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3,000 Year Old Fermanagh Torc Found in Bog
The Fermanagh torc was found in County Fermanagh, in Fermanagh bog, in 2009 The torc was found by metal detector Ronnie Johnston Corrard, near the Belle Isle estate in county in Fermanagh in 2009. He didn’t recognize it as a 3,000 year old gold ornament at first, and, thinking it was an old car spring, tucked it in the back of a drawer. The Fermanagh torc is quite large, mostly gold, and dates from 1300-1100 B. C. E. The BBC article asserts that it “would probably have been worn around the waist.” I confess to being puzzled by that assertion. Torcs are usually worn around the neck, with some possibly…
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More on the Faddan More Psalter
I’ve written before about an 8th century Irish psalter on vellum found in an Irish peat bog near Riverstown in north Co Tipperary, in July of 2006. The psalter, both damaged and preserved by the tannic stew of the bog, Conservators, principally John Gillis, on loan to Ireland’s National Museum from Trinity College Library, have been working diligently to discover the best methods of conserving, preserving, and documenting the psalter for the last four years. In 2011, the psalter will be placed on permanent display in the National Museum of Ireland. In the meantime, you can read the preliminary report here, and some background here. In the process of conserving…
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A Psalter in the Bog: Faddan More Psalter
A driver of a backhoe in Ireland’s Faddan More in north Tipperary has discovered a small psalter. He was digging peat for use in commercial potting soil. The tannin in the peat preserved the vellum (specially prepared cow hide, used to make the medieval manuscript) much as the Irish bogs preserve bodies for hundreds of years. Once the backhoe operator realized what he had found, he immediately covered the medieval psalm collection with moist peat, very cleverly preventing it from being destroyed by exposure to air. Bernard Meehan, the curator of manuscripts at Trinity College Library, Dublin (the eventual home of the Faddan More psalter), said Initial impressions place the…
