Hogback from Castledermot
The Hogback of Castledermot in County Kildare , Ireland is a granite tombstone erected between AD 900 and 1050 . Discovered in 1967, the Hogback is the only example of a genus of Viking tombstones in Ireland otherwise restricted to Great Britain including Orkney and the Isle of Man .
The source for the granite is the Tullow Pluton, near Castledermot , at the southern end of one of the largest deposits of Leinster batholith in the British Isles . The stone found nearby is in the cemetery of the Protestant church of Castledermot.
Its outline is based on that of a Viking Age building (see e.g. Fyrkat and Trelleborg ), i.e. the roof is curved over the length like a pig's back and the side walls are bulging. The stone is about 1.8 m long and in the west 34 in the middle 44 and at the east end 25 cm wide. Its height is 26.5 cm in the west, 43 cm in the middle and 23.5 cm at the east end.
This type of monument originated in the Viking settlements of Yorkshire , but was also found in Scotland , while they were not found in Denmark and Scandinavia . The grave shrines at Banagher in Derry and St. Tighernachs near Clones are called morgues. Other grave shrines were given the term house, such as St. Molaise's House on Devenish Island and the Priest's House in Glendalough. James T. Lang believes that this type of monument was alien to Irish stonemasons and that he worked from a description of Hogbacks seen in Cumberland or Yorkshire.
See also
literature
- James T. Lang: Hogback monuments in Scotland. In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Vol. 105, 1972, ISSN 0081-1564 , pp. 206-235 ( full text , PDF 3.6 MB).
- James T. Lang: The Castledermot Hogback. In: Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. Vol. 101, No. 2, 1971, ISSN 0035-9106 , pp. 154-158 ( abstract ).
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 54 '36.9 " N , 6 ° 50' 5.4" W.