ABSTRACT
As White Marshall and Walsh (2005) discuss in the account of the scallop shells excavated from the shrine and reliquary cists at the early medieval monastic site on the island of Illaunloughan, scallop shell motifs are found as ceremonial, symbolic imagery for centuries before the coming of Christianity and transcended religions, but the scallop formed an impressive feature of the entrance
Figure 22.1 Pierced scallop shell, Sc2
to the tomb of Christ at Jerusalem and figured later in many schematic renderings of that influential building. There is, then, a remote possibility that it may have inspired the placing of scallop shells in and on the shrine in Ireland. These are perforated in the centre of the shell with a single hole, as though they had been suspended either around the shrine or worn as ornament (White Marshall and Walsh 2005, illus 54a and 89-96). Their calibrated radiocarbon dates are given as AD 6651048, which is earlier than the pilgrimage tokens associated with the apostle James, to which group the Hirsel shells belong.
