Studies in Irish craniology (Aran Islands, Co. Galway) : a paper read before the Royal Irish Academy, December 12, 1892 / by A.C. Haddon.
- Alfred Cort Haddon
- Date:
- 1893
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Studies in Irish craniology (Aran Islands, Co. Galway) : a paper read before the Royal Irish Academy, December 12, 1892 / by A.C. Haddon. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![VI. Archeology. An ethnographical study of a people would be incomplete without a reference to its archaeology. In the present instance the amount of material is so great as to preclude an adequate treatment. The anti- quities of the Aran Islands have never been systematically described and published ; and yet nowhere else in the British Islands are there so many and so varied remains associated within a like limited area. The islands may not inaptly he described as an unique museum of antiquities. 1. Survivals.—It is worth while recording some of the sur- vivals from olden time which characterize these islands. Certain details in the costume of the people are ancient, hut none more so than the persistence of the raw-hide sandals or brogues. The curraghs are similar, in general character, to those common along the west coast; the simple oars are pivotted on thole pins. - Stone anchors are still used; more frequently in the Middle and South islands. Querns are not used at present, hut it is not long since they were employed. 2. Christian Antiquities.—Although of supreme interest and value in other branches of knowledge, the Christian antiquities have but little bearing on ethnological inquiries, as the religion, art, and largely also, the architecture, are alien ; and a colony of monks and nuns does not affect the population from a racial point of view. 3. Pagan Antiquities.—The most impressive of the pre-Christian antiquities are the great duns or forts for which these islands are famous. At the present time there are four forts in a good state of preservation in Aranmore : Dun .^ngus. Dun Eoganacht, Dun Eochla, and Dubh Cathair, the “ black fort.” Hardiman says (p. 76):—“ At the village of Eochoill, about half-a-mile south-east of Dun Eochla, there are strongly marked traces of another dun or fort. Its original name [like those of Dun Eoganacht and Dun Eochla] is also lost; but the people relate that it was the strongest fort on the island. . . . About half-a-mile south-west of the village of Kilronan are the remains of another dun, but entirely in ruins.” In Inishmaan there are Dun Conchohhair (Dun Connor), and Mothair Dun. Hardiman states that “ Cathair nam-han—civitas mulierum—on the South Island is now entirely in ruins. There is not at this day extant any tradition concerning it, or even its name.” No one who has written on the Aran Islands has failed to refer](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22473178_0073.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
