The Ralaghan idol, also known as the "Ralaghan figure", is a late Bronze Age anthropomorphic, carved wooden figure found in a bog in the townland of Ralaghan, County Cavan, Ireland. It is held by the National Museum of Ireland. [1]
A sample of wood from the figure yielded a radiocarbon date (OxA–1719) of 1096–906 cal. BCE. [2] [3]
The figure was found during turf cutting, by a farmer named Thomas Halfpenny, aka Mr. Halpin, [4] [5] [6] [7] in a small peat bog close to the townland boundary between Ralaghan and Crossmakeelan, in the civil parish of Shercock, County Cavan, Ireland. [8] Its discovery was announced in 1930 in the journal Antiquity by Adolf Mahr, keeper of Irish Antiquities in the National Museum in Dublin. Mahr reported that the figure was found face down "under 3 to 4 feet of peat" in an area of bog that had been "reclaimed since". [9] No associated archaeological structures were reported, and Mahr reported that no other finds were retrieved from the bog.
The figure is 113.5 cm long and made from yew ( Taxus baccata ), a toxic wood with multiple folkloric associations. It is carved from a complete roundwood stem. It has a carved head and neck, a long torso with no arms, breasts or navel, a well defined pubic area and a pair of slightly bent legs that end in feet. The base of the figure ends in a spike and it initially fitted into "a socket cut in a square block-shaped pedestal, about a square foot in area" which Mahr reported "is now lost". [9]
The figure is covered in cracks, and has strongly incised facial features. [2] The left eye is slightly higher than the right, with the nose off-centre and possible damage to the left of the face. The pubic area features a gouged hole (initially reported as drilled) [9] placed within a well defined pubic triangle. An examination of the figure by Bryony Coles published in 1990, determined that the hole widens within the body of the figure and that it contained a small patch of white granular material, possibly quartz.
Mahr initially determined that the pubic hole was "obviously intended for the insertion of a male organ". [9] The idea that the figure originally featured a separate insertable phallus made of wood or some other material has been suggested by several scholars. [10] [11] Others have argued that the figure might be female [12] or deliberately gender ambiguous. [13] [14] Coles has suggested that the pubic hole could have been a "hole for intercourse or giving birth", for the insertion of a separate phallus, or that the figure may have been "deliberately intended to be ambiguous, male in one context and female in another". [2] Similarly, Miranda Aldhouse-Green has argued that the figure may reflect "deliberate ambiguity and double-meaning". [14] The figure is one of several prehistoric wooden figures with both male and female sexual characteristics or whose intended gender is unclear. These include the Dagenham idol, the "God Dolly", and the Roos Carr figures. [2]
The Venus of Berekhat Ram is a pebble found at Berekhat Ram on the Golan Heights. The pebble may have been modified by early humans and is suggested to represent a female human figure.
Megalithic art refers to art either painted or carved onto megaliths in prehistoric Europe. Elizabeth Shee Twohig has coined the term Megalithic art in her study of 'The Megalithic Art of Western Europe'. Her original definition of Megalithic art focused on paintings or carvings found on the structural elements, like the kerbstones, orthostats, or capstones of megalithic tombs, but recent investigations have included decorations on stelae and menhirs.
The Sweet Track is an ancient trackway, or causeway, in the Somerset Levels, England, named after its finder, Ray Sweet. It was built in 3807 BC and is the second-oldest timber trackway discovered in the British Isles, dating to the Neolithic. The Sweet Track was predominantly built along the course of an earlier structure, the Post Track.
Ancient Celtic religion, commonly known as Celtic paganism, was the religion of the ancient Celtic peoples of Europe. Because there are no extant native records of their beliefs, evidence about their religion is gleaned from archaeology, Greco-Roman accounts, and literature from the early Christian period. Celtic paganism was one of a larger group of polytheistic Indo-European religions of Iron Age Europe.
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The Haraldskær Woman is the name given to a bog body of a woman preserved in a bog in Jutland, Denmark, and dating from about 490 BC. Workers found the body in 1835 while excavating peat on the Haraldskær Estate. The anaerobic conditions and acids of the peat bog contributed to the body's excellent preservation. Not only was the intact skeleton found, but so were the skin and internal organs. Scientists settled disputes about the age and identity of this well preserved body in 1977, when radiocarbon dating determined conclusively that the woman's death occurred around the 5th century BC.
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Gavrinis is a small island in the Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany, France. It contains the Gavrinis tomb, a Neolithic passage tomb built around 4200–4000 BC, making it one of the world's oldest surviving buildings. Stones inside the passage and chamber are covered in megalithic art. It is likened to other Neolithic passage tombs such as Barnenez in Brittany and Newgrange in Ireland.
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The Roca dels Moros or Caves of El Cogul is a rock shelter containing paintings of prehistoric Levantine rock art and Iberian schematic art. The site is in El Cogul, in the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain. Since 1998 the paintings have been protected as part of the Rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Inscriptions in Northeastern Iberian script and in Latin alphabet indicate that the place was used as a sanctuary into Iberian and Roman times.
The National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology is a branch of the National Museum of Ireland located on Kildare Street in Dublin, Ireland, that specialises in Irish and other antiquities dating from the Stone Age to the Late Middle Ages.
The Braak Bog Figures are two wooden carvings discovered in 1947 in a peat bog in Braak, Schleswig-Holstein, Northern Germany. Part of a larger tradition of similar figures spanning the period from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages, they are human-like in appearance and have been carbon dated to the 2nd or 3rd century BCE; the Schleswig-Holstein state archaeology museum puts them as far back as 400BCE. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain their function and what they may represent, from depictions of deities to ancestor worship.
The Broddenbjerg idol is a wooden ithyphallic figure found in a bog at Broddenbjerg, near Viborg, Denmark and now in the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen. It is dated to approximately 535–520 BCE.
Anthropomorphic wooden cult figurines, sometimes called pole gods, have been found at many archaeological sites in Central and Northern Europe. They are generally interpreted as cult images, in some cases presumably depicting deities, sometimes with either a votive or an apotropaic (protective) function. Many have been preserved in peat bogs. The majority are more or less crudely worked poles or forked sticks; some take the form of carved planks. They have been dated to periods from the Mesolithic to the Early Middle Ages, including the Roman Era and the Migration Age. The majority have been found in areas of Germanic settlement, but some are from areas of Celtic settlement and from the later part of the date range, Slavic settlement. A typology has been developed based on the large number found at Oberdorla, Thuringia, at a sacrificial bog which is now the Opfermoor Vogtei open-air museum.
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The Roos Carr figures are a group of prehistoric wooden figurines found at Roos Carr, near Withernsea in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in 1836.
The Tandragee Idol is the name given to a granite or sandstone carving dated to c. 1000–500 BC, found in a peat bog near Tandragee, County Armagh, in Northern Ireland. It is 60 cm (24 in) in height and consists of the torso and head of a grotesque and brutish-looking figure positioned on a stone slab. He has pierced nostrils, a vulgar and coarse mouth, a horned helmet, and holds his right arm with his left. It was probably produced as an idol for an Ancient Celtic religious shrine.
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