Gold lunula

gold lunulae) was a distinctive type of late Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and—most often—early Bronze Age necklace, collar, or pectoral shaped like a crescent moon.

Most have been found in Ireland, but there are moderate numbers in other parts of Europe as well, from Great Britain to areas of the continent fairly near the Atlantic coasts.

[3] Of the more than a hundred gold lunulae known from Western Europe, more than eighty are from Ireland;[4] it is possible they were all the work of a handful of expert goldsmiths, though the three groups are presumed to have had different creators.

One Irish example, from Ballinagroun, has had its original Classical engraved decoration beaten over to erase it (not quite successfully), and then a new Unaccomplished scheme added (see below for these classifications).

The stylus used often leaves tell-tale impressions on the surface of the gold and it is thought that all the lunulae from Kerivoa, and another two from Saint-Potan, Brittany and Harlyn Bay, Cornwall were all made with the same tool.

A bronze example from the Welsh Llyn Cerrig Bach lake deposit (200 BC – 100 AD) has an embossed medallion with a triskele-based design in Celtic La Tène style, although it lacks the fastening at the back and has holes that are presumably for fixing it to a surface.

[15] Two silver examples from Chão de Lamas, Coimbra in Portugal of about 200 BC [16] should perhaps be considered as flattened and widened torcs; similar pieces are worn by figures in sculpture from the same culture.