This photo shows the Aghadoe Crozier, a beautiful 12th century artefact found at Aghadoe, County Kerry in 1848. The crozier is intricately carved out of walrus ivory and is decorated in the Viking Urnes style. It also contains some features which are paralleled on the portals of the Early Medieval church at Aghadoe. The crook appears to have been shortened in antiquity but apart from this it is in remarkably good condition.

The stem of the crozier bears zoomorphic ornament which eventually turns into a foliage pattern[i]. The crook then curves and becomes the forepart of a monster/dragon that has a man either entering or leaving its wide open jaws. This may be a depiction of the biblical story of Jonah and the sea-monster. The crozier can currently be viewed at the National Museum of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin.



[i] Henry, F. 1970 Irish Art in the Romanesque Period (1020 to 1170AD), Kent.

Tags: , , ,

advert

3 Responses to “The Aghadoe Crozier” Subscribe

  1. Vincent June 24, 2012 at 7:11 pm #

    It is very unlikely that the ivory is Walrus. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walrus for sizing. If it is ivory then the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narwhal would seem more your man. Why it couldn’t be Elephant though. Has it been tested. I see little reason to perpetuate the myth that contact with Africa was rare.

    • Mariam July 29, 2012 at 8:10 pm #

      Be assured, likely one of the first tests they ran was on the ivory.

  2. Jack January 13, 2013 at 8:09 pm #

    Wikipedia! Lol!

Leave a Reply

A Mesolithic cemetery: Ireland’s oldest burials

  On a bend of the River Shannon, Ireland’s largest watercourse, a small band of hunter-gathers came to together nearly [...]

Images of Newgrange through the ages

The Neolithic  passage tomb at Newgrange is the most visited archaeological site in Ireland. Over 5000 years old it pre-dates the first phase of [...]

The Broighter hoard

The remarkable Broighter hoard, arguably the finest treasure trove of the Irish Iron Age, was discovered on a February evening [...]

The Oseberg Viking ship burial

  In 1904 a remarkable archaeological site was uncovered at Oseberg, Norway. It consisted of an astonishingly well-preserved Viking ship [...]

The death of an elephant, Dublin, 1681

I stumbled across a curious 17th century account of an elephant in Dublin city recently. Yes, you read right, an [...]

Dublin’s lost buildings: The Dutch Billy

  Strolling through some of Dublin streets at the begining of the 18th century, an English visitor to the city [...]