[Regia-NA] Methers, Cauldrons, and Skillets

[Conall]

Greetings all,
    I am coming out of the email shadows hoping that some of you can help me 
with some research that I am trying to do regarding some early Irish 
cookware and a drinking vessel.

    First, I am trying to find out about something called a "mether" cup. 
It is a four-sided wooden vessel from early Ireland, usually about 8 inches 
tall and about six inches wide, with a wooden handle on all four sides.  The 
name "mether" may originate from the word for "measure"; it may originally 
have been a vessel for measurement.

       I am trying to provenance what the *earliest* date for these objects 
is.  I have pictures of one from Dunhallow in Co. Cork and another in a 
"coffee table book".  Is there any evidence for these being in use during 
the 9th-11th Centuries?  Can anyone out there point me at some better 
references?

    Second, I know from other research that many Scandinavian cauldrons 
during the "Viking Age" were made in sections and riveted together (very 
similar to a "spangenhelm" it seems), as was the much earlier famous 
Gundestrup Cauldron.  I have seen examples of Bronze Age Irish bowls (from 
the Lagore dig by Hencken) that seem to have been made of one piece of 
bronze hammered out.  Can anyone out there refer me to some examples of 
Irish iron cauldrons from the "Viking Age"?

An lastly, this will perhaps seem like a stupid question but please bear 
with me.  I have seen examples of Scandinavian "skillets" that consist of a 
shallow iron disk affixed by a single or double rivet to an iron handle 
about 24 inches or so long.  These appear to have been for cooking 
unleavened flat breads and such.

  My question is what, if anything, did the early Irish use for a 
"skillet"??

    If anyone can refer me to some better sources than I have found thus far 
I would appreciate it.

  Thank you for your time,

   William Russell

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Happiness is more generally and equally diffus'd among Savages than in 
civilized societies. No European who has tasted savage life can afterwards 
bear to live in our societies.
       -Benjamin Franklin, 1770