Day 5

After our Dublin scavenger hunt, we met back up as a group at The National Museum of Ireland Archaeology. This was a fascinating museum near Trinity College which featured seven galleries dating back from 7000 B.C. The seven galleries are: Prehistoric Ireland, Or-Ireland's Gold, The Treasury, Kingship and Sacrifice, Viking Ireland, Medieval Ireland, and Ancient Egypt. By far, the most memorable exhibit featured the creepily petrified bog people (I looked for bog people merchandise in the gift shop, but couldn't find any - doesn't anyone other than me want to take home the memory of these withered bodies? I'm thinking: a creepy-bog-people-severed-hand-keychain). All of the exhibits appealed to me and told a piece of Ireland's history (sans Ancient Egypt, obviously). However, I chose to place my focus on the Viking Ireland exhibit.

The Vikings raided Ireland in 795 AD. This signified the end of Ireland's Golden Age. Featured in the exhibit were examples of Viking weaponry, which would have been vastly superior to what was being used by the Irish at this time. Also displayed at the exhibit were the some early Christian artifacts transported by the Vikings from England and used in their burials. However, the piece most pertinent to Political Science was the Viking balance scale. The scale was used by the Vikings to precisely measure the weights of stone pieces and coins which were used as currency for trade with merchants. A documentary featured at the exhibit explained that these were some of the earliest instances of capitalism. The currency was used to purchase goods made by Dublin trade-smiths, such as leathers, woodwork, and metals, as well as imported goods such as amber, silk, and walrus by-products. I understood this as being a tiny moment, one among many, which helped to drive the long progression toward an organized, mostly agreed upon, governmental and political-economic system for Ireland.