| Dowris Hoard | |
|---|---|
 Image of the hoard in the National Museum of Ireland | |
| Material | Bronze |
| Created | 900–600 BC |
| Present location | British Museum, London; National Museum of Ireland,Dublin |
TheDowris Hoard is the name of an importantBronze Age hoard of over 200 objects found in Dowris,County Offaly, Ireland. Items from the deposit are currently split between two institutions: theNational Museum of Ireland inDublin and theBritish Museum in London.[1][2]
The hoard mostly of objects in bronze, was probably a ritual deposit, perhaps for religious purposes, though the records of the discovery, by farm labourers in the 1820s, do not allow to be sure if it was one deposit, or a series.[3] Current thinking tends to see it as a series, possibly over a very long period, of ritual deposits into a lake.[4]
The importance of the hoard inIrish prehistory has led to the naming of the final phase of the IrishLate Bronze Age (900–600 BC) as theDowris Phase or period. Over time Irish prehistoric bronzesmiths had become highly adept at casting and working with sheet metal and the Dowris Phase reflects the culmination of this as well as an industrial growth inmetalworking. During this period ironworking was already found on the European Continent, inHallstatt culture "C", and arrived inBritain, but did not reach Ireland. Until the culture was apparently disrupted around 600 BC, gold jewellery of superb quality was produced, as well as weapons, tools, trumpets and other kinds of objects inbronze, of which the Dowris Hoard has an exceptional selection.[5]
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The Dowris Hoard was accidentally discovered in the 1820s by two men digging trenches for potatoes on apeat bog near the shores of Lough Coura. During theBronze Age, the area was covered by a shallow lake, which later silted up in the lateMiddle Ages. Dowris (also known as Doorosheath or Duros) is located near the village of Whigsborough, northeast ofBirr in County Offaly, Ireland. The hoard subsequently came into the possession ofWilliam Parsons, 3rdEarl of Rosse and TD Cooke. The latter sold his collection of Irish antiquities to the British Museum in 1854.
One of the largestBronze Age assemblage of artefacts ever found in Ireland, the Dowris Hoard originally comprised more than 200 pieces, of which 111 are currently in the collections of the National Museum of Ireland and 79 in the British Museum. In total, the hoard includes:[6]
The hoard contains all but two of the Bronze Age crotals (Greek 'crotalon' – castanet or rattle) ever found, the other two also being Irish (but see alsocrotal bell for later types). These are bronze cylinders […] with a piece of baked clay or a pebble inside. It is presumed they functioned as a type of rattle […]. The hoard had 48 of them in total, in two sizes.[8]
