corleck". Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, volume 3, 1937. ISSN 0302-7597
• Morahan, Leo. "A Stone Head from Killeen, Belcarra, Co. Mayo". Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society, volume 41, 1987–1988. JSTOR 25535584
• Newell, A.N. "Gallo-Roman Religious Sculpture". Greece & Rome, volume 3, number 8, February 1934. JSTOR 640758
• Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí. "Patronage & Devotion in Ancient Irish Religion". History Ireland, volume 8, number 4, Winter 2000. JSTOR 27724824
• Paterson, T.G.F. "Carved Head from Cortynan, Co. Armagh". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, volume 92, number 1, 1962. JSTOR 25509461
• "Report of the Council for 1937". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Seventh Series, volume 8, no. 1, 30 June 1938. JSTOR 25510127
• Ross, Anne. The Pagan Celts. Ruthin: John Jones, 1998. ISBN 978-1-8710-8361-3
• Ross, Anne. Druids: Preachers of Immortality. Cheltenham: The History Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-7524-1433-1
• Ross, Anne. Pagan Celtic Britain: Studies in Iconography and Tradition. Routledge, 1967. ISBN 978-0-8973-3435-8
• Ross, Anne. "A Celtic Three-faced Head from Wiltshire". Antiquity, volume 41, number 161, 1967. ISSN 0003-598X
• Ross, Anne. "The Human Head in Insular Pagan Celtic Religion". Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, volume 91, 1960. ISSN 2056-743X
• Rynne, Etienn. "Celtic Stone Idols in Ireland". In: Thomas, Charles. The Iron Age in the Irish Sea Province: Papers given at a C.B.A. Conference held at Cardiff, January 3 to 5, 1969. London: Council for British Archaeology, 1972.
• Rynne, Etienn. "The Three Stone Heads at Woodlands, near Raphoe, Co. Donegal". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, volume 94, no. 2, 1964. JSTOR 25509564
• Waddell, John. Pagan Ireland: Ritual and Belief in Another World. Dublin: Wordwell Books, 2023. ISBN 978-1-9167-4202-4
• Waddell, John. The Prehistoric Archaeology of Ireland. Galway University Press, 1998. ISBN 978-1-8698-5739-4
• Warner, Richard. "Two Pagan Idols – Remarkable New Discoveries". Archaeology Ireland, volume 17, no. 1, 2003. ISSN 0790-892X
• Welsh, Harry. The Prehistoric Artefacts of Northern Ireland. London: Archaeopress, 2022. ISBN 978-1-7896-9953-1
• Zachrisson, Torun. "The Enigmatic Stone Faces: Cult Images from the Iron Age?". In Semple, Sarah; Orsini, Celia; Mui, Sian (eds). Life on the Edge: Social, Political and Religious Frontiers in Early Medieval Europe. Hanover: Hanover Museum, 2017. ISBN 978-3-9320-3077-2

External links

• The Corleck Head and other aspects of east Cavan's ancient past. Video lecture by Jonathan Smyth, Cavan Library, 2023