Thursday, 17 April 2014

Crotals

I am most taken with this word that I came across in this week's reading. May I inform you that crotals were found in the 1820s in an Irish bog and that there were 48 of them to be precise!

These are to what I refer


They are late Bronze age artefacts and can either be pear shaped or round. Within each one is a small pebble or piece of clay and when they are shaken they make a noise. Their true purpose is unclear, but various theories suggest that they may have been suspended from a dancer's belt or were a representation of a bull's scrotum and used in fertility rites. We shall probably never know.

Arilx
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2 comments:

  1. Hearthwife19 April 2014 at 11:10

    BH finds crotals when detecting, they take all interesting finds to their group's meetings where archaeologists attend and give info/advice, sometimes taking things away for a closer look. The ones he finds are generally fairly new, only 300-400 years old, lol.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aril20 April 2014 at 20:37

    I wonder if they're the ones that were attached to the animal harnesses? I would love to do metal detecting one day!
    Arilx

    ReplyDelete

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