tiompan
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Re: Time Team R.I.P. ?
Mar 04, 2010, 20:42
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Branwen wrote: I'd like to comment on the Ballaculish goddess but its got nothing to do with Time Team so I'll save it for another thread it it comes up again.
I think this thread has wobbled away from TT ,do tell .
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baza
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Ballachulish figurine
Mar 04, 2010, 22:30
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tiompan wrote: Branwen wrote: I'd like to comment on the Ballaculish goddess but its got nothing to do with Time Team so I'll save it for another thread it it comes up again.
I think this thread has wobbled away from TT ,do tell .
Yes Branwen, fire away.
I've changed the heading so that all know what's being mentioned. Always a good policy when going off at a tangent.
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baza
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Edited Mar 06, 2010, 13:29
Prehistoric clothing
Mar 04, 2010, 22:44
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StoneGloves wrote: There was fabric excavated from the Danish barrows...
The National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen has on show the Bronze Age clothes of a woman buried in an oak coffin and the clothing of an Iron Age woman murdered and deposited in a bog.
You can see them in two short videos (with English commentary):
http://www.natmus.dk/sw59875.asp Bronze Age
http://www.natmus.dk/sw59880.asp Iron Age
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StoneGloves
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Ballachulish figurine
Mar 05, 2010, 08:01
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There is a theory the carved figure was intended for the prow of a boat
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moss
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Re: Ballachulish figurine
Mar 05, 2010, 10:03
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There is a google book you can read (with pages missing unfortunately) that gives some idea of how the wooden figurines might have been used. Myths & Symbols in Pagan Europe by Hilda R.E.Davidson, which I found yesterday thanks to Faerygirl ;)
http://tinyurl.com/ye7hfzl
But the Ballachulish wooden figure is as Branwen knows found in Ross's book, would have apparently been found in a small open sided wickerwork shrine, though I have read that you could have a central large wooden effigy with all the smaller gods/children of the gods grouped round. The stone equivalent is the Glenlyon small group maybe Tiompan?. Ireland has the Ralaghan figure, and the Sweet track figurine (the god dolly) was found also, which maybe bisexual if I remember, and of course there was a four post probable shrine found at Uley, which has evidence of long use from the time of the longbarrow there to a roman temple.
There is a celtic poem about the Cailleach in Ross's book, which she attributes to the wooden figurines, but I think time has moved on in that interpretation, as male figures are found as well. Ross says that the shrines would have had an annual ritual rethatching?
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StoneGloves
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Re: Ballachulish figurine
Mar 05, 2010, 11:50
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Thanks for that link. Have a look at an image posted on this site page ( http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/2280/white_brow.html ). The one with the brick houses - at the bottom right, just above the close button. There's a continuity of purpose, perhaps.
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tiompan
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Re: Ballachulish figurine
Mar 05, 2010, 17:10
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moss wrote: There is a google book you can read (with pages missing unfortunately) that gives some idea of how the wooden figurines might have been used. Myths & Symbols in Pagan Europe by Hilda R.E.Davidson, which I found yesterday thanks to Faerygirl ;)
http://tinyurl.com/ye7hfzl
But the Ballachulish wooden figure is as Branwen knows found in Ross's book, would have apparently been found in a small open sided wickerwork shrine, though I have read that you could have a central large wooden effigy with all the smaller gods/children of the gods grouped round. The stone equivalent is the Glenlyon small group maybe Tiompan?. Ireland has the Ralaghan figure, and the Sweet track figurine (the god dolly) was found also, which maybe bisexual if I remember, and of course there was a four post probable shrine found at Uley, which has evidence of long use from the time of the longbarrow there to a roman temple.
There is a celtic poem about the Cailleach in Ross's book, which she attributes to the wooden figurines, but I think time has moved on in that interpretation, as male figures are found as well. Ross says that the shrines would have had an annual ritual rethatching?
From the stone figures to Ballachullish is only about 24 miles as the crow flies .There was some remains what may have been a wicker hut at Ballachillish so another connection with the family group .Another group of similar figurines were found at Roos Carr .
http://www.hullcc.gov.uk/museumcollections/collections/storydetail.php?irn=484&master=449
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Branwen
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Edited Mar 05, 2010, 21:22
Re: Ballachulish figurine
Mar 05, 2010, 20:19
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moss wrote: the Ballachulish wooden figure is as Branwen knows found in Ross's book, would have apparently been found in a small open sided wickerwork shrine This is a pdf of the account of the finding of the Ballacullish goddess.
http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/PSAS_2002/pdf/vol_015/15_158_178.pdf
I wondered if she was a representation of a malignant spirit, witch, or goddess.
It has nothing to do with how warped and twisted and creepy looking she became when dried out, or the shadowy display case she is in at the NMS in Edinburgh, which is also deliciously creepy. I've seen pictures of her as she was when found before before the wood warped.
It was more how she was found. Laid on her face, covered in wicker. Sounds similar to certain bog bodies and the roman description of the triple death the celts gave to the worst of criminals (presumably so even their spirit could not be reborn or reach the afterlife). She had a detached phallus held on her stomach, that was more obvious before she dried out. The Roos Carr figures had detachable phalluses. It never added up to the same thing as the Cailleach and her family in Glen Lyon for me, somehow. They seem more a celebration of the turning seasons, family, life cycles.
The Roos Carr figures are always decribed as being with a boat, but the assembled collection reminds me of saami symbols and artwork I've seen which relate to sleds, as well.
http://www.assemblage.group.shef.ac.uk/3/3melroo.htm
Then again, I may have a warped way of looking at things. I've got that book you mention as a partial on Googlebooks if you need me to look anything up, BTW.
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StoneGloves
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Re: Ballachulish figurine
Mar 06, 2010, 07:49
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No. it doesn't look like a boat - more like a stand, or plinth. They are strange totems.
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Gwass
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Re: Ballachulish figurine
Mar 06, 2010, 13:44
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Think I read the Sweet Track figure was possibly a hermaphrodite! There was a hollow in the genital area which someone suggested could have been for a removable phallus!
Also read something in Miranda Green's book The Quest For The Shaman that transgendered people or animals were linked to some ritual beliefs being able to change from one thing to another or humans taking on spirits of animals and transforming into them.
Also beleive that the carving of wooden figures lasted well into the iron age
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