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Insular ornamental metalwork AD 300 - 500: 'Military Style' inspired art in Ireland and Britain

Gavin, Fiona
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Volume II
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Identifiers
http://hdl.handle.net/10379/4827
 https://doi.org/10.13025/16716
Publication Date
2014-09-30
Keywords
Insular art, Late iron age, Celtic, Ornamental metalwork, Personal ornaments, Roman Britain, Dress fasteners, Roman Ireland, Silver, Late Roman, College of Arts, Social Sciences & Celtic Studies, School of Geography and Archaeology
Type
Thesis
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Abstract
The first dedicated examination, analysis and contextualisation of a corpus of Insular metalwork characterised by highly-accomplished, reserved fine-line ornament. Comprising mostly silver and copper-alloy dress-fasteners, such as select disc-headed pins, hand-pins, proto hand-pins, zoomorphic penannular brooches and miscellaneous mounts, their shared attributes of exquisite artisanship, remarkable finesse, crisp lines, miniature fields of ornamentation and the use of precious metal sets them apart from contemporary and later Insular ornamental metalwork. It is argued that technically, stylistically and artistically, these objects constitute a distinct corpus and represent a largely unrecognised artistic oeuvre, that represents an Insular rendition of provincial late Roman art of the fourth and early fifth centuries AD, and can be designated the Insular Military style. Microscopic and scientific analysis confirms the distinctness of the corpus and, when married to existing typologies, confirms the tightness of its chronological range.
Funder
This research was facilitated by a scholarship from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland
cbn
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University of Galway Theses (PhD Theses)