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Retracing Ireland's Lost Archaeology
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Retracing Ireland's Lost Archaeology

I. The Worsaae Drawings

1. Introduction

Worsaae, under the commission of Christian VIII of Denmark, spent nine months travelling around Britain and Ireland during 1846 and 1847. One of the most famous Scandinavian antiquarians of the nineteenth century, he had spent time visiting Sweden, Austria, Germany and Switzerland during the preceding years. The terms of his royal commission, as they related to his tour of Britain and Ireland, primarily focused on an investigation of the Viking-age antiquities and monuments of Scandinavian character. He published the results of his work as Minder om de Danske og Nordmændene i England, Skotland og Irland in 1851 with an English translation, entitled An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland, and Ireland, appearing in 1852. In this work Worsaae virtually created the concept of the "Viking Age".

Worsaae spent the period between early November 1846 and early February 1847 in Ireland. Most of his time was spent in Dublin, though he did go on excursions to Waterford, Trim, Tara, Newgrange and probably Monasterboice. He delivered two lectures to the Royal Irish Academy on the connections between Irish and Scandinavian antiquities and developed relations with leading Dublin antiquarians. These included George Petrie, William Wilde, James H. Todd and Sir William Betham. In addition, he corresponded with Cork-based numismatists such as John Lindsay and Richard Sainthill.

During his stay in Dublin, Worsaae appears to have visited the location in the Kilmainham-Islandbridge area where an important series of Viking graves had recently been discovered. He obtained a number of artefacts from this site, some through the offices of the Royal Irish Academy, and also amassed a collection of antiquities from elsewhere in Ireland through his connections with dealers such as James Henry Underwood, of Dublin, and Whyte Baker, of Callan, county Kilkenny. These artefacts were sent by Worsaae to the Museum of Northern Antiquities, Copenhagen (now the National Museum of Denmark), where they remain. In addition, he arranged for James Plunket to prepare a series of watercolours of artefacts in the collections of the Royal Irish Academy. It is these watercolours, which are also housed in the National Museum of Denmark, that form the basis of this research project.

2. The Plunket Watercolours

These consist of a collection of twelve large drawings, each measuring c.67cm by c.100 cm, and numbered I to XII. On the lower margin of each is written: Presented to the Royal Museum of Northern Antiquities of Copenhagen by the Royal Irish Academy. Dublin 11th January 1847. E. Clibborn, Curator of Museum. In general, the items depicted in the watercolours are arranged by type and period. For instance, no. 2 consists mainly of Bronze Age weapons, no. 9 consists exclusively of Bronze Age gold ornaments and no. 10 consists of a mixture of Early Medieval and Viking-age silver objects. The objects are drawn to full scale with great attention to detail and are beautifully coloured.

Aside from their artistic value, the Plunket watercolours are important because they evidence some of what the Royal Irish Academy's collection of Irish antiquities contained in the mid-nineteenth century. There are few registers in existence from this time and little is on record concerning these early finds in the known antiquarian sources. More importantly, there are annotations concerning the find-provenances of some of the artefacts added to some of the drawings. These will enable previously unprovenanced objects in the national collections to be identified and provenanced.

3. The Project

The aim of the project is to publish the Plunket watercolours and to identify as many as possible of the artefacts illustrated in them. The conventional publication, due to appear in 2004, will also contain a summary of Worsaae's life and career as well as a review of the importance of his visit to Ireland within the context of Irish antiquarianism. Many previously unpublished letters relating to his Irish sojourn will form an appendix to the project.

4. Examples

• 1. Watercolour 10 has a faint pencilled annotation in Danish beside a drawing of a silver armring of Viking-age type. The handwriting is that of Worsaae. In translation the annotation reads: 'River Liffey, many of the other silver rings found in the river meadow'. This armring may be identified with certainty as that registered as W.76 in the National Museum of Ireland, where it has no recorded provenance. It may now be regarded as a component of a previously unrecorded silver hoard from Dublin.

• 2. Watercolour 10 features a depiction of a Viking-age silver brooch of bossed penannular type. It is annotated in black ink: 'Dalkey. Co Dublin'. No other record is known to exist of a brooch from Dalkey. The brooch is probably that registered as W.33 in the National Museum of Ireland.

• 3. Watercolour 9 features a depiction of a gold gorget (neck ornament) of Bronze Age date. It is captioned: 'Shannonbridge Portomna'. No gorget is on record from either Shannonbridge or Portumna and it may be that the recognition of this illustration will result in the reprovenancing of one of the gorgets in the National Museum of Ireland's collection.

II. Drawings

There are twelve drawings each of which is available here to view. Accompanying each is a key to the drawing (except Drawing 5) and commentary.

1. Drawing 1

2. Drawing 2

3. Drawing 3

4. Drawing 4

5. Drawing 5

6. Drawing 6

7. Drawing 7

8. Drawing 8

9. Drawing 9

10. Drawing 10

11. Drawing 11

12. Drawing 12

General Caption: Alle disse Stykker fundne ved at grave Jernbanen ved Kilmainham, for ved Dublin. Der synes at have været en almindelig Begravelsesplads den for Nordboerne: Dublin.

This may be translated as: All of these pieces were found in while digging for the railway at Kilmainham, in Dublin. There seems to have been a common burial-ground for the Norsemen here.

III. Bibliography

This bibliography is organized in groups of books, chapters, journal articles, and theses. Within each section, items are sorted alphabetically by author.

1. Armstrong, E. C. R., Guide to the Collection of Irish Antiquities: Catalogue of Irish gold ornaments in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, Stationery Office (1933) .
2. Burgess, C. S., Gerloff, S., The Dirks and Rapiers of Great Britain and Ireland, Munich, Beck (1981) .
3. Dawson Catalogue, , Catalogue of Irish, Roman and British Antiquities in the museum of the late Dean of St. Patrick's, [Dublin], unpublished (1841) .
4. Deevy, M. B., Medieval Ring Brooches in Ireland: A Study of Jewellery, Dress and Society, Bray, Wordwell (1998) .
5. Eogan, E., The Hoards of the Irish Later Bronze Age, Dublin, University College (1983) .
6. Graham-Campbell, J. A., Viking artefacts: a select catalogue, London, British Museum Publications (1980) .
7. Graham-Campbell, J. A., The Viking-Age gold and silver of Scotland, A.D. 850-1100, Edinburgh, National Museums of Scotland (1998) .
8. Harbison, P., The Axes of Early Bronze Age in Ireland, Munich, Beck (1969) .
9. Kilbride-Jones, H., Zoomorphic Penannular Brooches, London, Society of Antiquaries London (1980) .
10. Mahr, A., Christian Art in Ancient Ireland 1, Dublin, Stationery Office of Saorstát Éireann (1932) .
11. Ó Riordáin, B. Waddell, J., The Funerary Bowls and Vases of the Irish Bronze Age, Galway, Galway University Press for the National Museum of Ireland (1993) .
12. Ó Raifeartaigh, T., The Royal Irish Academy - A Bicentennial History 1785-1985, Dublin, The Academy (1985) .
13. Raftery, B., A Catalogue of Irish Iron Age Antiquities, Marburg, [Philipps-Universität Marburg, Vergeschichtliche Seminar] (1983) .
14. Raftery, B., Christian Art in Ancient Ireland 2, Dublin, Stationery Office of Ireland (1941) .
15. Stenberger, M., Die Schatzfunde Gotlands der Wikingerzeit, Lund, Hakan Ohlssons boktryckeri (1947) .
16. Youngs, S., 'The Work of Angels': masterpieces of Celtic metalwork, 6th-9th centuries A.D., London, British Museum Publications (1989) .
17. Wilde, W. R., A descriptive catalogue of the antiquities of stone, earthen, vegetable, and animal materials in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, M. H. Gill (1857) .
18. Wilde, W. R., A descriptive catalogue of the antiquities of animal material and bronze in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, Hodges & Smith (1861) .

1. Bøe, J., , ‘Norse antiquities in Ireland’. In Shetelig, H., Viking Antiquities in Great Britain and Ireland, part 3, Oslo, H. Aschehoug & Co. (1940) .
2. Graham-Campbell, J. A., , ‘The Viking-age silver hoards of Ireland’. In Almqvist, B. Greene, D., Proceedings of the Seventh Viking Congress, Dublin 1973, [London], distributed by the Viking Society for Northern Research 39-74 (1976) .
3. Graham-Campbell, J. A., , ‘Some Viking-age penannular brooches from Scotland and the origins of the 'thistle-brooch'’. In O'Connor, A. Clarke, D. V., From the Stone Age to the 'Forty-Five: studies presented to R. B. K. Stephenson, Edinburgh, J. Donald 310-23 (1983) .
4. Halpin, A., , ‘Irish medieval bronze maceheads’. In Wallace, P. F. Mac Niocaill, G., Keimelia: studies in medieval history and archaeology in memory of Tom Delaney, [Galway], Galway University Press 168-92 (1988) .
5. Raftery, B., , ‘Knobbed spearheads of the Irish iron age’. In Scott, B. G., Studies on early Ireland: essays in honour of M. V. Duignan, [Dublin], [s.n.] , Papers presented at the Association of Young Irish Archaeologists 11th Annual Seminar at Queen's University Belfast, November 28-30 1980 (1982) .
6. Ramsey, G., , ‘Middle Bronze Age metalwork: are artefact studies dead and buried?’. In Waddell, J. Twohig, E. S., Ireland in the Bronze Age: Proceedings of the Dublin Conference April 1995, Dublin, The Stationery Office 49-62 (1995) .
7. Sheehan, J., , ‘Early Viking age silver hoards from Ireland and their Scandinavian elements’. In Clarke, H. B. Ní Mhaonaigh, Máire Ó Floinn, Raghnall, Ireland and Scandinavia in the early Viking Age, Blackrock, Four Courts Press 166-202 (1998) .
8. Woodman, Peter, , ‘Towards a definition of the Irish early Neolithic assemblages’. In Ashton, N. David, A., Stories in Stone, London, Lithic Studies Society 213-18, Lithic Studies Occasional Paper 4 (1994) .

1. Armstrong, E. C. R., , ‘Catalogue of the silver and ecclesiastical antiquities in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy by the late Sir William Wilde, MRIA’. In Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (1914) 32 C, 287-312.
2. Armstrong, E. C. R., , ‘The La Tène Period in Ireland’. In Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries (1923) 53, 1-33.
3. Briggs, C., , ‘Dealing with Antiquities in Nineteenth-Century Dublin’. In Dublin Historical Record (1978) 31, 146-8.
4. Briggs, C., , ‘James Underwood: First Dealer in Irish Antiquities’. In Dublin Historical Record (1979) 33, 25-36.
5. Briggs, C. S. Sheehan, J., , ‘A hoard of dispersed Viking-age armrings from the Liffeyside, Co. Dublin’. In The Antiquaries Journal (1987) 67, 351-52.
6. Cahill, M., , ‘Unspooling the Mystery’. In Archaeology Ireland (2001) 15, 3, 8-16.
7. Coffey, P., , ‘George Victor Du Noyer’. In Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries (1993) 123, 102-20.
8. Coghlan, H. H., , ‘Some Perforated Stone Hammers in the Collections of the National Museum, Dublin’. In Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries (1945) 75, 224-47.
9. Coles, J., , ‘Scottish Middle Bronze Age Metalwork’. In Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1964) 97, 82-156.
10. Coles, J., , ‘Irish Bronze Age Horns’. In Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (1963) 29, 82-156.
11. Coles, J. S. Heal, S. V. E. Orme, B. J., , ‘The use and character of wood in prehistoric Britain and Ireland’. In Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (1978) 44, 1-47.
12. Eogan, G., , ‘The later Bronze Age in Ireland in the light of recent research’. In Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (1964) 30, 268-351.
13. Eogan, G., , ‘Pins of the Late Bronze Age’. In Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries (1974) 104, 74-119.
14. Eogan, G., , ‘Irish Antiquities of the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Early Christian period in the National Museum of Denmark’. In Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (1991) 91 C, 133-76.
15. Graham-Campbell, J. A., , ‘Bossed penannular brooches: a review of recent research’. In Medieval Archaeology (1975) 19, 33-47.
16. Johansen, O., , ‘Bossed penannular brooches: a systematisation and study of their cultural affinities’. In Acta Archaeologia (1973) 44, 63-124.
17. Hencken, H., , ‘Lagore Crannog: an Irish royal residence of the 7th to 10th centuries’. In Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (1950) 53 C, 1-248.
18. Herity, M., , ‘Irish Antiquarian Finds of the Nineteenth Century’. In Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (1969) 99, 21-37.
19. Hodges, H. W. M., , ‘Studies in the Late Bronze Age in Ireland, 2: the typology and distribution of bronze implements’. In Ulster Journal of Archaeology (1956) 19, 29-56.
20. MacWhite, E., , ‘Irish Bronze Age Trumpets’. In Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (1945) 75, 101-106.
21. O'Brien, E., , ‘A reassessment of the 'Great Sepulchral Mound' containing a Viking burial at Donnybrook, Dublin’. In Medieval Archaeology (1992) 36, 170-3.
22. Sheehan, J., , ‘Coiled armrings - an Hiberno-Viking silver armring type’. In Journal of Irish Archaeology (1992) 6, 41-53.
23. Simpson, D. D. A., , ‘The Stone Maceheads of Ireland’. In Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (1988) 118, 27-52.
24. Simpson, D. D. A., , ‘The Stone Maceheads of Ireland, II’. In Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (1988) 119, 113-26.
25. Simpson, D. D. A., , ‘The Stone Battle Axes of Ireland’. In Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (1990) 120, 5-40.
26. Simpson, D. D. A., , ‘Irish Axe Hammers’. In Ulster Journal of Archaeology (1990a) 53, 50-6.
27. Smith, , , ‘Irish Serpentine Latchets’. In Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1895-96) 30, 120-3.

1. Harrison, S. H., Viking Age Shield Bosses in Dublin and the Irish Sea Area MA, University College Cork (1995) Unpublished thesis, Department of Archaeology, UCC.
2. Sheehan, J., Viking Age Silver Armrings from Ireland MA, University College Galway (1984) MA thesis, National University of Ireland Galway.