Bronze Age Gold work 1800bc

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Bronze Age Gold work 1800bc.

Gold was MINED and EXPORTED in and from Ireland during the Bronze Age. It is also thought that Irish Mined Gold was used by the Egyptian's in their Gold work for King Tut's tomb, etc. ( the Egyptian's used Cocoa leaves, IMPORTED from S. America, as part of their EMBALMING compound). Also REM. the Egyptians used the LUNAR calendar, which was also used in Ireland during the NEOLITHIC period. Even then it was a small WORLD.

Gold LUNULÉ / CRESCENTIC COLLARS were produced as ornaments and worn not by the women of the time but the men. Crescentic Collars / Lunulé ( ½ Moon ), were made by CUTTING the basic ½ Moon shape from a flat sheet of Gold. This was then BEATEN / PLANISHED to remove any indentations and to give it its slightly concave appearance. The " CLASP'S " at the top were twisted and BEATEN into shape, and the DECORATION, INCISED / CUT into its face. The Decoration consists of incised lines with tiny triangles forming a closed rectangular design, ( on the widest piece of the CRESCENT shape, and above this there is a series of TRIANGLE'S with HATCHED LINE'S, - cris crossing lines e.g. / //\\\\, but overlapping ), within them. Each row of TRIANGLE'S face each other, alternating, and continue on up towards the CLASPS.

The decoration on the GOLD DISCS / BUTTONS 1800 bc. shows us that these objects were developed to a very high degree and includes all of the techniques we still use today. Gold DISCS were made in a similar way to the Lunulaé, i.e. cut out of a flat sheet of Gold and then beaten in to their concave shape . The decoration though is quiet different in that it is RAISED. REPOUSSÉ / HAMMERED DECORATION is used throughout. You can see the decoration for your self i.e. Cross shape in centre, the two holes punched in the centre, triangles in the quadrants, concentric circles, rope decoration between the circles etc. The IMPORTANT point is , that all of these were HAMMERED from the back of the piece, thereby RAISING them from the SURFACE. The design had to be drawn on what would be the back of the object to create the RAISED DECORATION on the FRONT / TOP.