A Phoenix at the National Museum of Ireland


The National Museum of Ireland has many wondrous, beautiful, and rare objects on display. Just think of the spectacular Bronze Age gold display, the Ardagh Chalice and the other amazing artefacts in the Treasury, the prehistoric pottery, along with the Viking and medieval material upstairs. Most people are unaware that the museum also boasts a mythological rarity … their very own phoenix. This mosaic gem is near the very Dandy Lion on the ground floor, near the centre of the Bronze Age gold exhibit. I’ve long thought him a particularly arrogant bird, rising up with flame-feathered wings outstretched and an imperious look in his eye. On more recent consideration, I’m not sure if he’s not just using a cloak of superiority to mask his discomfort at having an especially barbed and sharp tongue … it must be the source of much distress and suffering. Go visit the museum & spare a thought for the phoenix.
Location: Dublin, Ireland

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The archaeology of the Great Famine: time for a beginning?

Image
[**  If you like this post, please make a donation to the IR&DD project using the button at the end.  If you think the post is useful, please re-share via Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc. **] Preface Let me tell you a story. Way back in 1997, not long after I first came to Belfast, I got a job working on the excavation of Portora Castle , Co. Fermanagh. The site was directed by Cormac McSparron , and during the course of the excavation we became good friends. Over a pint or two on a night out in Enniskillen, we discussed the potential for archaeology that the internet was opening up. One of our ideas was for an internet-based journal devoted exclusively to Irish archaeology. Our general feeling was that ‘someone’ should do it. By June of the following year no such site had materialized and we thought we’d give it a shot ourselves. This was the genesis of The Internet Journal of Archaeology in Ireland . Unfortunately, we had no resources and no track record of deli...
Read more

‘The Shape of an L’: Thoughts on the occurrence and meaning of the L-shape in Early Medieval art and religion.

Image
[If you like this post, please feel free to share. If you can spare a little cash, I’d be grateful if you could hit the secure ‘donate’ button on the right. Either way, thanks for reading!] St Patrick’s Bell shrine ( Source ) One evening last September I posted a picture to Facebook of the back of the rather wonderful St Patrick’s Bell Shrine. This rear panel is decorated with a combination of equal-armed Greek Crosses, swastikas, and T-shaped or ‘Tau’ crosses. The blog post I wrote as a direct result of that online conversation ( "Always remember to draw the swastika turning to the right": Some thoughts on swastika directionality in Early Medieval Irish Art ) was (as the name implies) intended to examine the evidence for directionality of Early Medieval swastikas in Ireland or of Irish manufacture. There was a secondary aim to create a basic catalogue of the currently known examples and appeal for anyone with further information to come forward. In the li...
Read more

Archaeology from the Interzone: Applications of the Burroughs-Gysin cut up method to problems in the Neolithic of Britain and Ireland

Image
Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with my background as a field archaeologist. Many will also know of my attitude to archaeological theory: not so much 'ambivalent' as 'uncomfortable'. I started my university education a long time ago, when (at least in the west of Ireland) archaeological theory was not regularly considered and discussed, much less taught. In this, I am very much a product of my time and place. At one time (for a dare), I read Johnson's Archaeological Theory: An Introduction , but unfortunately found it quite impenetrable. I have, belatedly, attempted to get my head around the famous Transit Van excavation, by recreating my own version of it. The experience was equally intellectually exhilarating and challenging, as the process allowed me to break down some of my 'anti-theory' biases. This was coupled with a large number of thought-provoking comments on the blog, and in other social-media, which helped to confront my own ingr...
Read more