Head of Corleck
The three-faced head of Corleck ( English Tricephalos ), found around 1855 in the townland of Corleck ( Irish Corr Leice ) in County Cavan and published by Thomas Barron in 1937, is a work of the Irish Iron Age (1st or 2nd century AD. ).
The three faces of the head about 33 cm long and 22.5 cm wide are abstract. All elements are there, but the close-set eyes, the long nose and the thin line for the mouth are stylized . The heads have a hole in the bottom, which is an indication that they were placed on a pole. This is in line with the Celtic head cult , with single-sided head sculptures such as the head of Claudy in County Londonderry or the head of Llandysul in Wales found in 2014 being far more common.
Although Corleck's head has three different faces of the same size, other heads of the same genus differ in this regard. A tricephalos from around the same time from La Pouquelaie in Guernsey has not only three faces, but three heads connected to one another at the back and sides. An example from Ireland has two larger faces and a smaller one on the left side of one of the others. Unusual features such as a single common ear or slits that could accommodate animal ears are often part of the design of these artifacts. The faces are usually male and sometimes even have mustaches ( Corraghy head ). Within the genus of the Iron Age Celtic sculpture heads (both single and multiple heads) there are also examples of female heads. The Towcester head (in Dumfriesshire ) may be a representation of the Brigid and indicates that female heads were also used, albeit less frequently.
The National Museum of Ireland, during its investigation, concluded that the figure was linked to a shrine on Drumeague Hill. Nearby is Corleck Hill , where between 1832 and 1900 a passage tomb surrounded by a stone circle and a round rampart about 70 meters in diameter was destroyed. The place was the center of an important Lughnasa festival. This Celtic tradition survived into modern times. Other Celtic stone heads have been found in Corravilla and near Cavan Town. Further north at Emain Macha there is another group of Iron Age stone carvings. Emain Macha was the most important political and ritual authority in old Ulster. The Corleck Head was likely linked to a cult practiced nearby.
literature
- Tom Cowan: Fire in the Head: Shamanism and the Celtic Spirit . HarperCollins, New York 1993, ISBN 0-06-250174-7 .
- A. Ross: The Human Head in Insular Pagan Celtic Religion , In: PSAS, XCI, 1957-8, pp. 10-43
- Etienne Rynne: The Three Stone Heads at Woodlands, near Raphoe, Co. Donegal In: The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Vol. 94, No. 2, pp. 105-109 (1964)