Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and
Speaker 1: this is the Artifact, a short form series from Stuff
Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on particular objects, ideas,
Speaker 1: and moments in time. As we discussed in our recent
Speaker 1: episodes on brain and head theft, many ancient peoples found
Speaker 1: supernatural significance in the human head. Myths and legends told
Speaker 1: of heads that still retained life and could perhaps be
Speaker 1: used as instruments of communication with realms beyond one. Such
Speaker 1: people were the ancient Celts, an early Indo European people
Speaker 1: who spread over much of Europe between the second millennium
Speaker 1: BC and the first century BC. Their ideas concerning the
Speaker 1: human head were long interpreted as a quote cult of
Speaker 1: the head, and tales of Celtic head hunting were long
Speaker 1: noted by historians, but, as Ian Armatt points out in
Speaker 1: the book Head Hunting and the Body and Iron Age Europe,
Speaker 1: modern archaeologists have pushed back against this interpretation. Still, the
Speaker 1: Celts may have valued the head as the seat of
Speaker 1: human emotion and power. Many a stone head can be
Speaker 1: found in the British Isles, heads that show little sign
Speaker 1: of having ever been attached to a stone body, though
Speaker 1: some are thought to have been made from mounting on
Speaker 1: wooden poles. As historian Dr Brian Lacy told BBC News,
Speaker 1: in the ancient Celts carved and preserved heads in various ways,
Speaker 1: and many have been unearthed, though many more imitation heads
Speaker 1: from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries also exist. According to Lacey,
Speaker 1: true Celtic stone heads are rare and Ireland has probably
Speaker 1: produced no more than a hundred of them, but one head,
Speaker 1: the so called Corlic Head, found in County Covon, stands
Speaker 1: out as a masterpiece. This Iron Age stone artifact is
Speaker 1: especially notable because it has not one face but three,
Speaker 1: seemingly related to the sacred properties of the number three
Speaker 1: in Celtic cosmology, visible in the triskelion and other Celtic motifs.
Speaker 1: Is it the head of a god, a watcher, a monster,
Speaker 1: a protector. Is it meant to represent something about the
Speaker 1: human soul? It remains a mystery. The Corlak Head, along
Speaker 1: with other stone heads, is currently in the National Museum
Speaker 1: of Ireland in Dublin. Here, it's six eyes continue to
Speaker 1: stare out across the centuries tune into additional installments of
Speaker 1: the artifact each week, hosted by either Joe or myself.
Speaker 1: As always, you can email us at contact at stuff
Speaker 1: to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your
Speaker 1: Mind is a production of I Heart Radio. For more
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