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A few Classical lunulae have been found on the north Cornish coast and in southern Scotland. [12] Three Provincial lunulae were discovered in Kerivoa, Brittany (Kerivoa-en-Bourbriac, Côtes-d'Armor) in the remains of a box with some sheet gold and a rod of gold. The rod had its terminals hammered flat in the manner of the lunulae.
The lunula is made of decorated gold and dated to 2200-2000 BC and is one of the earliest gold ornaments from Wales. [1] Other estimates suggest 2400-2000 BC of the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age. [2] The lunula is the heaviest lunula from the islands of Britain and Ireland, weighing 185g. [3] Llanllyfni lunula.
It was found in a bog at Coggalbeg, County Roscommon in 1945, [2] and consists of a gold lunula (a crescent shaped "little moon") and two small gold discs, of a type known from other examples, decorated with a cross motif within two circles. The pieces are flat and thin, and collectively weigh under 78 grams (2.8 oz), indicating that they were ...
In Ireland, lunulae were probably replaced as neck ornaments firstly by gold torcs, found from the Irish Middle Bronze Age, and then in the Late Bronze Age by the spectacular "gorgets" of thin ribbed gold, some with round discs at the side, of which 9 examples survive, 7 in the National Museum of Ireland. [9]
As well as Ireland and Cornwall, lunulae are also found in Scotland, Wales, Brittany, and Normandy. Outside of Cornwall, lunulae are only rarely found in barrow contexts. [150] [151] The presence of traces of tin in the gold lunulae from Harlyn Bay and St. Juliot suggest that the gold may derive from a local Cornish alluvial source. [152]
Unusually complex gold spiral ribbon torc from the Stirling Hoard, Scotland. The word comes from Latin torquis (or torques), from torqueo, "to twist", because of the twisted shape many of the rings have. Typically, neck-rings that open at the front when worn are called "torcs" and those that open at the back "collars".
An unnamed detectorist found a gold lunula in a cultivated field near Garlieston, Sorbie in March 2011, the first Scottish gold lunula found in over 100 years. The lunula is a flat, crescent-shaped neck ornament thought to date from around 2300 – 2200 BC, and described by some archaeologists as a symbol of power.
Cornwall may have been the primary source of the gold used in the British and Irish Early Bronze Age. Gold from Cornwall may have been used to make many of the lunulae found in Ireland and along the Atlantic Façade. Gold from the Carnon river and tin from Redruth are the likely source for these metals used in the Nebra sky disc. [278] [196] [198]