Information Text in Space 4

Ritual deposition of artefacts and the association with wet places is also a feature of the Iron Age. The symbolism of the human head is more frequently represented by stone carvings and other special places are marked by carved blocks of stone covered by decoration in the La Tène art style; the decoration that occurs also on many of the metal artefacts. The oak seems to have carried special meaning for Iron Age people and single trees or groves of oak may have provided a focus for spiritual druidic beliefs. 

The oak tree and the representations of the decorated stone from Turoe, County Galway and the abstract human figure from Boa Island, County Fermanagh, draw together the natural and fabricated elements of spirituality and belief in the Iron Age. 

The sculpted decorations on the rock are representations found on a stone from Turoe, Co. Galway, Mullaghmast, Co. Kildare and Killycluggin, Co. Cavan.  The abstract human figure was discovered on an island in the lower Lough Erne, near Boa Island in the North West of Ireland.  The so-called Lustymore Idol has been likened to a type of explicit female fertility figure peculiar to Ireland and of uncertain date (no evidence of legs or hips were found).  An oak tree also depicts this period.