Ian Riddler: Teasing apart the bone and antler objects | Drumclay Conference 2014 | Review
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In the final session of
the day the chair, Dr. Nóra Bermingham, introduced the first speaker, Ian Riddler. His recent work
has included a re-examination of Early Medieval combs from Ireland.
He began by noting that
the act of combing of hair would have been a very private and intimate act and
would have been undertaken outdoors, away from other people. However, the
finished product – the hairstyle – would have been a very public result. Even
if the hair is covered, the act of covering is itself a very public statement.
In this way, he argues, combs fit somewhere between this private act and the
public appearance. In this way they can give information about attitudes
towards grooming, hygiene, and personal care. They also provide excellent
dating evidence, they provide evidence of craft, and they provide an index of
identity, along with indirect evidence of changing hairstyles and fashions.
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| Comb from Drumclay |
Using a diagram of the
dated phases and occupation levels excavated at Fishamble St, Dublin, Riddler
explained that he counted the numbers of ten classes of comb recovered from
each level. Although repeatedly describing the image as ‘incomprehensible’,
Riddler explained that a number of important insights could be identified. The
first of these is that the different classes of comb overlap in the periods of
their popularity. There is no real sense that one particular style dominated
and was immediately replaced by another. Additionally, by the time of The
Battle of Clontarf in 1014 there was a particularly wide range of comb
available to the prospective user, some seven of the ten tested. However, 50
years later the number of classes has diminished to just two. Obviously,
something significant has happened in the intervening period!
In terms of Drumclay,
Riddler explains that the first part of the analysis has been to take the
excavated combs and set them in broad sequence, not related to the stratigraphy
& working independently of all other analyses. He also notes that Drumclay
wins out over Deer Park Farms (and the majority of Irish rural sites) in that
it does have a recognisable sequence. Showing an image of the famous ‘bird’s
head’ comb, Riddler states his opinion that it is among the earliest from
Drumclay and dates to the 7th to (maybe) early 8th centuries. Unfortunately,
there are not many of these combs known and they are poorly dated. However, by
the 8th century the Drumclay sequence is particularly strong. He explained much
of the linkages between the examples from Drumclay and the corpus of finds from
Deer Park Farms, and tied it to the Dublin sequence. While the common perception
is that the Irish comb making tradition dies out in the early 10th century due
to the massive Scandinavian influence. At that point, the argument goes, the tradition changes
(‘almost overnight’) from the Irish double-sided comb to the Scandinavian
single-sided comb. However, nothing is ever so simple and Riddler explains that
there is a spectrum that goes from pure Scandinavian combs, through good Irish
copies of Scandinavian combs, and on to Irish takes on Scandinavian combs. As
noted previously, in the post-Clontarf world, the numbers of available comb
styles drop dramatically. Riddler points out that it is due to the removal of
the pure Scandinavian end of the comb-making spectrum. Speaking about one type
of comb from Drumclay where the form may be paralleled at other sites but the
exact style of decoration couldn’t, he mentions a similar example from Knowth,
Co. Meath. In both cases he is of the opinion that local comb-makers are making
combs to the prevailing Ireland-wide forms, but using local ‘signature’
decoration. Drumclay comb-making continues into the period from 1175-1250 and
excavated examples can be paralleled at sites such as Greencastle, Co. Down.
However, composite comb design essentially ends in this period and the evidence
from Drumclay similarly diminishes. While, at the time of the conference, this
sequencing was not complete, the next stage in the research would be to
integrate this research with the stratigraphy.
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| Comb from Drumclay |
With regard to the
distinct Drumclay ‘signature’, Riddler notes that it is defined as an un-banded
but fairly-closely spaced mesh. This has been observed on at least five
different comb designs from the site. He emphasises that this discovery is of
significance as it is particularly difficult to distinguish regional patterns
in Irish combs. A comb with very similar decoration is known from Pottiagh
crannog, near Clones, Co. Fermanagh. Riddler suggests that it could either be a
Drumclay comb or evidence for a slightly wider, regional ‘signature’ than was
used by more comb makers than those at Drumclay. In either case, he identifies
it as an area deserving of further work and research.
Turning to the question
of whether combs were actually made at Drumclay or just used and deposited
there, Riddler notes that apart from the distinctive Drumclay ‘signature’ there
is a small collection or recovered antler waste. This suggests that comb making
was carried out at Drumclay. He argues that that the large piece of antler
shown by Emily Murray in the previous lecture was actually used as a pick,
rather than being a piece of waste. While the amount of antler waste from
Drumclay is small, this is typical for rural Irish sites. Reasons for this
include the fact that a favoured place for deposition (along with the other
site detritus and filth) is in localised areas of enclosure ditches. For
Example, at Castlefarm
I, Co. Meath, the majority of the antler waste was confined to a very small
number of locations and, could have easily been missed had trenches been placed
in slightly different locations. Antler shavings survive relatively well and
can be easily recovered from soil samples and, again, even small numbers of
shavings are evidence of antler working on a site. Riddler notes that on Raystown, Co.
Meath antler working is evidenced from a very small number of antler shavings.
There is also indirect evidence of comb making at Drumclay in the form of one
very poor example from the site. It has poorly cut teeth that are ungraduated
and uneven and Riddler believes it to have been abandoned by an unskilled
craftsman.
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| Comb from Drumclay |
Riddler also points to
particularly well-made combs from the site, including one of the longest known
from Ireland at 230mm. It may be paralleled with three combs from the High
Street excavations in Dublin, including one of about 15inches in length
making it the longest from Ireland and among the longest from all of Europe. As
all of these combs show evidence for use, it raises questions around ideas of
deliberately ostentatious display. Originally, due to their size, these combs were
thought to have been for horse grooming rather than human use but as Riddler
says: “I wouldn’t go round the back of a horse with a 15 inch comb – that would
be madness!” Indeed, modern horse combs are much smaller (around 4 inches) and
bear more resemblance to some of the smaller combs from the site. For Riddler a
key point is that the long combs are chronologically contemporary – or at least
they appear so in the archaeological record because the resolution of the
dating evidence cannot match the speed of changes in hair style fashion.
A biography of Archbishop Anselm,
who died in 1109, noted that “the men with long hair whom Father Anslem had
banned from the threshold of holy church avowed to such a degree and gloried so
much in the wickedly long feminine hair that whoever is not long haired is called as an insult ‘peasant’ or ‘priest’.”
This is paralleled in accounts of the Battle of Hastings where King Harold’s
scouts reported that the Norman soldiers were ‘all priests’ because of their
short hair. In this way, one’s profession or vocation was visibly demonstrated
in the hairstyle adopted.
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