Academic literature on the topic 'Excavations (archaeology), ireland'
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Journal articles on the topic "Excavations (archaeology), ireland"
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Woodman, P. C. "Filling in the spaces in Irish prehistory." Antiquity 66, no. 251 (June 1992): 295–314. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00081436.
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In this paper the Professor of Archaeology at University College Cork has undertaken a radical re-evaluation of the traditional paradigms of Irish prehistory, which were formed in the 1940s. He makes full use of the results of recent pipeline excavations and radiocarbon dates to show that early settlement in Ireland need not always be associated with monument or artefact types belonging to narrow chronological horizons.
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Noble, Gordon, and Kenneth Brophy. "Big Enclosures: The Later Neolithic Palisaded Enclosures of Scotland in their Northwestern European Context." European Journal of Archaeology 14, no. 1-2 (2011): 60–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/146195711798369346.
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Palisaded enclosures were huge enclosed spaces with timber boundaries found across Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia in the Neolithic. Five such sites have been identified in Scotland dating to the later Neolithic, four of which have been excavated to varying degrees. These sites form the main focus of this paper, which draws in particular on interim results from the authors' excavations at Forteviot, Perth and Kinross, during 2007–2009. The palisaded enclosures of Scotland are part of a wider British and Irish tradition and there are a number of European parallels, the closest of which lie in southern Scandinavia. The palisaded enclosures in Scotland are tightly clustered geographically and chronologically, constructed in the centuries after 2800 cal BC. This paper explores the function, role, and meaning of palisaded enclosures in Scotland and more generally, drawing not just on the architecture of the monuments, but also the individual posts that were used to create the enclosures. The role of these monuments in reconstituting nature is also considered.
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McClatchie, Meriel, Finbar McCormick, Thomas R. Kerr, and Aidan O’Sullivan. "Early medieval farming and food production: a review of the archaeobotanical evidence from archaeological excavations in Ireland." Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 24, no. 1 (August 8, 2014): 179–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00334-014-0478-7.
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Lash, Ryan. "Enchantments of stone: Confronting other-than-human agency in Irish pilgrimage practices." Journal of Social Archaeology 18, no. 3 (October 2018): 284–305. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1469605318762816.
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In contemporary Ireland, mountains, holy wells, and islands attract people from various geographic and religious backgrounds to participate in annual pilgrimages. Scholars and participants continue to debate the historical links of these events to 19th-century turas, “journey” traditions, early medieval penitential liturgies, and even prehistoric veneration of natural phenomena. Drawing from recent participant observation at Croagh Patrick mountain and excavations on Inishark Island, I analyze how modern and medieval pilgrimage practices generated “enchantments” through movements and embodied encounters with stones that materialize both past human action and other-than-human agency. Rather than products of timeless continuity of experience, such enchantments have varied widely across time. Viewing pilgrimage movements and materials in their taskscape settings highlights the articulation between the embodied affects and political and ideological effects of pilgrims’ engagement with stones in particular historic contexts. Questioning simple narratives of continuity, this study demonstrates how a relational approach can enhance analyses of pilgrimage as scenes of social reproduction, ideological controversy, and political contest.
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O’Donnell, Lorna. "Woodland dynamics and use during the Bronze Age: New evidence from Irish archaeological charcoal." Holocene 27, no. 8 (April 1, 2017): 1078–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959683616683252.
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Swathes of roads and pipelines cut through the Irish landscape during the ‘Celtic Tiger’ years (approximately 1994–2008) leading to an unprecedented number of archaeological excavations and creating a unique opportunity for extensive research of past landscapes on a broad scale. The vast quantities of bulk soil samples suddenly available necessitated the development and adaptation of new methodologies. Despite the huge volumes of these samples, of which charcoal is the most ubiquitous ecofact, to date charcoal analysis has been considerably under-utilised in the study of past Irish woodlands. This research presents one of the largest Bronze Age archaeological charcoal datasets in Europe. It provides new palaeoecological evidence contributing to the understanding of woodland cover transformation on the island of Ireland during the late-Holocene period. The most common taxa identified in the charcoal assemblage compare well with regional pollen diagrams, particularly the use of Quercus and Corylus. With intensifying human activity during the middle Bronze Age, the proportion of Maloideae, a light demanding family rose. This is the first clear evidence of anthropogenic influence during the middle Bronze Age in Ireland derived from archaeological charcoal. The size of the charcoal dataset makes it possible to evaluate woodland cover and resourcing from two perspectives – both archaeological and palaeoecological.
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Ottaway, Patrick. "Viking Graves and Grave-Goods in Ireland. By Stephen H Harrison and Raghnall Ó Floinn. 310mm. Pp xxiii + 783, 426 ills (some col), facsimiles, maps. Medieval Dublin Excavations 1962–81, Ser B, 11, National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, 2014. isbn 9780901777997. €50 (hbk)." Antiquaries Journal 96 (August 11, 2016): 451–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s000358151600041x.
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Arkæologisk Selskab, Jysk. "Anmeldelser 2004." Kuml 53, no. 53 (October 24, 2004): 309–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.7146/kuml.v53i53.97503.
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Nicolai Carlberg og Søren Møller Christensen (red.): Kulturmiljø – mellem forskning og politisk praksis.(Jytte Ringtved)Anders Fischer & Kristian Kristiansen (eds.): The Neolithisation of Denmark. 150 Years of Debate. (T. Douglas Price)Gérard Franceschi, Asger Jorn og Oddgeir Hoftun: Stavkirkene – og det norske middelaldersamfunnet.(Lotte Hedeager)Bo Gregersen og Carsten Selch Jensen (red.): Øm Kloster. Kapitler af et middelalderligt cistercienserabbedis historie. (Stig Bergmann Møller)Ingrid Gustin: Mellan Gåva och marknad. Handel, tillit och materiell kultur under vikingatid. Lund Studies in Medieval Archaeology 34.(Søren M. Sindbæk)hikuin 29. Nordeuropæisk dyrestil 400-1100 e.Kr. (Ulla Lund Hansen)Axel Degn Johansson: Stoksbjerg Vest. Et senpalæolitisk fundkompleks ved Porsmose, Sydsjælland. Fra Bromme- til Ahrensburgkultur i Norden.(Berit V. Eriksen)Rud Kjems: Anders på Hvolris – Arbejderen der blev museumsmand. (Palle Eriksen)Jan Klápštì (red.): The rural house from the migration period to the oldest still standing buildings.(Marie Klemensen)Anne Hedeager Krag (red.): Dragt og magt.(Mytte Fentz)Anne-Christine Larsen (red.): The Vikings in Ireland.(Else Roesdahl)Gordon Malcolm og David Bowsher med Robert Cowie: Middle Saxon London. Excavations at the Royal Opera House(Søren M. Sindbæk)Hans Mikkelsen: Vor Frue Kloster. Et bediktinernonnekloster i Randers.(Hans Krongaard Kristensen)Peter Hambro Mikkelsen & Lars Christian Nørbach: Drengsted. Bebyggelse, jernproduktion og agerbrug i yngre romersk og ældre germansk jernalder.(Lotte Hedeager)Stig Bergmann Møller: Aalborg gråbrødrekloster. Marked, by og kloster.(Hans Mikkelsen)Lars Nørbach (red.): Prehistoric and Medieval Direct Iron Smelting in Scandinavia and Europe. Aspects of Technology and Science.(Jørgen A. Jacobsen)Bodil Petersson: Föreställningar om det förflutna. Arkeologi och rekonstruktion.(Ole Thirup Kastholm Hansen)Else Roesdahl (red.): Bolig og familie i Danmarks middelalder..(Peter Carelli)Henrik Thrane (red.): Diachronic Settlement Studies in the Metal Ages.(Per Ole Rindel)Christopher Tilley: An ethnography of the Neolithic. Early prehistoric societies in southern Scandinavia.(Torsten Madsen)Frauke Witte: Archäologie in Flensburg. Ausgrabungen am Franziskanerkloster.(Hans Krongaard Kristensen)Nicolai Carlberg og Søren Møller Christensen (red.): Kulturmiljø – mellem forskning og politisk praksis.(Jytte Ringtved)Anders Fischer & Kristian Kristiansen (eds.): The Neolithisation of Denmark. 150 Years of Debate. (T. Douglas Price)Gérard Franceschi, Asger Jorn og Oddgeir Hoftun: Stavkirkene – og det norske middelaldersamfunnet.(Lotte Hedeager)Bo Gregersen og Carsten Selch Jensen (red.): Øm Kloster. Kapitler af et middelalderligt cistercienserabbedis historie. (Stig Bergmann Møller)Ingrid Gustin: Mellan Gåva och marknad. Handel, tillit och materiell kultur under vikingatid. Lund Studies in Medieval Archaeology 34.(Søren M. Sindbæk)hikuin 29. Nordeuropæisk dyrestil 400-1100 e.Kr. (Ulla Lund Hansen)Axel Degn Johansson: Stoksbjerg Vest. Et senpalæolitisk fundkompleks ved Porsmose, Sydsjælland. Fra Bromme- til Ahrensburgkultur i Norden.(Berit V. Eriksen)Rud Kjems: Anders på Hvolris – Arbejderen der blev museumsmand. (Palle Eriksen)Jan Klápštì (red.): The rural house from the migration period to the oldest still standing buildings.(Marie Klemensen)Anne Hedeager Krag (red.): Dragt og magt.(Mytte Fentz)Anne-Christine Larsen (red.): The Vikings in Ireland.(Else Roesdahl)Gordon Malcolm og David Bowsher med Robert Cowie:Middle Saxon London. Excavations at the Royal Opera House(Søren M. Sindbæk)Hans Mikkelsen: Vor Frue Kloster. Et bediktinernonnekloster i Randers.(Hans Krongaard Kristensen)Peter Hambro Mikkelsen & Lars Christian Nørbach:Drengsted. Bebyggelse, jernproduktion og agerbrug i yngre romersk og ældre germansk jernalder.(Lotte Hedeager)Stig Bergmann Møller: Aalborg gråbrødrekloster. Marked, by og kloster.(Hans Mikkelsen)Lars Nørbach (red.): Prehistoric and Medieval Direct Iron Smelting in Scandinavia and Europe. Aspects of Technology and Science.(Jørgen A. Jacobsen)Bodil Petersson: Föreställningar om det förflutna. Arkeologi och rekonstruktion.(Ole Thirup Kastholm Hansen)Else Roesdahl (red.): Bolig og familie i Danmarks middelalder..(Peter Carelli)Henrik Thrane (red.): Diachronic Settlement Studies in the Metal Ages.(Per Ole Rindel)Christopher Tilley: An ethnography of the Neolithic. Early prehistoric societies in southern Scandinavia.(Torsten Madsen)Frauke Witte: Archäologie in Flensburg. Ausgrabungen am Franziskanerkloster.(Hans Krongaard Kristensen)
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McNeill, T. E. "Lost infancy: Medieval archaeology in Ireland." Antiquity 76, no. 292 (June 2002): 552–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00090682.
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Medieval archaeology in Ireland has been described twice in the last 30 years as ‘in its infancy’, by Delaney (1977: 46) andby Barry (1987: 1). Neither was strictly correct. Ireland played a full part in the general English interest in medieval castles and churches around 1900, with Champneys, Orpen and Westropp in particular listing and describing them and relating to their historical and European context. In Ulster the medieval period had occupied a central place in archaeological research and excavation, rcmarkable within Europe and unique within the British Isles, from 1950 (Tope 1966).
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Hutchinson, Gillian. "Medieval Boat and Ship Timbers from Dublin. By Sean McGrail. 300mm. Pp.xii+ 178, 34 pls., 137 figs., 30 tables. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy (National Museum of Ireland, Medieval Dublin Excavations 1962–81, Series B, vol.3), 1993. ISBN 1-874045-05-4 (hardback) £25.00; ISBN 1-874045-06-2 (paperback) £15.95." Antiquaries Journal 74 (March 1994): 353–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0003581500024604.
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Quinn, Colin P., Ian Kuijt, Nathan Goodale, and John Ó Néill. "Along the Margins? The Later Bronze Age Seascapes of Western Ireland." European Journal of Archaeology 22, no. 1 (July 9, 2018): 44–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2018.27.
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This article presents the results of multi-scalar investigations into the Later Bronze Age (LBA; 1500–600bc) landscape of Inishark in County Galway, Ireland. The European LBA along the Atlantic coast was characterized by the development of long-distance maritime exchange systems that transformed environmentally marginal seascapes into a corridor of human interaction and movement of goods and people. Archaeological survey, test excavation, and radiocarbon analysis documented the LBA occupation on Inishark. The communities living on Inishark and other small islands on the western Irish coast were on the periphery of both the European continent and of the elite spheres of influence at hillforts in Ireland; yet they were connected to the Atlantic maritime exchange routes. A focus on small coastal islands contributes to a better understanding of LBA socioeconomic systems and the development of social complexity in Bronze Age societies.
Dissertations / Theses on the topic "Excavations (archaeology), ireland"
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O'Donnabhain, Barra. "Immigrants and indigenes : morphological variability and Irish-Viking interactions in the early historic period /." 2001. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3019957.
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Helland, Alex. "English and Irish medieval fortified ecclesiastical structures and the Bishop's Manor in Kilteasheen, Ireland /." 2009. http://minds.wisconsin.edu/handle/1793/38002.
Full textBooks on the topic "Excavations (archaeology), ireland"
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Isabel, Bennett, and Organisation of Irish Archaeologists, eds. Excavations: Summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland. Bray: Wordwell, 1991.
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F, Wallace Patrick, and National Museum of Ireland, eds. Medieval Dublin excavations, 1962-81. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1988.
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Isabel, Bennett, ed. Excavations 1999: Summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland. Bray, Co. Wicklow: Wordwell, 2000.
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Claire, Cotter, and Organisation of Irish Archaeologists, eds. Excavations 1985: Summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland. Dublin: Irish Academic Publications, 1986.
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Isabel, Bennett, ed. Excavations 2005: Summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland. Dublin: Wordwell, 2008.
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Bennett, Isabel. Excavations 2010: Summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland. Dublin, Ireland: Wordwell, 2013.
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Excavations 2007: Summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland. Dublin: Wordwell, 2010.
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Bennett, Isabel. Excavations 2008: Summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland. Dublin: Wordwell, 2011.
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Bennett, Isabel. Excavations 2009: Summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland. Dublin: Wordwell, 2012.
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Edwards, Nancy. The archaeology of early medieval Ireland. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990.
Find full textBook chapters on the topic "Excavations (archaeology), ireland"
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Wallace, Patrick F. "The archaeology of Ireland’s viking-age towns." In A New History Of Ireland, 814–41. Oxford University PressOxford, 2005. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198217374.003.0022.
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Abstract Summaries of the excavations undertaken at Waterford, Wexford, and Limerick, as well as the publication of the first half-dozen or so volumes of reports of the National Museum of Ireland’s excavations in Dublin, have already appeared. An interim report appeared on one of the Wexford sites as well as a valuable synthesis for Waterford, and relevant documentary references have been assembled in the case of Cork. Most recently, a general comparison of the physical attributes that survive in the archaeological record—location, layout, defences, and building types—shows that the later Viking-age towns shared many traits, that there was such a thing as the Hiberno-Norse town, and that the Dublin excavations, impressive though they are, need no longer be stud- ied in isolation.
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Cummings, Vicki. "‘Very real shared traditions’? Thinking about Similarity and Difference in the Construction and Use of Clyde Cairns in the Western Scottish Neolithic." In The Neolithic of Mainland Scotland. Edinburgh University Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9780748685721.003.0003.
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In this paper, evidence for Neolithic activity in the western mainland of Scotland is explored, with a particular emphasis on megalithic monumentality and the archaeology of Argyll. This is a much under-studied area, and as the author notes, has as much if not more in common with the Neolithic or Ireland than of eastern Scotland. The paper draws on the author’s extensive fieldwork in the area including work on Bargrennan tombs and excavations at Blasthill. Monumentality, material culture and other aspects of Neolithic life in the western fringes of Scotland are explored in this important contribution to Neolithic studies in the Irish Sea zone.
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Bradley, Richard, Colin Haselgrove, Marc Vander Linden, and Leo Webley. "The Research in Retrospect." In The Later Prehistory of North-West Europe. Oxford University Press, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199659777.003.0013.
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In some respects this project was the successor to the research published in 2007 as The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland, but there are significant contrasts between the books. The results of development-led archaeology have played a central role in both, but they have influenced their contents in different ways. When the earlier book was published it was among the first to draw extensively on fieldwork undertaken as part of the planning process. To some extent the course of that research was unpredictable, for it was not clear how far the results of the new excavations and surveys would diverge from what was already known. All that was certain from the outset was that a large amount of new information had been collected and that very little of it had entered the public domain. There was a disparity between the conventional archaeological literature—journal articles, monographs, and regional syntheses—and the great majority of reports, which were prepared for planning authorities and commercial clients. Those documents were difficult to trace and sometimes difficult to access. What the project showed was that such sources were vital to any understanding of the past. It also demonstrated that at least some of the orthodoxies on which public policy depended were inconsistent with the results of work that had already taken place. The same problem affected teaching and research, for they rarely took account of the new sources of information. In retrospect, the earlier project may have influenced later research in a way that had not been foreseen. It did not, and could not, offer a completely new version of British and Irish prehistory, as it was written at a time when many excavations were still in progress—the fieldwork associated with road-building in Ireland is a good example. In any case the dissemination of information in the archaeology of these islands was so inefficient that particularly in England it was difficult to find out what had been done. Tracing the results was an even harder task, and it was not completely successful.
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Bradley, Richard, Colin Haselgrove, Marc Vander Linden, and Leo Webley. "Total Landscapes (250 BC to the Early Roman Period)." In The Later Prehistory of North-West Europe. Oxford University Press, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199659777.003.0012.
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By the late first century BC, most of north-west Europe had been incorporated into the Roman Empire or had fallen under its shadow. This has profoundly affected how the late Iron Age is perceived and studied. Being able to view peoples and places through written sources and coin inscriptions means that the archaeology of the period is often approached very differently to those discussed in previous chapters, with greater emphasis on historical events and causality. The chronology encourages this. Late La Tène sites on the Continent can now be dated to within a generation or so, anchored by a growing number of dendrochronological fixed points (Kaenel 2006; Durost and Lambert 2007), although similar precision is rarely attainable in northern Europe or in Ireland and northern Britain, which rely largely on radiocarbon dating. The prevailing narrative for the late Iron Age in central Europe, Gaul, and southern Britain—essentially the areas that later became part of the Roman empire—is one of increasing hierarchy, social complexity, political centralization, urbanization, and economic development. These changes are seen as bound up with increasing contact with the Mediterranean world, leading up to the Roman conquests of the first centuries BC and AD. This is contrasted with the situation in northern Britain, Ireland, and ‘Germanic’ northern Europe, which are assumed to have been more tradition-bound and resistant to change. As we shall see, recent excavations do not necessarily contradict this narrative, but they do suggest that the picture is far more complex. Not all developments can be fitted into the story of growing social complexity, whilst to assume that Roman expansion was the most important factor at work at this period is to see events through the eyes of Classical writers (Bradley 2007). It is important to understand late Iron Age societies in their own terms, rather than just as precursors to provincial Roman societies. Many influential approaches to the period—from core–periphery models to the current emphasis on the agency of client rulers (Creighton 2000)—suffer from teleology as a result of having been constructed with half an eye to explaining the pattern of Roman expansion.
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Edwards, Nancy. "The archaeology of early medieval Ireland, c.400–1169: settlement and economy." In A New History Of Ireland, 235–300. Oxford University PressOxford, 2005. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198217374.003.0008.
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Abstract It is still possible to trace great numbers of sites, both secular and ecclesiastical, in the landscape, some with substantial upstanding remains. For example, it is estimated that as many as 45,000 ringforts are still identifiable. Only a tiny fraction of the sites known has been sampled by excavation, but where conditions of survival are favourable, notably those caused by waterlogging, it has proved possible to learn an increasing amount about the way in which the early medieval Irish lived, their houses, and a range of other structures, such as Souter rains and water-mills.
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Sayer, Faye, and Duncan Sayer. "Bones Without Barriers: The Social Impact of Digging the Dead." In Archaeologists and the Dead. Oxford University Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198753537.003.0014.
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The excavation of human remains is one of the most contentious issues facing global archaeologies today. However, while there are numerous discussions of the ethics and politics of displaying the dead in museums, and many academic studies addressing the repatriation and reburial of human remains, there has been little consideration of the practice of digging up human remains itself (but see Kirk and Start 1999; Williams and Williams 2007). This chapter will investigate the impact of digging the dead within a specific community in Oakington, Cambridgeshire, during the excavation of an early Anglo-Saxon cemetery in 2010 and 2011. The analysis of impact was enabled by applying a double-stranded methodology of collecting quantitative and qualitative social data within a public archaeology project. This aimed to explore the complexity of local people’s response to the excavation of ancient skeletal material. These results will provide a starting point to discuss the wider argument about screening excavation projects (see also Foreword this volume; Pearson and Jeffs this volume). It is argued that those barriers, rather than displaying ‘sensitivity’ to local people’s concerns, impede the educational and scientific values of excavation to local communities, and fosters alienation and misunderstandings between archaeologists and the public. The professionalization of British archaeology has taken place within Protestant modernity, and we will argue that it is this context which drives the desire to screen off human remains from within the industry, rather than the need to protect the public or the dead from one another. In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, it is a condition of the Ministry of Justice licence to remove human remains that modern excavation is screened from public gaze. For many projects, particularly those carried out in an urban or public context, this condition manifests as the erection of barriers to block lines of sight. However, this has not always been standard practice. Archaeological projects have often involved a public engagement element, even before public archaeology was formally recognized. Large excavation projects, such as Whithorn, a Scottish project carried out in the late 1980s, included a viewing platform so members of the visiting public could see the excavation, including burials, from the edge of the trench (Rick Peterson, pers. comm.).
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Cooney, Gabriel. "Icons of Antiquity: Remaking Megalithic Monuments in Ireland." In The Lives of Prehistoric Monuments in Iron Age, Roman, and Medieval Europe. Oxford University Press, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198724605.003.0011.
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Megalithic tombs dating to the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (4000–2000 cal. BC) are a very distinctive aspect of the Irish landscape (Jones 2007; Scarre 2007). They are an important monumental aspect of this period and since the 1990s our understanding of this period has been complemented by an extensive record of settlement and related activity that has been revealed through development-led archaeology (e.g. Smyth 2011). A focus of antiquarian and archaeological interest since at least the nineteenth century, the basis of modern approaches to megalithic tombs includes the systematic Megalithic Survey of Ireland that was initiated by Ruaidhrí de Valera in the 1950s, under the auspices of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland (Ó Nualláin 1989; Cody 2002 are the latest volumes published) and the excavation of key sites, for example the passage tombs of Newgrange (O’Kelly 1982; O’Kelly et al. 1983) and Knowth (Eogan 1984; 1986; Eogan and Roche 1997; Eogan and Cleary forthcoming) in the Boyne Valley and Carrowmore in Co. Sligo (Burenhult 1980; 1984; 2001). Current work includes the excavation of individual sites, work on the sources used in tomb construction, reviews of particular megalithic tomb types, landscape and regional studies, archaeoastronomy and overviews for a wide readership. The known number of megalithic tombs on the island now approaches 1,600 and the majority of these can be categorized as falling into one of four tomb types whose names encapsulate key architectural features of each tradition, hence the terms portal tombs, court tombs, passage tombs and wedge tombs (Evans 1966, 7–15; Valera and Ó Nualláin 1972, xiii). Unsurprisingly, much of the focus of archaeological research has been on the role of these monuments for the people and societies who constructed them. Issues such as the date of construction of different tomb types (Cooney et al. 2011) and the relationship between them have been central to key debates about the Neolithic, informing such major topics as the date and character of the Mesolithic to Neolithic transition, the changing character of society over the course of the Neolithic, mortuary rites and traditions, and the links between Ireland, Britain, and north-west Europe at this time (Cooney 2000; Bradley 2007; Waddell 2010).
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Cooney, Gabriel. "Pathways for the Dead in the Middle and Late Bronze Age in Ireland." In Cremation and the Archaeology of Death. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198798118.003.0015.
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Because of its diversity and visibility the mortuary record of the Early Bronze Age (2400–1500 cal. BC) has long dominated interpretation of that period in Ireland (e.g. Cooney and Grogan 1994; Waddell 1998; Brindley 2007) and burials from Bronze Age cemeteries represent over 70 per cent of the burial record from Irish prehistory (Murphy et al. 2010). The explosion of development-funded excavation in the period from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s provided a settlement balance to that picture and also evidence for additional cemeteries (e.g. Grogan et al. 2007; McQuade et al. 2009). This suggests that Early Bronze Age cemeteries served as local foci for communities. From the evidence of the numbers interred over a number of generations the dead buried in the cemeteries represent what Mary Helms (1998) has usefully called the ‘distinguished dead’ from communities, not the entire population. Treatment of the dead within the cemeteries is complex and there are clear indications of change over time. Interpretative models had associated inhumation with males and a broader shift over time from inhumation to cremation relying on a view of cremation and inhumation as opposed, separate mortuary rites (e.g. Mount 1997). However, the evidence indicates a much more complex set of pathways in the postmortem treatment of the dead in which cremation and inhumation were employed as complementary mortuary rites with an increasing focus on cremation over time (e.g. Cahill and Sikora 2011). This new picture has important implications for the increasing significance of the the pyre and the transformation of the dead (Mizoguchi 1993: 232). In looking at the period after 1500 cal. BC we see continuity in aspects of mortuary practice and use of sites, but in other ways mortuary practice changed dramatically. Cremation is now the dominant mortuary rite. Burial in the Middle and Late Bronze Age (down to 600 cal. BC) has been widely discussed as less visible, and hence much less important as an aspect of social behaviour (e.g. Cooney and Grogan 1994: 144). But it is more useful to think in terms of shifting emphases in mortuary practice. In a recent discussion Lynch and O’Donnell (2007: 107) have described this period as being characterized by ‘an incredibly intricate and variable physical treatment of the dead’.
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Bradley, Richard. "From Centre to Circumference." In The Idea of Order. Oxford University Press, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199608096.003.0018.
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This book began with one site in Ireland and closes with another. The Loughcrew Hills in County Meath include at least twenty-five megalithic tombs, located on three summits along a prominent ridge. Many of them were investigated in the nineteenth century when Neolithic artefacts were found there. More recent work has been less extensive but features an analysis of the carved decoration inside these monuments, for the Loughcrew complex is one of the main concentrations of megalithic art in Europe (Shee Twohig 1981: 205–20). Early excavation in the westernmost group of monuments had an unexpected result, for Cairn H contained a remarkable collection of artefacts which must have been deposited three thousand years after the tomb was built. They included bronze and iron rings, glass beads, and over four thousand bone flakes (Conwell 1873). A new excavation took place in 1943, but its results only added to the confusion and, perhaps for that reason, they were not published for more than six decades (Raftery 2009). They seemed to show that the artefacts, which obviously date from the Iron Age, were directly associated with the construction of the monument; today it seems more likely that they were a secondary deposit. When they were introduced to the site, the tomb may have been rebuilt. One reason why the bone flakes attracted so much attention is that a small number of them—about a hundred and fifty in all— were decorated in the same style as Iron Age metalwork. Most of the patterns are curvilinear and show the special emphasis on circles and arcs that characterize ‘Celtic’ art (Raftery 1984: 251–63). This discovery illustrates a problem in Irish archaeology. A few stone tombs in other regions were decorated in a style that has been identified as either Neolithic or Iron Age (Shee Twohig 1981: 235–6), but in the case of the flakes from Loughcrew there is no such ambiguity. Not only do the incised patterns compare closely with those on metalwork, the decorated artefacts were associated with beads and rings dating to the end of the first millennium BC. Even so, two problems remain.
Reports on the topic "Excavations (archaeology), ireland"
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Hunter, Fraser, and Martin Carruthers. Iron Age Scotland. Society for Antiquaries of Scotland, September 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.9750/scarf.09.2012.193.
Full textAbstract:
The main recommendations of the panel report can be summarised under five key headings: Building blocks: The ultimate aim should be to build rich, detailed and testable narratives situated within a European context, and addressing phenomena from the longue durée to the short-term over international to local scales. Chronological control is essential to this and effective dating strategies are required to enable generation-level analysis. The ‘serendipity factor’ of archaeological work must be enhanced by recognising and getting the most out of information-rich sites as they appear. o There is a pressing need to revisit the archives of excavated sites to extract more information from existing resources, notably through dating programmes targeted at regional sequences – the Western Isles Atlantic roundhouse sequence is an obvious target. o Many areas still lack anything beyond the baldest of settlement sequences, with little understanding of the relations between key site types. There is a need to get at least basic sequences from many more areas, either from sustained regional programmes or targeted sampling exercises. o Much of the methodologically innovative work and new insights have come from long-running research excavations. Such large-scale research projects are an important element in developing new approaches to the Iron Age. Daily life and practice: There remains great potential to improve the understanding of people’s lives in the Iron Age through fresh approaches to, and integration of, existing and newly-excavated data. o House use. Rigorous analysis and innovative approaches, including experimental archaeology, should be employed to get the most out of the understanding of daily life through the strengths of the Scottish record, such as deposits within buildings, organic preservation and waterlogging. o Material culture. Artefact studies have the potential to be far more integral to understandings of Iron Age societies, both from the rich assemblages of the Atlantic area and less-rich lowland finds. Key areas of concern are basic studies of material groups (including the function of everyday items such as stone and bone tools, and the nature of craft processes – iron, copper alloy, bone/antler and shale offer particularly good evidence). Other key topics are: the role of ‘art’ and other forms of decoration and comparative approaches to assemblages to obtain synthetic views of the uses of material culture. o Field to feast. Subsistence practices are a core area of research essential to understanding past society, but different strands of evidence need to be more fully integrated, with a ‘field to feast’ approach, from production to consumption. The working of agricultural systems is poorly understood, from agricultural processes to cooking practices and cuisine: integrated work between different specialisms would assist greatly. There is a need for conceptual as well as practical perspectives – e.g. how were wild resources conceived? o Ritual practice. There has been valuable work in identifying depositional practices, such as deposition of animals or querns, which are thought to relate to house-based ritual practices, but there is great potential for further pattern-spotting, synthesis and interpretation. Iron Age Scotland: ScARF Panel Report v Landscapes and regions: Concepts of ‘region’ or ‘province’, and how they changed over time, need to be critically explored, because they are contentious, poorly defined and highly variable. What did Iron Age people see as their geographical horizons, and how did this change? Attempts to understand the Iron Age landscape require improved, integrated survey methodologies, as existing approaches are inevitably partial. Aspects of the landscape’s physical form and cover should be investigated more fully, in terms of vegetation (known only in outline over most of the country) and sea level change in key areas such as the firths of Moray and Forth. Landscapes beyond settlement merit further work, e.g. the use of the landscape for deposition of objects or people, and what this tells us of contemporary perceptions and beliefs. Concepts of inherited landscapes (how Iron Age communities saw and used this longlived land) and socal resilience to issues such as climate change should be explored more fully. Reconstructing Iron Age societies. The changing structure of society over space and time in this period remains poorly understood. Researchers should interrogate the data for better and more explicitly-expressed understandings of social structures and relations between people. The wider context: Researchers need to engage with the big questions of change on a European level (and beyond). Relationships with neighbouring areas (e.g. England, Ireland) and analogies from other areas (e.g. Scandinavia and the Low Countries) can help inform Scottish studies. Key big topics are: o The nature and effect of the introduction of iron. o The social processes lying behind evidence for movement and contact. o Parallels and differences in social processes and developments. o The changing nature of houses and households over this period, including the role of ‘substantial houses’, from crannogs to brochs, the development and role of complex architecture, and the shift away from roundhouses. o The chronology, nature and meaning of hillforts and other enclosed settlements. o Relationships with the Roman world