Necklace from the Glencurran Cave
The necklace Glencurran Cave in 2010 during excavations in the cave Glencurran Cave ( Irish Navan Ghleann Corráin ) in the townland Tully Common ( Tullow Chumann ) in the Burren in County Clare in Ireland found. It is an unusually long, 1150 year old Viking necklace from a region in which Vikings never settled.
The chain is the largest Viking necklace found in Ireland. Usually these have five or six glass beads, but the necklace from Glencurran Cave has 71 glass beads covered with gold foil . The closest Viking settlement was Limerick . The chain from the middle of the 9th century could be the result of a trade between Vikings from Limerick and a clan chief of the Burren. The necklace, which must have belonged to a high-ranking Viking woman, may have been imported from Scandinavia in the late 9th and early 10th centuries.
The skeletal remains of a two to four year old child were placed in the cave around 3500 years ago in the Bronze Age. All in all, the remains of seven adults, two children and a baby were discovered during the excavation. A 10,000 year old shoulder bone from a bear was also found.
literature
- Marion Dowd: Living and dying in Glencurran Cave, Co. Clare . In: Archeology Ireland 21 (1), pp. 13-17.