| Title: |
The Tal-y-llyn plaques and the nocturnal voyage of the sun
|
| Issue: |
Reflections on the Past: Essays in Honour of Frances Lynch |
| Series: |
Cambrian Archaeological Association Monographs
|
| Page Start/End: |
337 - 354 |
| Downloads: |
|
Reflections_on_the_Past_16_Waddell_337-354.pdf (4 MB)
:
|
Download
|
|
| Licence Type: |
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International Licence
|
| DOI |
|
| Publication Type: |
MonographSeries
|
| Abstract: |
The Tal-y-llyn hoard was found in 1963 on the western slope of Nant Cader (Merioneth). It comprised a shield boss and two crescent-shaped mounts, a second shield boss, four openwork circular mounts, a lock-plate of Roman type, and a pair of small trapezoidal-shaped plaques. Of thin sheet brass, these last are more or less identical, each decorated with a pair of opposed human heads joined by a common neck or pole and each head framed by either a pair of curving tendrils or a pair of inward-turning bird’s heads (Fig. 1). Comment to date has mainly focused on questions of chronology and on stylistic parallels, although Vincent Megaw (1970, 157) has suggested that impaled severed heads are represented and this might well have been an appropriate decorative motif on a shield as a visual reminder of the fate in store for any opponent. Other messages may be encoded here, however, and the plaques may speak to us about the Celtic otherworld and solar myth. They may even contain an allusion to one of the great mysteries of the ancient world: where did the sun go at night? |
| Year of Publication: |
2012
|
| Subjects / Periods: |
|
Tal-y-llyn plaques
|
|
nocturnal voyage of the sun
|
|
| Source: |
ADS Archive
(ADS Archive)
|
| Relations: |
|
| Created Date: |
31 Mar 2022 |
