Digging Up the Hill of Tara

From delusional "British Israelites" looking for the Ark of the Covenant to builders paving the way for the M3 motorway - excavation works at or around the Hill of Tara usually hit the headlines. Not so a new exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin's Kildare Street, showcasing the (rather intrusive) archaeological excavation of the famous "Mound of the Hostages", one of Tara's most central monuments. After all these works took place more than fifty years ago!

Archaeology is a science that takes its time - in 1952 Professor Seán P. Ó Riordáin started digging into the Duma na nGiall, the legendary "Mound of the Hostages". The passage tomb with mythical connotations was originally built just before 3,000 B.C. and in use for burial rituals for more than 1,500 years afterwards. In 1959 the excavation works at Tara ended (and the tomb was restored). It took, however, until 2005 for the final report to emerge and only in 2006 the found artifacts were handed into the care of the National Museum. Now an exhibition entitled "Rites of Passage at Tara" has been added to the permanent displays there, adjacent to the popular "Kingship & Sacrifice" (also dealing with the prehistoric dead).

A "must see"? Yes and no - but certainly a worthwhile addition to the museum.

The main problem with the exhibition is the understatement of it all. Tucked into a corner is a great model of Tara, allowing you a three-dimensional overview. The history of the excavations themselves is presented in photos and text - fascinating for anybody interested in archaeology, less exciting for the casual visitor. Who will more than likely be attracted to the actual finds.

Here the drawback lies - the world-famous golden Tara brooch (exhibited nearby) they ain't. Pottery dominates, with some minor grave offerings like knives and trinkets thrown in.

Maybe the most interesting find to most visitors, which also graces the PR material, will be a stone axe-head. Somehow sidelined in the actual display cabinets, but certainly impressive. This is no ceremonial itty-bitty carving like the one found at Knowth. This is the real McCoy, beautifully carved and polished, yet weighty and large enough to split a few skulls with one easy swing. You can just imagine some pre-Celtic chieftain settling petty arguments by ominously handling his axe.

Will "Rites of Passage at Tara" become a place of pilgrimage in its own right? I seriously doubt it. But it certainly is a worthy addition to the permanent exhibition and already well integrated into the layout of the museum. A classic case of sensible expansion and a good use of a somehow awkward space "in-between". Especially since the exhibition highlighting rites of passage connects physically to other exhibits on the same theme - you enter beside a reconstructed tomb, you exit towards Celtic bog bodies or Egyptian mummies.

Photo © 2003 Bernd Biege licensed to About.com, Inc.