Iron spearhead, 800-675 BC

A history of Ireland in 100 objects:The past is unpredictable.

This iron spearhead is of a kind familiar enough from the Ireland of 500 AD. Andy Halpin of the National Museum of Ireland says that it “wouldn’t be out of place in the early medieval period”. The problem is that recent carbon dating of the remains of its wooden shaft suggests that it may be more than 1,000 years older. If this is so, it explodes a myth about how the Iron Age came to Ireland.

The long-held belief was that the use of iron in Ireland was a result of the invasion of the Celts. These people are associated with the development of ironworking in Europe north of the Alps and with a culture named after the Austrian town of Hallstatt. Greek writers refer to the existence of ‘Keltoi’ in central Europe in the sixth century BC. The Hallstatt people seem to have been responsible for the westwards spread of ironworking. It seemed logical that the appearance of iron in Ireland must be evidence of the arrival of these Celts.

No one doubts that the influence of these central Europeans is evident in Irish artefacts from the sixth century BC onwards. But the process was not one in which the Bronze Age suddenly ended and the Iron Age began. It was slow and gradual: bronze and iron objects overlap in time. And this remarkable spearhead, found in the River Inny at Lackan in Co Westmeath, suggests that it may have been even more gradual than everyone has assumed.

Iron corrodes and is very hard to date. So far, iron objects in Ireland have been pretty crude and relatively late, dating no earlier than 200 BC. The Lackan spearhead is certainly not crude: it is elegant and resonant. “When you think of the Iron Age and the legends of Cúchulainn,” says Halpin, “this is the type of weapon that people think of them carrying.”

It is almost freakishly well preserved: it would be unusual to find a weapon from the Middle Ages in such good condition. It is not an obvious import. And it seems to be very, very old. The radiocarbon tests date the ash shaft somewhere between 811 and 673 BC. Halpin urges caution, but there is no reason why this date has to be regarded as wrong.

It’s the combination of this early date and its superb quality that makes this spear so startling. “We are beginning,” says Halpin, “to get other evidence for ironworking technology at an earlier date than we thought. The idea that ironworking was happening here in maybe 600 or 700 BC wouldn’t really be disputed any more. But the idea that they were producing something as nice as this at that period suggests not only that iron was being worked here but also that it was being worked by very competent smiths much earlier than we think.”

Those smiths were not invading “Celts”. They were part of the same culture that was producing the dazzling gold and bronze objects we have already seen.

Thanks to Andy Halpin

Where to see itNot yet on display