Archaeology
A Neolithic pot (c.3000 BC) found in Scotch Street highlights the strong evidence for county Armagh being home to Ireland's first farmers. This contrasts with the earlier traces for Mesolithic hunters and gatherers, mainly confined to the discovery of flints tools around the shores of Lough Neagh.
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In the south of the county are the remains of many impressive megalithic tombs dating to the Neolithic period with grave goods on display including those from the site of Clontygora. Among the most common tools of this period are polished stone axes used for cutting down trees.
The theme of burials continues in the Bronze Age where pots were buried with the dead sometimes containing their cremated bone. Metal axes had replaced stone ones, with other bronze weapons including swords and spears. In the succeeding Iron Age, surviving objects are rarer but include evidence for horses with their bridle bits.
With the coming of Christianity, as well as objects produced for church use, many items of jewellery were manufactured, one of the most characteristic being brooches and various forms of 'pins'. Both had a practical function for securing items of clothing.
Polished Stone Axe
The polished stone axe is one of the most well know objects from the Neolithic period (c.4500-2500BC) when it was necessary to devise a tool to clear the forest of trees so that crops could be planted and animals enclosed within fields.
There has always been a great antiquarian interest in coll...
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Strange bronze
Is it a hand grenade?One of the most unusual objects on display is often mistaken for a hand grenade. It is in fact not a weapon but possibly a musical percussion instrument.Known as a 'crotal', most of these objects were all found in one hoard from Dowris in Co Offaly (dating to around 800BC). T...
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Potty about Pots
The Museum has a very good collection of prehistoric pots. The ability to 'fire' clay and make a pot was a skill first learned in the Neolithic period (about 4000BC). These were made from coils of clay rather than using a potter's wheel. As well as using pots for cooking, they were of...
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