Some Random Archaeology Notes

Horizontal Mills in Ireland

2010-01-06T05:19:00.001-08:00

HORIZONTAL MILLS
Horizontal mills exploit water power for various tasks. Today we are still familiar with similar methods of harnessing energy using water power as waterwheels are still in use.
Generally speaking, a horizontal mill has a 'horizontal' wheel which water is channelled on to via a system of races controlled by a sluice gate. The wheel turns an axle which is attached to a grinding stone or a gear mecchanism of some sort.
Various writers at the end of the Middle Ages describe and illustrate the machinery found in a horizontal mill.
These include Ramelli's 1588 Les Diverse ed Artificioso Machine and Georgius Agricola's De Re Metallica (from 1556). A diagram of a relatively modern mill can be viewed here.

The terminology is also known from medieval sources in Italy as outlined here.

The extensive excavation of an early medieval settlement at Raystown, Co. Meath produced a complex of mill streams and mills.

As can be seen in this image, the base of a mill contains the undercroft with the horizontal wheel and some sort of pivot to keep the axle vertical. The superstructure has normally rotted away long ago and is no longer visible. The wheel has a series of paddles or vanes attached that are hit by the water which enters the undercroft via a flume and drives the wheel around.

Vertical watermills are also known, where the wheel is set upright and is around driven by water hitting the paddles at the bottom (known as undershot) or top (called overshot). At Nendrum, in County Down, a mill was excavated where the water was retained in a mill pond at high tide. This type is known as a tidal mill.

Milling terms in early Irish texts are also known from various sources in Ireland and Scotland and are summarised here: Mac Eoin, G. (1981) The early Irish vocabulary of mills and milling, in Studies on Early Ireland, 13-19. An diagram from Mac Eoin's paper is shown below.

Linear Earthworks in Ireland

2010-01-06T05:18:00.001-08:00

Linear Earthworks are found in Ireland that largely date to the Iron Age.

They tend by visible as earth banks with an accompanying ditch or as a pair of ditches running for great distances across the countryside.

Such linear earthworks are generally only well preserved for short stretches and the best known examples are:
Doon of Drumsna, Co. Roscommon, the Dorsey, Co. Armagh, Black Pig’s Dyke in Counties. Armagh, Monaghan, Cavan and Leitrim; Worm’s Ditch – another name for Black Pig’s Dyke; the Dane’s Cast in Co. Armagh and Co. Down and An Claidh Dubh which survives in various sections over a very large area of Cork and into Limerick. There is also an earthwork called An Claidh Ruadh in Co Kerry and Co Limerick.

Their purpose and function are unclear. They may have indicated some sort of territorial boundaries, acted as
obstacles to cattle rustling or some other use that is not clear today. Broadly speaking they all date to the Iron Age.

Excavations at the Doon of Drumsna in Co. Roscommon showed that it dates to 400-100 BC.

The complex around the Dorsey, Co. Armagh and the Black Pigs Dyke and Worms Ditch all appear to be part of the same earthwork. Excavations have repeatedly produced Iron Age dates mainly falling between 150 and 90 BC.

The Dane’s Cast in Co. Down has never been investigated and it is unclear whether it is Iron Age or possibly medieval as it is somewhat similar to the late medieval Pale Ditch around the English enclave at Dublin.

Investigations of An Claidh Dubh also suggest that it dates to before 100 AD.

For more click here.

Viking expansion into Ireland and beyond

2010-01-06T04:45:00.000-08:00

Viking Expansions into Ireland and beyond

Forget the old story about vikings carousing the seas looting and pillaging.
In the centuries before the vikings began to expand across the Atlantic, there were 'early medieval emporia' in place around the Irish coast that appear to have been the main contact points for traders bringing goods into Ireland (and Scotland). Whether this was because of a perceieved taboo over dealing with foreigners (a way to both keep out disease and protect your own position by ensuring only you get to meet them).
A probable example was found on Dunnyneill Island, County Down and another example is a site like Dalkey Island.
Finds include exotic objects like pottery imported from the area of the former Roman Empire like E-ware and glass.
From the eighth century AD onwards, houses and objects typical of Norway and other parts of Scandinavia begin to appear in the Northern and Western Isles of Scotland and down into the Irish Sea area, at sites like
Underhoull in Shetland and Hamar also on Shetland.
Excavations south of Dublin at Cherrywood found objects that suggest Norse settlement near Loughlinstown which actually means 'the town of the Lochlainn' - Lochlainn is a word used by the Irish to refer to the Norse. Some of the structural remains suggested that, in an early phase, a longhouse had been built on the site.The large enclosure in which the site was built was much earlier in date and had been used for burials in the 6th-7th century AD. It was then abandoned but apparently re-used in the 9th century AD when the first of several phases of structures were built. The longhouse (see the various structures shown on this plan) is dated by its position within the sequence of occupation at the site.
The earliest identified phase was the enclosed cemetery in the sixth/seventh century AD. Structure 4 dated to 680-890 AD and Pit (F535) was dated to the late ninth century AD or slightly later, based on a fragment of a whale bone plaque which was present. Structure 1, the possible longhouse, dated to before 1020-1190 AD. A kiln, dated by burnt oats to 1020-1190 AD was followed by two further structures, Structures 2 and 3, probably dating to before 1020-1230.
Many of the finds do not necessarily imply anything about the occupant's identities as they would be typically found on an Irish or Norse site of the same date. The whale bone plaque is typical of finds associated with Norse woman, such as this one from Orkney. A fragment of a similar object was recovered from the Norse graves found in Kilmainham near Dublin city centre.
One of the structures at Cherrywood was similar to buildings erected by the Norse in the urban centres of Ireland around the same date. The finds, though, are equally typical of contemporary rural Irish sites.
For more about Cherrywood click here .
A similar structure was found at Llanbedrgoch, Anglesey in Wales showing that, in this period, the Norse maintained contact with the scattered Norse communities around the Irish Sea and beyond.

Another find from Cherrywood, a silver ingot, while unprovenanced, represents one of the reasons why the Norse are important in Ireland’s links to the outside world – the silver trade - one of the possible reasons that the Scandinavians continued to spread around Europe re-establishing trade routes from the Mediterranean up into Northern Europe. Eventually they also began to explore the seas to the west.

The Vinland Sagas
Two short Icelandic Sagas discuss the settlement of Greenland the first voyages to the New World:
Saga of the Greenlanders (Grænlendinga saga).
Eirik the Red’s Saga (Eiríks saga rauða)
Both sagas refer to events 970-1030 A.D., and both were composed much later, 1220-1280 A.D.
The sagas were written independently and record oral history – unlike Njal’s Saga, there was little if any literary reworking, reshaping or editing.
(Njal’s Saga dates from the 13th century and describes the progress of a series of blood feuds. Its author is believed to have lived in southeast Iceland and the events occur between 960 and 1020).

Both sagas contain many of the same details, though the elements are recast into a different sequence or placed into a different context.
Fanciful and legendary elements in the sagas caused them to be rejected by historians until Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine located the remains of Viking settlements at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland in 1960.
Artifacts from excavations there proved that Norsemen had reached Canada c. 1000 A.D.
Both sagas deal with other events as well, especially with the settlement of Greenland and with the conflict between the Heathen and Christian religions.
The settlement on Vinland was short-lived, lasting only a few years. Conflicts with the natives (Skraelings) probably hastened its demise.
The settlements on Greenland lasted from 985 to 1350 (Western Settlement) and to c. 1480 (Eastern Settlement). The cause of abandonment is unclear and has been discussed by various authors including Jared Diamond in Collapse.
The Greenland settlement was not entirely self-sufficient. Marginal land was used for raising sheep during the medieval warm climate which meant that cold snaps and periodic shift in temperature threatened the available grazing and size of flocks.They had also become Christianised (this is Hvalsey church) and some of their cultural practices, defined by their religious observance and Christian morals, were expensive and difficult to maintain in such an environment.
The real attraction of Greenland was the hunting, especially for arctic specialities walrus (ivory), polar bear, gyrfalcons etc., which were prized luxury items on the continent.
Some trade took place with the natives, although the Greenlanders were never able to establish the same relationship they had with the Sami, for example.
Helge Ingstad (1899-2001) unearthed the ruins of an ancient Norse village near L’Anse aux Meadows on the north coast of Newfoundland, conclusively proving that the Vikings has established a settlement in North America 1000 years previously.

A.D. 990, Leif Eriksson, son of Erik the Red, exploring to the west, finds and names several new areas:
Slabrock Land-Baffin Island
Forest Land-Labrador and Newfoundland
Wineland-Northern Maine/New Brunswick.
Came into contact with "wild groups" of people.
His brother, Thorvald, was killed by natives and buried near the Bay of Fundy.
At L’Anse Aux Meadows, around 1000 AD, 8 sod wall houses were occupied by the Norse.

There are many theories as to the fate of the Greenland and American Vikings.

Navan Fort

2010-01-06T04:43:00.001-08:00

Navan Fort, Co. Armagh
Navan Fort is one of a complex of monuments located to the west of Armagh city. The main mound and enclosure are open to visitors.
This area features in mythology such as the Táin Bó Cuailgne (Cattle Raid of Cooley) and other tales involving Cú Chulainn. In this tales the site is referred to as Eamhain Macha. This had indicated that the site had significance in the early medieval period but its prehistoric importance was unproven.
Believed to be indicated on Ptolemy’s Map (possibly based on 2nd century BC sources) as ‘Isamnion’ which is an earlier form of ‘Eamhain’ (from which it is derived by syncopation – with syllables being lost: I(s)AM(ni)ON becomes IAMON, or Eamhain).

Modern intensive research has indicated that a number of sites are present in the area including Haughey’s Fort, a Late Bronze Age hillfort. A number of sections were excavated across the lines of the ramparts by Prof. Jim Mallory of Queen's University Belfast (see various papers in the journal Emania).
Only the ditches survived as no traces of banks were recorded. The ditch was waterlogged allowing for the survival of wooden finds and other organic material. Traces of three concentric ditches have been recorded, although it is not clear if each completed a full circuit.
Investigation of the interior produced evidence of various pits and postholes suggesting there were structures within the innermost ditch.
Finds from the interior include bronze rings, a gold stud and a fragment of the handle of a decorated bronze vessel.There was also a stone with rock art from pit in the interior.
Other sites in the Navan complex include the King’s Stables, an artificial pool of similar date to Haughey's Fort.
At Tamlaght, at the edge of an area of swamp, a hoard of an Irish Late Bronze Age sword and two central European sheet bronze vessels was found.
Navan Fort itself was excavated by Dudley Waterman 1963-72, later by Jim Mallory and Chris Lynn
The overall diameter of the main enclosure is 286 m and a number of internal sites are visible: Ringditch (Site A) and Mound (Site B). Geophysics indicated a 30 m diameter double circle (between Sites A and B), known as Site C.
The morphology of the enclosure is unusual in that the bank is on the outside of the ditch. This is typical of other sites of similar date (Iron Age) and status (remembered as 'royal' sites in the 7th and 8th century AD).
Jim Mallory carried out excavations on the site in the late 1990s and and found an oak that dated to 95 BC.

Site A
Excavation indicated a complex history (see here for plans etc).
Basic Phasing:
(Phase A) – a series of structures with concentric slot trenches (diameters 16.6 m, 18.8 m and 20.3 m), postholes survive in the inner slot. No evidence of entrance. Associated finds include coarse pottery, charcoal suggested a date of 4th century BC to 1st century AD.
(Phase B) - again structures with concentric slot trenches, with a 2 m wide gap. Entrance to the east, large central posthole – slots and posthole cut outer slot of Phase A structure but not the inner slots – part of the same building as the inner slots or a later feature?
Two extended inhumation burials outside the Phase B structure, one in a nailed coffin and are no doubt later in date.

A 5.5 m wide and 2 m deep ditch was opened across site A, enclosing an area 37 m in diameter, with some traces of an external bank. A terminal of a bronze brooch of 9th/10th century AD was recovered from 0.90 m above the base of the ditch.

Site C
This was subsequently investigated by Chris Lynn in 2001.

Site B
Phase 1: scatters of pottery, flint, three polished stone axe fragments.
Phase 2: episode of ploughing
Phase 3: three subdivisions (Phase 3i; 3ii; 3iii).
3i: circular ditch, 5 m wide and 1 m deep, enclosing an area 45 m in diameter (cobbled causeway to the east). Large ring of posts, 4 m apart, 4-5 m inside the line of the ditch. Available dates are 1600-1200 BC for the posts and 900-550 BC for the ditch.
Phase 3i: circular ditch, 5 m wide and 1 m deep, enclosing an area 45 m in diameter (cobbled causeway to the east). Large ring of posts, 4 m apart, 4-5 m inside the line of the ditch. Available dates are 1600-1200 BC for the posts and 900-550 BC for the ditch.Phase 3: three subdivisions (Phase 3i; 3ii; 3iii).
Phase 3ii: complex sequence of timber structures.
Phase 3iii: last set of ring slots, date 200-95 BC.
Finds from Phase 3 include sherds of coarse ware, shale armlets, glass beads, a bronze bar toggle, a fragment of a winged chape, part of a socketed bronze sickle, a tiny socketed bronze axe and a bronze pin with a spiral-ribbed head; clay mould fragments, iron objects, ring-headed pin, and a Barbary Ape skull (ring slot C2., dated to 390-20 BC).
Animal bone: twice as much pig as cattle, little sheep or goat.
Phase 4: A 40 metre circular structure was erected (the central post was dated to 95-94 BC).
Phase 5: A mound of stones was erected over the 40 m structure.

Navan Fort has broad parallels with sites like Knockaulin (Dun Ailinne) which was excavated by Bernard Wailes (see here). Also features at Tara and Rathcroghan.

Angles, Saxons, Normans ...

2010-01-06T03:56:00.000-08:00

Angles, Saxons, Normans …

Britain from Rome to the Normans
Just prior to the Visigoth sack of Rome in 410, Roman troops were withdrawn from England (408).
Angles, Saxons, and Jutes then invaded the British Isles.
This was an age of many kings, but no king of England.
Sometimes a given king would have great power over other kingdoms—such as Aethelberht, King of Kent.
Seven major Kingdoms emerge (often referred to as the Heptarchy).

These non-Roman 'barbarians' – Saxons, Angles, and Jutes – are depicted as invading Britain by sea in the fifth century in the Passion of St Edmund.
Gildas writing in the 6th century (see De Excidio Britanniae), described the collapse of Roman power and the arrival of mercenaries in the 5th century.
Bede wrote a history of 8th-century Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum):
‘Those who came over were of three of the more powerful peoples of Germany: the Saxons, the Angles and the Jutes’
Thus Jutes, Angles, Saxons and Frisians arrived in the fifth century, with Anglo-Saxon kingdoms emerging in the seventh century.

The Undley Bracteate is a 5th century find from Undley Common, Suffolk.
It is the earliest known inscription in Anglo-Frisian ‘Futhorc’ (as opposed to ‘Futhark’).
The image is Contantine the Great with Romulus and Remus suckled by the wolf.
Futhorc, like Anglo-Saxon runes and Germanic ‘Elder’ runes and ‘Younger’ runes were generally replaced on Christianisation.

The Angles came from Angeln (according to Bede their whole tribe came)Saxons from Niedersachsen
Jutes from Jutland
Also smaller groups of:
Frisians (their name survives in placenames like Fresham, Freston, Friston)
Flemings (as in placenames like Flemby, Flempton)
Swabians (apparently their name survives in the placename Swaffham)
Franks (whose name survives in placenames like Frankton, Frankley)

Angles, Saxons, Jutes etc...
These groups may be coeval with the Ingvaeones, as described in Tacitus's Germania, (AD98), a West Germanic cultural group living in the Jutland, Holstein, Frisia and the Danish islands.
The postulated common group of closely related dialects of the Ingvaeones is called Ingvaeonic or North Sea Germanic.
Major issues
Origins of ‘the English’: debate and discussion – several theories tend to dominate.
Was there massive invasion & migration?
Or, a takeover by small powerful groups?
Or, a slow transformation as people abandon ‘Roman’ ways, and adopt Anglo-Saxon customs?

The building shown below is a typical Anglo-Saxon ‘grubenhaus’
Contact and Migration
Finds of silver sceattas of the porcupine-standard series attributed to mints in Frisia
The sceats here are 7th century (right and below) and 8th century (below right)
Continuity ...
But, also much archaeological evidence for continuity of British ways such as building styles
Cowdery’s Down, Hants
Highdown, Sussex
Highdown in use as a cemetery by [pagan] Saxons, including a mixture of inhumations and cremations placed in urns
At the same time a Romano-British villa at nearby Northbrook, less than a mile away, was still in use by native Christians.
Anglo-Saxon architecture
Earliest surviving architecture is 7th century.
In the north of England, churches are narrow with square ended chancels.
In the south, churches had apsidal ends separated from the nave by a triple arch opening, for example at Reculver.
Anglo-Saxon architecture
Apsidal church from Brixworth (Northamptonshire)
Arch similar to Reculver at entrance to the apsidal end

Anglo-Saxon architecture
The most complete example of the northern type of church is at Escomb (Durham).
Old Minster, Winchester
Constructed in 648 for King Cenwalh of Wessex and Saint Birinus, diocesan cathedral by 660.
Saint Swithun buried outside it in 862.
New Minster built next to it (901), Saint Æthelwold of Winchester followed by his successor, Saint Alphege, almost completely rebuilt the minster on a vast scale during their monastic reforms of the 970s.
Old Minster demolished in 1093.
ANGLO-SAXON HEPTARCHY
Major kingdoms:
Northumbria
Mercia
East Anglia
Essex
Kent
Wessex
Sussex
Minor kingdoms:
Hwicce
Magonsaete
Kingdom of Lindsey
Middle Anglia
ANGLO-SAXON HEPTARCHY
Major kingdoms:
Northumbria
Mercia
East Anglia
Essex
Kent
Wessex
Sussex
Minor kingdoms:
Hwicce
Magonsaete
Kingdom of Lindsey
Middle Anglia
Laws of Aethelberht
Laws of Aethelberht
Sutton Hoo
Two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries of the 6th century and early 7th century, one of which contained an undisturbed ship burial.
Use of the site culminated at a time when the ruler (Raedwald) of East Anglia held senior power among the English people, and played a dynamic (if ambiguous) part in the establishment of Christian rulership in England.
The ship-burial probably dates from the early 7th century and was excavated in 1939.

Sutton Hoo

Anglo-Saxon Art:Fuller Brooch
Late 9th century brooch, found in Normandy.
11.4 cm disc of hammered sheet silver inlaid with black niello.
The centre is decorated with the five senses.
In the middle is Sight
Taste (top left)
Smell (top right)
Touch (bottom right)
Hearing (bottom left)
The outer border consists of humans, bird, animal and plant motifs.
Unusually it does not represent divinity.
Anglo-Saxon Art: Manuscripts
Illuminated Anglo-Saxon manuscripts survive, such as the Benedictional of St. Æthelwold and Leofric Missal drawing on Hiberno-Saxon art, and, Carolingian and Byzantine art for style and iconography.
Combines northern ornamental traditions with Mediterranean figural traditions.
Anglo-Saxon Art: Manuscripts
Dates between 963 and 984. Contains a Latin inscription which describes how it was made:
A bishop, the great Æthelwold, whom the Lord had made patron of Winchester, ordered a certain monk subject to him to write the present book . . . He commanded also to be made in this book many frames well adorned and filled with various figures decorated with many beautiful colours and with gold. This book the Boanerges aforesaid caused to be indicted for himself . . . Let all who look upon this book pray always that after the term of the flesh I may abide in heaven Û Godeman the scribe, as a suppliant, earnestly asks this…

West Stow
Hamlet of West Stow, Suffolk
Occupied during the 5th–7th centuries
5 acres excavated – 1960s & 1970s
7 larger house = family halls? c.12m long; hearth; S. side door
60 Sunken-featured buildings (grubenhauser)
West Stow: finds
Yeavering, Northumbria
Anglo-Saxon villa and royal palace – earliest known (Bede: Ad Gefrin)
Identified 1949 aerial photography
Excavated 1950s & 1960s by Brian Hope Taylor
Great enclosure: circular entrance works – a corral for animals?
Archaeological evidence for fire – all buildings burnt to the ground (in AD633: King Edwin killed; massacres in Northumbria).

Yeavering, Northumbria
Bronze Age burial mound with large upright pole: Focus for pagan Anglo-Saxon burials? Building aid?
The Great Hall: 7th century. Massive timbers, communal centre: Feasting, music, singing, royal ceremonies
Area ruled but not peopled by Anglo-Saxons?
Theatre: cuneus
Unique in A-S England
Triangular stepped structure w/ stage
Performance, assembly?

Alfred the Great (871-899)
King of Wessex who wielded power over all of so-called ‘Heptarchy’ (see language map)
Defeats newest arrivals (Danes)
Issued a Code of Laws for all the realm
Began the English Navy
Commissioned the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (often taken as a measure of the stability of his reign)

From Alfred to William, 899-1066
Alfred’s successors were not great rulers—Ethelred the Redeless (stupid), for example—and the Vikings under King Cnut actually assumed control of the realm.
Cnut’s successor had no heirs and created a question of who would become king
3 candidates: Harold Hardrada, Harold Godwinson of Wessex, William, Duke of Normandy
William wins Battle of Hastings, October 1066
Feudalism
Social contract between ‘lords’ and ‘vassals’
Theoretically it is reciprocal (see diagram)
In practise in had centralising tendencies
Became the dominant political system in Europe
Becomes synonymous with the Normans
What did it replace??
Viking Towns
York, Birka, Hedeby, Dublin
Based on trade
Chattels not real estate
Dublin

1000 AD
Dublin, 1170
William I—King of England (1066-1087)
Introduced Norman Feudalism into England—emphasized power of King (Salisbury Oath)
Domesday Survey
Much central authority compared to earlier governmental arrangements in England

Great Council created out of Witan
Curia Regis established
But who were these ‘Normans’??
Bayeux Tapestry, c. 1073-1088
Willliam and Harold
Battle
William’s Feast
Normans?
Normandy is approximately the same region as the old church province of Rouen
Was sometimes called Brittania Nova and western Flanders.
No natural frontiers and was previously merely an administrative unit.
Viking settlers begun arriving in the 880s, divided between a small colony in Upper (or eastern) Normandy and a larger one in Lower (or western) Normandy.

Rollo
In 911 AD Charles III of France gave Normandy to the Viking leader Rollo who became a Christian. Vikings helped adopt the French language and organized a strong state in Normandy.

Rollo’s grave, Rouen
Rollo
Passed title to his son in 927 before his death.

Normandy
From the 10th century the Norse settled and adopted the language and culture of the French majority.
After a generation or two, the Normans were generally indistinguishable from their French neighbours.
In Normandy, they adopted the growing feudal doctrines of the rest of northern France.
The old French aristocracy could trace their families back to Carolingian times.
The Normans knights rended to remain poor and land-hungry.
By 1066, Normandy had been exporting fighting horsemen for more than a generation.
Prior to 1066 and then crusades knighthood before the time of the Crusades held little social status.

Mottes
Illustrated on the Bayeux Tapestry
Mottes
Illustrated on the Bayeux Tapestry
Mottes
Illustrated on the Bayeux Tapestry
Mottes
Bayeux Tapestry showing the motte at Hastings being built.
Architecture and the early Normans
There was a resurgence in the development of distinct architectural styles under Charlemagne.
Palace Chapel of Charlemagne, Aachen, 792-805
Monasteries
Designs for the monasteries had already been drawn up under order of Charlemagne
Developed a role as cultural/learning centers
St. Gall
Abbey at Cluny, begun 910
French monastery, Benedictine monks
Largest, most powerful monastery, 10th-12th c.
Early Christian vs. Romanesque
This is the difference in effect of a barrel vault (on the right) and the pre-existing style of roof.
Cluny
Three main phases from 910 onwards (coinciding with the emerging Norman state).
The greatest monastic Romanesque church, Cluny III (1088-1121), did not survive the French Revolution but has been reconstructed in drawings
Double-aisled church almost 137 m long, with 15 small chapels in transepts and ambulatory
Its design influenced Romanesque and Gothic churches in Burgundy and beyond, often coinciding with the spread of liturgical practices under Norman influence
Cluny III
3rd Abbey Church at Cluny
Largest church in the Christian world
Vertical emphasis
3rd Abbey Church at Cluny, 1049
Largest church in the Christian world
Like Roman basilica but more elaborate
Established ‘Romanesque’ style.
3rd Abbey Church at Cluny, 1049
Vertical emphasis was possible as the churches had very thick walls
The vault was constructed as a series of arches with the wight carried by the large pillars.
St. Sernin, c. 1080
France led the way in the development of Romanesque.
Typical Romanesque Church Plans
St. Etienne, c. 1067-1135
Romanesque
The term “Romanesque” itself was first used in the 19th century. The word Romanesque originally meant "in the Roman manner.“
Use of the Roman round arch, adoption of the major forms of antique Roman vaulting (contained, strong, weighty and somber style)
Most Romanesque churches retained the basic plan of the Early Christian basilica: a long, three-aisled nave intercepted by a transept and terminating in a semicircular apse crowned by a conch, or half-dome
European movement in architecture (10-12th centuries), especially in Italy, France, England and Germany

St. Etienne, Romanesque Facade
Plain
Divided into three sections
Squat
Massive

Tower of London, c. 1078-1097
Most famous Romanesque building in Britain?
Tower of London, c. 1078-1097
The interior features all shown Romanesque influence:
Round-headed windows
Round thick pillars
Barrel-vault
St. Etienne, Romanesque Facade
Plain
Divided into three sections
Squat
Massive

Tower of London, c. 1078-1097
Sculpture as Church Decoration
La Madeleine, Vezelay, France
c. 1120-1132
Tympanum
Narthex

Manuscript paintings as inspiration for sculpture
La Madeleine, capitals
Romanesque Painting-Illuminated Manuscripts

17th Century and Industrial Revolution

2010-01-06T03:19:00.000-08:00

Seventeenth Century and Industrial Revolution
Seventeenth century Ireland
Bartletts map from 1602.
Ireland enters the 17th century in a state of war.
This is to set the tone for much of the century.

The Rise of Europe & Imperialism con’t
Until 18th century, Europe lagged behind Asia and parts of Africa in economic development.
2 groups of factors set stage for modern economic growth and socio-political change
300 years between 14th and 17th centuries
Renaissance and Enlightenment (eventually leading to industrialisation)
European geographical expansionism

The Rise of Europe & Imperialism
Geographical Expansionism
seen as the mercantile phase of Imperialism
Enormous profits from seafaring and conquests
exploitation of technological backward non-European people (ideological justified as ‘civilising mission’)
Slave trade; Spice trade; Precious metals; exotic goods. Atlantic trade. Footholds established.
New expressions of wealth
Ole Worm’s Cabinet of Curiosities, Denmark 1655

The new found European success opens up the opportunity to collect exotica as way of illustrating the breadth of connections, wealth and power.
The Rise of Europe and Imperialism
Mercantile Imperialism
primitive accumulation (Marx);
booty capitalism (Weber);
superiority of force of Europeans “… enabled to commit every sort of injustice in those remote countries” (A. Smith).
European Renaissance & Enlightenment had created an explosion of intellectual, scientific and artistic achievements; leading to political ideas and change by the seventeenth century.
The Rise of Europe and Imperialism
During 300 years:
no significant change in European economy and society
wealth used to fight wars;
Intensifying mercantilism to raise revenues for warfare.
Also leads to extravagant consumption.
Consumption?
Versailles (Pierre Patel 1668).
Hunting Lodge built by Le Roy in 1631 (Louis XIII).
In 1661, Louis XIV had a huge rural retreat built here, with the most extensive gardens in the world.
By 1682, he moved his court to Versailles.
English Palladian Architecture
Queen’s House, built by Inigo Jones 1614-17 for Anne of Denmark (wife of James I) at Greenwich (beside the Palace of Greenwich).
His first building in a ‘Palladian’ style following his tour of Italy.
Introduced a classical style to English architecture.
Queen’s Palace Greenwich
This is one of Jones original plans for the façade.
The work was completed in 1635
Classical Architecture
Ground plan of the original Queen’s House (the first storey is on the right of the diagram).
Only really hosted the court until 1642 when the culture it was designed for largely disappeared in England.
Palace of Whitehall
London home of English monarchs from the 16th century.
Under James I a new Banqueting House (1619-1622) was built to a design by Inigo Jones at a cost of £15,618.
Its decoration was finished in 1634 with the completion of a ceiling by Sir Peter Paul Rubens, commissioned by Charles I (later executed in front of the building in 1649).
Jones and the Banqueting Hall
Jones confirmed his re-invention of classical architecture in England with the building.
He was heavily influenced by Italian architecture and ignored existing Jacobean forms.
Jones proposed re-design of Whitehall
Charles I commissioned a complete re-design from Jones in 1638 to incorporate the Banqueting Hall and to be built in the same style.
Ultimately, Charles could never resource the project adequately.
Rathfarnham
Plan of castle built by Archbishop Loftus in 1590.
Note the defensive features such as the corner towers (Loftus lived at the Palace at Tallaght when it was sacked in 1589).
The buildings still owe much to traditional medieval architectural styles.
Classical Architecture
A fire destroyed the rambling Palace of Whitehall in 1698 and the Banqueting Hall was one of the few buidlings to survive (see Peter Paul Ruben’s ceilings).
While the classical style was viewed as Royalist, following the Restoration (post-1660) it was the favoured building style in England.
Backdrop to these developments?
The Wars of Religion, France (1562-1598)
End with Huguenots gain political equality of sorts.
Catalonia (to 1640s)
Revolts against Spain and Barcelona, Portugal tries to regain independence from Spain
The Fronde revolts in France (1648-1653)
Messes in the Netherlands (to 1640s)
Originally a revolt against Spain, the Netherlands got drawn into the shifting allegiances of European politics
The English Civil Wars (1625-1649)
The Thirty Years War (1618-1648)
Ended in Peace of Westphalia (modern diplomacy)
The emerging modern world: Tulips!
Introduced to Europe in the mid-16th century from Ottoman Empire.
Started 1593 when botanist Charles de l'Écluse had taken up a post at the University of Leiden and demonstrated that tulip bulbs would grow in the Netherlands.
Became a luxury item, classified in groups; one-coloured tulips of red, yellow, or white were known as Couleren, but it was the multicoloured Rosen (red or pink on white background), Violetten (purple or lilac on white background), and, to a lesser extent, the Bizarden (red, brown or purple on yellow background) that were the most popular.
The Tulip Bubble
In 1634 the rage for tulips among the Dutch was so great that the ordinary industry of the country was neglected, and the whole people turned to the production of tulips. As this mania increased, prices increased with it, until in 1635 merchants were known to have spent $40,000 in the purchase of forty tulips.
The Semper Augustus
A Semper Augustus, weighing only 200 grains, was thought to be cheap at $2200.
An inferior plant would readily sell for $800.
When first known, in 1636, there were only two roots of it in Holland: one belonged to a dealer in Amsterdam, and the other was owned in Haarlem.
One person offered twelve acres of valuable building land for the Haarlem tulip.
That of Amsterdam was sold for $1840, a new carriage, two gray horses, and a complete suit of harness.
Tulip-mania
A bill of sale for one single root of the Viceroy species:

Anatomy of a bubble
The demand grow until 1636.
Regular marts for their sale were opened on the Stock Exchange of Amsterdam, and at Haarlem, Leiden, and other places.
Symptoms of gambling and of time sales soon became prevalent every where. Stock-jobbers dealt largely in tulips - at first every thing rose and every body gained.
Tulip jobbers gambled on the rise and fall of bulbs, making large profits by buying when prices were low and selling when they rose.
It was believed that this mania would spread to other lands.
Nobles, citizens, farmers, mechanics, footmen, and even chimney-sweeps dabbled in tulips. Houses and lands were offered at ruinously low rates that their proceeds might be invested in bulbs that were expected to return a golden crop.
The prices of the necessaries of life rose, and houses and lands, horses and carriages, and luxuries of every sort rose with the rise of tulips: all commerce rested on a flower bed.
The Collapse
In 1636, the Dutch created a type of formal futures markets where contracts to buy bulbs at the end of the season were bought and sold.
Traders met in "colleges" at taverns and buyers were required to pay a 2.5% "wine money" fee, up to a maximum of three florins, per trade.
Neither party paid an initial margin nor a mark-to-market margin, and all contracts were with the individual counterparties rather than with the exchange.
No deliveries were ever made to fulfill these contracts because of the market collapse on 5th February 1637.
Banking
Banking continued to develope in the 17th century.
In England, commercial lending of money became more important.
Previously goldsmiths lent and changed money until, in 1640 King Charles I confiscated gold, which London merchants had deposited at the mint for safety.
Afterwards people began to deposit money with goldsmiths who gave receipts for the gold in the form of notes promising to pay on demand.
Banking
Governments needed to borrow, especially in wartime, often from wealthy individuals and later repaid them with interest from taxation.
However at the end of the 17th century the cost of fighting a war with France was colossal. So in 1694 the Bank of England was founded to provide a loan to the government.
A group of financiers put up £1.2 million. In return the bank received 8% interest on the loan and the right to issue notes. The Bank of England was also allowed to lend money and to buy and sell gold.
Rising Costs of Warfare: Artillery
The combining of shot and powder into a single unit, a cartridge, occurred in the 1620s with a simple fabric bag.
Gustavus Adolphus is identified as the general who reintroduced cannon to the battlefield - pushing the development of much lighter and smaller weapons and deploying them in far greater numbers than previously. But the outcome of battles was still determined by the clash of infantry.
Fixed fortifications were obsolete unless heavily fortified and defended.

Development of Artillery Fortifications
Marquis de Vauban, adviser to Louis XIV, major figure in late-17th century development of artillery fortifications.

Galway, 1651
Proper artillery defences required significant expenditure in the sevententh century.
Draught of proposed citadel at Dublin in 1685, by Thomas Phillips
Draught of proposed citadel at Belfast (also 1685), by Thomas Phillips
Development of Artillery Fortifications
Development of Artillery Fortifications
Development of Artillery Fortifications
Development of Artillery Fortifications
Development of Artillery Fortifications
Development of Artillery Fortifications
Development of Artillery Fortifications
Charles Fort, Kinsale
Built after 1677, incorporates latest styles of defences.
Charles Fort, Kinsale
Phillips plans show how quickly these forts were being elaborated.
August 1691
Seventeenth Century Crisis?
Eric Hobsbawn portrays this as a crisis in the old colonial system and in internal production.
Wealth had grown too fast, and was put to unproductive uses, particularly by a waste full aristocracy.
The “crisis” brought about a new concentration of capital and cleared the way for the industrial revolution (Europe’s economy was healthier and more “progressive” when it recovered in the late seventeenth century) from the end of the seventeenth century.
Court vs. Country: Hugh Trevor-Roper
As the Courts grew, they generated increasing resentment among those left outside the charmed circle, not only because “outsiders” always dislike “insiders” but also because these particular “insiders” were seen as especially vulgar and distasteful.
Society clashed with the State, and the overweening central power was either brought down or rationally re-organized.
Rise of Europe and Imperialism
It is generally agreed that the Industrial Revolution began in England and spread to Western Europe
geographical proximity;
shared history;
similar institutions,
traditions and values
all benefited from exploitation of faraway peoples.
Adam Smith: wealth and prosperity of Europe due to the ‘dreadful misfortunes’ of non-Europeans.
Balance-of-Trade Doctrine
Colonial ventures by Europeans are often misunderstood as a means by which they gained sources of wealth alone.
They also gained and developed markets.
“The ordinary means... to encrease our wealth and treasure is by Forraign Trade, wherein wee must ever observe this rule; to sell more to strangers yearly than wee consume of theirs in value.”
- Thomas Mun, England’s Treasure
by Forraign Trade (1664)
Thomas Mun (1571-1641)
Director, East India Company
East India Company’s purchase of goods resulted in export of bullion
A Discourse of Trade (1621)
England’s Treasure by Forraign Trade (likely written in 1620s, pub. 1664)
Wealth as produced commodities; monetary movements depend upon condition of trade balance
Domestic trade zero-sum; international trade is the source of national wealth and power
Money wages must be kept low in order to stimulate labor to be productive
Low interest rates to encourage industry
Profits arise from buying cheap, selling dear
Josiah Child (1630-1699)
Governor, East India Company
Member of Parliament
Brief Observations Concerning Trade and Interest of Money (1668)
Reprinted anon. with minor additions as Discourse about Trade (1690) and as A New Discourse of Trade (1693)
Reduction of the legal interest rate in England from 6 percent to 4 percent
began by citing reasons for the wealth of Dutch Republic
argued that low interest rate in the Dutch Republic was primary cause of Dutch wealth
argued that past reductions in legal limit in England had been followed by increased English wealth
Sir William Petty (1623-1687)
Doctor of Medicine, Oxford, 1648
Professor of Anatomy, Oxford, 1650
Chair of Music, Gresham College, 1651
Served in Cromwell’s Army in Ireland, 1651-3
Medical officer; topographical surveyor; ended with large Irish estate
Founding member of Royal Society
Primary works:
A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions (1662)
The Political Arithmetick (1690)
The Political Anatomy of Ireland (1691)
Sir William Petty (1623-1687)
Sophisticated discussion of land and rents
natural rent is the surplus of corn
identifies this quantity with the natural surplus of silver mining (rate of returns are equalized)
argues that all things ought to be naturally valued in land or labor
uses rental value as basis for capital value of land
finally, notes that the interest is to the amount of money lent as the amount of rent is to the land that can be bought with money lent
John Law (1671-1729)
Money and Trade Considered; with a Proposal for Supplying the Nation with Money (1705)
Economic depression due to shortage of metallic money; requires paper currency as substitute
Money is Credit, Credit based in confidence
Money supply should be related to needs of trade
Expansion of money supply will permanently increase output and employment without raising prices
The interest rate is the price of money’s use; changes in the money supply affect interest rates and therefore investment
John Law (1671-1729)
Exiled to Europe
French debt massive & finances in dissaray as consequence of Louis XIV’s wars and policies
Regent Duke d’Orleans in Paris
1716, establishes Banque Générale
1717, establishes Compaigne d’Occident (Mississippi Company)
1718, Bank Générale becomes Banque Royale, and Mississippi Company absorbs other trading companies
1719, Massive note inflation and Stock market bubble in Company shares
Early 1720, Company and Banque united
Mid-1720, Price of shares collapse as exchange rate collapses due to bank-note inflation
Early Industry from 1600 to 1800
Cottage industry located “on-site” – proximity to energy sources.
Creates “Industrial hamlets”
Site specific advantages:
Mining
Water or wind power
Workforce
Better transportation on good roads, then canals
Iron, the source of early military power meant that ironworks are a key strategic resource
Sheffield and Newcastle
Abbeydale
Industrial Hamlet in Sheffield, Yorkshire
The Tilt Forge Wheel
Typical iron forge, small scale, based on water power.
Sheffield
Dependency on water power can be seen in the distribution of forges sites along the rivers around Sheffield.
From the author of Robinson Crusoe

This town of Sheffield is very populous and large, the streets narrow, and the houses dark and black, occasioned by the continued smoke of the forges which are always at work.
Here they make all sorts of cutlery-ware, but especially that of edge tools, knives, razors, axes etc. and nails; and here the only mill of the sort, which was in use in England for some time, was set up, for turning their grindstones.
The manufacture of hard ware is ... much increased... and they talk of 30000 men employed in the whole.

from A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain by Daniel Defoe published in 1724

Sheffield and Newcastle?
How do you manage to move industry to economically favourable locations?
Free up site-specific machinery and energy sources such as woodfuel, coal, water and wind.
Ongoing deforestation.
Crowing on rivers.
Difficulty of deep-mining coal.

Newcomen’s mine engine: Original diagram

Coal Mining at Newcastle
“Sea Coal” from Newcastle
Driven by deforestation of England, 1600s, 1700s
Required energy to pump water from deep shafts
Required centralized, organized labor force: capitalism, unions
The Industrial Revolution
A revolution recognized by 1820
Changes occurred rather suddenly
Changes in the workplace
In 1860, Britain produced 20% of the entire world’s output of industrial goods
Two “caveats”
--scope of the revolution
--impact of the revolution
The Essential Nature of the Industrial Revolution
Dates vary according to nation
18th century origins
expanding Atlantic economy
flourishing English agriculture
effective central bank and credit system
stable and predictable government
mobile rural wage earners
Cotton Manufacturing in Manchester
Great location
By-product of overseas trade:
1 million bags of cotton imported into Liverpool in 1825
Various factors created a tremendous opportunity
New Technology
James Hargreaves’ “Spinning Jenny” (1765)
Richard Arkwright’s Water Frame (1769)
James Watt’s Steam Engine (1790’s)
Significance of the Steam Engine
Requires a specialized facility for its use near a ready source of coal
But definitively changed the location of factories, freeing the factory to be located in the most economical location
Economic Explosion Mixed with Fear
Availability of cotton clothing to all
Temporary bottlenecks meant higher wages for British weavers
Edmund Cartwright’s power loom (1785)
The cityscape of Manchester was dramatically transformed by 1800
New machines and factories were both fascinating and horrifying
The “Crowning” Invention: The Railroad
Superior to canals
The world’s first railway line ran from Manchester to Liverpool.
The first locomotive = The “Rocket” (1830)
Revolution in land transportation = dropping prices
Laborers shift to the city and factories
Cultural changes produced
A “feedback” mechanism
The Free Market
Transportation advances broke down traditional local markets
Significance of economic freedom
abolition of the Corn Laws in 1846
A free market in labor
The main goal = profit
Praise for the free market
Criticism: A sense of destruction and alienation
The Industrial Revolution on the Continent
Industrialized in a different pattern than Britain
Later industrialization as you move east
Entered industrialization at an advanced stage
Railroads and banks were instrumental
“State-managed capitalism”
Friedrich List’s Zollverein (Customs Union)
Continental Industrialization
Delayed industrialization was more explosive
Process of industrialization is far from automatic
Competition from cheap British goods
Complicated technology
Expensive technology
Shortage of laborers
Authorities suspicious at first
The New Working Class (cont)
Early attempts to organize workers
Combination Acts, 1799
1834 attempt at a national labor union by Robert Owen
Chartist movement, 1830’s and 1840’s

The New Working Class (cont)
Working conditions
long hours
unbroken routine
“Separate Spheres” for married and single women
Labor Discipline
Fines
low wages
Thomas Malthus (dangers of population growth)
David Ricardo and the “Iron Law of Wages” (trend is towards keeping labour population constant)
The New Working Class
“Speed up and stretch out” (faster machines, workers further apart)
Employment of women and children
Subcontracting to minimize risk of costs
Workers subjected to real danger
The notion of “hands” (de-humanization of workers).
Living Conditions in New Factory Cities
The symbolism of the West End and East End
Enormous population shifts
Problems of disease, alcoholism and crime
Occupied “row houses” near factories
No rise in “real” wages until after 1850
Middle-class reform efforts
Evolves into modern class politics and the crises of the twentieth century.

Ireland, Europe and the Atlantic World: Vikings in Ireland

2010-01-06T03:16:00.000-08:00

Vikings in Ireland (in progress).

The first references to any kind of encampment made by the vikings in Ireland generally use the term 'longphort' which is not very well understood today. For greater depth, see John Sheehan's review or Mick Gibbons thoughts on the subject. In brief, the contemporary references use the same term to desribe a location used for a few days encampment and for a more permanent settlement. Some archaeologists have identified a particular form of enclosure along navigable rivers and suggested that they can be recognised as a distinctive group of sites which conform to the locations and broad dates during which the vikings were active.
Sites that have been described as longphorts include Ballykeeran Little on Lough Ree, Dunrally Fort, Co. Laois and Athlunkard, Co. Clare.
Woodstown in Co Waterford has been claimed, amongst other things, as a longphort (see here for one view of the interpretation of the archaeological evidence from this site).
It is also believed that there was a longphort in Dublin.

Dubhlinn: Pre-Viking Churches
Kilmainham,
Founded by St Maignenn in 7th century AD
Mentioned in Annals of Ulster 787 AD
Named in Felire Oengusso in 9th century AD
Sometimes suggested as the Ath Cliath
Dubhlinn,
Has an abbot in 650 AD (Annals of Four Masters)
Named in 790 AD in Annals of Ulster
Dublin, c. 840
Dublin, c. 1000 AD
St Michael le Pole
First mentioned in 1121 (Book of Ui Maine)
In decline from 14th century.
Subject of excavations in the 1980s.
Produced equivocal evidence of pre-Viking occupation.
St Michael le Pole
St Peters on the Hill
Longphort: Dublin?
Ship Street Great burial
South Great George’s Street burials
South Great George’s Street burials
Golden Lane Burial
VIKING CEMETERIES AT KILMAINHAM AND ISLANDBRIDGE
Viking cemeteries
Female Burials
Ballyholme, Co. Down
Rathlin Island
THE NAVAN VIKING BURIAL
Larne Viking Burial
Kilmainham, Islandbridge and Dubhlinn
Temple Bar West
Fishamble Street: House plan
Dublin Viking Houses
Reconstructed Viking Houses
Commerce
Viking Cork
VIKING WATERFORD
VIKING WATERFORD: Defences
VIKING WATERFORD: Churches
VIKING WEXFORD
VIKING WEXFORD: Houses.
VIKING WEXFORD: The Plant Remains.
VIKING WEXFORD: Food Sources and Diet.
Viking Limerick
Rural Viking sites: Dunnyneill Island
Dunnyneill
Cherrywood, Dublin
Is this another longhouse?
Underhoull, Norse longhouse, Shetland (Unst)
Hamar (Unst, Shetland)
Cherrywood, Norse phases
Large enclosure used for burials in the 6th-7th century AD.
Abandoned but apparently re-used in the 9th century AD.
Cherrywood, Norse phases
Several phases of structures built. The long house (shown in the plan below) couldn’t be dated directly but must be at least a century earlier than 11th century. Note the pit (F535).
Cherrywood
Ringed pin. Like many of the finds it does not necessarily imply anything about the settlers identity.
Cherrywood: Whale bone plaque
Fragment from Kilmainham
Cherrywood: later Norse activity
Cherrywood
Type 1
Viking
House
Typical
of those
found
in Dublin
Cherrywood
Second phase of probable Norse settlement.
Must pre-date the 11th century but not by much.
Reminds us that the Norse and Vikings were rural people and founding towns, like Dublin, was unusual.
Cherrywood
Finds included objects of bronze, iron, bone, glass, amber and antler.
Animal bone and other finds indicate farming and craft production.

Llanbedrgoch, Anglesey
Cherrywood
Another find from Cherrywood, while unprovenanced, represents one of the reasons why the Norse are important in Ireland’s links to the outside world – the silver trade.

Plantations in Ireland, c.1550–1620

2009-04-16T12:45:00.000-07:00

The Reformation
In 1536, Henry VIII broke with Papal authority, fundamentally changed Ireland.
While Henry VIII broke English Catholicism from Rome, his son Edward VI of England moved further, breaking with Papal doctrine completely.
While the English, the Welsh and, later, the Scots accepted Protestantism, the Irish remained Catholic.
This fact determined their relationship with the British state for the next four hundred years, as the Reformation coincided with a determined effort on behalf of the English state to re-conquer and colonise Ireland.
The religious schism meant that the native Irish and the (Roman Catholic) Old English were excluded from power in the new settlement.

The Dissolution
In 1534 Henry had Parliament authorize Thomas Cromwell, to "visit" all the monasteries (which included all abbeys, priories and convents), ostensibly to make sure their members were instructed in the new rules for their supervision by the King instead of the Pope, but actually to inventory their assets.
A few months later, in January 1535 when the consternation at having a lay visitation instead of a bishop's had settled down, Cromwell's visitation authority was delegated to a commission of laymen including Layton, Pollard and Moyle.
This phase is termed the "Visitation of the Monasteries."

The Dissolution
The abbeys of England, Wales and Ireland had been among the greatest landowners and the largest institutions in the kingdom.
Particularly in areas far from London, the abbeys were among the principal centres of hospitality, learning, patronage of craftspeople and sources of charity and medical care.
The removal of over eight hundred such institutions virtually overnight left many gaps.

Map showing Tudor and Stuart era plantations in Ireland.
Not a single event but a more drawn out process.
Abbeygate St, Galway (Gooche 1583)

1557
Act of Parliament passed for plantation in Laois and Offaly.
Its main purpose was to secure the Pale.
1586
After the rebellion of Gerald Fitzgerald (Earl of Desmond), it was decided to plant portions of counties Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Waterford in 1586.
1606
James Hamilton and Hugh Montgomery proposed a private, self-financed settlement of County Antrim and County Down to the recently-crowned King James I in 1606.
1610
After the Flight of the Earls, James I decided to take the opportunity to plant Gaelic Ulster.
Post-1610
Some partial plantations also followed after 1610, mainly on the east bank of the Shannon and in the south-east.
Laois-Offaly Plantation
In 1556, during the reign of Mary Tudor, the decision was taken to plant the counties of Laois and Offaly.
Laois became known as Queen’s County and its main town, Fort Protector, was renamed Maryborough (Portlaoise).
Offaly became King’s County and its main town, Daingean, was renamed Philipstown after Mary’s husband, King Philip II of Spain.
For over fifty years these planters met with fierce resistance from the native Irish and the scheme was largely unprofitable.
Maryborough Fort 1565
Church at Lynally Glebe
Memorials at Lynally Glebe
Coffy Clearke 1684 monument
Ballylin Passion Plaque 1688
Legacy of Plantation
Richard’s map of Birr c. 1690
Legacy of the Plantation
Map of Banagherc. 1630

Munster Plantation
A major confiscation of native Irish lands in counties Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Waterford by the English crown in 1586, followed the death in rebellion of Gerald Fitzgerald, 15th and last Earl of Desmond (c. 1533–1583).
Originally estimated at some 245,000 ha/600,000 acres, the surveys and claims were greatly overstated and ultimately only half that amount was actually confiscated for (Protestant) English colonization.
Desmond Rebellions
South of Ireland dominated by the Butlers of Ormonde and the Fitzgeralds of Desmond.
For recourse to native law, Queen Elizabeth had the Fitzgerald brothers Gerald, John and James arrested and detained in London while Thomas Butler was pardoned.
With the three principal leaders of the Fitzgeralds imprisoned, James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald rebelled in June 1569 by attacking a colony near Kerrycurihy.
In February 1573 the rebels surrendered.
About 700 rebels and supporters were executed.
Desmond Rebellions
James Fitzmaurice survived the executions by fleeing to mainland Europe.
In Europe he tried to gain support to restore Catholicism in Ireland and he landed with a combined Spanish-Italian army of 700 to 800 men in Dingle, County Kerry.
Several clans joined the Irish-Spanish-Italian army on its advance through Munster, destroying English properties as they went.
Fitzmaurice was killed near Tipperary.
At the end of 1579 they reached the east coast where the towns Youghal and Kinsale were plundered.
Desmond Rebellions
In 1580, Leinster insurgents, led by Feach MacHugh O'Byrne defeated and butchered a large English force in the Battle of Glenmalure.
But English forces in Munster had recaptured Youghal and hanged the Lord Mayor, Patrick Coppinger.
During the spring of 1581 the rebels found themselves blocked from the rest of Ireland and the main seaports. Like the combined Irish-Spanish-Italian force the English left a path a destruction behind.
Most insurgents surrendered on terms in the course of 1581 (O’Byrne wasn’t defeated until 1597).
Gerald Fitzgerald was killed in the Slieve Mish mountains in November 1583.
Impact of the Rebellion?
The Desmond dynasty was annihilated in the aftermath of the rebellions and their estates confiscated.
This gave the English authorities the opportunity to settle the province with colonists from England and Wales, who, it was hoped, would be a bulwark against further rebellions.
In 1584, a commission surveyed Munster, to allocate confiscated lands to English Undertakers, wealthy colonists who "undertook" to import tenants from England to work their new lands.
The Undertakers were also supposed to build new towns and provide for the defense of planted districts from attack.
After the rebellion
As well as the former Geraldine estates (spread through the modern counties Limerick, Cork, Kerry and Tipperary) the survey took in the lands belonging to other families and clans that had supported the rebellions in south-west Cork and Kerry.
However, the settlement here was rather piecemeal because the ruling clan – the MacCarthy Mór line argued that the rebel landowners were their subordinates and therefore the land really belonged to them.
Lands were therefore granted to some Undertakers and then taken away again when native lords like the MacCarthys appealed the dispossession of their dependents.
After the rebellion
Other sectors of the plantation were equally chaotic. Popham, the Attorney General for Ireland, imported 70 tenants from Somerset, only to find that that the land had already been settled by another undertaker and he was obliged to return them home.
Nevertheless, in theory at least, 500,000 acres (2,000 km²) were planted with English colonists.
North Devon Gravel-free and Gravel-tempered (17th)
North Devon Slipware and Sgraffito (17th)
After the rebellion
It was hoped that the settlement would attract in the region of 15,000 colonists, but a report made out in 1589 showed that the undertakers had imported only in the region of 700 English tenants between them.
It has been suggested that each tenant was the head of a household, and that he therefore represents 4-5 other people .
This would put the English population in Munster at nearer 3-4000, but it was still substantially below the projected figure.
Impact of the plantation?
The Munster Plantation was supposed to produce compact defensible settlements, but in fact, the English settlers were spread in pockets across the province, wherever land had been confiscated.
Initially the Undertakers were given detachments of English soldiers to protect them, but these were abolished in the 1590s.
As a result, when war came to Munster in 1598, most of the settlers were chased off their lands without a fight, taking refuge in the province’s walled towns or fled back to England.
When the rebellion was put down in 1601-03, the Plantation was re-constituted by the Governor of Munster, George Carew.
After the rebellion
Re-established following the rebels' defeat in 1601, the plantation grew steadily.
The extraction of timber and iron yielded large profits but the plantation areas also rapidly developed a strong export trade in cattle and sheep.
By 1641 the plantation was securely established with an expanding population that had grown from just over 3,000 in 1592 to an estimated 22,000.
Ironworking
Ironworking was successful in Munster (and elsewhere) as there appears to have been significant amounts of woodland (for fuel).
This also deprived the Irish of bases during war.

Duddon furnace, Furness, Cumbria

BlowingHouse
Plan

Araglin, co. Waterford
Distribution of surviving sites in south Munster
Hamilton and Montgomery
MacDonnell clan held property in the Glens of Antrim and Scotland, and in the first half of the 16th century this alarmed the Tudor monarchy.
After a series of failed military expeditions, Queen Elizabeth agreed to support an English colonial settlement in the region.
In 1571 Sir Thomas Smith, the Queen’s Principal Secretary of State was given a royal grant in Clandeboye and the Ards Peninsula.
He envisaged a settlement led by the younger sons of English gentlemen who would develop the urban and commercial infrastructure of the Ards and exploit its natural resources of fish and timber, financed through private investment and state sponsorship and led by Smith’s son, Thomas.
He encountered considerable opposition from Sir Brian MacPhelim O’Neill, the Gaelic lord of Clandeboyeand in October 1573, Smith was killed.
Hamilton and Montgomery
In 1573, Walter Devereux, the Earl of Essex, received a grant of land in north east Ireland.
He agreed to invest his own money and he envisaged taking control of an extensive territory from Belfast to Coleraine and establishing himself as Captain General of Ulster.
He recruited 400 adventurers but he spent most of his time in the militarily engaged in military encounters with Gaelic lords.
In 1574 he seized Sir Brian MacPhelim O'Neill, his wife and brother and arranged for their execution in Dublin Castle.
In 1575, he authorised a notorious raid on Rathlin Island by John Norris and Francis Drake.
Shortly afterwards, the Queen relieved him of his command and he died, possibly poisoned, in 1576.
Hamilton and Montgomery
Ayrshire Scots - James Hamilton and Hugh Montgomery - organised a massive plantation from the Lowlands of Scotland to County Antrim and County Down.
From May 1606, it is claimed they introduced over 10,000 Presbyterian Lowland Scots, claimed as the inspiration for James I's Virginia Plantation of 1607.
Antrim and Down were devastated and by the wars of the late 1500s and the owner of the lands, Con O’Neill, had been imprisoned in Carrickfergus Castle by the late Queen Elizabeth and was probably destined for execution.
Montgomery hatched an elaborate plan to both free O’Neill and to gain a Royal pardon for him from the newly-crowned King James I - and Montgomery’s payment was to be half of O’Neill’s lands.
However Hamilton found out and intervened in the negotiations - and won one third of the lands for himself.

Hamilton and Montgomery
Hamilton, from Dunlop in Ayrshire, was an academic and had been a founder of Trinity College in Dublin.
His new territory included the entire River Bann and the area around Coleraine, as well as a major part of County Down which took in Bangor, part of Comber, Killyleagh, Dundonald and some of the Ards Peninsula.
Montgomery was the 6th Laird of Braidstane and had been a mercenary in the wars in Holland.
His new territory included Newtownards, Donaghadee, part of Comber, Greyabbey and a large portion of the Ards Peninsula.

The Flight of the Earls
Nine Years War (1592-1601) effectively ended by the Treaty of Mellifont (1603).
Hugh O’Neill was forced to abandon Gaelic (Brehon law), allow royal judges and sheriffs into Ulster and give up control over other Gaelic chieftans.
From 1603, James I’s officials kept watch on O’Neill.
Fearing arrest he decided to flee and get help from Pope and Spain, in September 1607 with O’Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnell.

Plantation of Ulster
The Earls departure opened an opportunity for a radical extension of plantation policy to be introduced and followed through.
They (and their supporters) were found guilty of treason and their lands were confiscated.
Six counties were planted (Donegal, Coleraine/Derry, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Cavan & Armagh).
Monaghan was left to Gaelic Irish who remained loyal during war.
Their land was divided into estates of 1000, 1500 and 2000 acres.
The owners of the larger estates had to erect a castle and bawn for security and plant 48 able bodied men.
The rent was charged at a rate of 1 penny per acre.

Plantation of Ulster
Planters: no large land grants. Laws strictly enforced to prevent land falling into Gaelic Irish hands.
Land given to Church of Ireland, Trinity College, ‘royal’ schools, and to set up towns. Coleraine (Derry) given to London Guilds.
Undertakers: English or Scottish gentlemen. Estates of 400, 600, or 800 hectares.
Rent €6 per year per 400 hectares to the king.
Had to build either a castle or stone house and a bawn (stone-walled enclosure).
Had to take in English or Scottish tenants only.
Plantation of Ulster
Servitors: civil servants or army officers.
€10 per year per 400 hectares.
But allowed to take Irish tenants, who were willing to pay more rent than English/Scottish tenants.
So servitors earned more from their estates by taking Irish tenants.
Tully Castle

Iron Technology, Climate and Warfare

2009-04-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

Basis of Iron Age climate records.

Iron Age in context.
See F. McDermott et al 2001 in the journal Science. Vol. 294. no. 5545, pp. 1328 - 1331

Climate during the Iron Age
Based on this data, temperature gradients during the Iron Age are within reasonable bands compared to today.
There is no evidence to suggests a ‘cold snap’ or other catastrophic event, despite a relatively narrow tree ring event at 207 BC and volcanic acid layers in ice cores at 210+/-30 BC. Tree rings and layers in the ice core provide data that is an approximate of the climate at that time.
Comparison of two pollen sequences from the midlands (Corlea, Longford; Derryville, Tipperary).
Does this suggest a climatic problem around 207 BC?
Derryville: Pollen Diagram
Climate information and archaeological data
Grey bands equate to dry episodes.
Graphs indicate growth of bog oaks (line) and lake oaks (black), with peaks reflecting drier conditions.
Turney et al. 2006 Journal of Archaeological Science Vol 33, 34-38
Iron Age Ireland
Iron Technology
Chemical symbol for iron is Fe
Naturally occuring mostly as oxides or carbonates:
Iron ore
Hematite
Magnetite
Naturally occurs in many geological strata, chalk, lakes, bogs:
Earth's crust is 5% iron (comapre 50 parts per million of copper and only 3 ppm tin)
Iron ore more plentiful on the surface than copper
Main drawback – more difficult to process, requiring higher temperatures.

Iron Ores: even distribution
Iron Technology
The production process produces a bloom containing iron, which is forged and hammered so that it is purged of as much waste material as possible, which congeals to form lumps of metallic rock known as slag (top left).
The bloom is then cleaned and by heating and quenching it it can be hammered out into ingots (bottom right) or shaped to form objects.
What traces would this leave?
Objects?
Furnaces?
Slag?
Other?
Ore Preparation
Crushing Ore: Bedrock Mortars
Bullauns?
Heating Ore: Charcoal
Iron technology: adding Oxygen
Producing iron ore requires a furnace (powered by charcoal) to achieve the required temperatures.
Basically, when you have crushed the ore, you then heat it to 1538°C at which point iron melts.
Oxygen
Smelting Ore: Furnaces
Shaft Furnaces
Furnaces do leave some traces that can be recovered during excavation.
Early Iron working in Ireland
Smithing hearth at Rossan 6, dated to 820-780 BC
Bloom smithing/iron working hearth at Griffinstown 3, dated to 420-360 BC
Bowl furnace at Johnstown 3, Meath, dated to 420-360 BC
Bowl furnace at Kinnegad 2, dated to 400-340 BC
Smithing hearth at Rossan 6, dated to 370-50 BC
Bowl furnace at Hardwood 3, dated 380-60 BC
More information on these sites at www.nra.ie/Archaeology/
Primary Smithing
Secondary Smithing
Smelting and Smithing Slags
Hammerscale
Hartshill in England produced evidence suggesting the presence of iron working as early as the 10th BC.
It was in the form of tiny fragments of hammerscale, some less than a millimetre in size (shown in the image on the right), rather than furnaces or slag.
Hartshill, West Berkshire, England
Iron Age Iron Working in Ireland

Sites with clear evidence of Iron Age iron working are relatively rare in Ireland although some examples, such as Rath na Riogh, at Tara, are known.

Blacksmiths
The complex and dangerous process of transforming “stone” to metal provides a special position for blacksmiths in many societies
There may be ceremonies and rituals associated with the process
Blacksmiths are often seen as figures with supernatural powers

Early Warriors
Hochdorf
La Frondelle: the goddess Epona
Chariots
Defended Hilltop sites – Hillforts
Most perceptions of Celtic warfare are driven by Classical accounts, many of which are considerably later than the earliest sites.
Murus Gallicus, according to Caesar
Heuneburg

Pfostenschlitzmauer
Manching
Celtic Migrations: timeline
Allia and Rome
Celts in War
Pergamon

The Romans faced by the Celts
One days march; 15-20 miles. Overrall length of column 22.5 miles
Average speed; 3 miles per hour
Total army makeup- based on a six legion army;
Legionary troops;30,000
Ancillary troops;3,500
Gallic Cavalry Wing;4,000
Roman cavalry;720
Servants;6,500
Horses;4,720
Total mules;10,000
The Romans faced by the Celts
Legion Staff- ancillary troops, clerks, technicians, specialists, reserve tentage, cavalry equipment, field hospital, medical staff, veterinary staff, engineering stores, workshops.
Caesar maintained that at any one time there were between 300-500 sick
Food: Daily requirement 3lbs per day per man. Each man carried 10 days ration
Artillery included: siege engines, Ballistae, Caterpults and Onagers
Caesar against the Helvetii (58 BC)
Celeritas and Clemencia (Caesar)
“ The battle ended, that he might be able to come up with the remaining forces, he procures a bridge to be made across the Saone. The Helvetii, confused by his sudden arrival, when they had found that he had effected in one day what they themselves had difficulty in accomplishing in twenty….send ambassadors to him.”

“ He ordered the Helvetii to return to their territories from which they had come and as there was nothing at home whereby they might support their hunger, he commanded the Allobroges to let them have a plentiful supply of corn.”
Keeping a Tally
“The sum of all amounted to …368,000.When the census of those who returned home was taken, as Caesar commanded the number was found to be 110,000.” Book 1 (Bello Gallico)

“ On the basis of Caesar’s report, the Senate granted him a Supplicatio of fifteen days.. The Senate was paying him respect for the Conquest of the whole of Gaul. At the same time, it was indirectly confirming his command and the legitimacy of his wars. It was honouring him in such a way that the transgression of 59 were bound to pale. Its decision, thus represented a quite extraordinary success for Caesar, however little it meant in material terms”. C Meier

Caesar against the Venetii
The Roman naval tactics consisted mainly in either propelling a vessel with great force against a rival and crushing the side, or in catching hold of the hostile craft with hooks, pulling alongside, springing over on it, and settling the conflict with a hand-to-hand fight. In the sea-fight with the Veneti, who had only sailing vessels, the Roman sailors crippled the enemy's ships by cutting down the sail-yards
Delegation, Innovation and Recognition
“ One thing provided by our men was of great service..sharp hooks inserted into and fastened upon poles….When the ropes were caught by them and pulled…the yards necessarily fell down, so that all hope of the Gallic vessels of the Gallic vessels depending on their sails was taken from them”

“The rest of the contest depended on courage; in which our men decidedly had the advantage; and the more so, because the whole action was carried on in the sight of Caesar and the entire army; so that no act, a little more valiant than ordinary, could pass unobserved”.
Defensive Works at Bourges
The Battle at Gergovia
A Rare Defeat?
In 52 BC Gergovia was the stronghold of Vercingetorix. It is famous for being the only place where Julius Caesar was defeated in the Gaulish wars. After conquering Avaricum, Caesar took six legions onward to Gergovia where he attempted a siege. He was outnumbered when the Aedui, formerly the Romans' allies, surprised Caesar by joining with Vercingetorix. As Caesar's army marched towards the great Arverni hillfort of Gergovie, Vercingetorix was setting out with his own army on the other side of the river Allier, breaking every bridge along the way to be sure the Romans could not cross over. Caesar, however, hid two legions in the woods. After Vercingetorix moved on, they rebuilt one of the bridges and went on to attempt the siege of Gergovia. The assault failed. Over 700 soldiers and 40 centurions were lost in the battle before Caesar drew back. Encouraged by this victory, the Gauls persisted in their revolt until their final defeat at Alesia.
The Battle of Alesia

Intelligence and leadership.
“ As the action was carried on in sight of all, neither a brave nor cowardly act could be concealed; both the desire of praise and the fear of ignominy, urged on each party to valor….Caesar sends at first young Brutus and afterwards Caius Fabius, his liutenant…….His arrival being known from the colour of his robe….the enemy joined battle.”
“Caesar on learning these proceedings from the deserters and captives, adopted the following system of fortification”.
Archaeological evidence at Alesia
Orange, Vaucluse
Caesar’s Siege Works at Alesia
Dun Aonghusa, Inis Mór, Aran Islands

Iron Age Ireland

2009-03-31T12:28:00.000-07:00

Quernstones – Beehive quern

Distribution
Finding an Invisible People
http://www.ucd.ie/t4cms/iron_age_ireland_project_16365_pilotweb.pdf

Iron Age Research Project
Recent large–scale development activity is bringing new Iron Age sites to light at an increasing rate and presents us with an opportunity to resolve some of the key issues of this enigmatic period. Much of the relevant information resides in the considerable body of unpublished literature such as excavation reports.

The aim of the project is to collate, synthesise and analyse this evidence and to examine it in the context of the major thematic framework identified in the recent Heritage Council report on Research Needs in Irish Archaeology. Hence, in the later stages of the project issues of regionality, social and regional identity, economic organisation, landscape use and cultural change from the Bronze Age through to the Early Medieval period will be addressed.

A survey of archaeological consultancies, consultation of the NRA database of sites which is currently under development and a survey of the Excavations Bulletin 1970–2004 and the published literature. All excavated structures or features that have produced radiocarbon or dendrochronological dates between 900 cal. BC and AD cal. 400 or artefactual evidence for an Iron Age date will be recorded. These sites will be categorised by morphology and associated evidence for their function and entered into a searchable database. Based on this assessment a preliminary cultural characterisation will be developed.
Parameters of sites included in the study
Excavated sites which can be securely dated (radiocarbon, dendro, artefacts) to the Iron Age (ie. 700BC to AD400)

Aim is to characterise Iron Age sites – not end up with a distribution map of Iron Age activity of any form

Late Bronze Age sites (ca 900 BC onwards)

The catalogue also includes excavated sites that are possibly of Iron Age date, as for example identified by problematic associations of artefacts or stratigraphy

Chronology
1.Late Bronze Age (end)
900-700 BC
2. Plateau/Early Iron Age
700-400 BC
3. Developed Iron Age
400BC-0BC/AD
4. Late Iron Age
0BC/AD – AD 400

BiasesData gathering ie. which companies have responded (strong NRA bias through database and contractors)Recognisability - dating strategies (how many dates are obtained, ind features vs structures, favouring of metalworking etc.
BiasesData gathering ie. which companies have responded (strong NRA bias through database and contractors)Recognisability - dating strategies (how many dates are obtained, ind features vs structures, favouring of metalworking etc.
Multiperiod sites
Multiperiod sites
Multiperiod sites

Structures

Finds and activities
Ironworking
Bronzes, wood, glass, flint and antler artefacts
(cf pottery!)

Finds and activities
Ironworking
Bronzes, wood, glass, flint and antler artefacts
(cf pottery!)

Regionality
Site types IA
Settlement
Structures
Metalworking
Later IA with finds Burials
Burial in Ireland
Limited amount of information – burials without gravegoods or monuments not recognisable

Cremation in ring-barrows, ring-ditches and various other forms of monuments

Later centuries BC and early centuries AD

Carbury Hill, Site B, Co. Kildare
Grannagh, Co. Galway
Carowjames, Co.Mayo
Ballydavis, Co. Laois

cremation in bronze boxfibula (Nauheim type), wire, 80 beads, stone and blue, green and yellow glass beadsiron blade, nails, bronze bracelet fragment, mulitphased, layers containing artefacts, charcoal and cremated bones change with sterile layer> repeated activity

Ballybronoge,
Co. Limerick
Depth of 0.5m14 token cremations in ditch fillbone plaquebronze spiral ring
Carn More, Dundalk, Co. Louth
Ballykeel South, Co. Clare
Dooey, Co. Donegal
phase 4
70 extended inhumations, EW
no burial goods
early c. AD

Carrowbeg North, Co. Galway
MBA barrow
4 secondary inhumations in silted ditch
Female skeleton with locket and bead anklet
Kiltierney, Co.Fermanagh
Knowth, Co.Meath

Sense of ancestry
Remember Tara and other royal sites
> Lough Crew, Co. Meath

Tara: Neolithic to Iron Age
Rath, Co.Meath
Lough Crew, Co.Meath, Cairn T
Turoe, Co.
Kilcluggin, Galway
Derrykeighan, Co. Antrim

Panels,ears/domed trumpet
100BC-100AD?Double curved lines linking circle motifs, ears
Broighter and Turoe: domed trumpets, peltate patterns, voids
Castlestrange, Co. Roscommon
Tara, Lia Fáil
Brittany
Kermaria
Stelae in Brittany

Raffin, Co. Meath
excarnation?
scattered cremations?
only part of society received formal burial
Lambay Island
Shield, sword and ornaments, iron disc

Beaded torc, northern England
Roman fibulaebracelets
Lambay Island?
Tacitus, Agricola
Quinto expeditionum anno nave prima transgressus ignotas ad id tempus gentis crebris simul ac prosperis proeliis domuit; eamque partem Britanniae quae Hiberniam aspicit copiis instruxit, in spem magis quam ob formidinem, si quidem Hibernia medio inter Britanniam atque Hispaniam sita et Gallico quoque mari opportuna valentissimam imperii partem magnis in vicem usibus miscuerit.
Still invisible?

Tara

2009-03-31T12:27:00.001-07:00

Dindsenchus (Placename Lore)
Derivation of the Name given in the 9th century Senas Cormaic (king-bishop of Cashel who died in 908).

earliest form
Temhair
medieval
Taueragh
modern
Tara

Triad 54
Trí tellaige Hérenn: tellach Temrach, tellach Caisil, tellach Crúachan.

The three households of Ireland: the household of Tara, the household of Cashel, the household of Croghan
Triad 202
Tréde neimthigedar ríg: fonaidm ruirech, feis Temrach, roimse inna fhlaith.

Three things that constitute a king: a contract with (other) kings, the feast of Tara, abundance during his reign.
Togail Bruidne Da DergaThe Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel
- Conaire, King of Tara, is subject to a number of taboos (geis) which state that he cannot:
- pass Tara on his right hand side
- pass Brega on his left
- hunt the swans of Cernae (either Carnes near Duleek or Triad 9 Tech commairce Hérenn: Tech Cairnig for sligid Assail.The Sanctuary of Ireland: the House of Cairnech upon the Road of Asal.2 )
- Stay away from Tara for longer than 9 days

1st edition OS
Placenames assigned by O’Donovan.

Rath na Riogh
measures 318 m north-south by 264 m east-west
Enclosed by an internal ditch and external bank
Name means ‘the Fort of the Kings’.
Rath na Riogh
Rath of the Synods (blue marks enclosure noted during geophysical survey)

Mound of the Hostages (Dumha na nGiall)
An Forradh (and Lia Fail)
Teach Chormaic
Rath of the Synods

WB Yeats and the British-Israelites
Navan Fort
Broad parallels between Navan Fort (top), Rath of the Synods (bottom left) and Dun Ailline (bottom right).

Lismullin

The Stone of Scone
Lia Fail
Recorded stones at Tara include Dall, Dorcha, Maol, Bloc and Bluicne (the two on the right). The taller is sometimes known as Admonans Pillar.

Sheelanagig
On a stone in the churchyard.

The present church dates from 1822; the original church on this site was founded by the Hospitallers of Saint John in about 1212 AD, part of one of the walls of the original is still standing.

'King O'Connell at Tara'This cartoon entitled 'King O'Connell at Tara' was printed in Punch magazine, 26 August 1843, was drawn by 'Shallaballa'. The Irish peasants bring their buttermilk and scrawny pigs as offerings to O'Connell, who rests on the devil's back, with his foot on the British Constitution. The scale under his arm is labelled "Justice to Ireland," and is tipped by "Daniel's Allowance." On the floor nearby is the "Royal Plunder Chest." In the summer of 1843, his monster meeting at Tara, where he called for the repeal of the Union, was attended by an estimated 750,000 people.

Mound of the Hostages

Rath Laoghaire

Claonferta and Rath Grainne
Banqueting Hall

Triad 120 (Yellow Book of Lecan)Tréde neimthigedar gobainn: bir Neithin, fulacht na Morrígna, inneóin in Dagda. Three things that constitute a blacksmith: Nethin's spit, the cooking-spit of the Morrigan, the Dagda's griddle.

Giraldus Cambrensis

Triad 202
Three things that constitute a king: a contract with (other) kings, the feast of Tara, abundance during his reign.

View of Skryne
St Patrick
Arrives on the eve of Easter, lights paschal fire on Hill of Slane.
When the ‘druids’ at Tara saw the light from Slane, they warned King Laoghaire that he must extinguish it or it would burn forever.
Patrick summoned to Tara (on the way singing the hymn "Saint Patrick's Breastplate“).
Impresses Laoghaire who lets him Christianise.
Early Christians…
Christianity was probably first introduced to Ireland sometime at the very end of the 4th century AD or early in the 5th century AD
The earliest church sites are not easy to identify or date
Sometimes only placename evidence survives

Early Christians
Earliest church developed as members of the aristocracy were converted by the earliest missionary/converts (such as St. Patrick)
Initial Christianisation appears to occur in the south half of Ireland in the late fourth or early fifth century AD and spreads to the northern half by around 450-460 AD
Ogham
Dating evidence suggests the earliest stones with ogham inscriptions date to around the 4th century AD.
Ogham (map)
Main areas of distribution may reflect earliest Christianisation.
Early Ecclesiastical Centres
As the earliest churches were associated with the aristocracy, the early parish and bishopric boundaries tend to be similar to the early kingdoms or chiefdoms in Ireland
As a result – the power of bishops was confined to their own kingdom

Early Christians
Monastic sites and hermitage emerge that are independent of the parish-bishopric system
They appear to have been given separate endowments and are economically independent
Successful monasteries are able to set up or acquire additional monasteries and increase their prestige
This system survives in various forms until the arrival of the Normans in the 12th century AD

Early Christians
These early Christian centres often survive today as large enclosures, sometimes with multiple concentric earthworks or ditches.
Today these are often only visible as crop marks from the air.
In some cases, only the placename evidence survives:
Cell often anglicised as Kill
Domhnaig often anglicised as Donagh or Downey
Teampall often anglicised as Temple

Ringforts
Univallate (i.e. one enclosing bank).
Example here is from Killyliss in Tyrone.
Ringforts
Bivallate (i.e. two enclosing banks).
Example here is from Lisnageeha in Tipperary.
Ringforts
Multivallate (i.e. more than two enclosing banks).
Example here is from Garranes in Cork.
Ringforts
Platform or raised ringfort
Example here is from Rathmullan in Down.
Dressogagh, Armagh + Whiteford, Down
Ballinderry 2, Offaly: crannog
Corofin,Clare

Carn More, County Louth(from www.nra.ie)
Newtownbalregan, County Louth

Horizontal Mills

Ireland: Christianisation

2009-03-31T11:03:00.001-07:00

Earliest Christianisation in Ireland
Christianity introduced to Ireland sometime at the very end of the 4th century AD or early in the 5th century AD
Initial Christianisation appears to occur in the south half of Ireland and spreads to the northern half by around 450-460 AD
Our only undisputed source for this period are the two documents written by St Patrick – his Confessio and letter to Coroticus, both providing our only eyewitness account of mid-5th century Ireland.

Confessio – St Patrick’s Confession
Ogham (map)
Distribution of ogham is believed to reflect areas Christianised at in the earliest stages (before 450 AD).
Little other physical evidence of this episode.
Confessio – St Patrick’s Confession
Letter to Coroticus
Who was Patrick?
Bannaventa
Confessio
I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, according to our desserts, for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our priests who used to remind us of our salvation.
And therefore for some time I have thought of writing, but I have hesitated until now, for truly, I feared to expose myself to the criticism of men, because I have not studied like others, who have assimilated both Law and the Holy Scriptures equally and have never changed their idiom since their infancy, but instead were always learning it increasingly, to perfection, while my idiom and language have been translated into a foreign tongue.
Confessio
A young man, almost a beardless boy, I was taken captive before I knew what I should desire and what I should shun.
And again, the Spirit witnessed that the rustic life was created by the Most High ... I am, then, first of all, countrified, an exile, evidently unlearned, one who is not able to see into the future, but I know for certain, that before I was humbled I was like a stone lying in deep mire, and he that is mighty came and in his mercy raised me up and, indeed, lifted me high up and placed me on top of the wall.
Confessio
But after I reached Ireland I used to pasture the flock each day and I used to pray many times a day. More and more did the love of God, and my fear of him and faith increase, and my spirit was moved so that in a day [I said] from one up to a hundred prayers, and in the night a like number; besides I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake up before daylight to pray in the snow, in icy coldness, in rain, and I used to feel neither ill nor any slothfulness, because, as I now see, the Spirit was burning in me at that time.
Confessio
And it was there of course that one night in my sleep I heard a voice saying to me: 'You … soon you will depart for your home country.' And again, a very short time later, there was a voice prophesying: 'Behold, your ship is ready.'
And it was not close by, but, as it happened, two hundred miles away, where I had never been nor knew any person. And shortly thereafter I turned about and fled from the man with whom I had been for six years, and I came, by the power of God who directed my route to advantage (and I was afraid of nothing), until I reached that ship.
200 Miles?
200 Roman miles to a ship (equivalent to c. 185 modern miles).
Later on ‘Foclut’ is mentioned as where he stayed. It's location is uncertain. Tírechán (7th century) indicates that it was on the Mayo-Sligo border, near Killala.
Confessio
And on the same day that I arrived, the ship was setting out from the place, and I said that I had the wherewithal to sail with them; and the steersman was displeased and replied in anger, sharply: 'By no means attempt to go with us.' Hearing this I left them to go to the hut where I was staying, and on the way I began to pray, and before the prayer was finished I heard one of them shouting loudly after me: 'Come quickly because the men are calling you.' And immediately I went back to them and they started to say to me: 'Come, because we are admitting you out of good faith; make friendship with us in any way you wish.'
Confessio
And after three days (sail) we reached land, and for twenty-eight days journeyed through uninhabited country, and the food ran out and hunger overtook them; and one day the steersman began saying: 'Why is it, Christian? You say your God is great and all-powerful; then why can you not pray for us? For we may perish of hunger; it is unlikely indeed that we shall ever see another human being.' In fact, I said to them, confidently: 'Be converted by faith with all your heart to my Lord God, because nothing is impossible for him, so that today he will send food for you on your road, until you be sated, because everywhere he abounds.'
Confessio
And with God's help this came to pass; and behold, a herd of swine appeared on the road before our eyes, and they slew many of them, and remained there for two nights, and they were full of their meat and well restored, for many of them had fainted and would otherwise have been left half-dead by the wayside. And after this they gave the utmost thanks to God, and I was esteemed in their eyes, and from that day they had food abundantly. They discovered wild honey, besides, and they offered a share to me, and one of them said: 'It is a sacrifice.' Thanks be to God, I tasted none of it.
Confessio
And a second time, after many years, I was taken captive. On the first night I accordingly remained with my captors, but I heard a divine prophecy, saying to me: 'You shall be with them for two months. So it happened. On the sixtieth night the Lord delivered me from their hands.
On the journey he provided us with food and fire and dry weather every day, until on the tenth day we came upon people. As I mentioned above, we had journeyed through an unpopulated country for twenty-eight days, and in fact the night that we came upon people we had no food.
And after a few years I was again in Britain with my family, and they welcomed me as a son, and asked me, in faith, that after the great tribulations I had endured I should not go anywhere else away from them.
Confessio
... in a vision of the night, I saw a man whose name was Victoricus coming … from Ireland with innumerable letters, and he gave me one of them, and I read the beginning of the letter: 'The Voice of the Irish', and as I was reading the beginning of the letter I seemed at that moment to hear the voice of those who were beside the forest of Foclut which is near the western sea, and they were crying as if with one voice: 'We beg you, holy youth, that you shall come and shall walk again among us...
... I was attacked by a goodly number of my elders, who [brought up] my sins against my arduous episcopate ... I pray God that it shall not be held against them as a sin that I fell truly into disgrace and scandal.
Confessio
They brought up against me after thirty years an occurrence I had confessed before becoming a deacon. On account of the anxiety in my sorrowful mind, I laid before my close friend what I had perpetrated on a day-- nay, rather in one hour-- in my boyhood because I was not yet proof against sin. God knows-- I do not-- whether I was fifteen years old at the time, and I did not then believe in the living God, nor had I believed, since my infancy; but I remained in death and unbelief until I was severely rebuked, and in truth I was humbled every day by hunger and nakedness.
On the other hand, I did not proceed to Ireland of my own accord until I was almost giving up, but through this I was corrected by the Lord, and he prepared me …
Confessio
'See, the rank of bishop goes to you‘ … of which I was not worthy. But how did it come to him, shortly afterwards, to disgrace me publicly, in the presence of all, good and bad …
I will tell briefly how most holy God frequently delivered me, from slavery, and from the twelve trials with which my soul was threatened, from man traps as well, and from things I am not able to put into words.
...And many gifts were offered to me with weeping and tears, and I offended the donors ... endure insults from unbelievers ... that I might hear scandal of my travels, and endure many persecutions to the extent of prison ... and so that I might give up my free birthright for the advantage of others ...
Confessio
So, how is it that in Ireland, where they never had any knowledge of God but, always, until now, cherished idols and unclean things, they are lately become a people of the Lord … the sons of the Irish and the daughters of the chieftains are to be seen as monks and virgins of Christ.
And there was, besides, a most beautiful, blessed, native-born noble Irish woman of adult age whom I baptized; and a few days later she had reason to come to us to intimate that she had received a prophecy from a divine messenger advising her that she should become a virgin of Christ and she would draw nearer to God. Thanks be to God, six days from then, opportunely and most eagerly, she took the course that all virgins of God take, not with their fathers' consent but enduring the persecutions and deceitful hindrances of their parents.
Confessio
Notwithstanding that, their number increases, (we do not know the number of them that are so reborn) besides the widows, and those who practise self-denial. Those who are kept in slavery suffer the most. They endure terrors and constant threats, but the Lord has given grace to many of his handmaidens, for even though they are forbidden to do so, still they resolutely follow his example.
Confessio
And I gave back again to my Christian brethren and the virgins of Christ and the holy women the small unasked for gifts that they used to give me or some of their ornaments which they used to throw on the altar. And they would be offended with me because I did this. But in the hope of eternity, I safeguarded myself carefully in all things, so that they might not cheat me of my office of service on any pretext of dishonesty, and so that I should not in the smallest way provide any occasion for defamation or disparagement on the part of unbelievers.
Confessio
What is more, when I baptized so many thousands of people, did I hope for even half a jot from any of them? Tell me, and I will give it back to you. And when the Lord ordained clergy everywhere by my humble means, and I freely conferred office on them, if I asked any of them anywhere even for the price of one shoe, say so to my face and I will give it back ... And I went about among you, and everywhere for your sake, in danger, and as far as the outermost regions beyond which no one lived, and where no one had ever penetrated before, to baptize or to ordain clergy or to confirm people.
Confessio
From time to time I gave rewards to the kings, as well as making payments to their sons who travel with me; notwithstanding which, they seized me with my companions, and that day most avidly desired to kill me ... they plundered everything they found on us anyway, and fettered me in irons; and on the fourteenth day the Lord freed me from their power, and whatever they had of ours was given back to us for the sake of God on account of the indispensable friends whom we had made before.
Confessio
For the sun we see rises each day for us at his command, but it will never reign, neither will its splendour last, but all who worship it will come wretchedly to punishment. We, on the other hand, shall not die, who believe in and worship the true sun, Christ, who will never die, no more shall he die who has done Christ's will, but will abide for ever just as Christ abides for ever, who reigns with God the Father Almighty and with the Holy Spirit before the beginning of time and now and for ever and ever. Amen.
Letter To Coroticus
I, Patrick, a sinner, unlearned, resident in Ireland, declare myself to be a bishop ... And so I live among barbarians, a stranger and exile for the love of God.
I have written ... these words, to be given, delivered, and sent to the soldiers of Coroticus; I do not say, to my fellow citizens, or to fellow citizens of the holy Romans, but to fellow citizens of the demons, because of their evil works. Like our enemies, they live in death, allies of the Irish and the apostate Picts. Dripping with blood, they welter in the blood of innocent Christians, whom I have begotten into the number for God and confirmed in Christ!
Letter To Coroticus
The day after the newly baptized, anointed with chrism, in white garments had been slain — the fragrance was still on their foreheads when they were butchered and slaughtered with the sword by the above-mentioned people — I sent a letter with a holy presbyter whom I had taught from his childhood, clerics accompanying him, asking them to let us have some of the booty, and of the baptized they had made captives. They only jeered at them. Hence I do not know what to lament more: those who have been slain, or those whom they have taken captive, or those whom the devil has mightily ensnared. Together with him they will be slaves in Hell in an eternal punishment; for who commits sin is a slave and will be called a son of the devil.
... ravening wolves that "eat the people of the Lord as they eat bread!"
Letter To Coroticus
... I was freeborn according to the flesh. I am the son of a decurion. But I sold my noble rank I am neither ashamed nor sorry for the good of others. Thus I am a servant in Christ to a foreign nation for the unspeakable glory of life everlasting which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And if my own people do not know me, a prophet has no honor in his own country .Perhaps we are not of the same fold and have not one and the same God as father, as is written: "He that is not with me, is against me, and he that gathers not with me, scatters." It is not right that one destroys, another builds up. I seek not the things that are mine.
It is not my grace, but God who has given this solicitude into my heart, to be one of His hunters or fishers whom God once foretold would come in the last days.
Letter To Coroticus
I am hated. What shall I do, Lord? I am most despised. Look, Thy sheep around me are tom to pieces and driven away, and that by those robbers, by the orders of the hostile-minded Coroticus. Far from the love of God is a man who hands over Christians to the Picts and Scots. Ravening wolves have devoured the flock of the Lord, which in Ireland was indeed growing splendidly with the greatest care; and the sons and daughters of kings were monks and virgins of Christ — I cannot count their number. Wherefore, be not pleased with the wrong done to the just; even to hell it shall not please. Who of the saints would not shudder to be merry with such persons or to enjoy a meal with them? They have filled their houses with the spoils of dead Christians, they live on plunder. They do not know, the wretches, that what they offer their friends and sons as food is deadly poison, just as Eve did not understand that it was death she gave to her husband. So are all that do evil: they work death as their eternal punishment.
Letter To Coroticus
This is the custom of the Roman Christians of Gaul: they send holy and able men to the Franks and other heathen with so many thousand solidi to ransom baptized captives. You prefer to kill and sell them to a foreign nation that has no knowledge of God. You betray the members of Christ as it were into a brothel.
Hence the Church mourns and laments her sons and daughters whom the sword has not yet slain, but who were removed and carried off to faraway lands, where sin abounds openly, grossly, impudently. There people who were freeborn have, been sold, Christians made slaves, and that, too, in the service of the abominable, wicked, and apostate Picts!
Letter To Coroticus
"Without are dogs, and sorcerers,... and murderers; and liars and perjurers have their portion in the pool of everlasting fire."
Where, then, will Coroticus with his criminals, rebels against Christ, where will they see themselves, they who distribute baptized women as prizes — for a miserable temporal kingdom, which will pass away in a moment?
Earliest Christian Sites and Monuments?
The earliest churches in Ireland are hard to identify as they were of wood and may not have been different from other buildings.
The types of churches and ecclesiastical buildings that pre-date the introduction of the Romanesque architectural style (11th century), or at the very least overlap with it’s appearance include:
Wooden churches
Tomb shrines
Gallarus-type churches
Stone churches with timber roof and antae
Stone churches with a vaulted roof
Round towers
Ecclesiastical enclosures in towns
Armagh: ecclesiastical capital of Ireland.
Dublin
This is from John Rocques map of Dublin in the 1750s. The street pattern encloses St. Peters.
Dublin
This is a close up of the map. Is the east-west building St. Peters??
Dublin: St. Peters based on excavations.
Moyne, near Shrule, County Mayo
Moyne, near Shrule, County Mayo
Book of Kells
Depiction of a church.
But – is this the illustrators imaginative drawing or is it real?
Book of Kells
There are some early depictions of churches, such as this one from the Book of Kells, which are our main source for the earliest sites.
Shrines
Many relics of early saints were incased in shrines shaped like buildings (this one is from Emly) – are these similar to the early churches?
Clonmore
The Clonmore shrine is believed to be the oldest known example of Irish Christian metalwork.
Dates to the second half o the 7th century.
Also demonstrates that ‘Christian’ metalwork is a relatively late feature.

Early Churches
Other sources also hint at the shape of these early churches.
This is the South Cross at Monasterboice.
Early Churches
The top of the cross is often shaped like churches.
Early churches
The shapes of these churchbuildings are indicated in many places – such as the Emly shrine, the finial of the south cross at Monasterboice or the buildings described in the Hisperica Famina and the Life of St. Brigid.
Textual sources
A number of early texts (7th century AD) provide descriptions of churches that allow us to make some reconstruction of how they looked.
Vita secunda Sanctuae Brigidae
Hisperica Famina

Excavation?
A few examples of possible wooden churches have been excavated.
In general, all that survives are traces of a wooden structure at a known church site.
Their interpretation as churches is uncertain!
Church Island, Kerry
Derry,Down
Wooden structure pre-dates a church with projecting antae.
Again it is early – but is it a church??
Carnsore,Wexford
There was a wooden structure beneath a later church at Carnsore. It is proportionally similar to the later church. It was dated to 641-940 AD.
Early Churches
The real or re-constructed plans of these churches do not match the earliest stone churches – so they probably reflect styles of building of timber churches.
Timber Churches
Some were evidently quite large, as indicated by a grim entry in the Annals of Ulster for 850, which records the burning of 260 people in a wooden church at Trevet in county Meath.
The introduction of Stone Churches
One of the most fundamental changes that took place in Irish church architecture was the introduction of stone as the primary building material. The development of stone building was a slow process but also reflected the growing size and wealth of the communities.
Resistance to the use of stone might be seen as a preference for the more plentiful and easily worked wood as well as continued veneration of existing wooden buildings that accrued value through use and tradition.
Introduction of Stone Churches to Ireland
Contrary to the prevailing impression, the stone church - or 'daimhliag' - was not fireproof, since such buildings were generally covered by timber-framed roofs.
The occasional stone church existed in the pre-Viking period:
there was one at Duleek in the 7th century
And, another at Armagh in 789.
Outside major centers like Kells and Armagh, however, they remained rare until the 10th century.
It may be significant that the first stone church recorded in the annals was built at Armagh, the monastery which claimed to be the centre of Christian Ireland.
Stone Churches
The development of stone building probably evolved through a desire for greater status and prestige but also relied on the growing size and wealth of the community.
Further, stone buildings were more durable and, if not completely immune from the ravages of fire due to continued use of wooden roofs, there was certainly some improvement in the safety and reliability of the structures.
Early Stone Churches
The common characteristics of stone churches in major monasteries may be assessed according to a variety of criteria.
They were single cell structures, often with a length to breadth ratio of 3 (such as St Fecthins at Fore, Co. Westmeath, below)
Stone Churches with a 3:1 ratio
This is the cathedral at Glendalough – not the extent of the original cathedral rather than the 12th century extension).
Early Churches – windows?
Window design and the problem of glazing offers another point of interest. Windows tend to be very small, their heads either triangular or round-headed. In the latter case they are often cut from a single stone, rather than constructed as a genuine arch (the example here is from Gallarus).
There is no evidence, either from documentary or archaeological indications, for the use of glass but, given its use in Anglo-Saxon England, it is hard to believe that it was unknown in Ireland.
At the very least wooden shutters must have been essential in adverse weather.
Early Churches - Doorways
The west wall of the early churches invariably contained a lintelled doorway with inclined jambs, framed in some cases by an 'architrave' band projecting from the surface in thin relief.
Though deceptively simple in form, the doorways are built of well-dressed stone, robust and imposing in appearance.
Fine examples are found at Fore, St. Fechin's and St. Mary's Church at Glendalough.
Fore, St. Fechin’s
Note the band in relief around the door – it is carved in the stone to retain the shape of the door, even though the stone is not the correct shapes.
St. Mary’s ChurchGlendalough
Note the angle of the jambs of the door and how the shape is cut into the stone.
Tomb Shrines
The earliest church like buildings are those often described as Tomb Shrines.
These are mortared church buildings located in a primary position at a church site.
These include examples such as St Ciarans in Clonmacnoise and St Declans at Ardmore.
Some have been investigated and samples of mortar from the structures were analysed and pieces of charcoal which were included in the mortar during manufacture have dated these Tomb Shrines to before 1000 AD.
No clear examples in the immediate vicinity of Dublin.
Inishcleraun, Co. Longford
Example of a Tomb Shrine.
Built of quite small limestone blocks, which are not typical of early churches.
Shows the difficulty in identifying these early sites.
St Declans Oratory, Ardmore, Co. Waterford
St Declans is another eary tomb shrine, although largely re-built.
Devenish, Co. FermanaghSt. Molaise House
Tomb shrine built as late as 12th century AD – showing they continuing being built to this date.
Gallarus-type churches
Only known from south-west.
Notoriously difficult to date. But probably later than 10th century.
Example on the left is Gallarus itself (before the site was cleaned up).
Gallarus
Doorway is similar to those at churches with antae.
Window has a hint of Romanesque (round-headed arch) – suggesting a date from the mid-11th century onwards.
Gallarus
Interior of buildings seems very dark – but this is an illusion – although little light penetrates, this allows for more strict control of light, aromas, noise etc to distinguish it clearly from the outside world.
May have been seen as a way of helping define the buildings as God’s house?
Unusual style of church.
Church Island, Kerry
Early Churches - Derry, Co. Down
We know from historical dates of some churches that they begin to appear in the 10th century AD.
We know from excavation that some are later than timber churches.
Stone churches
We have a strong tradition of building churches in mortared masonry from around the 10th century onwards (this is Kill of the Grange on the right).
Early Stone Churches – Dalkey Island
The main features of this type of stone church are – they are aligned east-west, as is traditional for christian churches.
The roof is not vaulted, but is made of timber.
Early Stone Churches – Dalkey Island
The walls are generally faced in stone with a clay or rubble core.
There are projections at either gable, called antae.
There is only a single room (i.e. the churches are unicameral).
Stone Churches and Liturgy
There was a preference for small churches, which did not allow for elaborate liturgical ceremonies within the building.
It is likely that some important ceremonies took place outside. The churches were not usually divided in separate sections, and the chancels visible today generally represent later additions.
Furnishings included an altar, shrines with relics of the ancient Irish saints, hanging crowns, as well as paintings, though none of the latter survive..
Ahenny, Co. Tipperary
These are the north cross (top) and south cross (bottom) at Ahenny at Kilclispin.
They are among the earliest high crosses that were manufactured and represent a translation into stone of a style of wood and metal crosses.
They are over 3 m in height.
They date to the late 8th to the early 9th century AD.
North CrossAhenny, Co. Tipperary
This is a panel decorated with enamel studs that would be attached to a wooden cross (from Antrim)
Not the position of the rivet holes.
North Cross (west face)Ahenny, Co. Tipperary
Or compare this example from the Ardagh chalice
Killamery, Co. Kilkenny
Note the position of the finial
These mimic the shape of churches.
What about the earlier capstones (e.g. Ahenny)??
Killamery, Co. Kilkenny
Dating High Crosses can be fairly straightforward.
Killamery contains the inscription: ‘OR DO MAELSECHNAILL’ [Pray for Maelsechnaill].
Maelsechnaill was High King from 846-862 AD.
Cross Slabs
Some examples of crosses carved on slab like stones (this example is from Killegar)

Cross Slabs
Their true function isn’t clear as they don’t always mark graves.
Some are upright, others lie flat (this example is from Whitechurch).
Rathdown Slabs
Decorated slabs: found only in South Dublin and Wicklow
Style is a mixture of Irish and Norse (Hiberno-Norse)
Bullaun Stones
Usually natural rocks or boulders with deliberate hollows.
Often found on ecclesiastical sites.
Their origin and date is obscure, but they are at least medieval in date.
The Church before the Vikings
This is a brief survey of the references to various abbeys in the Annals of Ulster before the first Viking raids (remember this is only one of the annals – and only references to the 8th century AD!!):
U710.2
The burning of Cell Dara.
U719.9
The killing of the community of Suibne in Ard Macha.

Before the Vikings
U723.1
The burning of Cluain Moccu Nóis.
U749.3
The burning of Cluain Ferta Brénainn.
U749.4
The burning of Cell Mór of Aedán son of Aengus.

Before the Vikings
U750.1
The burning of Fobar, and the burning of Domnach Pátraic.
U750.2
Death of Suairlech, bishop of Fobar.
U756.1
The burning of Bennchor the Great on St Patrick's Day [17th] March.

Before the Vikings
U760.8
A battle between the communities of Cluain and Biror in Móin Choise Blae.
U762.2
The killing of bishop Eóthigern by a priest in the oratory of Cell Dara. A great disturbance in Ard Macha on Quinquagesima day, in which Condálach son of Ailill fell.

Before the Vikings
U764.6
The battle of Argaman between the community of Cluain Moccu Nóis and the community of Dermag, in which fell Diarmait Dub son of Domnall, and Diglach son of Dub Lis, and two hundred men of the community of Dermag. Bresal, son of Murchad, emerged victor, with the community of Cluain.

Before the Vikings
U775.2
The burning of Ard Macha.
U775.3
The burning of Cell Dara.
U775.4
The burning of Glenn dá Locha.

Before the Vikings
U778.2
The burning of Cluain Moccu Nóis on the sixth of the Ides [10th] of July.
U779.4
The burning of Cell Dara on the third of the Ides [11th] of June.
U779.5
The burning of Cluain Mór Maedóc.
U779.6
The burning of Cell Deilge.
U783.6
A battle in Ferna Mór between the abbot and the steward, i.e. between Cathal and Fiannachtach.

How useful are the annals?
U735.6
A huge dragon was seen, with great thunder after it, at the end of autumn.
U746.2
Dragons were seen in the sky.
U749.9
Ships with their crews were seen in the air above Cluain Moccu Nóis.
Other hints of how abbeys function: Relics
U734.3
The bringing on tour of the relics of Peter, Paul and Patrick to fulfil the law; and the slaying of Coibdenach son of Flann grandson of Congal.
U743.11
The taking on tour of the relics of Trian of Cell Deilge; and the bolgach was rampant.
U776.5
The taking on tour of the relics of St Erc of Sláine and of the relics of Finnian of Cluain Iraird.
U784.9
The coming of the relics of Erc's son to the city of Tailtiu.

Travelling Relic shows
U785.2
The taking on tour of the relics of Ultán.
U790.5
The taking on tour of the relics of Caemgein and of Mo-Chua moccu Lugedon.
U789.17
Dishonouring of the staff of Jesus and relics of Patrick by Donnchad son of Domnall at Ráith Airthir at an assembly.
U793.5
The taking on tour of the relics of Tóla.

Relics
U818.4
Cuanu, abbot of Lugmad, went into exile into the lands of Mumu with the shrine of Mochta.
U818.5
Artrí, superior of Ard Macha, went to Connacht with the shrine of Patrick.
U819.8
At Ard Macha Whitsun 5 June was not publicly celebrated nor the shrine taken on tour; and there was a disturbance in which the son of Echaid son of Fiachna fell.
When the Vikings appear…
U798.2
The burning of Inis Pátraic by the heathens, and they took the cattle-tribute of the territories, and broke the shrine of Do-Chonna, and also made great incursions both in Ireland and in Alba.
U800.6
The placing of the relics of Conlaed in a shrine of gold and silver.
U801.1
The placing of the relics of Rónán son of Berach in a gold and silver casket.
Offices performed by the abbots
U804.7
A meeting of the synods of the Uí Néill in Dún Cuair, presided over by Connmach, abbot of Ard Macha.
U804.8
This year, moreover, the clerics of Ireland were freed by Aed Oirdnide, at the behest of Fothad of the Canon, from the obligation of attendance on expeditions and hostings.
Offices performed by the abbots
U780.12
A congress of the synods of Uí Néill and Laigin, in the town of Temair, at which were present many anchorites and scribes, led by Dubliter.
U811.2
The fair of Tailtiu was prevented from being held on Saturday under the aegis of Aed son of Niall, neither horse nor chariot arriving there. It was the community of Tamlacht who caused the boycott after the Uí Néill had violated the sanctuary of Tamlacht of Mael Ruain; and many gifts were subsequently made to the community of Tamlacht.

And after the Vikings…
U817.7
Mael Dúin son of Cenn Faelad, superior of Ráith Both, a member of Colum Cille's community, was slain.
U817.8
Colum Cille's community went to Temair to excommunicate Aed.
U831.5
The fair of Tailtiu was disturbed at the platforms owing to dissension over the shrine of MacCuilinn and the halidoms of Patrick, and many died as a result.

And after the Vikings…
U832.1
The first plundering of Ard Macha by the heathens three times in one month.
U832.2
The plundering of Mucnám, Lugbad, Uí Méith, Druim Moccu Blae, and other churches.
U832.3
The plundering of Dam Liac and the sept of the Cianacht with all their churches by the heathens.
U832.4
Ailill son of Colgu was taken captive by the heathens.
And after the Vikings….
U832.5
Tuathal son of Feradach was taken away by the heathens, and Adamnán's shrine from Domnach Maigen.
U832.6
Ráith Luraig and Connaire were plundered by the heathens.
U833.5
Cluain Dolcáin was plundered by the heathens
U833.6
Cellach son of Bran routed the community of Cell Dara in a battle in their monastery, many being killed, on St. John's day in the autumn 29 Aug..
Some references to size…
U806.8
The community of Í, to the number of sixty-eight, was killed by the heathens.
U817.5
Cathal son of Dúnlang and the community of Tech Munna won a battle against the community of Ferna, in which four hundred were slain.

European exploration 1500-1600

2009-03-26T13:15:00.001-07:00

European Exploration 1500-1600

As Europe’s population recovered from the Black Death, the demand for trade goods grew.
Europeans wanted spices but not to pay the prices dictated by (mainly) Islamic traders (trade was also endangered by the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453).
European merchants wanted to gain direct access to the riches of Asia.
Some voyagers still wanted to crusade against the Muslims.
Others were inspired by the Renaissance spirit of Marco Polo and others to learn about distant lands.

European Exploration 1500-1600
The general historical chronology is well-known.
But why had Europe not explored the west before?
What was different about the late-15th century?
What were the impacts of the so-called Columban exchange?

The World
Typical modern world map
Pre-existing limitations to Exploration
Compasses were very simple and maps either imaginative, fragmentary, or non-existent.
Enemies – for many European states that had begun to develop their naval capabilities, exploration might mean navigating through unfriendly waters.
Disease/death/starvation during an expedition
Fear of falling off the earth (e.g. world map from the Apocalypse of Saint-Sever, dated 1050 AD)!

Compass: China
Disagreement over when and where the compass was invented.
The earliest Chinese literature reference to magnetism lies in the 4th century BC book Book of the Devil Valley Master which states that "The lodestone makes iron come or it attracts it.“
The compass, or ‘south pointer’, could be carried with jade hunters to prevent them from getting lost during their journeys.

Compass: China
The first mention of the attraction of a needle by a magnet is in the Louen-heng or ‘Discourses weighed in the Balance’ (70 and 80 AD): "A lodestone attracts a needle.“
A Song Dynasty book, Wujing Zongyao (Collection of the Most Important Military Techniques), dated to 1040-44 describes an iron "south-pointing fish" floating in a bowl of water which is recommended as a means of orientation at night.

Compass: China
The first definite reference to a magnetized needle in Chinese literature appears in 1088.
The Dream Pool Essays, written by Shen Kuo, contained a detailed description of how to magnetize a needle by rubbing its tip with lodestone and hang it from a single strain of silk so that it sometimes pointed south, sometimes north.

Compass: China
The earliest recorded actual use of a magnetized needle for navigational purposes is found in Zhu Yu's book Pingzhou Table Talks of 1119 (written from 1111 to 1117): “The navigator knows the geography, he watches the stars at night, watches the sun at day; when it is dark and cloudy, he watches the compass.”
The first clear use of a magnetic direction finder occurred before 1044, but clear evidence for the use of the compass as a navigational device first appears in 1119.

Compass: China
Song and Yuan Dynasty: dry compass was in use as described in the Shilin Guangji (Guide Through the Forest of Affairs), from 1325 (written 1100 to 1250).
Shilin Guangji apart, some claim that Chinese mariners only ever used the floating needle in a bowl until the 16th-century European contacts.

Compass: China
The use of a 48 position mariner's compass appears in “The Customs of Cambodia” by Yuan dynasty diplomat Zhou Daguan, describing his 1296 voyage from Wenzhou to Angkor Thom in detail; when his ship set sailed from Wenzhou, the mariner took a needle direction of “ding wei” position, which is equivalent to 22.5 degree SW. After they arrived at Baria, he took "Kun Shen needle" , or 52.5 degree SW.
Zheng He's Navigation Map, also known as "The Mao Kun Map", contains a large number of "needle records" of Zheng He's travel (i.e. bearings).

Diffusion or invention?
Did the compass travel from China to Europe or the Middle East via the Silk Road or was it independently created in Europe (and diffused from there to the Middle East and got called al-konbas).
The first European reference to a magnetized needle and its use among sailors occurs in Alexander Neckam's De naturis rerum (On the Natures of Things), written in Paris in 1190.
In the Arab world, first reference is from 1282 (The Book of the Merchants' Treasure), by Baylak al-Kibjaki of Cairo. There is also a reference to an iron fish-like compass in a Persian talebook from 1232.

Independent European invention?
The arguments against the independent invention of the magnetic compass in Europe are credible.
The close dates of the Chinese navigational compass (1117) and its first appearance in Europe (1190).
The common form of the early compass as a magnetized needle floating in a bowl of water.
Absence of prior knowledge in Europe of magnetism.
Remaining issue is over how it got from China to Europe in mid-1100s – it seems it must have passed through Islamic hands (despite not being mentioned in Arabic sources until mid-1200s).

Medieval European compasses
Pivoting compass needle in a 14th century copy of Epistola de magnete of Peter Peregrinus (1269)
In Europe, the compass, improved dead reckoning, and Portolan charts, allowed winter sailing (and increased and less-hazardous journeys) from the second half of the 13th century.

Navigational Improvements: Jacob’s staff
Originally for astronomical measurements, developed in 1300s by Jacob ben Makir of Provence and described by Levi ben Gerson.
Shen Kuo (1031–1095) describes it in his Song Dynasty Dream Pool Essays (1088).
Employed in Indian, where it was known as Yasti-yantra by the time of Bhāskara II (1114–1185).
By 1514, Johannes Werner suggested it be used for navigation at sea.
John Dee introduced it to England in the 1550s.
A Jacob's staff, from John Sellers' Practical Navigation (1672)
Astrolabe
Known in classical Europe, medieval re-introduction from the Arab world, via Spain in the mid-1020s.
From about 1480 navigators began to carry modified versions we now refer to as `Mariners Astrolabes'.
Enabled East -West travel with the movable arm (alidade) sighted on the North star to measure the angle of its height of the north star above the horizon.
With the panorganon (quadrant) distances could be reliably calculated.
T-O Maps
7th century scholar Isidore of Seville in his Etymologiae did identify the earth as a sphere although the southern hemisphere was believed uninhabitable.
A 12th century copy includes this schematic T-O map.
The T is the Mediterranean, the O is the Ocean around the three landmasses – Asia, Europe and Africa.

Mappa Mundi
More detailed maps, the mappa mundi are known from around 1100 surviving medieval examples.
The Tabula Rogeriana, drawn by Muhammad al-Idrisi for Roger II of Sicily in 1154 and preserved in the Bibliotheque nationale de France
Mappa Mundi
Detail of the Tabula Rogeriana.
Despite the limitations much is clearly recognisable.
From 12th century ships often had a manuscript detailing sailing distances between ports, capes etc.
Portolan Chart
Carte Pisane (Portolan Chart) from 1296.
The straight lines represent the 32 directions of the mariner's compass.
This improves the capacity for sea travel.
Catalan Atlas (1375)
Most important Catalan map of the period. It was produced by the Majorcan cartographic school and is attributed to Cresques Abraham.
Portolans were mainly a Mediterranean phenomenon.
Rutters
Northern version of portolans: small pocket books with courses between ports and distances but in addition they also had soundings and data on tides.
Only a very few survive from before the early sixteenth century but their numbers rose sharply after 1500 when printers began to produce more of them and with longer pressruns.
Early examples, like Das Seebuch, also included descriptions of the western front of Europe.
Le routier de la mer ascribed to Pierre Garcie was printed in Rouen between 1502 and 1510.
Jan Severszoon's De Kaert van der Zee of 1532 was followed by an enlarged version in 1541 and then a series of new editions through to 1588.
Columbus in the context of Portugese in Africa
During the 15th century Portugese sailors pioneered the routes down the Atlantic coast towards the Cape of Good Hope – led by Henry the Navigator, Fernão Gomes, Fernão do Pó., Diogo Cão and João Afonso d'Aveiros.
Finally, in 1488, Bartolomeu Dias and his pilot Pêro de Alenquer, turned a cape where they were caught by a storm, naming it Cape of Storms.
Afterwards the Portugese pushed on and made contact with Indians and Chinese, provoking Egypt and Venice.
Spain joined the race by sponsoring Columbus to seek a western passage to India.
Inter caetera was a papal bull issued by Pope Alexander VI on 4 May 1493 to resolve sovereignty issues.
Earlier Contact: Olmecs 1200 BC – 400 BC?
Located in Mexico (near Veracruz)
Grew corn beans and squash primarily
Vast trade networks, encompassing very diverse areas, but small territory relative to land available- no empire/political unification
Each center seems to have fallen due to a violent rebellion (defaced monuments)
Colossal mounds used in religious ceremonies, importance of animal motifs, calendar/writing
Clear social structure, elites controlled labor pool (increased food production), merchants

Olmec Colossal Heads
African features are regularly commented upon – indicating contact?
St Brendan
5th-6th century Irish saint.
Supposed to have found a land to the west as told in a Gaelic immram.
Popularised in medieval texts in German, through earlier contacts with Irish sources.
This is from a Dutch version (Des Reis van Sint Brandaen) dating to the 12th century which derives from an earlier (lost) German version of Navigatio Sancti Brendani.
The Vinland Sagas
We know the Vikings were there.
Helge Ingstad unearthed the ruins of an ancient Norse village near L’Anse aux Meadows on the north coast of Newfoundland, conclusively proving that the Vikings has established a settlement in North America 1000 years previously.

Henry Sinclair
Claimed to have led expeditions to Greenland and onwards to Nova Scotia in the late 14th century.
Based on letters and a map ascribed to the Venetian Zeno brothers and published in 1558, although their authenticity has not be established.
The letters describe a voyage taken by a ‘Zichmni’ around the year 1398 to Greenland that actually reached North America.
It is claimed that Zichmni is Henry Sinclair.

Basque Whalers
Claimed to have had knowledge of America through whale-fishing in the medieval period.
Known to have come to North America in 1517 and soon 2,000 Arrantzales are estimated to have set sail every year from Basque ports to the St. Lawrence River.
Longer term stations were set up (eg Saddle Island below).
João Vaz Corte Real
João Vaz Corte Real made a voyage of discovery (1472) to Greenland and Newfoundland with two Danish pilots named Pining and Pothorst.
Found Terra Nova do Bacalhau ‘New Isle of Codfish’ which was named on later maps.
Some claim it is modern Baccalieu Island off the Canadian coast.
Columbus and the “Enterprise of the Indies”
Columbus left Spain in 1492 to discover a trade route to the Orient.
Spanish Monarchs commissioned the trip as they sought to compete with Portuguese domination of the Oriental Spice Trade.
Columbus had, in fact, landed in the Caribbean and hadn’t realized what he had found even when he died.
This is a 1493 engraving showing King Ferdinand overseeing his journey to the New World.

Columbus
Believed to be Italian (but was only literate in Spanish).
Worked for Spain.
Landed in San Salvador on Oct. 12, 1492, with 3 ships & 87 men.
Had a very peaceful first encounter with the Indians and wrote “they invite you to share anything they posses & show as much love as if their hearts went with it….with 50 men, they could be subjugated & compelled to do anything one wishes!”
He left 40 men & returned to Spain with 12 Indians to give as presents to the King & Queen.
Columbus’ Second Trip
He brought 17 ships & 1200 Spaniards, but they were not greeted peacefully.
The Indians attacked & killed 10 Spaniards. Columbus retaliated by killing all the Indians, burning their villages & enslaved over 500 to sell in Spain. This damaged any peaceful meetings that may have happened.
Columbus made 4 trips to the New World before he died.
Cortés and the Aztec Empire
In 1519 explorer Hernan de Cortés landed on the Yucatan in search of gold.
Cortés' party was welcomed into the Aztec capitol Tenochtitlan, where he was believed to be the god Quetzalcoatl.
In time, the population of Tenochtitlan was devastated by smallpox, carried by the Spanish explorers, a disease to which the natives had no natural resistance.
Eventually, Cortés arrested the Aztec monarch Montezuma II and tried to assume power over Aztec lands and resources.
French Exploration: Jacques Cartier Explores the St. Lawrence River for France
In 1534, French explorers, led by Jacques Cartier, explored the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by ship. Finding economic promise in the region, Cartier returned the following year and sailed down the St. Lawrence as far as modern Montreal.
Unlike the Spanish, the French were far more interested in establishing trade networks and building sustainable colonies in the New World than in finding gold. The French were particularly interested in the harvesting the bountiful furs found in the area.
English Explorations
John Cabot – 1st to see North America. He represented England (he was from Venice). But England was too busy fighting with France to exploit his discovery.
Later, pirates & privateers from England, Holland, France, etc. were the biggest threat to the Spanish search for gold. John Hawkins & Sir Francis Drake were the most famous & were encouraged by Queen Elizabeth.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert – ½ brother to Sir Walter Raleigh, received a Royal Patent in 1578 to est. & hold land in America. After 2 delayed attempts to leave, he set sail in 1583 & landed in New Foundland. Set sail for England to escape the on set of winter & was never seen again.
Roanoke
Sir Walter Raleigh – 1584 – had the Queen put his brother’s patent in his name, then sent a scout ship to America. It landed at Roanoke Island, N.C. (good soil & the Indians were friendly)
1587 – Raleigh & 117 men, women & children, including Gov. John White set sail.
After a month on the island, Gov. White returned to England for supplies, his grand-daughter, Virginia Dare was born. The 1st English child born in the New World.
Gov. White returned in 1590 – no one from the group was ever found. Roanoke – the lost colony. The only clue was a word carved into a tree “Croatoan”.
1492 and Later: Aztecs
After 1492 AD
Set the stage for Indian policy for the next 500 years.
Hernando Cortes – (Spain) 1519 – landed in Vera Cruz with 600 Conquistadors & conquered the Aztec Empire.
Tricked his way into Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) took all of the gold & enslaved the Aztecs.
They rebelled & ran him out of the city. He later returned & destroyed the Aztec civilization.
Francisco Pizarro – (Spain) – a Lt. of Cortes, did the same thing to the Incas in South America as Cortes did to the Aztecs.
Europeans brought diseases, viruses, pests, vermin, etc. This decimated the Indian population.
Some scientists estimate that 80% of the Indian population of North & South America were killed during this period.
Aztecs
Originally named Mexica
Located in what is now central Mexico
The empire lasted during the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries AD
Aztecs
Tenochtitlan was the capital city and is located in what is now present day Mexico city
The Aztecs were ruled by a single emperor called the Huey Tlatoani which roughly translates to “The Great Speaker”
There was also a ruling counsel from the Calpulli, a group of extended families that controlled the use of local lands and performed other territorial and social functions

Government
Each urban settlement had a calpulli and four main leaders would be selected to a governing board the most powerful being named Tlatoani
The Tlatoani from the all over the emperor would then comprise the main ruling counsel in the capital city
The Aztecs grew rapidly by conquering nearby cities and would force them to pay tributes
These tributes would eventually result in the increased welfare of the common people
Art
The favored form of art in the Aztec empire was sculpture
Most Sculptures were made from limestone, which is still abundant in Mexico today
Aztec sculpture was like most other Mesoamerican cultures and was mostly directly related to religion

Art
The Aztecs also made other religious and non-religious artifacts such as jade masks
Clothing was also a popular art form and women from around the empire would use bead, flower, and metal decorations
These artifacts were sold in markets by visiting merchants
Architecture
There where several main types of architecture in the Aztec society: sacrificial temples, emperors temple, and shines of the gods
Social Structure and Religion
The Aztec society was divided into three socal classes: the macehualli (people) or peasantry, the pochteca or merchants and traders, and the pilli or nobility
Slaves or tlacotin consisted as a large part of the Aztec society
Though people were born into a certain class it was possible to move up the ranks within a life time
Main deity in the Aztec religion was Huitzilopochtli and was known as both the sun god and war god
Human sacrifice was practiced heavily in the Aztec religion
The Aztecs believed that by performing these sacrifices that it gave power to the gods which in turn would insure the survival of the Aztec universe

Tenochtitlan
When the Aztecs settled in the swampy Lake Texcoco and built Tenochtitlan, around the year 1350, the dominant tribe had been the Tepanecs. They controlled most of the shore of Lake Texcoco and forced the Aztecs and a number of other other tribes including the Texcoco, Tlateloco and Tlacopan to pay heavy tribute.

Agriculture
The comprehension of how irrigation can benefit agriculture is evident by the expansion into the highland areas.
They developed drainage systems and canals to expand their crop resources.
Potatoes, tomatoes, cotton, peanuts and coca were among the many crops grown by the Inca.
Llama were used for meat and transportation.
There was more than enough resources available for everyone.
Horse and cannon figure prominently in this Aztec drawing from the Florentine Codex
INCAS
Twantinsuyu:World of the Incas.
Recent arrivals on the political stage in America.
The term 'Incas' (or Inkas) is often used to refer to the people of the empire as a whole, whereas strictly it refers to the ruling aristocracy.

Incas
The beginning of the Inca rule started with the conquest of the Chimu Culture in Peru.
The original Inca tribe was a minor Andean tribe whose expansion began with a successful campaign against its more powerful neighbours, the Chancas, in the 1440s.
Leading them was Pachacuti a military strategist, statesman, and diplomat of enormous skill. Armies under Pachacuti and his son and successor, Topa Inca, conquered the entire mountainous area from Quito south past Lake Titicaca.
Topa Inca also subjugated the coastal kingdom of Chimor, and extended the Inca domain farther south, as well as east to the fringes of Amazonia.

Inca Conquest and Religion
"Split inheritance“ : Power to successor, Wealth, land to male descendants
Result is continual succession disputes and conquest
Religion
Sun god supreme and he is represented by ruler (Inca)
Temple of the Sun at Cuzco
Local gods survive

The Techniques of Inca Imperial Rule
Rules from Cuzco
Governors of four provinces with local rulers (curacas)
Unified by Quechua language and forced transfers of people
Military system of roads, way stations (tambos) and storehouses.
State had a redistributive economy and carried out building and irrigation projects
Gender cooperation, ideology of complementarity of sexes
Inca's senior wife links state to moon

Inca Cultural Achievements
Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu
Architecture
The dominant stylistic form in Inca architecture is a simple, but elegantly proportioned trapezoid, which serves the dual ends of functionality and severely restrained decoration.
Trapezoidal doorways, windows, and wall niches are found in Inca constructions of all types, from the most finely wrought temples to crudely built walls in unimportant buildings.
The doorways and windows are obviously functional, and the niches probably served a variety of functions as yet unidentified by the archeologists.
Placement of these trapezoidal openings was primarily functional, but occasionally, esthetic arrangements might dominate the placement of the trapezoids, if there was no conflict with functionality.

Stone Work
Sacsayhuaman
Cuzco
The ancient Inca capital is said to have been founded around 1100 AD.
The Incas conceived their capital in the shape of a Puma with the river serving as the spine, Sacsayhuaman the head, and the main city center the body.
Almost every central street has remains of Inca walls, arches and doorways. Many streets are lined with Inca stonework, now serving as foundations for more modern buildings.
Khipu (Quipu)
A khipu consists, minimally, of a main cord from which pendant cords hang. (Pendants of pendants are called subsidiaries.)
Knots tied in the pendant cords and other modifications of the pendant are the commonest data-bearing or significant features.
Inka functionaries used cord records for censuses, inventories, tribute records, and documents about transactions; Spanish courts also accepted them as documents of record in early colonial times.

Inca Social Structure
The Incas had a very clear social structure.
The ruler, the Sapa Inca, and his wives, the Coyas, had supreme control over the empire.
The High Priest and the Army Commander in Chief were next.
Military
Then came the Four Apus, the regional army commanders.
Next came temple priests, architects, administrators and army generals.
Merchants and Middle Class
Next were artisans, musicians, army captains and the quipucamayoc, the Incan "accountants."
At the bottom were sorcerers, farmers, herding families and conscripts.

Inca Dynasty
About 1438, the ninth Inca, Pachacuti, set forth to conquer on a scale never before attempted in aboriginal America. Pachacuti and his son, Tupac Inca, the tenth Inca, forged an empire nearly as far reaching and well organized as Caesar's Rome. They Called it Tahuantinsuyu, Quechua for the " Four Quarters of the World".
Huayna Capac - Valiant Youth - surely visited Machu Picchu after he succeeded Tupac Inca in 1493, for he devoted years to a grand tour of his inherited Four Quarters of the World.
Dynasty
Huayna Capac settled down in Ecuador with his hundreds of wives and concubines, occupying a sumptuous palace of which no trace remains. Today natives, reminders of the brief lnca occupation of Ecuador are Quechua-speaking Indian communities of diverse tribal origins-some from distant Bolivia- found along the Pan American Highway.
The emperor's warrior son, Atahuallpa, became a favorite of the battle-tested armies that carried on the northern border campaigns. Meanwhile premonitions of doom haunted Huayna Capac.
About 1525 Huayna Capac was stricken possibly by smallpox introduced into the continent by Europeans probing its coastline. Before he could choose, he died. In Cuzco the high priest conferred the royal fringe on Huascar, a son of Huayna Capac and his sister wife the queen. But Atahuallpa, Huascar's half brother, governor of Quito, reportedly refused to accompany his father's mummy to Cuzco and render homage. His generals, veterans of Ecuadorean wars, backed his insurgency, and civil war flared.

Dynasty
Huascar sent a huge inexperienced army against Atahuallpa, but it perished in battle near Ambato, Ecuador.
The chronicler Cieza, who saw the skeleton-strewn battlefield twenty years later, wrote that the body count of 25 or 26 thousand was an underestimate.
Huascar conscripted army after army, including peasants from as far away as Argentina.
Thousands who had escaped the plague now fell under the northerner's onslaughts.
Perhaps 200,000 men fought in the final battle near Cuzco.
The unthinkable occurred: Atahuallpa's generals tumbled Huascar from his golden litter. Cuzco's defenders fled in terror. The Son of the Sun had fallen.
The generals dressed the emperor in women's clothes. They forced him to eat excrement in Cuzco's streets and watch the extermination of his multitudinous family and courtiers.

Atahuallpa
ATAHUALLPA had left Quito to make triumphal entry into Cuzco when he got word of his generals' victory. But at this moment coastal chiefs warned him of Pizarro's approach. A mere 62 cavalrymen and 106 foot soldiers, armed with Toledo blades and a few guns and crossbows, were winding slowly into the mountains of northern Peru.
Pizarro sent an interpreter and 15 riders under Hernando de Soto (who later discovered the Mississippi River) to offer his services in arms and to ask the emperor to dine next day. The seated Inca offered ceremonial chicha, accepted the invitation, and told his guests to occupy the town plaza.
Pizarro set a trap that the Inca had unwittingly provided him. In the great triangular plaza, with an entrance at its apex, he laid an ambush. He hid his forces inside buildings that had doorways, high enough for horse and rider, facing into the walled plaza.

Atahuallpa and Pizzaro
On Saturday, November 16, 1532, the Inca delayed his social call until sundown, supposing horses to be of no use after dark, and bemused by reports that the bearded men were hiding in fear. Then be capped his spate of bad decisions by going unarmed to sup and spend the night in town.
The Spaniards captured Atahuallpa and he ruled for eight months from a prison compound in the triangular plaza, keeping his lordly mien, his authority unquestioned by any subject of the empire.
To secure his release, Atahuallpa decreed that the realm be ransacked to fill a 18-by-22-foot room once with gold, as high as he could reach, and twice with silver. Totally unaware that Pizarro's men spearheaded a massive European invasion of the Tahuantinsuyu, he presumed the bearded ones would go away once they had received their booty.

By July 1533 more than 24 tons of exquisite treasure had been collected: idols and chalices, necklaces and nuggets, accumulated through centuries of placer mining. Though this was only a fraction of the plunder that awaited the Spaniards elsewhere in the Four Quarters of the World, Atahuallpa's ransom, as duly recorded in the Spanish archives, was worth at least 267 million dollars at today's bullion values for gold ($315 ounce-Nov/02/1997-) and silver.
Treason
But instead of freeing the Inca, they tried him for treason, and was sentenced to death for treason against the strangers within his own realm.
To avoid the horror of being burned alive as a heretic and thus deprived of mummification, Atahuallpa accepted Christian baptism and took Pizarro's Christian name: Francisco- Then the Spaniards garroted Francisco Atahuallpa, thirteenth Inca, and marched down the royal road to Cuzco.

Final Battle
The 40,000 member army of the Inca was destroyed by a 180 member Spanish conquistador army, which was commanded by Francisco Pizarro.
The warriors of the Inca were no match for the Spanish guns. By 1535, the Inca society was completely overthrown.

Mississippian
Large settlements, development of Chiefdoms & usage of kinship lines.
Use of the large Temple-Mound complexes, i.e. Ocmulgee, Etowah, etc. Large truncated, flat-top pyramids.
Extensive farming, use of corn as staple crop, along with beans, squash.
The main dish from this was called Succatash (the 3 Sisters) and provided energy from corn, protein from beans & vitamins from squash. This process saved on land, labor & fertilizer.
Food storage buildings, palisades surrounded villages, extensive warfare for land & food.
Religious influences from Mexico & South America, i.e. Spider Cult, Snake Cult, use of Charnel Houses, complex belief systems.

Mississippian Mounds
After 1492
Period just prior to the European invasion.
Warfare among the tribes & religious/cultural diversity caused the great temple complexes to lose power.
People began to break up into smaller villages & away from the great cities.
Less trade & contact with outside tribes. Isolation & development of a homogenous population.
Hernando de Soto – (Spain) 1539 – took 6oo Conquistadors through Fla., GA., S.C., N.C., Tenn., & Miss., destroying the Indians as they went.
Cataloged the plant & animal life & some of the Indians.
He was killed near Memphis in 1542. Over ½ of his men were killed on the expedition.

Epidemics in Mexico, 1520-1595
Epidemics in Central America 1520-1578
Plants

Farming, Food and Artefact Production

2009-03-24T08:39:00.001-07:00

Cattle
Earliest detailed accounts in 7th-8th century law texts
Similar to Kerry cattle
Often black, but there are references to red, flame-red and brown cattle.
‘Brindled’ cow
White-backed cattle (also found in Kerry)
Long hair in winter – shed in spring
Most cattle had horns (which could be cut to indicate ownership)
No reference to hay-making
Oxen used for traction
Bulls could be owned by more than one person
Kerry Cattle
Breed closest in size and temperament to early medieval cattle.
Some colour variation.
Mixed colour cattle known.
Cattle
Calf in Book of Durrow
Cattle
Cattle consume grasses and other herbs, but are also partial to the leaves of most tree species, with the elm a particular favourite.
During spring and summer, grazing can be found in many areas, including rough ground and woodlands, with an implicit need for vigilance against predation, accidental loss and theft.
Controlled breeding would require the separation of bulls and cows. Over winter, a major pre-occupation on farms seems to be the provision of grazing for cattle.
There are references to the deliberate retention of ungrazed grasslands to provide winter grazing, and, allowing cattle access to the stubble of cereal-crops which appear to be harvested high up the stalk
There is evidence that holly and ivy were employed as winter fodder.
Cattle
In the early medieval period in Ireland, the optimum time for cattle to breed is suggested as 3¼ years, due to poor winter feeding.
Access to cow’s milk is facilitated by controlling contact between calves and their mothers, a task often assigned to childern, while the mothers hind legs were probably immobilised during milking.
Controlled mating of cattle can ensure a supply of lactating cows throughout the year, even through the winter.
The selective slaughtering and neutering of males can also provide a source of oxen.
Historically, the perceived value of cattle is indexed against age, gender, fertility and docility.
Apart from beef and milk products, cattle are also a source of hides, marrow, blood, tallow for candles, bone and horn as craft materials and dung as a fertilizer.
Cattle: management
Grazing Regime:
Spring: Rough ground, woodlandsSummer: Rough ground, woodlandsAutumn: Cereal stubble, ungrazed grasslandsWinter: Ungrazed grasslands, holly, ivy
Controls Needed: Contact between calves and mothers; bulls and cows; neutering of young males for oxen. Predator threat is low, except for calves. Prior to over-wintering.

ProductsBeef; milk products; hides; marrow; blood; tallow for candles; bone; horn; dung.
Sheep
Sheep appear to have been mainly seen as lowland grazing livestock in early historical references in Ireland, possibly due to the threat of predation on more remote pasture.
It has been suggested that older slaughter ages for sheep reflect the manipulation of sheeps fleeces to produce wool from this date.
Sheep
Weaving materials have been uncovered at a number of sites of this period such as loom weights, spindle whorls and bone combs.
Spindle Whorls
Sheep
Lambs are typically born in March or April, with the majority of young males castrated and slaughtered in their first year, while ewes are expected to lamb by their third year.
It is likely that sheep were only sheared once a year, in mid-summer.
Sheep were also a potential source of meat, skins, horn, tallow and possibly milk.
Where data is available, it appears that up to a third of lambs, probably young males, were culled in their first year, while a small percentage survived to 3½ years and beyond.

Sheep: management
Grazing Regime:
Spring: LowlandsSummer: LowlandsAutumn: LowlandsWinter: Lowlands
Controls Needed: Threat from predators, particular when lambs are born. Mid-summer shearing. Prior to over-wintering.
Products: Meat; fleece; skins; horn; tallow; milk.
Soay Sheep
Pigs
Pigs are omnivorous and conveniently consume much of the households scraps, whether it is of animal or vegetable origin.
They also will eat some grasses and herbs, and have a tendency to dig up ground looking for roots.
Sources suggest that pigs were often fed on the acorn and hazelnut crop of September and October prior to selective culling, or as preparation for over-wintering.
Unlike sheep and cattle, pregnant sows often prepare a nest, even if enclosed in a sty, and produces litters of up to 9, although the runt often needs to be hand-reared if it is to survive.
Piglets are particularly dependent for the first weeks of their life.
During the weaning period, the sows are probably fed mainly on refuse from the habitation site so as to encourage them from straying too far from the site.
Wild boar males have a tendency to break in and mate with domesticated sows (e.g. see MAFF 1998).
Pigs
Appear to have been herded from late summer and taken to forage in woodlands and other areas, presumably, at a remove from crops and under constant supervision, given their innate destructiveness, although they can be used to root out weeds and manure newly prepared ground prior to planting.
Pig fat is considerably more palatable than cattle or sheep fat, and it appears that pigs were primarily reared for food products, the evidence from faunal assemblage suggests slaughter ages between 2 and 3½ years.
Pigs
Peniarth 28, f.25v
Pigs: management
Grazing Regime:
Spring: Habitation refuse; grass; roots.Summer: Woodlands and areas away from crops; grass; roots.Autumn: Acorns; hazelnuts; grass; roots.Winter: Habitation refuse; grass; roots.
Controls Needed: Protection of sows nest during littering; supervision around crops. Prior to over-wintering.
Products: Meat; blood; fat.
Other domesticates
Hens
Geese
Ducks
Doves
Peacocks (?)
Bees
Dogs

Livestock management (summary).
Spring: Habitation site contains pigs; sheep in immediate vicinity; cattle grazed outside immediate vicinity
Summer:Habitation site has sheep in immediate vicinity; cattle and pigs grazed outside immediate vicinity, beyond cultivated soils. Cattle visited or returned daily for milking.
Autumn: Habitation site has sheep in immediate vicinity; cattle and pigs grazed outside immediate vicinity and on former cultivated soils and in woodlands. Cattle visited or returned daily for milking.
Winter: Habitation site contains pigs; sheep in immediate vicinity; cattle grazed just outside immediate vicinity.

Animals and Disease
U700/701 Famine/pestilence
U709 pestilence
U748 Deep snow: mortality of cattle
U760 Famine
U764 Great snowfall and famine. U769 famine and leprosy
U777-9 and AI 779 cattle disease also smallpox in 779
U786 scamach
CS805 pestilence
U806 pestilence
CS814 great distress and severe illnesses
CS825 pestilence/famine
U825 pestilence/famine
U826 plague warning given

Food production
Obviously, much of what is produced by farming is converted to food.
Few traces of actual foodstuff survive (animal bone, bog butter, charred seeds).
Most of the archaeological evidence is in the form of the structures used to process food stuffs, including kilns, mills and burnt mounds.
Souterrains appear to have functioned as part of the storage regime in some areas, whilst burying food in peat bogs was employed in some other areas.
Bog Butter
Some finds appear to be adipose/tallow, others are definitely dairy butter and date to early medieval period.
Used the cool temperature in the depths of a bog to preserve the butter for longer.
Souterrains
Newtownbalregan, County Louth
Souterrains
Souterrains are underground complexes of passages and chambers
They are usually built of stone but can also be tunnelled into rock or compact clay or gravel, a small number built of wood area also known.
Souterrains are sometimes found apparently independent of any enclosure and are also found in Early Christian ecclesiastical enclosures.
Places suitable for storage (constant cool temperature) and probably refuge (concealed).
Souterrains
Distribution probably reflects agricultural production of perishables requiring additional storage facilities prior to trade.
Souterrain complex
Donaghmore, Co. Louth
Smaller Souterrain
Newrath BigKellsCo. Meath
Dating
Earliest dates are from 7th or 8th century AD
Latest dates are from the 13th or 14th century AD (such as finds of medieval pottery from construction material).

Wooden example
Coolcran,Co. Fermanagh
Wooden souterrainoaks found that were dated to 822+/-9 AD
Dunisky, Co. CorkRock-cut souterrain
Crops
The parts of the landscape designated by the term faithche (basically lower ground) could contain tilled fields (gort).
Texts indicate that corn (ith), vegetables (lub) and orchards (aball) were known.
There was some hay (fer) but this may not have been fodder.
Also woad (glaisen) as a dye.
Achad and clúain refer to the fields used as pasture.
Corn-drying Kilns
The Irish climate is not suitable for drying cereals outdoors.
Long term storage is promoted by drying grains and cereals to prevent germination.
This is normally done in a drying-kiln, like this one from Derrysallagh 3 in Laois.

Drying kilns tend to have a hearth, flue and chamber.
Milling terms in early Irish texts
Milling terms in early Irish texts
Cup - hopper
Comla - sluice gate
Lind - dam
Oircel - chute
Bel in muillinn
- eye of the millstone
Lia - Upper millstone
Indeoin - Lower millstone
Fothach - wheelhouse
Sciatha - vanes
Milaire - pivot
Oirmtuid – gudgeon

Complex series of objects manufactured for mills.
Technology and Culture, Vol. 15, No. 2, Apr., 1974 The Horizontal Mills of Medieval Pistoia, pp. 194-225 John Muendel
Can parallel all of these in medieval Italian examples
Evidence for wooden objects
Paddles from the wheel often survive in the waterlogged undercroft of the mill.
Millstones
Amongst the largest stone objects manufactured during the early medieval period (certainly the largest secular objects)
Evidence of quarrying and selection for particular types of stone.
Cooking
The basic battery de cuisine involves the use of moist heat (boiling, blanching etc), direct heat (grilling in the flames) and indirect heat (roasting, baking etc).
Bread appears to made on the stones around a normal hearth.
Cooking
Roasting Pit – many such features are actually hard to identify!
Cooking
John Derricks woodcut (16th century)
Cooking: Giraldus Cambrensis
Cooking
We know some of the basics from illustrations such as the Book of Leinster (Feasting Hall at Tara).
Cooking equipment
Bir, Locht, Dabach and a Cant.
Cooking
Cooking spits are illustrated in a number of sources.
Burnt Mound v Fulacht Fiadh?

Cooking Spit
Cooking: Burnt Mounds
Spread of heat shattered stone.
Employ shallow fresh water wells to get water
Cherrywood, Site 3, County Dublin
What can they tell us?
Where the stones survive from the last use, we can gain some idea of how they were used…
Pit and spread of heat-shattered stone.
Killoran Site 26, Co. Tipperary.
Shows typical layout – shattered stone spread around the pit or trough.
Dates for Ireland

Plot showing the volume of stone required to raise the temperature of 1 litre of water by 1° C, relative to the temperature to which the stone was heated.

Production was not confined to cooking meat.
Cooking meat
Food production
The earliest dated text, is from the medieval Latin Life of St. Munnu.
The text dates to before the fifteenth century but is likely to derive from an early medieval tradition.
In a discussion of the ascetic lifestyle followed by the saint his diet is described as including unsieved flour, mixed in a basin with water, chaff and all, and cooked with fire-heated stones.
Keating’s account
'However, from Bealtaine until Samhain, the Fian were obliged to depend solely on the products of their hunting and of the chase … And it was their custom to send their attendants about noon with whatever they had killed in the morning's hunt to an appointed hill …

… and to kindle raging fires thereon, and put into them a large number of emery stones: and to dig two pits in the yellow clay of the moorland, and put some meat on spits to roast before the fire and to bind another portion of it with súgain in dry bundles, and set it to boil in the larger of the two pits, and keep plying them with the stones that were in the fire … until they were cooked. And these fires were so large that their sites are today in Ireland burnt to blackness, and these are now called Fulacht Fian by the peasantry.

Cooking in hides
A further recorded description is of how the 'meaner sort of people' on the Hebrides cook beef either in the hide, or in a water-filled dug-out trough to which hot stones are added (Burt 1754: 279).

Seething the flesh in the hide
In another episode, related by French, Irish soldiers on the continental mainland were using heated stones to cook in a water-filled bag as late as 1544.
This account may explain the reference in Spensers A View of the State of Ireland (from 1596) where he states that the northern Irish, like the Scythians, used to ‘seethe the flesh in the hide’. Fynes Morysons claim from his Itinerary, published in 1617, that the Irish ‘…seeth in a hollow tree, lapped in a raw cowes hide, and so set over a fier…’ may be a further, garbled, account of the same practice.
Tallow and grease
A further account, 'The Romance of Mis and Dubh Ruis', was written down in 1769, but is likely to be earlier in date.
As well as cooking, the tale of Mis and Dubh Ruis, mentions the use, or collection, of the grease from, boiling meat by this technique.
This process is also found among the Nunamiut and along the north-west coast of Canada.
Butter and cures
Butter production has been described as another potential function of hot stone technology. A modern account of an attempt to make soft cheese employing this technique is given in Wood (2000: 92), who dropped some heated stones into a pot of milk mixed with sour cream. Once this boiled the curds and whey separated and the mixture was sieved through rushes.
In his account of the use of the lapis hecticus, or white hectic stone, Martin Martin describes how the natives of Skye use these stones as a remedy by heating them and dropping them into milk and water which they then drink. He claims these drinks were a remedy against dysentery, diarrhoea and consumption.
In an account of a miracle by St. Senan, he is said to have taken hot stones from a kiln and dropped them into a drink as a curative. The use of stones to heat milk is also recorded on Cruit Island in Donegal in the late nineteenth century.
Brewing
In an account of the life of St. Lughiadh of Clonfert, he is described as brewing beer by immersing a red-hot iron in it. In 1906, the burnt mound process is recorded in use to manufacture Steinbier at Kärnten in Sweden.

Church, Reformation, Counter-reformation and Renaissance in Ireland

2009-03-12T07:19:00.000-07:00

Abbeys and Monasticism
Originates in 4th century AD, although there some Christian Orders of widows and virgins are mentioned in the New Testament.
Many of the early communities were Eremitic – i.e. the retreated from society to live as hermits and devote their time to prayer.
Western monasticism really follows Benedict writing what became the Rules of St. Benedict (although he doesn’t seem to have consciously intended to establish a monastic order).

Benedict
Written at his monastery in Cassino (the image is the first page of a manuscript copy).
Benedict promoted prayer and work.
He suggested the day and its activities should be properly and routinely organised.

Crusading, Orders, Church
From the 11th century, religious orders took on a more significant role.
With the onset of crusading as a political, economic and social force, the influence of the church increased dramatically.
Secular power, national identities and religion became intertwined.
Religious orders (like the Dominicans and Franciscans) preached crusade doctrine.
By the 1270s (when the crusades effectively ended) all of the ‘West’ was divided into collecting zones for regular clerical taxes, redemptions, donations, alms and legacies.
Crusading and indulgences…
Aug 1198: Pope Innocent III called the Fourth Crusade
1199: Political Crusade against Markward of Anweiler
Nov 1202: Venetians and Crusaders sacked Zara, a Christian port on the Dalmatian Coast
Apr, 1204: Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople
1208: Pope Innocent III called the Albigensian Crusade
Jul 1212: King Alfonso VIII of Castile expanded the Reconquista; King Sancho VII of Navarre won the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa
Crusading and indulgences…
Dec 1215: Pope Innocent III issued Ad liberandam calling the Fifth Crusade during the Fourth Lateran Council
Dec 1217: Fifth Crusaders attacked Mount Tabor
May 1218: Fifth Crusaders began the siege of Damietta
Aug 1221: Fifth Crusade, in the Nile Delta, surrendered
Jun 1228: Emperor Frederick II, King of Jerusalem through marriage to Isabell (Yolanda), sailed East on the Sixth Crusade
Feb 1229: Al-Kamil surrendered Jerusalem to Emperor Frederick II
1240s: Popes Gregory IX and Innocent IV called Political Crusades against Emperor Frederick II
1248: King Louis IX departed for the Holy Land on the Seventh Crusade
Jun, 1249: Louis reached Damietta
Apr, 1254: Louis departed the Holy Land
Crusading and indulgences…
1268: The Fall of Antioch
Jul, 1270: Louis IX's Last Crusade (Eighth Crusade); Louis died in Tunis
1271-2: Edward I on Ninth Crusade.
1289: The Fall of Tripoli
1291: The Fall of Acre
1302: Siege of Ruad
End of Outremer

Crusading and indulgences…
1147 – 15th century: German crusades
Oct 1307: King Philip IV supressed the Templars in France
1330-1523: Hospitallers continued crusade action from Rhodes
1334: Crusader navy defeated Turkish pirates in the Gulf of Edremit
1334-1402: Crusaders held the port of Smyrna
1365: Crusaders under Peter I of Cyprus sacked Alexandria
1396: Crusade of Nicopolis
1426: Egyptians gained control over Cyprus
Indulging…
Crusading continued to be a central feature of medieval society
Courtly gossip concerned possible crusade ventures
So did some academic and theological writing
Crusade taxes and sales of indulgences continued (even with actual crusades)
In England, 1444-1502, there 12 indulgence sales campaigns for crusades
One of the first printed documents – an indulgence form issues to Henry and Katherine Langley in 1476.
Orders set-up during the Crusades…
Cistercians (Cistercians of the Ancient Observance)- O.Cist./S.O.Cist (1098)
Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta (Order of Malta) - S.M.O.M. (1099)
Canons Regular Canons Regular of St. Augustine CRSA (1100)
Canons Regular of Premontre (Norbertines) (1121)
Teutonic Order (1190)
Trinitarians (Order of the Most Holy Trinity) - O.SS.T. (1194)
Camaldolese (Camaldolese Benedictines) - O.S.B. Cam. (1200s)
Hospital Sisters of the Mercy of Jesus (1200s)
Carmelites (Order of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel) - O.Carm., O.C.D., O.C.D.S. (1209)
Franciscan Friars (Order of Friars Minor) - O.F.M. (1209)
Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross (Crosiers) (1210)
Poor Clares (Nuns of the Order of St. Clare/(Order of Poor Ladies) - O.S.C. (1212)
Dominicans (Order of Friars Preachers) - O.P. (1216)
English Benedictine Congregation - O.S.B. (1216)
Mercedarians (Order of Our Lady of Mercy) - O. de M. (1218)
Adrian Dominican Sisters (1233)
Servites (Order of Friars, Servants of Mary) - O.S.M. (1233)
Celestines (defunct) (1244)
Pauline Fathers (Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit) - O.S.P.P.E. (1250)
Augustinians (Order of Saint Augustine) - O.S.A. (1256)
Later Orders…
Canons Regular of the Holy Cross OSC (1311)
Olivetans (Order of Our Lady of Mount Olivet) (1313)
Bridgettines (Order of Our Savior) - O.Ss.S. (1350)
Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular - T.O.R. (1447)
Alexians - C.F.A. (1469)
Oratorians (Oratory of St. Philip Neri) - C.O., Cong. Orat. (1500s)
Capuchins (Order of Friars Minor Capuchin) - O.F.M. Cap. (1520)
Theatines (Congregation of Clerics Regular) - C.R. (1524)
Barnabites (Clerics Regular of Saint Paul) - B., C.R.S.P. (1530)
Society of Jesus - S.J.or S.I. (1534)
Ursulines (Ursuline Nuns of the Roman Union) - O.S.U. (1535)
Angelic Sisters of St. Paul - A.S.S.P. (1535)
Capuchin Poor Clares (1538)
Adornos (Clerics Regular Minor) - C.R.M. (1563)
Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God (Order of Hospitallers) - O.H. (1572)
Discalced Augustinians - O.A.D. (1592)
Discalced Carmelites - O.C.D. (1593)
Jesuits (Society of Jesus) - S.J. (1540)

Religious Order: Cistercian example
Cistercians, Tintern, 1131.
Cistercians
The Order of Cistercian is sometimes called the White Monks (from the colour of the habit, over which a black scapular or apron is sometimes worn).
The first abbey founded by Robert of Molesme in 1098, at Cîteaux Abbey. Two others, Saint Alberic of Citeaux and Saint Stephen Harding, are considered co-founders, and Bernard of Clairvaux is associated with the fast spread of the order during the 12th century.

Santa Maria de Alcobaça
Founded 1178
Cistercians
Developed an organised system to selling their farm produce which contributed to the commercial progress of the countries of western Europe.
To the wool and cloth trade was especially fostered by them – led to Englands commercial prosperity.
Farming operations could not be carried out by the monks alone - lay brothers were introduced from the peasantry and were simple uneducated men, separate from the monks, but having their own fixed round of prayer and religious exercises.
It was by this system that the Cistercians disseminated their agricultural developments, playing their part in the progress of European civilisation.
Cistercians
According to Jean Gimpel, their high level of industrial technology facilitated the diffusion of new techniques: "Every monastery had a model factory, often as large as the church and only several feet away, and waterpower drove the machinery of the various industries located on its floor.“
Waterpower was used for crushing wheat, sieving flour, fulling cloth and tanning – a "level of technological achievement [that] could have been observed in practically all" of the Cistercian monasteries.
Nuestra Senora de Rueda(Our Lady of the Waterwheel
In Spain, one of the earliest surviving Cistercian houses – the Real Monasterio de Nuestra Senora de Rueda in the Aragon region – is a good example of early hydrologic engineering, using a large waterwheel for power and an elaborate hydrological circulation system for central heating.
Cistercians
Known to have been skilled metallurgists.
Their technological advances were transmitted by the order.
Became the leading iron producers in Champagne, from the mid-13th century to the 17th century, also using the phosphate-rich slag from their furnaces as an agricultural fertiliser.
Alain Erlande-Brandenburg claims that the quality of Cistercian architecture from the 1120s onwards is related directly to the Order's technological inventiveness. They placed importance on metal, both the extraction of the ore and its subsequent processing. At the abbey of Fontenay the forge is not outside, as one might expect, but inside the monastic enclosure: metalworking was thus part of the activity of the monks and not of the lay brothers. This spirit accounted for the progress that appeared in spheres other than building, and particularly in agriculture.
Fontenay
Founded by Bernard in 1118.
Included forge (see 19 and 20 on the plan).
Very wealthy in 12th and 13th century.
Medieval Dublin and Religious Orders
By the middle of the 11th century, the classical religious orders of Europe begin to appear in Ireland, such as the likely Benedictine foundation at Christchurch.
By this time, almost all of the orders favour urban locations.
In Ireland before this time, abbeys may even have had many of the functions of urban centres.
Dublin Abbeys and Priories
Benedictine house established by 1084, at an unknown site
St. Marys founded as a Savigniac house in 1139, became Cistercian in 1147
St. Mary de Hogges – Arroasian nuns, founded 1146
All Saints Priory founded 1162
Holy Trinity (Augustinians at Christchurch) – 1163
Kilmainham (Knights Hospitaller) – 1174
St. Thomas (Augustinians) – 1177
St. Saviours – Dominicans – 1218
Franciscans at Francis Street by 1233.

St. Marys Abbey (Chapterhouse)
Savigniac house in 1139, became Cistercian in 1147

St. Marys Abbey
In the early 1880s, seven feet beneath street level, the Chapter House of St Mary's Abbey was rediscovered under a bakery.
St Mary's was a large Cistercian Abbey founded by the Benedictines in 1139.
It was dissolved in the 1530s and then fell into disrepair.
After that the stones from the building were plundered for use elsewhere with stones being used in the construction of Essex Bridge.
St. Marys Abbey
The Chapter House is the sole remaining part of the complex and dates from 1190.
It used to be possible to lease it for meetings and it was here at a meeting of the Privy Council in 1534 that Silken Thomas Fitzgerald started his rebellion against the king. After hearing of his fathers execution, he flung down his sword of state and marched out to raise an army. Subsequently it transpired that his father had not been executed.
St. Marys Abbey
St. Marys Abbey
The Chapter House consists of a simple vaulted chamber with single light gothic windows in the west façade, now obscured by large clumsy light fittings mimicing windows.
In 1976, the stones of a section of cloister was excavated on a building site on Cook Street.
It is believed that they were removed there are the dissolution.
The section has been reassembled and can be seen above.
St. Marys Abbey
St. Marys Abbey

Reformation
1517 Johann Tetzel sold “indulgences” in Juterbog near Wittenberg
Martin Luther nailed “the 95 Thesis” on indulgences to the door of the castle-church in Wittenberg.
Symbolized the beginning of Reformation as a kind of “protest”
Reformation
Rise of Christian mystics and a parallel in the Christian humanists
The “inquisitions” against doctrinal heresy worsened the confrontation
Add in the issues of the church and money (e.g. indulgences) and attendant corruption
Dissatisfaction with the Church
And widespread discontent over political, economic and social charge

Reformation
Martin Luther educated at the University of Erfurt (his legal career was encouraged by his proud father)
Suddenly gave up and entered the Augustinian monastery at Erfurt
Obtained a Bachelor of Theology, Master of the Sentences, & licentiate in theology

Reformation
Martin Luther was summoned to Rome for a hearing, but his prince, Elector Frederick the Wise (Saxony), arranged for a hearing before a papal legate at Augsburg in 1518
Martin Luther tried to clarify his doctrines concerning indulgences

Reformation
1519 Dr. Johann Eck a Prof. of theology, debated the issues with Luther at Leipzig
He got him to state that the Bible was the sole authority in religious matter & that the papacy, the entire Church hierarchy, & even Church Councils were human & therefore, not infallible

Reformation
Published “Address to be Christian Nobility” (in German) widely read.
Argued a heretic should be overcome by arguments not fire. Reduced sacraments from 7 to 2 (the Lords’ supper & baptism)
Denied the doctrine of transubstantiation
April 18, 1521 Diet at Worms: “I cannot and will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. I cannot do otherwise, here I stand, may God help me, Amen.

Reformation in England
Henry VIII (b. 1491, r. 1509-47), in 1523, “Defender of Faith” claimed by the Pope but wished to ensure the continuation of the Tudor dynasty started by his father Henry VIII after the 30 year wars of the Roses.
1st wife was his deceased brother Arthurs’ wife, Catherine of Aragon
Anne Boleyn (mother of Elizabeth I), Jane Seymour (mother of Edward VI), Anne of Cleeves, Catherine Howard, Catherine Parr
Act of Supremacy 1534 declared King as "the only Supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England“
Treasons Act 1534 made it punishable by death, to refuse to acknowledge the King as such.
After excommunication, the Peter's Pence Act reiterated that England had "no superior under God, but only your Grace" and that Henry's "imperial crown" had been diminished by "the unreasonable and uncharitable usurpations and exactions" of the Pope.

Printing
Block printing method for printing on cloth, common by 1300.
Paper relatively easily available, around 1400
Small woodcut religious images and playing cards printed on paper, in very large numbers from about 1425 onwards.
Around the mid-century, block-books, woodcut books with both text and images, usually carved in the same block, emerged as a cheaper alternative to manuscripts and books printed with movable type. These were all short heavily illustrated works, the bestsellers of the day, repeated in many different block-book versions (Bibles).
Printing
Around 1450, Johannes Gutenberg introduced movable type to Europe, along with innovations in casting the type based on a matrix and hand mould.
Printing
Communal knowledge possible
Scientists could form distant communities
Page numbering and indexes invented and used
Standardization in form and spelling
Reading moves from communal to private activity

Printing
Authorship becomes more important and profitable.
Who wrote it becomes important
Early copyright and intellectual property laws established
Decline of Latin and move towards vernacular language use
Contributed to growing nationalism

Counter-Reformation
Ignatius of Loyola (1491? – 1556)
Army officer and Christian mystic
Spiritual soldier fighting for Mother Mary & Christ
1521, he was badly wounded & crippled for life
Jesuits – demanded strict education
+ complete suppression of all self-will,
+ absolute obedience to the General of the Order, & through him, to the Pope
1534 founded the Society of Jesus in Paris
1540 Pope Paul III constituted the Society of Jesus
Emphasis on education.

Council of Trent
From December 13, 1545, to December 4, 1563
Condemnations on what it defined as Protestant heresies
Defined Church teachings in the areas of Scripture and Tradition, Original Sin, Justification, Sacraments, the Eucharist in Holy Mass and the veneration of saints
Council of Trent: outcomes
Delegates addressed abuses
Reforms addressed corruption of clergy
Training of priests regulated
Financial abuses curbed
Sale of indulgences abolished
Rejected Protestants’ emphasis on self-discipline, individual faith
Argued church help believers achieve salvation using mystery, magnificent ceremonies to inspire faith
Practical Impact?
Council of Trent: outcomes
Flaithrí Ó Maolchonaire – wrote catechism based on Trent, including the pamphlet “De statu parvulorum sine baptismo decedentium ex hac vita juxta sensum beati Augustini”
Cillin
Renaissance: Why in Italy at this Time?
Revival of Commerce and Town Building was more intense in Italy
Feudalism had less of a grip on Italy
Two competing lords for control of Italy were losing influence
Presence of antiquity was stronger in Italy than elsewhere in Europe
European Economic Recovery
Dramatic recovery of European commerce
Important industries flourish in Northern Italy
The significance of printing and mining as new industries
The fifteenth-century banking empire of the Medici family in Florence
Renaissance Economics
Profit-making became more important than Church doctrine
To overcome guilt, profit-makers indulge in philanthropy
Influence of guilds declining
High profits led to economic diversification
Renaissance Economics
“Cottage Industry”
Art became the way to advertise economic success
Intensified commercial competition created the need to be efficient
Renaissance Society
Renaissance is an elitist historical phenomenon
Northern Italy was urban and commercial while Southern Italy mostly was not
Very family-oriented society
Marriages were frequently arranged to strengthen business ties
Renaissance Society
Father’s authority over his family
Some wealthy women played an important role in Italian city-states
--Isabella d’Este of Mantua
Concentration of wealth among great families
-- “populo grosso”
Renaissance Society
Extreme social stratification divided into factions around the wealthiest families
Poor increasingly attempting to improve their social status
--The Ciompi Revolt (1378)
-- “populo minuto”
“The Cult of the Individual”
Renaissance Society
Number of portraits painted during this era illustrates focus on the individual
A true nobleman
Growing humanism and secularism in a Christian context
Focus on man’s free will
Rewards for living excellently came in this life
Renaissance Politics
Same pattern and problems as those of the Greek city-states
Inter-city warfare led to new advances in diplomacy
-- “balance of power”
Northern Italian “communes”
The Peace of Lodi (1454)
Renaissance Politics
Rome, Venice, Milan, Florence, and the Kingdom of Naples
Renaissance Venice
Renaissance Florence
--Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-1492)
1300’s republicanism became 1400’s despotism—with the exception of Venice
Renaissance Politics
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
-- “The Prince”
The goal of the prince must be power
Cynical view of human nature
Fear is a better motivator than affection
Politics as the art of deception
Renaissance Politics (cont)
Ancient and contemporary examples of effective political leaders
--Cesare Borgia
A new realism in political thought
1400’s “Civic” humanism
Leonardo Bruni’s The New Cicero
Henry VIII as a Renaissance prince
Renaissance Art and Architecture
The proliferation of portraiture and its significance
The depiction of nudes
Nudity in medieval art
Imitation of nature was a primary goal
Pagan scenes and themes such as classical mythology were popular subjects with no apologies to the Church
Renaissance Art and Architecture
Boticelli’s “Birth of Venus”
Giotto’s admiration for Saint Francis
Status of artist is elevated to cultural hero
Renaissance art stressed proportion, balance and harmony—and was not otherworldly
Artistic problems of perspective and composition addressed
Renaissance Art and Architecture
These problems were solved by emphasizing the mathematical side of painting
--Brunelleschi’s “linear perspective”
Innovations in Renaissance painting
- “chiaroscuro” (bold contrasts affecting a whole composition)
- “sfumato” (overlaying translucent layers of colour to create perceptions of depth, volume and form)
Renaissance Art and Architecture
Differences between Italian and Northern European painting
--Italian frescoes vs. Northern European altar pieces
Jan Van Eyck’s oil paintings
Rome became the center of the High Renaissance (1480-1520)
Renaissance Art and Architecture
Raphael (1483-1520)
Man of great sensitivity and kindness
Died at the age of 37
“The School of Athens”
Famous for frescoes in the Vatican Palace
Renaissance Art and Architecture
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)
True Renaissance Man
Scientist, inventor, engineer and naturalist
Dissected Corpses
Short attention span

Renaissance Art and Architecture
Michelangelo
Neo-Platonist
Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
Conflict with Pope Julius II
Incredible energy and endurance
“Mannerism”

Renaissance Education and Philosophy
Humanistic age
Various types of humanism
Great fervor displayed in finding and collecting old documents
Leads to critical examination of documents
--Lorenzo Valla
Education produces moral uplift
Renaissance Education and Philosophy
A true liberal education
Humanist education for women
Love for the study of history most of all
A Greek language fad after 1454
Petrarch (1304-1374): the Father of Italian Renaissance humanism
Focus on the individual and his dignity
Spread of Humanism to the Rest of Europe
Popular publications in the early days of the printing press
Thomas More
--Utopia
--Executed by Henry VIII in 1535
Erasmus—Dutch Christian Humanist
Allowed a pan-European movement to begin
Ireland in the Renaissance? Rus et Urbes
Ireland is generally represented as a blank spot on the map for the Renaissance.
Broadly speaking this period, from the 14th century to the 16th century is characterised as barbarous.
Is this to misunderstand some of the broader patterns in Irish society, best exemplified by the presence of the rural and urban residences known as Tower Houses.
Urban houses
Newcastle Lyons
Urban houses: Dalkey
Tradition has it that there were seven castles in Dalkey (recorded in 1770).
It was the unofficial port for Dublin from the late 14th century when the mouth of the Liffey silted up.
Urban houses: Dalkey
Dalkey had begun to prosper in the early 14th century, although it had been in existence on lands owned by the archbishop since at least the mid-13th century.
It was never given a charter.
Dalkey
There were already 39 burgesses in Dalkey in 1326.
A 1385 petition by the Dublin merchants stated that: For want of deep water in the harbour there never has been anchorage for large ships laden with wine, iron or other commodities. All such anchor at Dalkey within six leagues of Dublin.
Dalkey
Dalkey was an expensive stopover – carriage to Dublin by horse and cart was some 10% of the cost of the goods.
Some ships were merely lightened on their way to Dublin.
Dalkey
In 1482 the archbishop was granted a market and the it was claimed Dalkey could muster 200 men-at-arms.
There were gates at the ends of the main street.

Dalkey
There was also a town ditch.
Some traces of a 2 m high bank and a defensive ditch survived around the town.
Dalkey
The full circuit is not clear today.
Dalkey
Of the seven castles, only two are visible today while the location of up to four others are also known (in 1770, one was inhabited, two were pubs, one had a roof, one was a stable, one part of an old cabin and one was demolished).
Of the two surviving castles, one is now the town hall.
Goat Castle, Dalkey
Name derives from the crest of the Cheevers family which was a demi-goat, although the name itself comes from Norman French ‘chevre’ which means goat.
Goat Castle, Dalkey
Garderobe in north wall (opposite corner from door).
Storage area below arch of vault.
Wall walk at roof level where there are two turrets and battlements.
Two machicolations projecting slightly beyond the battlements.
Possibly 15th century in date.
Archbolds Castle, Dalkey
Archbolds Castle is on the opposite side of the street to Goat Castle.
May have been the subject of a grant to a John Dongan in 1585 but probably never owned by the Archbolds.
Archbolds Castle, Dalkey
Vaulted at ground floor level with a storage area like Goat Castle.
Access to upstairs via an inter-mural staircase.
There is a large fireplace in the third storey.
Archbolds Castle, Dalkey
Wall-walk at roof level.
There is a single surviving turret.
Machicolations from the battlements protect the door.
Dublin walls (1904 reconstruction map)

John Speeds map of Dublin 1610
Dublin walls
Mural towers appear to have been built for the Viking town defences as the re-built gatehouse at the west of the town became known as the Newgate in 1177.
Certainly by 1190 there were payments for the building of the city walls.
By 1225 there were murage grants for fortifying the city.
Genevel’s Tower
On Ross Road to the west of the castle.
Measures 11.60 m by 6.40 m wide. Survived to first floor level.
Mural tower from early to mid-13th century.
Genevels Tower
Isolde’s Tower
Part of late 13th century extension to the walls.
Up to 4.70 m internal diameter, with 3.90 m thick walls.

Isolde’s Tower
Isolde’s Tower
Perrots 1585 survey of the walls and tower provides us the names assigned to them at that date.

Isolde’s Tower
Stanihurst relates that it was a ‘castle of pleasure of the king to recreat themselves therein…’
Tristan came from Dublin to bring his lover Isolde back to Cornwall. She was already engaged and Tristan was injured in a duel with her betrothed. She nursed him back to health.
Isolde’s Tower
Rural houses
In 1429, a statute of Henry VI decreed that a grant of £10 would be available to every man in the Pale who built a castle of stone by 1439
This should measure 20 ft by 16 ft and 40 ft high
This appears to be the origin of tower houses
Tower houses
True tower houses continued to be built into the 16th century and 17th century in various forms
They may have a surrounding bawn or defended enclosure
They incorporate features such as helical (spiral) staircases and intra-mural passages
Bagenal’s Castle,Newry
Built by Nicholas Bagenal in 1570s
Plans survive in Crown Records Office in Kew London
Ground Floor
First Floor
Second Floor
Top Floor
Excavation showed the 1570s ground plan to have a number of inaccuracies.
The real ground plan (below) suggests a tower house like Ballug, Roodstown or Termonfeckin in Louth (right)

The Early Medieval Landscape - Ringforts and Crannogs in Ireland

2009-03-10T08:35:00.000-07:00

Ringforts, Crannogs and the Early Medieval Landscape
(remember you can find lots of additional information at www.emap.ie)
• Due to the survival of extensive law tracts and historical texts we have detailed information on Irish society post-400 AD.
This means we can approach the archaeology of the period in various ways.
This lecture will look at the organisation of the landscape and its most visible settlement forms alongside the documented status of different social ranks.
This will begin by looking at the organisation of the landscape from open space (faithche) through to the ringforts and crannogs themselves.
Faithche
The term faithche is difficult to translate but means, roughly, a ‘green’.
All of the main royal residences have a faithche.
The faithche may contain a bile (sacred tree) and a lawn (airscar) which was used for ball-games (liathróite).
It is usually extended as far as a bell or the crowing of a cock could reach.
Faithche
The faithche could contain tilled fields (gort), hills (tulcháin), roads (slighti), margins (imli), recesses (cúla), hollows (cabána) and dark places (inada diamra).
Tilled fields named in text include corn (ith), woad (glaisen), vegetables (lub), orchard (aball) and hay (fer).
Achad and clúain refer to fields used as pasture.
Faithche
Its not necessarily enclosed.
It was normal practice for four low grade farmers to employ a co-operative agreement (comar) to contribute an ox each to a plough team. This implies large open fields.
Below is a wooden plough from Oakbank crannog in Scotland.
Field boundaries
Four types of field boundary are distinguished in law:
Corae (stone walls)
Clas (bank and ditch), with a bank (múr) and trench (clas)
Nochtaile (literally the bare fence)
Dairimbe (literally the oak fence), probably a hedgerow
Field boundaries
Corae (stone walls) are described as being of ‘three stones’ (probably meaning three courses) with a width of three feet and a height of four.
Another text implies three stones at the bottom, two above and one on top.
The tool used to build it is described as a socc (an iron lever).
The bank and ditch of a clas should be three foot high and three foot wide and deep.
Field boundaries
A nochtaile was a fence that was strong enough to keep out animals, both by its strength and also by closing gaps to prevent, e.g. young pigs, gaining entry.
It appears to be mainly woven panels of wicker or wattle, apparently toppped with blackthorn (like barbed wire).
Field boundaries
Part of agreements between different social grades would include the requirement to contribute to public labour project such as building trackways (such as the one below) and maintaining fencing and roadways.
Field boundaries
There do not appear to have been formal gates (geata is a late borrowing from English).
Some fences had styles of some sort (céim)
Other types of fence are wall are described in law tracts but their nature isn’t clear.

Cush, Limerick
Fields are described as having two long and two short sides.
The long side is described as three forrachs and the spear cast of a youth.
Its implied that crops are grown on a raised bed up to eight feet in width, or seven sods of the plough, with a drainage trench in-between.
Cush, Limerick
The real size of fields is unclear as the term forrach is not clearly understood and it’s value may have changed over time.
Calculation vary greatly from around 144 feet by 72 feet to ten times that size.
This makes it difficult to determine the standard farm size.
Ballyutoag, Antrim
The airlise
In An Críth Gabhlach, the airlise is defined as the distance of a spear-cast on every side of a les (lios or fort).
In land-holding inheritance, property was divided equally except that the oldest heir received the houses, les and airlise.
Cush, Limerick+The Spectacles, Limerick
In the case of a kings residence the airlise also contained an area of assembly.
A synod of clerics could also meet in his airlise.
Corofin, Co Clare
An airlise is generally considered as containing enclosures for grazing and cultivation.
A bóaire was a rank of farmer who was supposed to own a kiln (áith) and a barn (saball), both within the airlise.
Dóer
Some of the work carried out on this land (and beyond) employed slave labour (dóer).
A male slave was a mug and a female slave was a cumal.
St. Patrick herded livestock in woods and mountains in snow, frost and rain.
Dóer
Male slaves are often associated with wood-cutting and carrying.
Female slaves are often associated with milking, churning, other dairy-related activities and preparation of grain.
The Bethu Brigte (although later) indicates that as the daughter of a slave she was a hereditary slave (even though her father was actually her master).
Sanas Cormaic on female slaves
The tenth century Sanas Cormaic gives the origin of the term cumal as coming from a Latin phrase ‘cum mola’ meaning a quern.
He then states that it refers to ‘… the woman who grinds at the quern, for this is the work which female slaves used to do before water-mills were made.’
The collar on the right is from Lagore in County Meath.
Horizontal Mill: Raystown
Base of mills, as excavated at Raystown.
Reconstruction of Raystown c. AD 900 (Simon Dick for CRDS Ltd)
Ringforts and social grades
The various early laws that deal with status record three grades of king, four of nobility and either five or six grades of free independent farmer, according the Críth Gablach or Cáin Aicillne.
To this can be added the fuidir, in a legal sense a ‘semi-freeman’ or ‘tenant at will’.
Effectively the fuidir were also slaves as there was no limit on the work they must provide to a lord and did not have any meaningful legal status, but, unlike slaves, they could severe the relationship.
A bothach (cottier) had similar status but may have had their own residence (rather than one provided by their lord).
Both grades became senchléithe after 3 generations (permanently bound to the lord).
Freemen: ranks
Fer midboth – generally appears to be a male teenager with some legal status
Ócaire - farmer
Bóaire – a wealthier farmer
Mruigfer – the richer bóaire
Fer fotlai – an aspiring noble
Relationships are defined between lords and clients (céile) who provide services such as direct labour or food-rent in return for land, legal protection, livelihoods (e.g. cattle) etc. Sometimes a clients fief became his property after 7 years (when he became ‘free’ client rather than a ‘base’ client).
But which grade built the ringforts and crannogs?
Nobles
The flaith (cheiftains, nobles, lords etc) did not carry out any manual work and were divided into seven levels
Aire déso
Aire echta
Aire ardd
Aire tuise
Aire forgill
Tanaiste rí
King (Rí).
Kingship furthermore is divided into three classes:
of one tuath (tribe or kingdom)
three to four tuaths
overking.
Ócaire
Ócaire: lowest grade of farmer:
Expected to own land equivalent to seven cumals.
A cumal was a unit of measurement used in the early Irish law texts (e.g. An Críth Gabhlach, Uraicecht Becc etc). Technically, a cumal was a female slave, but the value equalled three milch (i.e. dairy) cows.
Had only one oxen and needed to make co-operative arrangements for ploughing (and needing later legal recourse to his lord to resolve disputes).
Ócaire
Ócaire:
Carried out all the regular farm-work himself with his family.
May have also joined in co-herding agreements.
His food-rent included live animals, meat, grain, malt, bread, milk, milk-products and vegetables (a king and the church also had certain rights).
He also had to provide fixed tasks, such as joining reaping parties, wolf patrols, road works or helping build ramparts.
A man could have contracts with up to three lords.
Ócaire
An ócaire is unlikely to have been able to afford to build or live in a ringfort.
The construction of ramparts appears to be connected to the status of clientship.
Thus only freemen who had clients are likely to have had ringforts built as it was a duty of clientship to construct the bank and ditch which were the privilege of a ‘lord’.

Bóaire?
Bóaire (and similar grades like the mruigfer):
Expected to own land equivalent to 21 cumals.
Possessed his own plough team (and so didn’t need recourse to his lord to resolve disputes).
He should own his own kiln and barn and have a share in a horizontal mill.
He still provided all of the same dues to his lord as part of his clientship, although he may have been able to substitute others for him in direct labour if he was rich enough (e.g. a mruigfer).
Bóaire?
Bóaire (and similar grades like the mruigfer):
Should have a sheep-pen (sometimes implied to be a square structure).
A calf-pen
A pig-sty
Given the requirements on a bóaire it seems quite likely that they may have lived in a ringfort, although some commentators would contend that only actual nobles could construct a ringfort (due to the issue of vassalage).
Ringforts, a brief introduction
Normally considered to be dwelling places
Circular earth and stone structures that houses and huts were built within
Some had defensive features but they were residences and were not primarily built to withstand sieges or attack.
Only built to withstand small raiding parties until nearby help arrived
Ringforts (and cashels)
Banks made from ditch material– or ‘cashel’ walls from stone
Could have been used for controlling and protecting livestock– Rustlers– Predators
Enclosure was clearly a status symbol– Early Irish law indicates that a base client had to build and maintain the ‘Dún’ of his flaith (lord)
Enclosing the home: a territorial and privacy statement
Some protection from the elements
Ringfort distribution
Up to c. 50,000 ringforts known from maps and field survey
Most numerous archaeological monument in Ireland
Many still highly visible
M Stout believes broadly representative of Early Medieval settlement patterns in Ireland
Survival might have been greater in medieval Gaelic regions
Tradition, beliefs and superstition: ‘fairy forts’
Some studies of cropmarks in Leinster demonstrate destruction prior to OS c. 1840
Some of the best soil areas have low density of ringforts
Less common in mountainous areas
Ringforts: size matters
What is the due of a king who is always in residence at the head of his túath?
Seven score feet [43m] of perfect feet are the measure of his [internal] stockade on every side.
Seven feet [2m] are the thickness of its earth—work, and twelve feet [4m] its depth.
It is then that he is a king, when ramparts of vassalage surround him.
What is the rampart of vassalage?
Twelve feet [4m] are the breadth of its opening and its depth and it measure towards the stockade.
Thirty feet [9m] are its measure outwardly.
From Irish law text Crith Gablach c. 700AD

NB This may only be relevant for nobles not lower grades.
Ringforts: size matters
Irish law was schematic and probably aspirational rather than being strictly adhered to.
These measurements do conform [broadly] with the archaeological evidence
The average ringfort has an internal diameter is c. 30m
Some of those at royal centres like Rathcroghan are very much larger
Cashels (stone ringforts) tend to be smaller
Crannogs tend to be smaller, like cashels, while producing quite high status finds.
Ringforts
Univallate (i.e. one enclosing bank).
Example here is from Killyliss in Tyrone.
May be referred to as lios (also les) or dún in early sources.
It’s unclear which grade built these univallate sites.
Carn More, County Louth(from www.nra.ie)
Typical univallate ringfort (with souterrain) during partial excavation.
Ringforts
Bivallate (i.e. two enclosing banks).
Example here is from Lisnageeha in Tipperary.
Note the scale of the central area.
These are probably more clearly identified with term dún in early sources and are noble residences.
Ringforts
Multivallate (i.e. more than two enclosing banks).
Example here is from Garranes in Cork.
These are undoubtedly noble or royal residences.
Ringforts
Platform or raised ringfort
Example here is from Rathmullan in Down.
Note that the top of the ringfort is quite small.
Some have been excavated but their status is unclear.
Crannog?
How do they fit in?
Name derives from Irish word ‘crann’ meaning a tree (referring to the wooden elements of a ‘crannog’).
The terms ‘inis’ and ‘oilean’ are also found in texts (usually pre-9th century). Both mean island and often refer to crannogs.
Ballydoolough
Crannog dates
Ringfort/Cashel/Crannog chronology
Radiocarbon and dendrochronology dates from various sites used to provide general date range but all three of these site types are in use at the same time.
Most ringforts and cashels were constructed between 600-900AD (i.e. mainly pre-Viking)
Some were occupied through to the end of the Middle Ages
Status of crannogs?

Defence or Status Residence?
Ringforts: interior - Caherconnell
Hard to determine status of cashel sites.
Moynagh Lough
Moynagh Lough crannog
Occupied from as early as the Mesolithic
Major phase of occupation from around the 7th or 8th century AD.
Includes evidence for rich finds including metalworking areas.
Two houses found were 24 and a half feet and thirty-six feet in diameter.
Moynagh Lough
Various texts describe what building should be within the farmyard (lios) which we should probably equate to a ringfort or crannog.
The information given for a mruigfer and bóaire includes a house with diameter of 27 feet and an outhouse with a a diameter of 17 feet.
These correlate to the known dimensions of some early medieval houses.
Moynagh Lough
A mruigfer and bóaire should also own many objects including:
A cauldron with spit
A vat for brewing beer
Mugs
Kneading troughs
A tub
Washing-vessels
Various farming tools
Farming equipment
He should always have a candle in a candle-holder and a fire burning all the time.
Craigywarren, Co. Antrim
Typical finds from the residence of a mruigfer or bóaire?

Craigywarren crannog, Co Antrim
Moynagh Lough
The houses of lords are only slightly larger than that of a mruigfer.
An Aire Déso had a house of 27 feet similar to a mruigfer.
The highest non-king grade of noble (Aire Forgill) had a house of thirty feet in diameter (with eight cubicles).
The house of a king should be thirty-seven feet in diameter (like Moynagh Lough) and with twelve bed cubicles.
Lower grade housing
An ócaire was supposed to have a house of nineteen feet diameter with an outhouse of thirteen feet (where his food-rent was divided up).
Texts also distinguish another grade of house, the tech nincis, which (in the instance described) was provided for a fosterson who undertakes the work of an elderly landowner who had no family support.
Lower grade housing
The tech nincis was:
Seventeen feet in diameter
Constructed of wattle from the ground level to the roof pinnacle
From the level of the lintel (i.e. top of the door) there was a layer of feathers between every second band of wattling (apparently between the wattling and the reeds or thatch)
There were two doorways – one to the outside and one to a larder (cuile).
Half of the interior seems to have been a bed cubicle whilst the other half was paved.
Deer Park Farms, Antrim(during excavation)
Some houses were around 17 ft in diameter
‘…constructed of wattle from the ground level to the roof pinnacle’
Deer Park Farms
Collapsed wattle extended above the height of the door and became the roof.
Deer Park Farms
Note wall cavity between inner and outer wicker panels.
Central hearth is also present.
Deer Park Farms
These houses were dated to the seventh century AD and appear to represent a tech nincis as described in the early texts.

An ócaire was supposed to have a house of nineteen feet diameter with an outhouse of thirteen feet (where his food-rent was divided up).

Deerpark Farms, Co. Antrim
Ringfort 25m in diameter (i.e. relatively low status)
Stone-paved entrance at E directly to door of main 7m building from 8th century AD. The size of the building is quite small for a grade like mruigfer.
Visitors to the lios are directed into a main public space like a parlour.
Figure of 8 layout: also known from ritual sites and conjoined Iron Age burial sites but does it represent the two distinct houses of differing diameters required by freemen of particular grades.
Inside the Ringfort: Case Study of Deerpark Farms, Co. Antrim
Deerpark Farms: unusual preservation of internal structures
Site became waterlogged: anaerobic preservation of organic materials – especially wooden structures
Evidence for c. 25 houses within central area (but only a handful standing at any one time)
Collapsed old house roofs, frames, walls etc. were left in situ and new ones built above these
Site became elevated as a result of this: like a ‘tell’ site
Water table rose and preserved organic material similar to what is normally uncovered at a crannog.

An ócaire was supposed to have a house of nineteen feet diameter with an outhouse of thirteen feet (where his food-rent was divided up).

Or is it a tech nincis:
There were two doorways – one to the outside and one to a larder (cuile)?

Not the residence of a mruigfer or bóaire (the houses are two small) or an ócaire (too rich).
Is it occupied by a number of ócaire?

Bivallate Ringfort at Hughes’ Lot East, Cashel, Co. Tipperary
Approximately 18% of ringforts are bivallate
Whilst the status of the univallate sites is unclear, multivallate sites, starting with bivallate ringforts are undoubtedly the preserve of nobles.
They also tend to be spaced further apart (as you would expect if the rely on local ‘clients’).
Early medieval landscapes
Study of overlapping ‘visual territories’ in Braid Valley in County Antrim
All ringforts were in this study had visual ‘contact’ with at least one other– Some with as many as 17 others
Does this suggest their positioning is co-ordinated?
Ringforts, landscape and society
South-west midlands model based on results of detailed study (by Matt Stout).
High status bivallate ringforts lie close to church centre
Provides focus and possible defensive support for smaller upland (univallate) ringforts
Large but lesser status multi-functional ringforts are focus for other clusters of low status ringforts
And might provide resources or specialist services (e.g. metalworking) for high status site
Ringfort size, number of enclosures, distance from others, proximity to important facilities (e.g. church or road), artefacts produced etc. said to represent hierarchical society
Ringforts, landscape and society
Study of Clogher ringforts (Tyrone) and environs again noted proximity of ‘royal’ ringfort to church, major roads, and rivers
Like Early Irish Law: very schematic model
But accords well with early texts and with ringfort and church distribution studies
Prior to Vikings Irish economy and settlement was overwhelmingly rural
And dispersed farmsteads rather than villages
Or ‘dispersed villages’

Chepstow Castle

2009-03-05T12:07:00.000-08:00

Norman Castles, Anglo-Norman Ireland and the crisis of the 14th century.

2009-03-05T11:06:00.000-08:00

Norman Castles, Anglo-Norman Ireland and the crisis of the 14th century.

The First Castles
The first buildings in England that are often classed as castles are actually Roman/Saxon Shore Forts.
These were constructed during the first to third centuries AD.
Ten were built between Hampshire and Norfolk and parts of most of them still survive (eg Portchester below).
Portchester
Main walls date from 3rd and 4th century AD (from the Roman Fort Portus Adurni).
The walls form a 180m by 180 m square and were substantially repaired in the mediaeval period).
14, of an original 20, hollow semi-circular bastions survive.

Portchester
In the north west corner of the fort is a mediaeval castle built during the reign of Henry II (1154-1189), moated to the south and east.

Portchester
The keep extends beyond the Roman walls, and is 40 ft. square with walls 8 ft. thick, originally of three storeys, a fourth was added in the thirteenth century. Other buildings erected in fourteenth and seventeenth century are now in ruins.

Pevensey
Others, like Pevensey (Anderita), were still in use during the Second World War. Other stone fortifications guarded the borders with Wales and Scotland, the most impressive being Hadrian's Wall.

Norman Castles
The first medieval castles to be built in England were constructed in the middle of the 11th century by Edward the Confessor and followed the pattern being developed by the Normans in France.
These mottes, were up to 100 feet in height and could be a natural feature or an artifical mound of earth (or both).
A keep, protected the top and another surrounded the motte and some adjacent land forming the bailey.
Few pre-conquest castles have been identified, such as Richard's Castle in Herefordshire, Burford/Tenbury motte and Ham Castle .
Richard's Castle
1052: Thought to take it’s name from Richard son of Scrob or Scrope, a Norman favourite of Edward the Confessor. Richard had settled in Herefordshire by 1052.
1086: First mentioned in the Domesday Survey under the name of Aureton (modern day Orleton). The church of Orleton is only 2 miles South of Richard’s Castle.
Richard’s Castle
In 1962-4 excavations were carried out by the University of London, identifying 5 periods of construction:
Motte and bailey dating from c 1050-1
12th century octagonal tower, 50ft in diameter with walls 2ft thick. This survives to the height of the first floor.
Early-13th century curtain wall and a large square residential tower on the Eastern curtain wall.
Late-13th century curtain wall thickened in places. The Northwestern side being completely rebuilt and furnished with semicircular wall towers.
Post-Invasion
Immediately after the invasion in 1066, the Normans commenced a massive programme of castle building to protect themselves and local supporters while they advanced across the rest of the country.
These initially were motte and bailey designs, and were predominantly constructed of wood.
The earliest keeps were generally circular (matching the shape of the top of the motte), but rectangular or square ones became more popular as it was easier to construct living accommodation inside.
Typical motte and bailey layout
Mottes
Bayeux Tapestry showing the motte at Hastings being built.
Mottes
Illustrated on the Bayeux Tapestry
Note apparently circular wooden structure.
Mottes
Another from the Bayeux Tapestry
Note the circular wooden structure.
Post-Invasion
Some later mottes such as Totnes Castle (pictured left) are believed to have been started with stone defences. Totnes dates to 1086 or slightly later.
Post-Invasion
Some of these early castles still remain but many were abandoned as the invasion progressed.
Those that did survive have been extended over the years but the remainder either have vanished altogether or just a motte still stands.
The motte & bailey design was the standard defence of the 11th and 12th century, but the shell keep, a much larger keep on a lower motte into which most of the accommodation could be fitted became more common in the 12th century.
Mottes and shell keeps
Gisors in Normandy.
Built by Henry I of King of England and Duke of Normandy.
Consisted of a rectangular keep on top of the motte with an outer wooden palisade (replaced with a stone chemise in 1161)
Restormal Castle (Cornwall)
Motte and bailey style castle, first built c.1100.
Surrounded by a deep, wide moat.
Unusual huge circular shell keep encloses the principal apartments of the castle.
A larger keep on a lower motte is more common by the 12th century.
Post-Invasion
After the invasion was complete there was time for more extensive defences to be built up in the most important cities.
By 1085 there were approximately 100 well defended fortifications built both by the king and his Barons.
Wood was readily available across most of the country but is not the ideal defence because of its flammability so existing structures were rebuilt in stone over the next 100 years.
One of the best examples of this is the Tower of London.
The White Tower (London)
The White Tower was originally referred to as the Great Tower.
The White Tower (London) 1597
The White Tower
The Tower was originally built as timber Motte and Bailey castle shortly after the Norman Invasion of 1066.
The timber structure was replaced by a massive stone keep.
The stone building was started in 1078 and completed in 1097 (by Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester).
The White Tower
Caen stone was used to decorate the window surrounds and other features.
The rest is built with Kentish ragstone.
Of the four stone turrets, three are square and one is circular.
The White Tower (London)
The White Tower was self contained: it included a chapel (The Chapel of St John) designed in a Romanesque style.
It was also provided with a well so that it could withstand a siege.
By the late 1100s the Tower was surrounded by an outer curtain wall and moat.
Stone keep with an outer curtain wall became the favoured layout.
Rochester Castle
Originally a motte and bailey founded by William the Conqueror (within the walls of the Roman Durobreve).
In 1088-9, Gundulf, bishop of Rochester founded the stone enclosure castle, when replacing the timber defences with an irregular curtain wall.
In 1127, William de Corbeil, archbishop of Canterbury added the square four storey keep, which is defended by a tall protruding forebuilding.
Rochester Castle
In 1215, when garrisoned by rebel barons, the castle endured dramatic seven week siege by King John, when the stronghold was breached by mines which collapsed part of the curtain wall and the adjacent tower of the keep.
King Henry III and King Edward III made repairs to the castle, which remained a viable fortress in the 15th century.
Post-Rochester Castle Siege
Circular keeps continued in use to the middle of the 12th century as they had no weak corner spots that could be undermined.
The disadvantage was the difficulty of building living space inside, but to overcome this a few were circular on the outside but square on the inside.
There was an outbreak of castle building during the first Civil War between 1135 and 1154 when over eleven hundred fortifications were built. Almost all were demolished after hostilities ended and little remains of them.
Afterwards castle-building was mainly a royal pre-rogative.
Barbicans
As designs slowly evolved the emphasis was towards refurbishment as much as new buildings.
The preference was to heighten walls which were also well fortified with towers.
The keep began to lose its importance and was often replaced by a tall strong gatehouse - a barbican.
The towers then were placed closer together and were more numerous.
For additional protection some were built on a hill or a rocky crag and outer baileys with additional walls.
Concentric structures
As the next stage towers were added to provide a concentric structure where a breach in the outer wall could still be defended from an inner defensive structure e.g. Pembroke & Beeston castles.
Additional baileys protected with walls were also added to existing castles such as Corfe and Chepstow.
Pembroke Castle
Pembroke
In 1093 Earl Roger of Montgomery built a timber castle.
Two sieges were successfully resisted and the strategic importance of the castle grew as Pembroke became the base for the Normans' campaigns in Ireland.
In 1189 William Marshal became Earl of Pembroke. Over the next 30 years he transformed Pembroke into a powerful stone fortification.
Pembroke
According to legend an Irish bishop had put a curse on William Marshal saying that all his sons would die childless.
The castle eventually passed into the hands of William de Valence, a half-brother of Henry III who became Lord of Pembroke through his marriage to Joan, granddaughter of William Marshal.
The Valence family held the castle for 70 years and strengthen it by building the walls and towers around the outer ward.
The castle later passed through marriage into the hands of the Hastings family.
Beeston Castle (Cheshire)
Beeston Castle
Beeston was built by Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester.
Described as Castellum de Rupe.
One of two major castles built by Ranulph in the 1220s, shortly after his return from the 5th Crusade, the other being Bolingbroke in Lincolnshire.
Beeston Castle
Unlike many other castles of the period, Beeston does not have a motte as its last line of defence.
Instead the natural features of the land together with massive walls, strong gate houses, and carefully positioned towers made the baileys themselves the stronghold.
Beeston Castle
Defences consist of two parts: a small inner bailey, or fortified wall, on the summit of the hill with a 9 m deep defensive ditch cut into the rock; an outer bailey was built on the lower slopes, with a massive gatehouse protected by a 3 m deep ditch.
Corfe Castle
Pre-Norman earthworks may have been present.
In the 11th century the stone hall was constructed along with an inner bailey wall.
Corfe was one of King John’s favourite castles. Between 1199 and 1216 he added a great many defences. During his troubled reign the castle was often used as a prison, where many prisoners met their deaths.
John also turned Corfe Castle into a comfortable royal residence.
This picture dates from 1643.
Corfe Castle
Corfe Castle
Chepstow Castle
Construction began within months Hastings, when William fitz Osbern was made Earl of Hereford.
Chepstow was granted to the de Clare family about 1115, but no new construction was done until the castle, until Isabella de Clare married William Marshall (Strongbows daughter).
He added of two towers to the vulnerable east end of the castle which was greatly augmented by the further additions by 4 of his 5 sons between 1219 and 1245.
These improvements included the lower ward with its gatehouse on the east end and the upper ward on the west end with two separate battlemented residential towers. The west end of the Great Tower was heightened as well.
Chepstow Castle
The Marshall brothers all died childless by 1245 and the families holdings were thus divided among the sisters.
The eldest, Maud, received Chepstow which she passed upon her death to son Roger Bigod II, the Earl of Norfolk. While the Earl's interests were elsewhere, his son Roger Bigod III was very interested in his Marcher lordship when he inherited Chepstow in 1270.
The lower ward of the castle received an enlarged curtain tower and a major residential range, the west end was strengthened further with the barbican gatehouse, and the Great Tower was further embellished. Bigod's numerous building projects left him in debt and Chepstow passed to the king upon his death in 1306.
Chepstow Castle
Development of Chepstow
Chepstow Castle: 1067-75
Chepstow Castle: c. 1200
Chepstow Castle: c. 1219-45
Chepstow Castle: c. 1270-1300

Medieval Castles in Ireland
Surviving medieval castles are relatively rare in Ireland.
The pattern largely follows that of England with mottes, keep castles then shell keeps and castles.
As in England and Wales, baronial output diminishes as castle-building becomes a royal prerogative.
The majority of the surviving buildings are actually late medieval tower houses.
Early Castles
A number of early structures are claimed as castles.
Historical records refer to a number of ‘castles’ that pre-date 1169.
These appear to be earthwork castles not unlike ‘mottes’.
Mottes
The map shows mottes erected by the Normans in Ireland after 1169 and mainly before 1220.
From quite early on, natural outcrops or earlier earthworks were modified for use as mottes.
There are at least 456 known in Ireland although these are mostly in Leinster and east Ulster.
Motte: Clonard, Co. Meath
Date to late 12th to 13th century AD
Earthwork castles built by the Normans
Clonard was erected c 1177 under the direction of Hugh De Lacy when the Normans occupied the area

Glascarrig, Co. Wexford
Norman Stone Fortesses
The first phase of castle construction in Ireland was from 1175 to 1210-1220 when the royal castles begin to be constructed.
This phase of castle building ends around 1310.
The earliest castles built in the first phase were constructed by a handful of powerful knights, such as Hugh de Lacy (who built Trim, opposite) and John de Courcy (who built Carrickfergus), or families like the Marshalls.
Carrickfergus Castle
Built on a rock promontory in Belfast Lough
Carrickfergus Castle
Built by John de Courcy from 1178 onwards
It wasn’t conceived as a single project and it appears to have evolved during construction
The first phase effectively represents the same principles as a motte and bailey.
Carrickfergus
The earliest phase at Carrickfergus dates to 1178-1200
By 1200, there was a keep, a hall and an outer precinct wall on the rock promontory
There is a fresh water well within the keep
Yellow stone (Cultra stone) used to decorate openings
Carrickfergus
The ground plan and investigations have indicated that the initial construction plan was modified considerably before it was completed
The base of the keep is not square and the Cultra stone was only added in mid-construction
Carrickfergus
The original construction may not have included the hall
The outer precinct wall appears to include two phases with the keep only raised after an initial wall was built
De Courcy may have started with a simple stone-walled enclosure for protection and only proceeded to develop the castle when his position was secure
Carrickfergus
Second major construction campaign saw an enlarged outer ward added in 1215-1223 (after Rochester demonstrated the flaws of an exposed keep)
The works provided additional protection to the keep and hall

Carrickfergus
Final major construction campaign saw a second outer ward added in 1225-1250 with a gate house
The were some later modifications in the 14th century, 16th century, 17th century and 19th century.

Dundrum, Co. Down
Begun by John de Courcy between 1177 and 1203
It incorporates a series of phases
It appears to have been preceded by a ringwork
There is a circular keep that seems to have replaced an earlier building
Dundrum Castle (Co. Down)
Dundrum, Co. Down
Published plans (e.g. above right) of Dundrum appear to be inaccurate as they do not include a pre-keep structure (that is visible) and both towers of the gate house (which appear on maps)
Originally Dundrum was laid out like Carrickfergus with an engaged keep (i.e. attached to the curtain wall).
Circular keeps
Nenagh Castle, Co. Tipperary built by Theobald Walter, head of the Butler family between 1200 and 1220.
Nenagh
At Nenagh the keep was part of the original perimeter of the castle.
Circular Keeps: Nenagh
Many keeps now show as great a concern for display and comfort as security
Nenagh has an ornate Romanesque doorway and large fireplaces
Nenagh Castle
Trim Castle
Built between 1210 and 1220 on the site of an earlier ringwork by Hugh de Lacey
It was linked by the River Boyne to his other major holdings at Drogheda and Dublin.
Trim Castle, Co. Meath
As part of a major conservation plan it was fully excavated
This identified that it had been preceded by a ringwork
It also showed how it had been designed and set out for construction
Keep-curtain separation reflects contemporary thinking on defense.
Towered Keeps
Built by William Marshal the elder and William Marshal the younger from 1207 to 1225 (Carlow, Ferns, Lea in Laois and Terryglass in Tipperary)
Each has a rectangular keep with circular corner towers
Ferns, Co.
Wexford

Ferns Castle
Royal Castles
Two major royal castles were built in Ireland shortly after 1210
Both gateways had twin D-shaped towers
These had an open plan without a free-standing great tower or keep
This type of castle had been recently developed in France and Wales
Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle
On 30th August 1204, King John commanded the erection of a strong castle for the defence of the city, administration of justice and safe custody of treasure.
The construction of Dublin Castle was completed by 1230
Henry de Londres, Justiciar and Archbishop of Dublin, is credited with this achievement
Limerick Castle
Plan from 17th century Pacata Hibernia
Limerick Castle

Limerick Castle
Mid-13th century Castles
Knights and Barons continued to build castles into the 13th century such as Castleroche in Louth shown below.
Castleroche, Co. Louth
Believed to have been built by Rohesia de Verdun in 1236
Exhibits a twin D-shaped gatehouse
Has one projecting tower
Incorporates a large hall

Castleroche, Co. Louth
View of Hall and Gatehouse from the south-east
Gatehouses
Almost all late-12th and early to mid-13th century castles have elaborate gatehouses, generally these are twin-towered
In some cases the main keep or hall is located at some distance from the gatehouse (e.g. Carrickfergus) in others it is located immediately behind the gatehouse (e.g. Castleroche)
Gatehouses
By the mid-13th century the defences of castles become more developed and the focus moves from the keeps to the curtain walls and the gate-towers
Examples built at this time are shown here
Fourteenth century Europe
After Romans, Europe’s population decline meant fewer food producers, therefore less food surplus.
Urban life went into decline.
Centralised authority collapsed.
Long distance trade vanished.
Arts and sciences went into decline.
Epidemics were frequent but became less virulent as humans adapted.
Population slowly began to increase around 1000AD.
Feudal Europe: a brief summary
Hierarchical system based on landholding as vassals held land from lords in return for services.
At the lowest level peasants provided labour in return for land (and stability).
At the top level stronger kings carved out kingdoms for themselves.
Stability, agricultural improvements and a food surplus supported the re-emergence of urban life.
Craft industries and trades became controlled by urban guilds.
Urban dwellers (bourgeoisie) then emerged as a new middle class.
Population numbers increased until disease intervened again in the mid 14th century.
The Crusades
The Crusades and events elsewhere in Eurasia brought diverse population groups into contact with each other.
This appears to have contributed to the re-emergence of epidemics in Europe.
It brought dense population centres which could support endemic diseases into contact with each other.
Pre-existing Conditions
War – Civil War in China 1205-1353
Little Ice Age at beginning of the 13th century
The Great Famine between 1315-1322 in Northern Europe
Typhoid Epidemic
Pestilence, maybe anthrax, hit the animals of Europe in 1318
These contributed towards increasing unemployment, further famine from decrease in food production (and producers) and disease
China
30-40 per cent of the army at the north-west frontier killed by epidemic in AD 161-162.
98 per cent of the population in Shaanxi province in north-west were killed by an epidemic 310-312; 20-30 per cent killed 10 years later over a wider area. Probably smallpox or measles hitting a virgin population.
Bubonic plague not mentioned until 610. By 642 it was common in coastal areas in Guangdong, suggesting ship origin.
By 8th century Chinese population had declined to three quarters what it had been.
Mercenaries had to be hired to defend frontiers.

India & Mesopotamia
India degenerated into petty warring states in the 7th century; captured by Moslems around 1000 AD.
Mesopotamia does not appear to have been too badly affected by diseases before 600, suggesting it was the source for the epidemics in other areas.
Population declined from about 600 onwards. May have been due to bubonic plague.
Captured by Moslem Arabs in 651.

Other Developments
Mongols (Genghis Kahn) established a massive empire running from Eastern Europe, through Mesopotamia, across central Europe to China. Silk road re-opened and other routes through steppes opened.
Genoese opened the Straits of Gibraltar to Christian shipping in 1291. Mediterranean was connected by ship to northern Europe.

Black Death
The Black Death is widely assumed to have been bubonic plague.
One theory suggests that Mongol troops who invaded the Himalayan source in 1253 brought it back to Mongolia, from where it spread underground across the steppes.
However, there is no evidence of plague amongst Mongols in 13th century.
Chinese records record no plague before 1331. Believed that this outbreak was transmitted by Mongols across Asia.
There is suggestive evidence of 14th century population losses amongst Mongols – e.g. driven out of China; steppes depopulated by 16th century.

The Black Death
The Black Death is thought to have entered Europe via a siege at Kaffa in the Crimea in 1347.
Supposedly transmitted by Geonoese to Constantinople and on to Italy.
Impact geographically uneven (cf. Milan and Rome).
Males, adults and more affluent more vulnerable. Theory that this may be related to iron in the diet.
Further epidemics in 1360s and 1370s. Intermittent for next 300 years.

Consequences for Population
1348:
Gaza: 10.000 dead
Aleppo: 500 dead per day
Damascus: 1000 dead per day
Syria: total of 400.000 dead

Lower mortality rate in the Middle East of less than one third of population
Black Death
Three Forms of the Disease

Bubonic Plague: painful lymph node swellings, buboes
Septicemic Plague: also called “blood poisoning”, attacked the blood system
Pneumonic Plague: attacked the respiratory system

Black Death
Illustration from the Toggenburg Bible, 1411
The Bubonic Plague
Painful lymph node swelling, called buboes
In groins and armpits
Oozing pus and blood
Damage to the skin and underlying tissue
Dark blotches = acral necrosis  Black Death!
The Bubonic Plague
A plague victim reveals
the telltale buboe on
his leg. From a 14th
Century illumination.
Symptoms of the bubonic Plague
Swellings “egg  apple”
Fever of 101-105 degrees F
Headaches and Aching joints
Nausea and vomiting (of blood)
General feeling of malaise
Swellings expanding until they burst  death following soon after
Whole process: 3-5 days
NB: People who didn’t develop swellings invariably died. People with swellings might have a chance.
Mortality Rate: 30-75 %
If 40% of population was getting infected, and 80% of them died = mortality rate of 32%

The Pneumonic Plague
Second most commonly seen form of the Black Death
The Pneumonic Plague
Infected the lungs.
Symptoms:
Slimy sputum tinted with blood
(Sputum = saliva mixed with mucus excreted
from the respiratory system)
Sputum became free flowing
1-7 days for symptoms to appear
Mortality Rate : 90-95%

The Pneumonic Plague
Airborne transmission – added to its danger!
Through bacteria in droplets of saliva coughed up by sick persons
Inhaled by bystanders
New infection starts directly in the lungs or throat.
The Septicemic Plague
Attacked the blood system (Blood Poisoning)
Fevers
Skin turns deep shades of purple due to DIC
(disseminated
intravascular
coagulation)

The Septicemic Plague
In its most deadly form, DIC causes a victim’s skin to turn dark purple, almost black = The Black Death.

Victims died the same day symptoms appeared.

Mortality Rate: close to 100%.

No treatment even today
Transmission of the Bubonic and Septicemic Plague
Direct contact with a Flea
The Bacteria (Yersinia pestis) carried by rodents
Fleas infest animals, primarily rats
Then move to human hosts
The oriental rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis
The Rat Flea
The flea drinks rat’s blood
The bacteria multiplies inside the flea
The flea’s stomach is blocked
The flea is very hungry
The flea voraciously bites a host = a human
The flea is unable to satisfy its hunger
The flea continues to feed
Infected blood carrying the plague bacteria is flowing into the human’s wound
The rat dies
The flea dies of starvation
The human dies

Global Impact
Chinese population declined from 123 million in 1200 to 65 million 1393.
In Europe the Black Death killed an estimated 25 million people, reducing the total population by 25-40 per cent.
England, Italy, France, Poland, Russia and the Balkans are said to have lost 50 per cent of their populations.
Labour shortages hit food production; wage labour was introduced to attract workers; wages increased.
Cities became more important - growth of the bourgeoisie.
Net effect – collapse of feudalism, beginnings of modern capitalism.
Quotes on the Black Death
Boccacio: The victims “ate lunch with their friend and dinner with their ancestors in paradise”
Samuel Pepys: “Realizing what a deadly disaster had come to them the people quickly drove the Italians from their city… Fathers abandoned their sick sons. Lawyers refused to come and make out wills for the dying. Friars and nuns were left to care for the sick…Bodies were left in empty houses, and there was no one to give them a Christian burial.”

Normans and the Mediterranean

2009-02-26T12:25:00.000-08:00

Sicily, 1093
Norman conquest of southern Italy
Spanned most of the eleventh century, involving many battles and many independent players conquering territories of their own.
Only later were these united as the Kingdom of Sicily, which included not only the island of Sicily, but also the entire southern third of the Italian peninsula (save Benevento, which they did briefly hold on two occasions) as well as the archipelago of Malta and parts of North Africa.
Norman conquest of southern Italy
Immigrant Norman brigands acclimatised themselves to the mezzogiorno as mercenaries in the service of various Lombard and Byzantine factions, communicating news swiftly back home about the opportunities that lay in the Mediterranean.
These aggressive groups aggregated in various places, eventually establishing fiefdoms and states of their own; they succeeded in unifying themselves and raising their status to one of de facto independence within fifty years of their arrival.
Norman conquest of southern Italy
Unlike the Norman conquest of England (1066), which took place over the course of a few years after one decisive battle, the conquest of the south was the product of decades and many battles, few decisive.
Many independent players were involved and conquered territories of their own, which were only later unified into one state. Compared to the conquest of England, it was unplanned and unorganised, but just as permanent.
This is similar to what happened in Ireland.

AD 999
The earliest purported date for the arrival of Norman knights in southern Italy is 999.
In that year, according to several sources, Norman pilgrims (of which there were presumably many before and after that date) returning from the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem by way of Apulia stopped at Salerno, where they were enjoying the hospitality of Prince Guaimar III when the city and its environs were attacked by Saracens from Africa demanding the late payment of an annual tribute.
AD 999
While Guaimar began to collect the tribute, the Normans upbraided the Lombards for their lack of bravery and immediately assaulted their besiegers.
The Saracens fled, much booty was taken, and a thankful Guaimar pleaded with the Normans to stay. They refused, but promised to bring his rich gifts to their compatriots in Normandy and to tell them of the offer of reward in return for military service in Salerno.
Some sources even have Guaimar sending emissaries to Normandy to bring back knights.
Rebellion
On 9 May 1009, an insurrection erupted in Bari against the Catapanate of Italy, the regional Byzantine authority which was based at Bari.
Led by one Melus, a local Lombard of high standing, it quickly spread to other cities. Late that year or early the next (1010), the catapan, John Curcuas, was killed in battle. In March 1010, his successor, Basil Mesardonites, disembarked with reinforcements and immediately besieged the rebels in the city.
Rebellion
The Greek citizens of the city negotiated with Basil and forced the Lombard leaders, Melus and his brother-in-law Dattus, to flee. Basil entered the city on 11 June 1011 and reestablished Byzantine authority. He did not follow his victory up with any severe reactions. He simply sent the family of Melus, including his son Argyrus, to Constantinople. Basil died in 1016 after years of peace in southern Italy.
Leo
Leo Tornikios Kontoleon arrived as Basil's successor in May that year. On Basil's death, Melus had revolted again, but this time he employed a newly-arrived a band of Normans, which had either been sent to him by Pope Benedict or which he had met, with or withour Guaimar's assistance, at Monte Gargano.
Leo sent Leo Passianos with an army against the Lombard-Norman assemblage. Passianos and Melus met on the Fortore at Arenula. The battle was either indecisive (William of Apulia) or a victory for Melus (Leo of Ostia).
Leo
Tornikios then took command himself and led them into a second encounter near Civita. This second battle was a victory for Melus, though Lupus Protospatharius and the anonymous chronicler of Bari record a defeat.
A third battle, a decisive victory for Melus, occurred at Vaccaricia.
The entire region from the Fortore to Trani had fallen to Melus and in September, Tornikios was relieved of his duties in favour of Basil Boiannes, who arrived in December.
Leo
At Boiannes' request, a detachment of the elite Varangian Guard was sent to Italy to combat the Normans. The two forces met on the river Ofanto near Cannae.
The result was a decisive Greek victory. Boioannes protected his gains by immediately building a great fortress at the Apennine pass guarding the entrance to the Apulian plain. In 1019, Troia, as it was called, was garrisoned by Boioannes' own contingent of Norman troops, a sign of the true mercenary tendencies of the Normans.
Pope Benedict
Frightened by the shift in momentum in the south, Pope Benedict, who, as noted above, may have given the initially impetus to Norman involvement in the war, went north in 1020 to Bamberg to confer with the Holy Roman Emperor, then Henry II. The Emperor took no immediate action, but events of the next year convinced him to intervene. Boioannes had allied with Pandulf of Capua and marched on Dattus, who was then garrisoning a tower in territory of the Duchy of Gaeta with papal troops. He was captured, and, on 15 June 1021, was tied up in a sack with a monkey, a rooster, and a snake and thrown into the sea. In 1022, a large imperial army marched south in three detachments under Henry II, Pilgrim of Cologne, and Poppo of Aquileia, to attack Troia. While Troia did not fall, all the Lombard princes were brought over to the Empire and Pandulf was carted off to a German prison. The period of the Lombard revolt was closed.
Mercenary service, 1022–1046
In 1024, Norman mercenaries (perhaps under Ranulf Drengot) were in the pay of Guaimar III when he and Pandulf IV besieged Pandulf V in Capua. In 1026, after an 18-month siege, Capua surrendered and Pandulf IV was reinstated. In the following years, Ranulf would attach himself to Pandulf, but in 1029, he abandoned the prince and joined Sergius IV of Naples, whom Pandulf had expelled from Naples in 1027, probably with Ranulf's assistance.
In 1029, Ranulf and Sergius recaptured Naples. Early in 1030, Sergius gave Ranulf the County of Aversa as a fief, the first Norman principality in the region. Sergius also gave his sister in marriage to the new count. In 1034, however, Sergius' sister died and Ranulf returned to Pandulf. According to Amatus:
For the Normans never desired any of the Lombards to win a decisive victory, in case this should be to their disadvantage. But now supporting the one and then aiding the other, they prevented anyone being completely ruined
Mercenary service, 1022–1046
Norman reinforcements and local miscreants, who found a welcome in Ranulf's encampment with no questions asked, swelled the numbers at Ranulf's command. There, Norman language and Norman customs welded a disparate group into the semblance of a nation, as Amatus also observed.
In 1037, the Normans were further entrenched when the Emperor Conrad II deposed Pandulf and recognised Ranulf as "Count of Aversa" holding directly from the emperor. In 1038, Ranulf invaded Capua and expanded his polity into one of the largest in southern Italy.
Between 1038 and 1040, another band of Normans were sent along with a Lombard contingent by Guaimar IV of Salerno to fight in Sicily for the Byzantines against the Saracens. The first members of the Hauteville family won renown in Sicily fighting under George Maniaches. William of Hauteville won his nickname "Iron Arm" at the siege of Syracuse.
Mercenary service, 1022–1046
After the assassination of the Catapan Nicephorus Doukeianos at Ascoli in 1040, the Normans planned to elect a leader from amongst their own, but were instead bribed by Atenulf, Prince of Benevento, to elect him their leader. On 16 March 1041, near Venosa, on the Olivento, the Norman army tried to negotiate with the new catapan, Michael Doukeianos, but failed and battle was joined at Montemaggiore, near Cannae. Though the catapan had called up a large Varangian force from Bari, the battle was a rout and many of Michael's soldiers drowned in the Ofanto on retreat.
Mercenary service, 1022–1046
On 3 September 1041, the Normans, nominally under the Lombard leadership of Arduin and Atenulf, defeated the new Byzantine catepan, Exaugustus Boioannes, and took him captive to Benevento, significant of the remaining Lombard influence over the conquests. Also about that time, Guaimar IV of Salerno began to draw the Normans under his banner with various promises. In February 1042, probably feeling abandoned, and perhaps bribed by the Greeks, Atenulf negotiated the ransom of Exaugustus and then fled with the ransom money to Greek territory. He was replaced by Argyrus, who won some early victories but then too was bribed to defect to the Greeks.
Mercenary service, 1022–1046
In September 1042, the Normans finally elected a leader from among their own. The revolt, originally Lombard, had become Norman in character and leadership. William Iron Arm was elected with the title of "count." He and the other leaders petitioned Guaimar for recognition of their conquests. They received the lands around Melfi as a fief and proclaimed Guaimar "Duke of Apulia and Calabria." At Melfi in 1043, Guaimar divided the region (except for Melfi itself, which was to be ruled on a republican model) into twelve baronies for the benefit of the Norman leaders: William himself received Ascoli, Asclettin received Acerenza, Tristan received Montepeloso, Hugh Tubœuf received Monopoli, Peter received Trani, Drogo of Hauteville received Venosa, and Ranulf Drengot, now independent, received Monte Gargano. William in turn was married to Guida, daughter of Guy, Duke of Sorrento, and niece of Guaimar. The alliance between the Normans and Guaimar was strong.
Mercenary service, 1022–1046
During his reign, William and Guaimar began the conquest of Calabria in 1044 and built the great castle of Stridula, probably near Squillace. William was less successful in Apulia, where, in 1045, he was defeated near Taranto by Argyrus, though his brother, Drogo, conquered Bovino. With William's death, however, the period of Norman mercenary service would come completely to and end and witness the rise of two great Norman principalities, both owing nominal allegiance to the Holy Roman Empire: the County of Aversa, later the Principality of Capua, and the County of Apulia, later the Duchy of Apulia.

County of Melfi, 1046–1059
In 1046, Drogo entered Apulia and defeated the catepan, Eustathios Palatinos, near Taranto. His brother Humphrey meanwhile forced Bari to conclude a treaty with the Normans.
In 1047, Guaimar, who had auspiciously supported his succession and thus the establishment of a Norman dynasty in the south, gave Drogo his daughter Gaitelgrima in marriage. Then the Emperor Henry III came down and confirmed the county of Aversa in its fidelity to him and made Drogo his direct vassal too, granting him the title dux et magister Italiae comesque Normannorum totius Apuliae et Calabriae, the first legitimate title for the Normans of Melfi. Henry, whose wife Agnes had been mistreated by the Beneventans, then authorised Drogo to conquer Benevento and hold it from the imperial crown. The Normans did not capture it until 1053, however.
County of Melfi, 1046–1059
In 1048, Drogo commanded an expedition into Calabria via the valley of Crati, near Cosenza. He distributed the conquered territories in Calabria and granted his brother Robert Guiscard a castle at Scribla to guard the entrances.
In 1051, Drogo was assassinated in a Byzantine conspiracy. He was succeeded by Humphrey after a brief interregnum.
The rebelliousness of the Norman knights under Drogo had angered Pope Leo IX and its papal opposition with which Humphrey first had to deal.
County of Aversa, 1049–1098
In the 1050s and 1060s, there were two centres of Norman power in southern Italy: one at Melfi under the Hautevilles and another at Aversa under the Drengots.
Richard Drengot succeeded, probably through violence, to the County of Aversa in 1049 and immediately began a policy of territorial aggrandisement in competition with his Hauteville rivals.
Conquest of the Abruzzo, 1053–1105
In 1077, the last Lombard prince of Benevento died. The Pope appointed Robert Guiscard to succeed him in 1078.
In 1081, however, the Guiscard relinquished the principality, which by then comprised little more than Benevento itself and its neighbourhood, having been reduced by the Normans through conquest in the previous decades, especially after Civitate, and even after 1078. At Ceprano in June 1080, the Pope reinvested Robert in Benevento in an attempt to put a halt to Norman infractions on its territory and also on that which was technically tied to Benevento in the Abruzzi, which Robert' relatives were conquering for their own.
In the immediate aftermath of Civitate, the Normans began the conquest of the Adriatic littoral of the Benevenatan principality.
Conquest of Sicily, 1061–1091
Conquest of Sicily, 1061–1091
Sicily, mostly inhabited by Greek Christians, was under Arab control at the time of its conquest by the Normans. It had originally been under rule of the Aghlabids and then the Fatimids, but in 948 the Kalbids wrested control of the island from the Fatimids and held it until 1053. In the 1010s and 1020s a series of succession crises opened up the way for the interference of the Zirids of Ifriqiya.
Sicily fell into turmoil as petty fiefdoms battled each other for supremacy. Into this mess the Normans, under Robert Guiscard and his younger brother Roger Bosso, came with the intent to conquer, for back when the pope had invested Robert with the ducal title, he had also conferred on him the empty title of "Duke of Sicily", thus urging him to undertake a campaign to wrest Sicily from the Saracens.
Norman Castles in Sicily
This is a 9th century Arab palace in Palermo that was converted into a typical keep castle by the Normans.
Erice
Erice
1090s: Taking the Cross… The Crusades
First Crusade
1071 Byzantine army is destroyed by Turks
1071 – 1085 Mercenary Seljuk Turks conquer Syria and Palestine. The City of Jerusalem is taken from the more civilised Saracen caliphs
1085 – 1095 3000 Christian Pilgrims were massacred in Jerusalem and the Christian churches were destroyed or used as stables
1095 Emperor Alexius I sent an embassy to Pope Urban II regarding the atrocities in Jerusalem and the growing threat of the Turks to Constantinople and the whole of Europe
First Crusade
1095 Pope Urban II called a great council of the Church at Placentia, in Italy, to consider the appeal - decisions were deferred until later in the year
1095 November 27 Pope Urban II called a great council of clergy and nobles to meet at Clermont in France called the Council of Clermont. He called for a crusade against the Infidels
1095 - Spring 1096 Peter the Hermit took up the cry "God wills it!" and ordinary people join in the 'People's Crusade' - most were unarmed
First Crusade
Summer 1096 Armed forces gathered at Constantinople to embark on the First CrusadeAugust
1096 Emperor Alexius I shipped the Peoples Crusade over the Bosphorus
October 1096 The Peoples Crusade were annihilated by the Turks in Anatolia
May – June 1097 Siege of NicaceaJuly 1097Battle of Dorylaeum
Oct 1097 - June 1098 The Siege of Antioch
1098 June 1Stephen of Blois and numerous French crusaders flee the siege of Antioch with news of the arrival of Emir Kerboga of Mosul
1098 June 3 Bohemond I, elder son of Robert Guiscard, led the capture of Antioch

The First Crusade
1098 June 5 Emir Kerboga of Mosul and his army of 75,000 lays siege to the crusaders led by Bohemond
1099 Feb 14 – June The siege of Arqah, near Tripoli
1098 June 28 The Battle of Orontes. The First Crusade wins a victory forcing Emir Kerboga to lift the siege of Antioch
1099 June 13 Raymond of Toulouse leads the crusaders from Antioch and to Jerusalem
1099 July 15 The soldiers of the First Crusade successfully scale the walls of Jerusalem and take the Holy city

Supposed True Cross Reliquary

Urban II
Urban II's crusading movement took its first public shape at the Council of Piacenza, where, in March 1095, Urban II received an ambassador from the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (1081–118) asking for help against the Muslims. A great council met, attended by numerous Italian, Burgundian, and French bishops in such vast numbers it had to be held in the open air outside the city. At the Council of Clermont held in November of the same year, Urban II's sermon proved incredibly effective, as he summoned the attending nobility and the people to wrestle the Holy Land from the hands of the Seljuk Turks:
Cruce signati
"Christians, hasten to help your brothers in the East, for they are being attacked. Arm for the rescue of Jerusalem under your captain Christ. Wear his cross as your badge. If you are killed your sins will be pardoned."
“God Wills It!”
Pope Urban II calls for Crusade to take back the Holy Land in 1095.
Cites atrocities committed by Muslims in Jerusalem
Motivated by Byzantine Emperor’s appeal to Pope for help against the Turks
Enthusiastically received by nobles

Reasons for “Taking the Cross”
The First Crusade: A Success
The Knights Templar
Saladin, King of the Egyptians and Syrians
The Third Crusade “All-Stars”

Motte and Bailey Castles (quick re-cap)
Introduction
Motte and Bailey castles were wooden castles that were introduced by the Normans in 1050.

One of their major benefits is that they were very quick to build (some took less than 10 days to build).

Motte: Etymology
“Motte” is an old French word for “clod of earth”.
This the hill where the wooden castle is built. There are steps and bridges leading from the bailey.
Bailey
Motte and Bailey castles were wooden castles that were introduced by the Normans in 1050. “Motte” is an old French word for “clod of earth” and “bailey” meant enclosure. They were very quick to build (some took less than 10 days to build).
How they were built.
To build a motte and bailey castle, you need to dig a ditch around a hill and some flat land (the bailey). Then, you had to fill water into the ditch. Finally, on top of the hill, you build a wooden castle and a fence around the area.
Why were motte & bailey castles built?
William ordered them to be built after he got the crown to stop people fighting with each other after the Battle of Hastings and the death of King Harold.
Advantages and disadvantages of motte and bailey castles
Advantages:
Quick to build – 4 to 7 days
Cheap to build
Only need a few soldiers to defend a castles
Disadvantages:
Easy to burn down because they were made of wood
The wood rotted quickly so they had to make them again every 10 years
Stone Castles
After a while it made more sense to build some stone castles because the disadvantages outweighed the advantages.
Porchester Roman Fort
Portchester Castle is an interesting site, comprising a Roman Fort, later adapted into a Norman Castle, which in turn became a medieval Royal palace.

Europe after the Romans

2009-02-19T12:22:00.001-08:00

Europe after the Roman Empire
Collapse of Western Roman Empire 476 AD

Consequences??

Transitions and Continuities??

Rise of Barbarian Kingdoms??

The beginnings of a ‘Dark Age’?
Some details of the collapse: Theodosius
Constantine died in AD 337, and was replaced by Theodosius
Theodosius could not rule the empire and it was divided in two (again)
Western Roman Empire had it’s capital in Rome
Eastern Rome Empire had it’s capital in Constantinople

Rome invaded
Western Empire was unable to hold off German tribes on its borders (Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Vandals, Saxons)
German tribes were migrating to warmer areas, enticed by Roman riches, but also to flee the Huns

Visigoths
Rome agreed to allow the Visigoths to live inside of Roman boundaries
But the Romans treated Visigoths badly
Visigoths rebelled and defeated the Romans and their leader, Alaric, captured Rome in AD 410

Vandals
The Vandals followed Visigoths in capturing Rome and spent 12 days stripping it of valuables (hence, vandalism)
Many more German invaders followed as Rome was seen as vulnerable.
Finally (in 476), a German general named Odoacer defeated the Western emperor Romulus Augustulus, who was sent to live in the Castellum Lucullanum in Campania.
This marks the end of Rome.

Europe after the Roman Empire
Eastern Roman Empire
Although the Western Empire fell in AD 476, the Eastern Roman Empire continued to prosper for 1,000 more years
It became known as the Byzantine Empire
Some argue it’s base then shifted to Moscow (in 1453)

Justinian Plague
The Plague of Justinian was a pandemic that afflicted the Byzantine Empire, including its capital Constantinople, in the years 541–542 AD.
The most commonly accepted cause of the pandemic is bubonic plague, which later became infamous for either causing or contributing to the Black Death of the 14th century.
Its social and cultural impact is comparable to that of the Black Death.
Justinian Plague
In the views of 6th century Western historians, it was nearly worldwide in scope, striking much of Asia, North Africa and Arabia, and as far as Denmark and Ireland.
The plague would return with each generation throughout the Mediterranean basin until about 750.
The plague would also have a major impact on the future course of European history. Modern historians named it after the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I, who was in power at the time and himself contracted the disease.
Justinian Plague
Some researchers have suggested that the Justinian plague had it’s origins in an event that was documented in the mid-530s.
The Byzantine historian Procopius recorded of 536, in his report on the wars with the Vandals, "during this year a most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness… and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear.”

Justinian Plague
The Irish Annals record the following:

"A failure of bread in the year 536 AD" (Annals of Ulster)
"A failure of bread from the years 536–539 AD“ (Annals of Inisfallen)

Justinian Plague
Contemporary sources to the Annals report:
Low temperatures, even snow during the summer (snow reportedly fell in August in China, which postponed the harvest there)
"A dense, dry fog" in the Mideast, China, and Europe
Drought in Peru, which affected the Moche culture

Justinian Plague
Tree ring analysis shows abnormally little growth in Irish oak in 536 and another sharp drop in 542, after a partial recovery.
Similar patterns are recorded in tree rings from Sweden and Finland, in California's Sierra Nevada and in rings from Chilean Fitzroya trees.
Ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica show evidence of substantial sulphate deposits around AD 533–534 ± 2 years, evidence of an extensive acidic dust veil.

Europe after the Roman Empire
The Aftermath
Justinian had expended huge amounts of money for wars against the Vandals in the Carthage region and the Ostrogoth Kingdom of Italy.

He had also dedicated significant funds to the construction of great churches like the Hagia Sophia.

Amidst these great expenditures, the plague's effects on tax revenue were disastrous.

The Aftermath
The plague weakened the Byzantine Empire at the critical point at which Justinian's armies had nearly wholly retaken Italy and could have credibly reformed the Western Roman Empire.

It also may have contributed to the success of the Arabs a few generations later in the Byzantine-Arab Wars.

Italy was decimated by war and fragmented for centuries as the Lombard tribes invaded the north.

Europe after the Roman Empire (and Charlemagne)
Charlemagne (742-814)

Charles the Bald
(823-877)

Louis The German (806-876)

Lothar I (755-895)

Europe after the Roman Empire

Bronze Age Settlement and Ritual

2009-02-19T12:15:00.000-08:00

Bronze Age Settlement

Kilmurry North, Co. Wicklow
Crannogs/Lake Settlements
Apalle, central Sweden (House 13)
Apalle, central Sweden (House 2)
Ballyarnet, Co. Derry
Killoran, Co. Tipperary
Ballyprior Beg, Co. Antrim
Landscape History
Can deforestation be plotted against the settlement record?
In Ireland, settlement evidence is generally in the form of houses sites found as single structures or in groups of varying sizes (often around 3 or 4).
Evidence of enclosure in most periods rather than in any single period.
Landscape History: Settlement
Frequencies are based on numbers of structures.
Stars indicated period with evidence of enclosure.
Landscape History: Settlement
But – does this mask shorter term demographic changes (e.g. 1200-1100 BC/1100-1000 BC/1000-900 BC)?
This diagram does not include the largest site, Corrstown (see next slide).
Problems settling down?
So much new material has come to light recently in Ireland, the overall picture provided by the settlement evidence is not yet clear.
This is Corrstown, Co. Antrim, which produced up to 60 structures dating to 1600-1350 BC (excavated by Malachy Conway and Audrey Gahan for ACS Ltd).
Corrstown, Co. Derry
Nucleated Settlement
One measure is the ratio of built to unbuilt space.
It is around 1:5.3 at the two Early Bronze Age phases of Zurich-Mozartstrasse (as shown here)
Padnal, Switzerland (reconstruction)
Nucleated Settlement
Early Bronze Age phase at an enclosed Slovakian site, Nitriansky Hrádock
Here the built to unbuilt ratio appears to be 1:5.8
Nucleated settlement
At other Early Bronze Age Slovakian sites like Barca (right) and Nižná Myšl’a, the ratio is 1:1
Nucleated Settlement
Some sites are much more highly dispersed, although multiple structures are present.
This is St Oedenrode (North Brabant, Netherlands)
Nucleated Settlement
(Late Bronze Age) Zedau in Sachsen-Anhalt the density of structures suggests a built to unbuilt ratio of 1:6.63
Nucleated settlements
Late Bronze Age lake settlements, such as Bad Buchau
Hard to interpret – opinion has shifted over time.
Now the apparent densities fall at around 1:6.
Nucleated Settlement
High densities for sites in Iberia
Peñalosa, southern Spain (above)
Puntal dells Llops, Valencia (below)
Nucleated Settlement
Elsewhere, houses are quite large (these are Scandinavian and north German examples)
Does this represent the residences of dense populations as well?
Nucleated settlement
Lintshie Gutter, Scotland
Built to unbuilt ratio is greater than 1:50
Nucleated settlement
Grimspound, Yorkshire
Built to unbuilt ratio is greater than 1:16 (and up to 1:42)

Ritual, Procession and the Cosmos:
Irish Stone Circles and Alignments
Nebra, Germany
Callanish, Isle of Lewis
Callanish
Carnac, Brittany
Callanish, Isle of Lewis
Holme-next-the-sea (Seahenge)
Bargeroosteveld, Drenthe, Netherlands
Ballynahatty, Co. Down
Holme-next-the-sea (Seahenge)
Loughbrickland, Co. Down
Bargeroosteveld, Drenthe, Netherlands
Copney, Co. Tyrone
Circle A
Site D
Site B
Along alignment towards B
Site E
Sites F and G
Drumskinny, Co. Fermanagh
Athgreaney, Co. Wicklow
Piperstown, Site K, Co. Dublin
Timoney, Co. Tipperary
Oughtihery/Keel Cross, Co. Cork
Drombeg, Co. Cork
Bohonagh, Co. Cork
Bohonagh: Portal Stones
Bohonagh: Boulder Burial
Kealkil, Co. Cork
Maughanasilly, Co. Cork: Stone Row
Recumbent Stone Circles in Scotland
Easter Aquorthies (Scotland) – Recumbent Stone Circle
Loanhead (Scotland)
Drombeg, Co. Cork

Rise and Fall of Rome

2009-02-19T10:55:00.000-08:00

The Rise and Fall of Empires
This course plots Ireland’s long term relationship with Europe and the Atlantic World from AD 800 onwards.
In reality, it explores Ireland’s engagement with the world of the Viking, then the Normans and finally the English.
The Rise and Fall of Empires
In many we will chart the rise and fall of the power centres associated with these groups.
The Rise and Fall of Empires
But ...
As a morality lesson, it is worth considering the real backdrop to these stories, and the first lesson ...
Why did the Roman Empire collapse?
An essay in ten parts...
For years, the well-disciplined Roman army held the barbarians of Germany in check.
However, when the Roman soldiers were withdrawn from the Rhine-Danube frontier in the third century A.D. to fight in civil wars in Italy, the Roman border was left open to attack.
Gradually Germanic hunters and herders from northern and central Europe began to raid and take over Roman lands in Greece and Gaul.
Barbarian Invasions
In A.D. 476 the Germanic general Odovacar overthrew the last of the Roman emperors and made himself ruler of all Italy.
From then on, the western part of the Empire was ruled by Germanic tribal chiefs.
Roads and bridges were left in disrepair and many fields were left untilled.
Pirates and bandits made travel unsafe. Cities declined and trade and business began to disappear.
Decline in Morals and Values
The final years of the Empire were marked by a decline in morals and values, and some historians believe that this contributed to the decline of the Empire.
Crimes of violence made the streets of the Empire's larger cities very unsafe.
According to Roman historians there were 32,000 prostitutes in Rome during the reign of Trajan.
Emperors like Nero and Caligula became infamous for wasting money on lavish parties, where guests ate and drank until they became ill.
Decline in Morals and Values
Most important, however, was the growth of the Roman passion for cruelty. The most popular amusement was watching the gladiatorial combats in the Colosseum. These were attended by the poor, the rich, and frequently the emperor himself. As gladiators fought, vicious cries and curses were heard from the audience. One contest after another was staged in the course of a single day. Should the ground of the arena become too soaked with blood, it was covered over with a fresh layer of sand, and the revolting performances went on.
Environmental and Public Health Problems
Some historians believe that the fall of the Roman Empire was due in part to environmental and public health problems.
They claim the leaders of Rome were killed off by consuming excessive amounts of lead.
Environmental and Public Health Problems
They argue that since only the wealthy could afford to have lead pipes bring water into their homes and to cook with lead utensils, their death rate was increased considerably.
This theory, however, is challenged by those who point out the fact that the eastern part of the Empire survived long after the decline of the Western portion.
Rise in Christianity
Some historians believe that Christianity produced dramatic changes in Roman society at the very time when pressure from the barbarians was increasing.
They argue that Christianity made its followers into pacifists (those who oppose war), thus making it more difficult to defend Roman lands from barbarian attacks.
Rise in Christianity
They also suggest that the Church attracted many qualified leaders whose talents were needed to deal with the problems of the Empire.
Finally, these historians theorize that money that would have been used to maintain the Empire, instead, was used to build churches and monasteries.
Unemployment
During the latter years of the Empire farming was done on large estates that were owned by wealthy men who used slave labor.
A farmer who had to pay workmen could not produce goods as cheaply as a slave-owner could. Therefore, slave-owners could sell their crops for lower prices.
As a result, many fanners could not compete with these low prices and lost or sold their farms.
Unemployment
Thousands of these men filled the cities of the Empire, where there were not enough jobs to accommodate them.
At one time, the emperor was importing grain to feed more than 100,000 unemployed people in Rome alone.
Some historians believe that this contributed to the collapse of the Empire.
Urban Decay
Wealthy Romans lived in a domus, or house, with marble walls, floors with intricate colored tiles, and windows made of small panes of glass.
Most Romans, however, were not rich.
They lived in small, smelly rooms in apartment houses with six or more stories called an island (insula).
Each insula covered an entire urban block.
At one time there were 44,000 insulae within the city walls of Rome.
Urban Decay
First-floor apartments were not occupied by the poor
since the rent was too dear (ten times the top floor).
The higher a family had to climb, the cheaper the rent became, the upper apartments that the poor rented were hot, dirty, crowded, and dangerous.
Anyone who could not pay the rent was forced to move out and live on the crime-infested streets.
Because of this, cities began to decay.
Excessive Military Spending
Maintaining an army to defend the borders of the Empire from barbarian attacks was a constant drain on the government.
Military spending left few resources for other vital activities, such as providing public housing and maintaining the quality of public roads.
In the latter years of the Empire, frustrated Romans lost their desire to defend the Empire.
Excessive Military Spending
Thus, the government found it necessary to rely increasingly on hired soldiers recruited from the unemployed city mobs or foreign countries.
Such an army was not only unreliable, but very expensive.
Thus, the emperors were forced to raise taxes frequently-the majority of which were paid by businessmen and farmers, which hurt the economy.
Inferior Technology
During the last 400 years of the Empire, the scientific achievements of the Romans were limited almost entirely to engineering and the organization of public services.
They built marvelous roads, bridges and aqueducts.
They established the first system of medicine for the benefit of the poor.
Inferior Technology
But since the Romans relied so much on human and animal labor, they failed to invent many new machines or find new technology to produce goods more efficiently.
As a result of inferior production techniques, the Romans were unable to provide important goods for their growing population.
Inflation
The Roman economy suffered from inflation beginning after the reign of Marcus Aurelius.
Once the Romans stopped conquering new lands, the flow of gold into the Roman economy decreased.
Yet much gold was being spent by the Romans to pay
for luxury items.
This meant that there was less gold to use in coins. As the amount of gold used in coins decreased, the coins became less valuable.
Inflation
To make up for this loss in value, merchants raised the prices on the goods they sold.
Many people stopped using coins and began to barter (trading goods for goods, rather than using money) to get what they needed.
Eventually, salaries had to be paid in food and clothing, and taxes were collected in fruits and vegetables.
Political Corruption
One of Rome's most serious problems was the difficulty of choosing new emperors as the Romans never created an effective system to determine how new emperors would be selected.
For this reason, the choice of a new emperor was always open to debate between the Senate, the Praetorian Guard (the emperor's private army), and the army.
Gradually the Praetorian Guard gained complete authority to choose the new emperor.
Political Corruption
In return, the new emperor handsomely rewarded the Guard for its support. This system worked fairly well for a time.
Beginning in A.D. 186, however, when the army strangled the new emperor, the practice began of selling the throne to the highest bidder.
During the next 100 years, Rome had 37 different emperors - 25 of whom were removed from office by assassination.

Angles, Saxons, Normans ...

2009-02-19T10:49:00.001-08:00

Angles, Saxons, Normans …

Angles and Saxons: Britain from Rome to the Normans
Just prior to Visigoth sack of Rome in 410, Roman troops were withdrawn from England (408)
Angles, Saxons, and Jutes invade British Isles
Age of many kings, but no king of England
Sometimes a given king would have great power over other kingdoms—such as Aethelberht, King of Kent.
Seven major Kingdoms emerge (often referred to as the Heptarchy)

Saxons, Angles, and Jutes
Non-Roman Barbarians – Saxons, Angles, and Jutes – depicted invading Britain by sea in the fifth century in the Passion of St Edmund
Gildas, De Excidio Britanniae
Monk writing in the 6th century, describing the collapse of Roman power and the arrival of mercenaries in the 5th century
Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica
A history of 8th-century Anglo-Saxon kingdoms:
‘Those who came over were of three of the more powerful peoples of Germany: the Saxons, the Angles and the Jutes’
Jutes, Angles, Saxons and Frisians arrive in the fifth century
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms emerge in the seventh century

Undley Bracteate
5th century
From Undley Common, Suffolk
Earliest known inscription in Anglo-Frisian ‘Futhorc’ (as opposed to ‘Futhark’)
‘g͡æg͡og͡æ – mægæ medu’
Image is Contantine the Great with Romulus and Remus suckled by the wolf.
Runes
Anglo-Saxon runes (left) and Germanic ‘Elder’ runes (above) and ‘Younger’ runes (below).
These were generally replaced on Christianisation.

Angles, Saxons, Jutes etc...
Angles came from Angeln (according to Bede their whole tribe came)
Saxons from Niedersachsen
Jutes from Jutland
Also smaller groups of:
Frisians (Fresham, Freston, Friston)
Flemings (Flemby, Flempton)
Swabians (Swaffham)
Franks (Frankton, Frankley)

Angles, Saxons, Jutes etc...
These groups may be coeval with the Ingvaeones, as described in Tacitus's Germania, (AD98), a West Germanic cultural group living in the Jutland, Holstein, Frisia and the Danish islands.
The postulated common group of closely related dialects of the Ingvaeones is called Ingvaeonic or North Sea Germanic.
Major issues
Origins of ‘the English’: debate and discussion – several theories tend to dominate.
Was there massive invasion & migration?
Or, a takeover by small powerful groups?
Or, a slow transformation as people abandon ‘Roman’ ways, and adopt Anglo-Saxon customs?

The building shown below is a typical Anglo-Saxon ‘grubenhaus’
Contact and Migration
Finds of silver sceattas of the porcupine-standard series attributed to mints in Frisia
The sceats here are 7th century (right and below) and 8th century (below right)
Continuity ...
But, also much archaeological evidence for continuity of British ways such as building styles
Cowdery’s Down, Hants
Highdown, Sussex
Highdown in use as a cemetery by [pagan] Saxons, including a mixture of inhumations and cremations placed in urns
At the same time a Romano-British villa at nearby Northbrook, less than a mile away, was still in use by native Christians.
Anglo-Saxon architecture
Earliest surviving architecture is 7th century.
In the north of England, churches are narrow with square ended chancels.
In the south, churches had apsidal ends separated from the nave by a triple arch opening, for example at Reculver.
Anglo-Saxon architecture
Apsidal church from Brixworth (Northamptonshire)
Arch similar to Reculver at entrance to the apsidal end

Anglo-Saxon architecture
The most complete example of the northern type of church is at Escomb (Durham).
Old Minster, Winchester
Constructed in 648 for King Cenwalh of Wessex and Saint Birinus, diocesan cathedral by 660.
Saint Swithun buried outside it in 862.
New Minster built next to it (901), Saint Æthelwold of Winchester followed by his successor, Saint Alphege, almost completely rebuilt the minster on a vast scale during their monastic reforms of the 970s.
Old Minster demolished in 1093.
ANGLO-SAXON HEPTARCHY
Major kingdoms:
Northumbria
Mercia
East Anglia
Essex
Kent
Wessex
Sussex
Minor kingdoms:
Hwicce
Magonsaete
Kingdom of Lindsey
Middle Anglia
ANGLO-SAXON HEPTARCHY
Major kingdoms:
Northumbria
Mercia
East Anglia
Essex
Kent
Wessex
Sussex
Minor kingdoms:
Hwicce
Magonsaete
Kingdom of Lindsey
Middle Anglia
Laws of Aethelberht
Laws of Aethelberht
Sutton Hoo
Two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries of the 6th century and early 7th century, one of which contained an undisturbed ship burial.
Use of the site culminated at a time when the ruler (Raedwald) of East Anglia held senior power among the English people, and played a dynamic (if ambiguous) part in the establishment of Christian rulership in England.
The ship-burial probably dates from the early 7th century and was excavated in 1939.

Sutton Hoo

Anglo-Saxon Art:Fuller Brooch
Late 9th century brooch, found in Normandy.
11.4 cm disc of hammered sheet silver inlaid with black niello.
The centre is decorated with the five senses.
In the middle is Sight
Taste (top left)
Smell (top right)
Touch (bottom right)
Hearing (bottom left)
The outer border consists of humans, bird, animal and plant motifs.
Unusually it does not represent divinity.
Anglo-Saxon Art: Manuscripts
Illuminated Anglo-Saxon manuscripts survive, such as the Benedictional of St. Æthelwold and Leofric Missal drawing on Hiberno-Saxon art, and, Carolingian and Byzantine art for style and iconography.
Combines northern ornamental traditions with Mediterranean figural traditions.
Anglo-Saxon Art: Manuscripts
Dates between 963 and 984. Contains a Latin inscription which describes how it was made:
A bishop, the great Æthelwold, whom the Lord had made patron of Winchester, ordered a certain monk subject to him to write the present book . . . He commanded also to be made in this book many frames well adorned and filled with various figures decorated with many beautiful colours and with gold. This book the Boanerges aforesaid caused to be indicted for himself . . . Let all who look upon this book pray always that after the term of the flesh I may abide in heaven Û Godeman the scribe, as a suppliant, earnestly asks this…

West Stow
Hamlet of West Stow, Suffolk
Occupied during the 5th–7th centuries
5 acres excavated – 1960s & 1970s
7 larger house = family halls? c.12m long; hearth; S. side door
60 Sunken-featured buildings (grubenhauser)
West Stow: finds
Yeavering, Northumbria
Anglo-Saxon villa and royal palace – earliest known (Bede: Ad Gefrin)
Identified 1949 aerial photography
Excavated 1950s & 1960s by Brian Hope Taylor
Great enclosure: circular entrance works – a corral for animals?
Archaeological evidence for fire – all buildings burnt to the ground (in AD633: King Edwin killed; massacres in Northumbria).

Yeavering, Northumbria
Bronze Age burial mound with large upright pole: Focus for pagan Anglo-Saxon burials? Building aid?
The Great Hall: 7th century. Massive timbers, communal centre: Feasting, music, singing, royal ceremonies
Area ruled but not peopled by Anglo-Saxons?
Theatre: cuneus
Unique in A-S England
Triangular stepped structure w/ stage
Performance, assembly?

Alfred the Great (871-899)
King of Wessex who wielded power over all of so-called ‘Heptarchy’ (see language map)
Defeats newest arrivals (Danes)
Issued a Code of Laws for all the realm
Began the English Navy
Commissioned the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (often taken as a measure of the stability of his reign)

From Alfred to William, 899-1066
Alfred’s successors were not great rulers—Ethelred the Redeless (stupid), for example—and the Vikings under King Cnut actually assumed control of the realm.
Cnut’s successor had no heirs and created a question of who would become king
3 candidates: Harold Hardrada, Harold Godwinson of Wessex, William, Duke of Normandy
William wins Battle of Hastings, October 1066
Feudalism
Social contract between ‘lords’ and ‘vassals’
Theoretically it is reciprocal (see diagram)
In practise in had centralising tendencies
Became the dominant political system in Europe
Becomes synonymous with the Normans
What did it replace??
Viking Towns
York, Birka, Hedeby, Dublin
Based on trade
Chattels not real estate
Dublin

1000 AD
Dublin, 1170
William I—King of England (1066-1087)
Introduced Norman Feudalism into England—emphasized power of King (Salisbury Oath)
Domesday Survey
Much central authority compared to earlier governmental arrangements in England

Great Council created out of Witan
Curia Regis established
But who were these ‘Normans’??
Bayeux Tapestry, c. 1073-1088
Willliam and Harold
Battle
William’s Feast
Normans?
Normandy is approximately the same region as the old church province of Rouen
Was sometimes called Brittania Nova and western Flanders.
No natural frontiers and was previously merely an administrative unit.
Viking settlers begun arriving in the 880s, divided between a small colony in Upper (or eastern) Normandy and a larger one in Lower (or western) Normandy.

Rollo
In 911 AD Charles III of France gave Normandy to the Viking leader Rollo who became a Christian. Vikings helped adopt the French language and organized a strong state in Normandy.

Rollo’s grave, Rouen
Rollo
Passed title to his son in 927 before his death.

Normandy
From the 10th century the Norse settled and adopted the language and culture of the French majority.
After a generation or two, the Normans were generally indistinguishable from their French neighbours.
In Normandy, they adopted the growing feudal doctrines of the rest of northern France.
The old French aristocracy could trace their families back to Carolingian times.
The Normans knights rended to remain poor and land-hungry.
By 1066, Normandy had been exporting fighting horsemen for more than a generation.
Prior to 1066 and then crusades knighthood before the time of the Crusades held little social status.

Mottes
Illustrated on the Bayeux Tapestry
Mottes
Illustrated on the Bayeux Tapestry
Mottes
Illustrated on the Bayeux Tapestry
Mottes
Bayeux Tapestry showing the motte at Hastings being built.
Architecture and the early Normans
There was a resurgence in the development of distinct architectural styles under Charlemagne.
Palace Chapel of Charlemagne, Aachen, 792-805
Monasteries
Designs for the monasteries had already been drawn up under order of Charlemagne
Developed a role as cultural/learning centers
St. Gall
Abbey at Cluny, begun 910
French monastery, Benedictine monks
Largest, most powerful monastery, 10th-12th c.
Early Christian vs. Romanesque
This is the difference in effect of a barrel vault (on the right) and the pre-existing style of roof.
Cluny
Three main phases from 910 onwards (coinciding with the emerging Norman state).
The greatest monastic Romanesque church, Cluny III (1088-1121), did not survive the French Revolution but has been reconstructed in drawings
Double-aisled church almost 137 m long, with 15 small chapels in transepts and ambulatory
Its design influenced Romanesque and Gothic churches in Burgundy and beyond, often coinciding with the spread of liturgical practices under Norman influence
Cluny III
3rd Abbey Church at Cluny
Largest church in the Christian world
Vertical emphasis
3rd Abbey Church at Cluny, 1049
Largest church in the Christian world
Like Roman basilica but more elaborate
Established ‘Romanesque’ style.
3rd Abbey Church at Cluny, 1049
Vertical emphasis was possible as the churches had very thick walls
The vault was constructed as a series of arches with the wight carried by the large pillars.
St. Sernin, c. 1080
France led the way in the development of Romanesque.
Typical Romanesque Church Plans
St. Etienne, c. 1067-1135
Romanesque
The term “Romanesque” itself was first used in the 19th century. The word Romanesque originally meant "in the Roman manner.“
Use of the Roman round arch, adoption of the major forms of antique Roman vaulting (contained, strong, weighty and somber style)
Most Romanesque churches retained the basic plan of the Early Christian basilica: a long, three-aisled nave intercepted by a transept and terminating in a semicircular apse crowned by a conch, or half-dome
European movement in architecture (10-12th centuries), especially in Italy, France, England and Germany

St. Etienne, Romanesque Facade
Plain
Divided into three sections
Squat
Massive

Tower of London, c. 1078-1097
Most famous Romanesque building in Britain?
Tower of London, c. 1078-1097
The interior features all shown Romanesque influence:
Round-headed windows
Round thick pillars
Barrel-vault
St. Etienne, Romanesque Facade
Plain
Divided into three sections
Squat
Massive

Tower of London, c. 1078-1097
Sculpture as Church Decoration
La Madeleine, Vezelay, France
c. 1120-1132
Tympanum
Narthex

Manuscript paintings as inspiration for sculpture
La Madeleine, capitals
Romanesque Painting-Illuminated Manuscripts

Life, Death and Linguistics in the Iron Age

2009-02-17T10:53:00.001-08:00

Life, Death etc ...
Ryton-on-Dunsmore
Iron Age Daily Life: Agriculture
Quern, sickles, ploughshare (right middle)
Evidence from carbonised grain, and, pollen
Emmer wheat
Spelt
Bread Wheat
Barley
Millet
Beans
Peas
Lentils
Grain storage
Grain processed in various stages:
Heating
Beating
WinnowingStorage pits, usually 1-2 m deep (and up to 3 m), holding1.5 tonnes(Tacitus and Pliny)Grain at the seal germinates and stops germination.
Iron Age Daily Life: Blacksmith
Wooden bowls and vessels
Iron Age Daily Life; Pottery
Lifestock
Iron Age Daily Life: Changes?
Iron Age Daily Life: Textiles
Pre-Iron Age and Iron Age
Broadly similar, culturally and in terms of technology (with the addition of iron).
Many tools are the same.
Social organisation may have not been significantly different.
Should we rely on the classical authors to provide further illustration of the lifestyles of Iron Age peoples?
Are they relevant to Ireland??
Can linguistics help us here?
Language
There are various arguments about the development of Celtic languages.
It is now recognised that the difficulty with plotting the evolution of any language is that they rarely follow strict rules.
In Ireland, after the 5th century AD, it is possible to spot how new words enter the language and see what was introduced, culturally.
These loanwords represent the aspects of the archaeological evidence that are easiest to interpret.

Latin loan-words
As found in Old Irish, Scots Gaelic, Manx and English
Celtic languages
Branch of the Indo-European group of languages.
Usually divided into four sub-groups.

Celtic languages
The division occured (depending on your favourite sources) at 4700-1700 BC or 1200-800 BC.

Celtic languages
Gaulish and related languages Lepontic, Noric, and Galatian. These were once spoken in a wide arc from France to Turkey and from Belgium to northern Italy.

Celtic languages
Celtiberian, anciently spoken in the Iberian peninsula in the areas of modern Northern Portugal, and Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Aragón, and León in Spain. Lusitanian may also have been a Celtic language.

Celtic languages
Goidelic, including Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. At one time there were Irish on the coast of southwest England and on the coast of north and south Wales.

Celtic languages
Brythonic (also called British or Brittonic), including Welsh, Breton, Cornish, Cumbric, the hypothetical ‘Ivernic’, and possibly also Pictish. There may have been a Brythonic language in the Isle of Man before 9th century AD. However, Pictish may not be Indo-European and ‘Ivernic’ may actually be ‘Goidelic’.
Celtic languages
In several characteristics they resemble some non-Indo-European languages. These include:
absence of a present participle (e.g. talking) and the use instead of a verbal noun (found also in Egyptian and Berber)
the frequent expression of agency by means of an impersonal passive construction (e.g. it is said) instead of by a verbal subject in the nominative case (as in Egyptian, Berber, Basque, and some Caucasian and Eskimo languages)
positioning of the verb at the beginning of a sentence (typical of Egyptian and Berber)
Substrate analysis in North-Alpine Europe
Non-Indo-European features in Indo-European languages can be explained by substrate features, e.g., if we take the vocabulary of Celtic languages they are Indo-European, but the syntax, the way sentences are formed and the technical aspects of the languages are non-Indo-European.

Some people suggest that there were only two language families in Europe before Indo-European expansion; some features can be traced because there are direct descendants of these proto-languages.
Before the spread of Indo-European languages across Western Europe
Non-Indo-European languages present in Western Europe 2000 years ago (or before) are supposed to have preceded the spread of Indo-European languages (except Phoenician settlements): Basque, Iberian, Ligurian, Tartessian, ...

There is only indirect evidence for these, because first evidence of the presence of Basque is relatively recent (2000 years ago).

Non-Indo-European languages in Europe after last Ice-Age (after Venneman 2003)

Vasconic (VH)

Semitidic
Pictish: Inscriptions and placenames (e.g. Pit -, as in Pittodrie)
Aboyne (Ogham inscription)
‘nehhtvrobbaccennevv maqqotalluorrh’
Nechtan (nehht)
son of Talorc (maqqotalluorrh)
Maqqo (mac in Irish)…talluorrh (Talorc)
What does ‘vrobbaccennevv’ mean?

Pictish: Inscriptions and placenames (e.g. Pit -, as in Pittodrie)
Bressay: ‘crroscc:nahhtvvddadds:dattr:ann bennises:meqqddrroann’ (meggddrroan is taken to be ‘... son of Drostan’)
Lunnasting: ‘ettecuhetts:ahehhttannn:hccvvevv:nehhtons’ also contains ‘nehht’ (Nechtan)
Despite being able to read some parts, most of the text is indecipherable.

The VH and genetic studies showing post-glacial colonisation of Europe(Torroni et al 1998, 2001)
Vasconic expansion would have followed the repopulation of Europe by Vasconic people leaving the Aquitanian-Iberian refugium after the last ice-age (i.e. where the Basque language survived)
(from Venneman 2003)
DNA mapping (haplogroup R1b)
Linguistic arguments for the VH (Vasconic)
Visegimal counting in some Romance, Celtic and Germanic languages, i.e. four score for 80, quatre-vingts in French (four 20s), daichead in Irish (two 20s).
First syllable accent innovation in Germanic, Celtic and Italic languages.
River-names of North-Alpine Europe with Vasconic roots (is-, ur-, aran-, -alde) and morphems (-a); + agglutinative morphology.
Etymologies of non-IE words found in IE languages.
Venneman
Venneman’s work is not univerally accepted, particularly his reconstructed Vasconic and Semitidic groups (and that Pictish was Semitic).
However, the substrate of the Celtic languages is real.
If there is a pre-Indo-European substrate which appears to have its closest relatives in North Africa, should we look there for our best parallels for the cultures to illustrate prehistory including the Iron Age?
Late Examples?
What other influences are present in this late art style?
The carpet page on the right is from the Abbasid Qu’ran which is 9th century in date.
The Book of Durrow is 7th century.
Late Examples
The cross depicted on a carpet page on the right is from the Harklean Gospel Book, a 10th century copy of a 7th century version of the Syriac Gospels.
This is the same date as the Books of Durrow and Kells.
Beyond the Celts
These two spirals are from Newgrange and Tassili in Algeria.
North African Influence?
The cross on the left is a Coptic (North African) leather cross.
The cross on the right is from Fahan Mura in County Donegal.
It is assumed that this is Coptic influence on Irish Christianity.
Are these actually LATE examples.
Atlantean (Bob Quinn)

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=uI-LFQeKkUg

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=Npx-oVgnOGs

Typical Farm
Villages: Biskupin, Poland (700-400 BC)
Biskupin
Fürstensitze: ‘Royal Sites’
There are a handful of significant sites which are associated with princely burials or exotic goods:
Hochdorf
Heuneburg
Glauberg
Vix
Magdalenenberg
This has influenced interpretation in Ireland (Tara, Navan Fort etc).

Hallstatt, Austria

Glauberg
Sandstone statue, or stele, fully preserved except for its feet (the type of sandstone is available within a few kilometres of Glauberg).
Much detail is clearly visible: his trousers, composite armour tunic, wooden shield and a typical La Tène sword hanging from his right side.
Glauberg
He wears a torc with three pendants, remarkably similar to the one from the chamber in mound 1, several rings on both arms and one on the right hand.
Glauberg
On his head, he wears a La Tene helmet crowned by two protrusions, resembling the shape of a mistletoe leaf. Such headdresses are also known from a handful of contemporary sculptures.
If mistletoe held a magical or religious significance, it could indicate that the warrior depicted also played the role of a priest.
Fragments of three similar statues were also discovered in the area. It is suggested that all four statues once stood in the rectangular enclosure.

The Chamber

1879 Plan (Kleinaspergle)

Hochdorf
Excavation of a barrow revealed a chamber containing a man of 40 years old who had been laid out on a bronze couch.
He had been buried with a gold-plated torc on his neck, a bracelet on his right arm, and most notably, thin embossed gold plaques were on his now-disintigrated shoes.
At the foot of the couch was a large cauldron decorated with three lions around the brim.
The east side of the tomb contained a four-wheeled wagon holding a set of bronze dishes for nine people.
At 6 ft 2 in (187 cm) he was quite tall.

Some functional objects were present

Hochdorf
Arrangement of the burial

HeuneburgDanube300x150 m plateauseveral phasesbeginning unorganised
Heuneburg: Later ‘planned’ layout

Murus GallicusWestern La Tene Zone

Ritual, Religion and 'Celts'

2009-02-17T10:51:00.000-08:00

Natio est omnis Gallorum admodum dedita religionibus
The people of Gaul think a lot of ritual activities
Julius Caesar

Classic sources:
Three-fold learned order in Gaul:
Druids, Vates, Bards
Have varying degrees of prophetic, magical and religious powers

Gundestrup Cauldron, Denmark
La Tène, Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Strabo gives the following account:

“… they have a barbarous and absurd custom, common however with many nations of the north, of suspending the heads of their enemies from their horses’ necks on their return from battle, and when they have arrived nailing them as a spectacle to their gates.”

Roquepertuse was a sanctuary where the only permanent residents were priests.
It was destroyed by the Romans in 124 BC and was re-discovered in 1860.
Main phases date to the 3rd century BC, but may have begun in the 5th or 6th century BC.
Evidence of dual-faced sculptures
Columns with cavities for human skulls

Bog bodies of North-Western Europe:
Violent death
Clothes but rarely any objects
In bog-pools, held down
Physically good condition, but often malformation

Oldcroghan Man, Co. Offaly
Oldcroghan Man, Co. Offaly
Clonycavan Man,Co. Meath

Clonycavan Man,Co. Meath
Kelly, E.P. 2006. Secrets of the Bog Bodies: the enigma of the Iron Age explained. Archaeology Ireland 20(1), 26-30.

Who were the Celts?

2009-02-17T10:49:00.000-08:00

Vercingetorix

Cruel
„The wives are interrogated like slaves. If found guilty they are put to death after every sort of cruel torment…“
„At properly conducted funerals the slaves and clients who have been dear to him were burnt along with him“ J. Caesar
Clonycavan Man,Co. Meath

What is the Iron Age?
Period of the Celts

Age of Iron

The period between the Bronze Age and the Medieval period

The period between 800 BC and 1st c BC/AD

Prehistory divided up into chronological phases, associated with increasingly advanced technology i.e. evolution in skill, complexity of process and quality/durability of product
(Danish archaeologists, Thomsen and Worsaee: 3 Age system).

Iron Age – Defining characteristics:
New material Iron

Coincides with:

Change in society structures
Religious beliefs
Social organisation
Material culture:
New artefact types
New artstyle
New materials

The new material Iron
Hallstatt, Austria
La Tène, Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Why do we call these people “the Celts”?
Greek periplus (from peripleo – I sail) 6thc BC
fragments survived in poem of the 4th century, where the Celts are mentioned as to be present in a country “which they have taken from the Ligurians ” i.e. Northern Italy or Southern France

Herodotus (450BC): “the first historian”:
“The Istros (the Danube) which comes from the Celts and the City of Pyrene, flows through Europe “

Sources of Danube are in the Western Hallstatt area, i.e. Eastern France,
Southwest Germany and Northern Switzerland. Pyrene might be Heuneburg or Hohenasperg.

How do they know?

Increased contact contact between Greek, Romans and Celts in the 4th c BC
Celtic mercenaries described from 4th c BC in hellenic forces
Reports of mass movements and raids into Po Valley from North of the Alps. 390 BC: Sennones with Brennos to Clusium over Appenin; Celtic settlement in Northern Italy (gallia cisalpina)
Raids into Balkan, Greece and Asia Minor
387/86 Battle at the Allia
279BC Raid on Delphi

La Tene Art and Deposition in Ireland

2009-02-17T08:00:00.000-08:00

Early Style/ Orientalising Style – La Tène A

Weisskirchen, Germany
Auvers-sur-Oise, France
Orientalising: Lyre or griffin?

La Tene in Ireland
Iron Age find contexts
Little contextual information about many Irish La Tene finds.

Typical single finds – Beehive Querns
Clonad bog-butter keg, Clonad Bog, Co. Offaly (NMI 2000:58)
Rosberry bog-butter keg, Co. Kildare (NMI 1970:32)
Wooden vessel from Pallasboy Townland, Toar Bog, Co. Westmeathc. 100BCTriple ply twisted wooden withyPegged in placeRepaired with wedges when being made and later with a wooden panel sewn to the side with a fine withy
Some major finds
Information is often poor!
Lisncrogher, Co. Antrim
Original contents of Lisnacrogher assemblage included wooden objects.

Broighter
Found in 1896 in boggy ground. Descriptions suggest that it was buried in some sort of container – possibly a bag – that had mostly rotted.
Its find circumstances have been described as curious due to a protacted court case over ownership of the find.
Broighter
Tom Nicholl, who discovered the Broighter hoard.
It was wrapped in a container sometimes described as like an umbrella.
This has led to confusion over the origin of the hoard and whether it was genuine.
The court case revolved around the possibility of whether the hoard was deposited on land which was inundated or had been hidden (i.e. was treasure trove).
Broighter
Seahorses?
Boats?
Sea-offering?
Loughnashade, Co. Armagh

Pooler horn (the surviving horn)
Browne horn – illustrated in 1802 then stolen.
No provenance (Ireland: NMI), possibly the horn owned by Hall and Corry.
Plunkett watercolours (donated to RIA in January 1847)
Ardbrin horn

Nice horn
Wooden horns:1. Killyfaddy (Tyrone)2. Killeshandra (Cavan)

Charlemagne and the Vikings

2009-02-12T12:06:00.000-08:00

Charlemagne and the Viking World
Dr John O’Neill
Charlemagne
King of the Franks, ruled from 768 to 800, then was crown Holy Roman Emperor in 800, died in 814

Central figure in the ‘Carolingian Renaissance’

Developed a strong partnership with the Papacy (to their mutual advantage)

Though his achievements are short lived, they traditionally mark an end to the ‘Dark Ages’
Background: Frankish Gaul
Frankish King Clovis I (reigned from 481-511) was from the Merovingian Dynasty

Convert to Christianity

Merovingian dynasty survived until 751

Eventually replaced by Carolingian Dynasty (partly due to the close relationship between Carolingian kings and papacy)

Monasticism
As towns, and more importantly, literate commerce, fell into disrepair, small, often remote, monastic communities preserved what they valued of the classical world, including literacy and some technology.

The chief strength of the Church was that it preserved learning in the West. Rulers eventually realised they needed the skills that only the clergy possessed.
Monastic Learning
This is a carpet page from the Book of Durrow (also 7th century).
Insular script and illumination was a significant influence on Carolingian styles through the Irish role at continental monasteries like Bobbio.
Writing
Cathach of St Columba (7th century)

Ireland had maintained a literate Christian tradition through the ‘Dark Ages’

The writing style was classical.
Insular Script
Texts were written in Insular script (a variant of half uncial)
This is characterised by the large first letter and descending sizes
Wedge-shaped finials on ascenders (‘b’, ‘d’, ‘l’ etc)
Lack of punctuation
As the texts were almost all in Latin, scribes used accented letters and, following existing tradition, only upper case (i.e. uncial) letters and no punctuation or word separation.
Is this difficult to learn to read (never mind translate)???

withnospacescommasfullstopsorcapitalsthisisnoteasytoreadthisisparticularlythecasewhenitisspreadoutoveranumberoflines

With no spaces, commas, full-stops or capitals this is not easy to read. This is particularly the case when it is spread out over a number of lines!

Carolingian Minuscule: Writing Revolution
Began with the same problems, but made changes:
Uniformity in how letters are formed
Clear printing
More punctuation
Spaces between words
Letters always separated from each other
Carolingian Minuscule is the basis for our scripts today

Renewal in Education
New miniscule was easier to learn which encouraged the copying of manuscripts (both Christian and Roman) and a renewal in scholarship
Led to renewed interest in education (for boys and girls) which was mainly centred in the monastic communities.
Introduction of the seven Liberal arts:
Trivium:
grammar,
logic,
rhetoric
Quadrivium:
astronomy,
geometry,
arithmetic,
music
Renewal in the Church
The impetus the church gave through education and it’s links with Charlemagne improved it’s status.
Significant new foundations: 22 cathedrals, hundreds of monasteries
Ensured Roman liturgy followed in all churches in his Empire (and began the process of suppressing opposing Christian doctrines)
Carolingian Texts
The Carolingian Renaissance
Early Medieval Illumination
Early Medieval Illumination
Clonmore
The Clonmore shrine is believed to be the oldest known example of Irish Christian metalwork.
It was found in pieces between 1990 and 2001 in spoil dredged from the River Blackwater around 1970.
The shrine, which held relics of the saints, consisted originally of nine copper-alloy plates and is just 8cm long, 8cm high and 3cm deep.

Clonmore
The outer surfaces are tinned and decorated with spirals, crescents and trumpet curves reserved against a background of hatching.
The decoration is hand-cut, though in part compass-drawn, and the golden colour of the recessed surfaces contrasts with the silvery patterns in relief.
Such ornament has Iron Age roots, but compares with that of the 7th century Book of Durrow.
Clonmore
The shrine must be approximately contemporary and is a major, if miniature, work of art.
Clonmore is only 15km from Armagh and the shrine might have housed some of the imported, apostolic relics which Armagh promoted in the 7th century in support of its primatial claims.
Clonmore
Fragments of an Irish shrine closely resembling that from Clonmore are preserved in Bobbio in the north of Italy, the famous foundation of the Bangor monk Columbanus, who died there in 615.
The two shrines are related in shape and decoration and had identical hinges and locks.
Tomb-shrine reliquaries
Casket of Teudericus
"Casket of Teudericus" reliquary from the second half of the 7th c.(Canton Valais: Saint Maurice Abbey treasury). This reliquary is a product of the monastic workshop of St. Maurice d'Agaune. Signed by the artist and dedicated by the Priest Teudericus to the monastery.
Emly Shrine
Dates to the late 7th–early 8th century: measures 9.2 x 4.1 x 10.5 cm. Champlevé enamel on bronze over yew wood; gilt bronze moldings, inlay of lead-tin alloyNamed for its nineteenth century owner, Lord Emly of Limerick.
Monymusk Reliquary
This shrine is believed to be linked to St Columba and was made around the 8th century AD. Some believe that the shrine is the famed Breccbennach, carried before Robert the Bruce’s army at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.

Reliquary of Bishop Attheus
Figures are Saints Mary and John. Silver gilt on wood. Late 8th-century Frankish. (Sion, Valais: Cath. Treas.) 17.5 cm high. The style is transitional, moving from a traditional Sub-Roman linear figure style toward Carolingian naturalism.
Bursa Reliquary (North Italy)
Dates to the early 900s. Made of bone, copper-gilt, wood (19.7 x 18.6 x 8.3 cm). Displays a masterful treatment of ivory wherein the surface is modeled by incision and relief carving while the background is pierced through (ajouré).
Reliquary of Pepin
Dates from about the year 1000. However, pieces of an earlier crucifixion scene were found inside, which may date to Pepin's time (817-38). One side of the reliquary depicts a Crucifixion scene in gold, while the other has two doves. In the Abbey Church of St. Foy, Conques in the South of France.

The Carolingian Renaissance
New emphasis on religious works in metal and crystal to adorn abbeys and palaces.
Renewed use of decorative techniques and materials.
The Carolingian RenaissanceReliquaries
The Carolingian Renaissance
The Carolingian Renaissance
Few mosaics survive, but they were important and likely reflect links to the Byzantine Empire
Carolingian Art

Ottonian Art: A New Holy Roman Empire
German princes in the 10th century try and restore another Holy Roman Empire
Otto II (late 10th century) married a Byzantine princess, strengthening ties between East and West and bringing Byzantine artists into his Holy Roman Empire.
Ottonian Art
Around 870 AD, Carolingian master craftsmen created an opulent image of the crucifixion on the cover of the Lindau Gospels.
No attempt was made to present the scene realistically.
Ottonian art
This may be a crucifixion, but the figure on the cross is very much alive.
He does not suffer in the least.

Ottonian Art
Only a century later there is an entirely new depiction of the same scene.
Christ’s agonized portrayal in the Gero Crucifix, though not wholly realistic, is an entirely compassionate portrayal.
It also marks the reappearance of monumental sculpture
Ottonian Art
The Gero image pulls on the heart-strings of the observer.
Muscles strain.
The body is contorted.
Christ suffers – and, he suffers for man.
Carolingian Disintegration
Charlemagne’s Empire passed intact to his son Louis the Pious (r. 814-840)
Louis divided his Empire amongst his 4 legitimate sons (as was Frankish custom at the time)
Civil war, ended by the Treaty of Verdun in 843, partitioned Empire
Charlemagne’s predecessors failed to reconstruct the Holy Roman Empire (the title was adopted by the Ottonians).
End of the Carolingians
Outside Threats …

Medieval Buildings

2008-12-02T12:21:00.000-08:00

Medieval Buildings and Miscellaneous Sites
Medieval Buildings in Ireland
Surviving medieval buildings are relatively rare in Ireland.
The surviving buildings are of stone, timber-framed buildings have not survived in Ireland.
The main surviving buildings are:Castles and other fortified residences
Ecclesiastical buildings including cathedrals, churches, abbeys and other monastic centres.
There is little surviving urban architecture that pre-dates 1700.
Early Castles
The vast majority of castles post-date the first Anglo-Norman incursions into Ireland in 1169.
Historical records refer to a number of ‘castles’ that pre-date 1169.
These appear to be earthwork castles not unlike ‘mottes’
Mottes
Mottes are conical mounds erected by the Normans in Ireland after 1169 and mainly before 1220.
Sometimes natural outcrops or earlier earthworks were modified for use as mottes.
There are at least 456 known in Ireland although these are mostly in Leinster and east Ulster.
Motte: Clonard, Co. MeathDate to late 12th to 13th century ADEarthwork castles built by the Normans
Motte: Drumcooly Hill, Co. Offaly
Mottes
Illustrated on the Bayeux Tapestry
Bayeux Tapestry showing the motte at Hastings being built.
Motte construction
Where there have been excavation, mottes appear to have been built using a particular method.
The first stages sees the construction of an earthwork ring.
Motte construction
The earthwork ring for the base of the motte and any outer earthworks are raised in height
The outer earthworks are known as baileys
Motte construction
The earthwork ring is then in-filled, probably using material dug out from around the base to add an enclosing ditch to the base of the mound
Wooden stairs may also have been added
Motte construction
The top of the motte is flattened for use.
Mainly timber buildings were added to mottes in Ireland, although some had stone buildings
Norman Stone Fortesses
The main phase of castle construction in Ireland was from 1175 to 1310.
The earliest castles were built by a handful of powerful knights, in particular Hugh de Lacy (who built Trim, opposite) and John de Courcy (who built Carrickfergus).
Carrickfergus Castle
Built on a rock promontory in Belfast LoughCarrickfergus CastleBuilt by John de Courcy from 1178 onwards
It wasn’t conceived as a single project and it appears to have evolved during construction
The earliest phase at Carrickfergus dates to 1178-1200By 1200, there was a keep, a hall and an outer precinct wall on the rock promontory
There is a fresh water well within the keep
Yellow stone (Cultra stone) used to decorate openings
The ground plan and investigations have indicated that the initial construction plan was modified considerably before it was completedThe base of the keep is not square and the Cultra stone was only added in mid-construction
The original construction may not have included the hall
The outer precinct wall appears to include two phases with the keep only raised after an initial wall was built
De Courcy may have started with a simple stone-walled enclosure for protection and only proceeded to develop the castle when his position was secure
Second major construction campaign saw an enlarged outer ward added in 1215-1223
This provided additional protection to the keep and hall
Final major construction campaign saw a second outer ward added in 1225-1250 with a gate house
The were some later modifications in the 14th century, 16th century, 17th century and 19th century.
Dundrum, Co. Down
Begun by John de Courcy between 1177 and 1203It incorporates a series of phases
It appears to have been preceded by a ringworkThere is a circular keep that seems to have replaced an earlier building
Dundrum, Co. Down
Published plans (e.g. above right) of Dundrum appear to be inaccurate as they do not include a pre-keep structure (that is visible in the interior of the curtain wall) and both towers of the gate house (which appear on maps)
Circular keeps
Nenagh Castle, Co. Tipperary built by Theobald Walter, head of the Butler family between 1200 and 1220.
Many keeps now show as great a concern for display and comfort as security
Nenagh has an ornate Romanesque doorway and large fireplaces
Trim Castle
Built between 1210 and 1220 on the site of an earlier ringwork by Hugh de Lacey
It was linked by the River Boyne to his other major holdings at Drogheda and Dublin.
As part of a major conservation plan it was fully excavated
This identified that it had been preceded by a ringworkIt also showed how it had been designed and set out for constructionTowered Keeps Built by William Marshal the elder and William Marshal the younger from 1207 to 1225 (Carlow, Ferns, Lea in Laois and Terryglass in Tipperary)
Each has a rectangular keep with circular corner towers
Ferns, Co. Wexford: Ferns Castle
Two major royal castles were built in Ireland shortly after 1210
Both gateways had twin D-shaped towers
These had an open plan without a free-standing great tower or keep
This type of castle had been recently developed in France and Wales
Dublin Castle
On 30th August 1204, King John commanded the erection of a strong castle for the defence of the city, administration of justice and safe custody of treasure.The construction of Dublin Castle was completed by 1230
Henry de Londres, Justiciar and Archbishop of Dublin, is credited with this achievement
Limerick Castle
Plan from 17th century Pacata Hibernia
Mid-13th century Castles
Knights and Barons continued to build castles into the 13th century such as Castleroche in Louth.
Castleroche, Co. Louth
Believed to have been built by Rohesia de Verdun in 1236
Exhibits a twin D-shaped gatehouseHas one projecting tower
Incorporates a large hall
Castleroche, Co. LouthView of Hall and Gatehouse from the south-eastGatehouses
Almost all late-12th and early to mid-13th century castles have elaborate gatehouses, generally these are twin-toweredIn some cases the main keep or hall is located at some distance from the gatehouse (e.g. Carrickfergus) in others it is located immediately behind the gatehouse (e.g. Castleroche)Gatehouses
By the mid-13th century the defences of castles become more developed and the focus moves from the keeps to the curtain walls and the gate-towers
Examples built at this time are shown here
Later Medieval Castles
Some castles can be identified that were built in the 14th century
They see further evolutions away from the protected keep with limited gateways features and the use of towers to provide flanking fire for defence
This is Clonmore, Carlow
Hall houses
A group of castles built from the early 13th century through to the 14th centuryLittle or no evidence for outer defences or gatehouses
Hall houses, polygonal castles and Irish stone castlesVarious castles are built in areas outside of Anglo-Norman control in the 13th and 14th century
Irish Castles
Castles built by the Irish, rather than Anglo-Norman lords
Mainly ditched and walled enclosures sometimes with gatehouses
Tower houses
In 1429, a statute of Henry VI decreed that a grant of £10 would be available to every man in the Pale who built a castle of stone by 1439
This should measure 20 ft by 16 ft and 40 ft highThis appears to be the origin of tower houses
True tower houses continued to be built into the 16th century and 17th century in various forms
They may have a surrounding bawn or defended enclosure
They incorporate features such as helical (spiral) staircases and intra-mural passages
Bagenal’s Castle, NewryBuilt by Nicholas Bagenal in 1570s
Plans survive in Crown Records Office in Kew London
Bagenals Castle, Newry
Excavation showed the 1570s ground plan to have a number of inaccuracies.
The real ground plan suggests a tower house like Ballug, Roodstown or Termonfeckin in Louth
Ecclesiastical Architecture
Cathedrals
Churches
Abbeys and other monastic centres
Pre-Norman Irish architecture is replaced by classical styles such as Romanesque and Gothic Romanesque
Applied to various architectural devices and types of artDetail from Clonfert cathedral (3rd quarter of 12th century)
RomanesqueWest door of Clonfert CathedralCurving arch of the door is typical of Romanesque
Romanesque: Cormacs Chapel (Cashel)Dates to 1125-1150One of the best examples of Romanesque architecture in Ireland
Cormacs Chapel
Irish Romanesque
The first Romanesque buildings: Cormac's Chapel at Cashel (1127–34) features square towers, doorways in recessed orders, barrel and ribbed vaults, quarried stone, and architectural sculpture. Cormac's chapel boasts one of the finest looking corbelled roof which is constructed of ashlar, cut from local sandstone. Although impressive in appearance, the structural components were not as well integrated as in some of the earlier examples: the barrel vault was too low to support the roof, which instead had to be reinforced by a pointed vault immediately under the external masonry.
A more radical innovation occurred here with the addition of square towers incorporated at the east end of the nave, presenting a new architectural model for the Irish church. Paired towers, flanking the chancel or the apse, were a feature of many churches within the German Empire, and it has long been assumed that those at Cashel were derived from St James at Regensburg or one of the other Schöttenkirchen. But eastern towers and turrets were also a feature of Norman churches in England, so the background may be closer to home.But this particular architectural formula was not repeated elsewhere in Ireland. Cormac’s ChapelIn addition, Cormac's Chapel was among the first Irish buildings to be embellished with sculpture, and as such is thought to mark the birth of Hiberno-Romanesque, providing an initial injection of foreign techniques, which within a few years were integrated into Irish church-building.
Cormac’s ChapelThe prominence given in the annals to the consecration of Cormac's Chapel in 1134 suggests that the novelties of the building were widely appreciated, which makes it curious that the architecture did not have a greater influence. The artistic splendor was enhanced by painted decoration, remnants of which survive in the chancel, where human figures, one wearing a crown, can be discerned on the vault. The scheme was carried out with costly materials, which included lapis lazulae, vermilion and gold leaf. The purpose of so much expenditure on one relatively small building has never been satisfactorily established.
Cormac’s Chapel
The larger and more elaborate buildings meant that Irish churches could allow the same liturgical practices as other European churches
This would bring Ireland into line with European practice
Christchurch, Dublin
Begun in 1030, earliest surviving fabric really dates from after 1180
Christchurch
Romanesque plan from crypt Compare it to St. Sernin
Gothic
Some ecclesiastical architecture in Ireland is in the Gothic style well known from Britain and FranceThis is St. Patricks Cathedral, Dublin
Christchurch, Dublin
Begun in 1030, earliest surviving fabric really dates from after 1180
Gothic: Early English1190-1250
Plain lancet windows and arches
Protruding buttresses.
Plate tracery
Circular, moulded capitals.
Pointed, moulded arches.
Capitals with stiff-leaf and crockets E.g. Salisbury
Gothic: Geometric and Decorated
1250-1350
Geometric shapes emerge in Early English styles from 1250-1290 (e.g. Romsey)
Then intersecting tracery appears in middle windows
This becomes more and more elaborate during the early 14th century (e.g. Exeter)
Gothic: Perpendicular
1330-1550
Verticals from top to bottom of windows, horizontal transoms (e.g. Winchester Cathedral shown here)Octagonal piers
Abbeys
The Cistercian introduce a specific architectural plan to Irish monastic centres, such as Mellifont
Other Orders which appear include the Dominicans and Franciscans
Cistercian Abbey (Jerpoint, Co. Kilkenny)
Cistercian Abbeys are laid out on a regular format with each building given a prescribed space within the layout
Franciscan Friary, Quin, Co. Clare
Quin FriaryFranciscans were not as rich as the Cistercians

Metals, trade and hoards in prehistory

2008-11-27T12:00:00.000-08:00

Bronze collars from Denmark
Independent copper metallurgy?

Recognising Ores
Gold sourcing…
Early Irish goldwork appears to be derived from alluvial gold.
This is often collected by either place-mining or panning a process where the heavier density of the gold makes it sink and other soil and sediment is washed away.
Gold Sources?
Ireland continued to exploit local gold throughout the Bronze Age.
There is a synchronous change of source at the MBA-LBA transition (1150 BC).
Earlier gold was rarely re-cycled.
Chapman et al 2006 Applied Geochemistry Vol 21, 859-1092

Copper Ores
Copper mining: Ross Island 2400-2000 BC
Copper mining tools
Mount Gabriel (Cork), copper mines
Great Orme, copper mines (Wales)
Changes in Metalworking
Early Bronze Age
Simple one piece moulds

Changes in Metalworking
By the end of the Early Bronze Age
Two-piece (bi-valve) moulds in use
Metalworking Techniques in the Late Bronze Age
Some one-piece moulds and bi-valve, or two-piece, moulds continue in use
This is eventually followed by lost-wax casting in the Late Bronze Age
A model of the object to be cast is made in wax
This is encased in clay with vents and a gate left
This is heated the wax melts away via the vents
The molten bronze is poured through the gate and the mold is broken to remove the finished piece
Late Bronze Age Metalworking: Moulds(Dun Aonghusa, Inis Mór)
Casting Using Lost Wax Method
‘Kurd’ buckets
3. Cape Castle, Antrim
4. Magilligan, Derry
‘Kurd’ buckets
Hosszúpályi (Hungary)
Lunulae
Two main types:
Classical and Unaccomplished – also Provincial Type (found in France and Britain)
Tamlaght Hoard, Co. Armagh
At least two sheet bronze bowls, one placed inside the other
A sword of Irish (possibly a Type 3)
Dates to the 11th century BC

Fuchsstadt-Type vessels
Fuchsstadt-Type vessel from Austria
Fuchsstadt-Type vessels
Jenisovice Type vesselFrom Bjergsted, Skippinge, Denmark
Jenišovice-Type vessels
Pins and BraceletsBallytegan Hoard, Co. Laois
Contain sunflower pins (1, 2 and 4 below)
Disc-headed pins
(No. 3 below)
Triple-bracelet
See Danish sunflower pin below.
Bronze collars from Denmark
Raftery’s proposed development of gorgets
Sintra Collar, Portugal
Gold hats? (Probably bowls)
Gold ‘cones’
Aventon Berlin Ezelsdorf Schifferstadt

Aventon Berlin Ezelsdorf Schifferstadt
Rathgall, Co. Wicklow
Exotic finds are often associated with the major hillforts (date to around 1200 BC).
Finds have parallels in the southern Alpine area and Germany.
Shields: U-notched Type
Cloonlara, Co. Mayo
Wooden mould
Oak
48 cm diameter
Shields: U-notched Type
Churchfield, Co. Mayo
Wooden mould
Alder
Cut-out handle in rear
Shields: V-notched Type
Clonbrin, Co. Longford
Leather
50 cm in diameter
Engravings of V-notched shields
A group of monuments in Spain carry engraved scenes showing various weapons and shields. V-notched shields are prominent.
They are mostly in Extremadura
Appear to date to between 9th and 7th centuries BC.
Example on the right is from Solana de Cabañas

Brozas
V-notched shield on engraved 7th-8th century BC slab from Brozas, Cáceres in Spain

Cabeza de Buey
V-notched shields on engraved 7th-9th century BC slab from Cabeza de Buey (just south of Brozas)
Out of the distant past
Bronze and gold hoards:
Votive deposits or smiths’ stores?

Pins and BraceletsBallytegan Hoard, Co. Laois
Contain sunflower pins (1, 2 and 4 below)
Disc-headed pins
(No. 3 below)
Triple-bracelet
Tamlaght
Tamlaght
Tamlaght
Killymoon, Co. Tyrone
Gold hoard found during excavation
Dowris Hoard
Found during peat cutting in Offaly in the 1820s. Original number of objects is unknown.
Dowris Hoard
Buckets and Cauldrons
Cauldrons: Type A
Example from Dowris, Co. Offaly.
Horns
Cast bronze horns

Played using circular breathing

Two main types:
Horns: Class 1
Generally cast as a single piece

Mainly found in the north-east
Horns: Class 2
Occasionally manufactured in a number of sections
Mainly found in the south-west
Distribution ofHorns
Dowris is unusual in that both types are represented in the hoard.
Dowris Hoard
Weapons include both swords and spearheads
No. 5 in drawing is a chape (part of a scabbard)
Crotals
Purpose unknown (the term crotal denotes a small bell with an enclosed clapper)
39 from Dowris, one from Co. Antrim
Dowris hoard
Other finds include:
Axes
Chisels
Gouges
Socketed knives
Great Clare Gold Find
Gold found during railway building in 1854 near Mooghaun
Hoard was dispersed after find
Great Clare Gold Find
Some pieces are still being discovered
Great Clare Gold Find
a) 138 penannular bracelets with solid, evenly expanded, terminals.b) 3 penannular bracelets with evenly expanded hollowed terminals.c) 6 gold collars.d) 2 lock-rings.e) 2 penannular neck-rings.f) 3 ingots.g) 2 torcs.
Booleybrien, Co. Clare
Hoards
Hoards
Burton Hoard (Wales)
Single finds LBA
Weapons
Gold ornaments
Weapons
Gold ornaments
Newport, Co. Mayo

Megalithic Tombs, Mounds and Cairns

2008-11-25T12:13:00.001-08:00

Megalithic Tombs
Mounds, Cairns, Barrows
Megalithic Tombs
•Megalithic Tombs are those stone monuments erected during prehistory including Court Tombs, Portal Tombs, Passage Tombs, Linkardstown Cists, Wedge Tombs.
•We should also include Stone Circles with this group.
•While we often use the term ‘tomb’ to describe them, the evidence from them suggest more complex uses than simply burial as they seem to have been the focus for other activities and ceremonies.
Megalithic Terms
•Orthostat
•Kerb
•Lintel
•Capstone

Megalithic Tombs
•Broadly speaking, the Passage Tombs, Court Tombs and Portal Tombs are Neolithic in date.
•The Wedge Tombs are mainly Bronze Age in date. Their distribution is also significantly different.
Court Tombs
•Also known as Court Graves, Horned Cairns

•390 examples are known (eg Creggandevesky, in Co Tyrone)

•Various types of court tomb have been identified:
–Dual Court Tombs
–Central Court Tombs
–Transeptal Court Tombs

Court Tombs: Layout
•Divided into two basic parts:
–a long chamber which contains smaller compartments in which remains were deposited
–a large open-space or court at the entrance to the chamber
•Court marked by large standing stones.
•Chamber is roofed by a stone mound which tapered toward the back.
Court Tombs – Distribution Map
Court Tombs - Distribution
•Distribution also reflected in tomb styles.
•In the north-east there is a preference for simple tombs with open crescent shaped courts.
•Elaborate monuments with more complex courts and found in the north-west
Court Tombs – Distribution Map
Note the preference for Central and Full Court tombs in the west
Court Tombs – Full Court Tombs
•Creevykeel, Co. Sligo
Court Tombs – Dual Court Tombs
•Audleystown, Co. Down

•Cohaw, Co. Cavan
Court Tombs - Transeptal
•Behy, Co. Mayo
Court Tombs - Construction
•Where chambers are present, 70% of tombs have less than 2 compartments.
•The cairn is generally retained by a revetment of orthostats
•Court is usually defined by orthostats and occasionally dry-walling
•Chambers can be separated into compartments by jamb-stones and sill-stones

Court Tombs – Finds
•Tombs show a preference in alignment – open court tombs often face between north-east and south-east
•Burnt and unburnt bones have been found in court tombs, but cremation appears to be more common
•Range of pottery and flint often found
–Carinated Bowls, Decoarted Bowls and Bipartite Bowls
–Flint arrowheads, scrapers and knives

Court Tombs - Date
•Dated examples may begin as early as 4000 BC
•Most dated examples suggest construction and use during the period between 3750 BC and 3250 BC

Court Tombs – Houses of the Dead
•One court tomb, at Ballyglass, Co. Mayo, was found to overlie a Neolithic house.
•Some people see Court Tombs as stone versions of contemporary houses, but built as houses of the dead rather than the living.
Portal Tombs
•Also known as Dolmens, Trigaliths, Diarmuid and Grainne’s Bed, Druidical Altars

•174 examples are known

•Most portal tombs are of a simple type although occasional variations have been identified but these are very rare:
–Dual Portal Tombs (e.g. Ballyrenan, Co. Tyrone)
Portal Tombs: Layout
•Usually formed of:
–a rectangular chamber
–Two stones mark either side of the entrance (the portal stones)
–A single large capstone for the roof (occasionally two stones are present)
–Largest capstone is Brownshill in Carlow (100 tons)
•There is often a cairn present, although this is not always the case.
Portal Tombs – Distribution Map
Note large gaps across areas of the midlands, west, south-west and north-east
Portal Tombs - Features
•Dual Portal Tomb at Ballyrenan, Co. Tyrone
•Note blocking stone at front of tomb - Drumanone, Co. Roscommon
Portal Tombs – Finds
•Tombs show no preference in alignment – often they roughly face east or uphill
•Many have stream-side or valley bottom locations
•Mainly burnt bones have been found in portal tombs
•Range of finds from portal tombs includes:
–Carinated Bowls and Bipartite Bowls
–Flint arrowheads, scrapers and knives
–Stone axes
–Beads

Portal Tombs - Date
•Dates seem to be very similar to Court Tombs although the picture isn’t very clear
•Dated examples begin as early as 4000 BC
•Most dated examples suggest use during the period between 3750 BC and 3250 BC

Passage Tombs
•Also known as Passage Graves, Druids Stones
•230 examples are known
•Several basic types of passage tombs have been identified:
–Simple passage tombs
–Cruciform passage tombs
Passage Tombs: Layout
•Usually formed of:
–a circular cairn or kerb circle
–A chamber within the cairn or kerb circle
–A passage providing access to the central chamber

Passage Tombs
•Newgrange, Co. Meath
The Winter Solstice
•Today it is best known for its association with the winter solstice.
•This was only re-discovered during the excavations.
Passage Tombs
•Entrance with decorated stone and famous light box.
Passage Tombs – Distribution Map
•Note gaps in distribution in most of the midlands, south-west and west.
•Also note cemeteries.
Passage Tombs – Simple Passage Tombs

Ballintoy, Co. Antri
Baltinglass Hill, Co. Wicklow
Passage Tombs – Simple Passage Tombs
•Carrowmore, Tomb 7, Co. Sligo
Passage Tombs – Cruciform Tombs
•Cruciform passage tomb at Knowth in Co. Meath
•Note the smaller ‘satellite’ tombs surrounding the main tomb
Passage Tombs - Distribution
•Passage tombs are found singly and in groups (cemeteries)
•Main passage tomb cemeteries are in the Boyne valley (Meath), Loughcrew (Meath)l, Carrowkeel (Sligo), Carrowmore (Sligo)
•A cemetery is usually defined as a group of more than 5
Passage Tombs – Finds
•Tombs often seem to be aligned towards significant astronomies such as the winter solstice
•Mainly burnt bones have been found in passage tombs
•Large stone basins are known
•Range of finds from passage tombs includes:
–Carrowkeel Ware pottery
–Beads, pendants, bone and antler pins
–Stone Balls

Passage Tombs - Date
•Some dated examples begin as early as 5500 BC – this is often challenged
•Most dated examples suggest use during the period after 3500 BC and before 2850 BC
•The great passage tombs like Knowth and Newgrange were built between 3250 BC and 2950 BC.

Wedge Tombs
•Also known as Gallery Graves
•505 examples are known
•Two basic types of wedge tombs have been identified:
–Short gallery (Parknabinnia, Co. Clare)
–Long gallery (Ballyedmonduff, Co. Dublin)
Wedge Tombs: Layout
•Usually formed of:
–A gallery
–An outer revetment
–Generally roofed with large stones decreasing in size from front to rear

Wedge Tombs – Distribution Map
Note that wedge tombs do not observe the northern preference of other megalithic tombs

Wedge Tombs – Finds
•Tombs show no preference in alignment – often they roughly face west
•Burnt and unburnt bones have been found in wedge tombs
•Range of finds from wedge tombs is very limited and includes:
–Beaker Pottery
–Barbed and Tanged arrowheads
Wedge Tombs - Date
•Dated examples may start as early as 3000 BC, but it seems more likely most are built after around 2600 BC.
•Most dated examples suggest construction and use during the period between 2600 BC and 1400 BC
•It is possible that some of the stone circles built in the south-west are a late variant style of Wedge Tomb.

Stone Circles: Drombeg, Co. Cork
•Radiocarbon dated to the Late Bronze Age

Linkardstown Cists
•Small group of tombs known which are recognised as a distinct group of individual burials
•Named after first excavated example at Linkardstown in Co. Carlow
•Sites have a central burial chamber located in the centre of a cairn or mound which is not accessed via a passage
•Most dated examples suggest use during the period between 3600 BC and 3300 BC

Linkardstown Cists
•Jerpoint West, Co. Kilkenny showing typical form of central burial chamber: i.e. a polygonal stone cist
•Baunogenasraid, Carlow
Linkardstown Cists
•A group of definite Linkardstown-type burials are known
•Some related ‘individual’ Neolithic burials are also known and considered to be related
Linkardstown Cists – Finds
•Mainly unburnt bones have been found in Linkardstown Cists, mainly of adult males
•Range of finds from Linkardstown Cists includes:
–Bipartite Bowls
Linkardstown Cists
•Poulawack, Co. Clare
•Linkardstown Cist phases – central burial cists covered by a cairn of stones and encircled by a kerb
Linkardstown Cists
•Poulawack, Co. Clare – Typical Linkardstown Cist – not recognisable prior to excavation
Linkardstown Cists
•Poulawack, Co. Clare
•Excavation revealed multiple phases of use
Ballintruer More, Co Wicklow
Clogher Lower (Co. Roscommon)
•Typical mound – Bronze Age in date.
•Central burial sealed by cairn/earthen mound.
Clogher Lower (Co. Roscommon)
Ballinagore (Co. Wicklow)
Knockast, Co. Westmeath
Individual Burial
•CISTS
Segmented Cist
Laughanstown, Co. Dublin
Barrows
•A number of types of burial monument are defined by the presence of a circular ditch
•These might enclose a central burial or include numerous burials
Cherrywood,Co Dublin:Typical Barrow
After excavation – viewed from the north.
Late Bronze Age burial and pit F77
Child burial
Barrow with capping and cremation deposits removed and pit F77 exposed (viewed from north-west)
Pit F77 with circle of stones and cattle teeth in situ
Plan showing location of cremation deposits overlying capping and within ditch fill (see key).
Viewed from the north-west. This is the barrow with the cremated ditch deposits visible and the clay capping in situ.
Beads from cremations with ditch fill

Stone Circles and Rock Art

2008-11-25T12:09:00.000-08:00

Stones Circles, Standing Stones, Alignments, Rock Art…

Stone Circles
•There are various types of stone circle in Ireland:
–Great Circles
–Embanked Circles
–Northern-type(s)
–Multiple Stone Circles
–Recumbent Stone Circles
–Stone Circles with Boulder burials
–Five Posters
–Four Posters
Stone Circles - Terminology
Great Circles: Newgrange, Co. Meath
•The Great Circle at Newgrange
Newgrange – The Great Circle
Newgrange – The Great Circle
•There are 12 surviving standing stones around the mound of Newgrange out of a possible original 35 to 38 orthostats.
•The Great Circle has an average diameter of 103.6m (340 ft), which is larger than the diameter of Stonehenge, the outer bank of which is 97.5m (320 ft).
•The stones consist of greywacke, which is a type of sandstone, as well as limestone, granite and other igneous rocks and stand at a height of approximately 2 metres each
Newgrange, Co. Meath
•Stones in front of the tomb’s entrance.
Embanked Circles - Beltany, Co. Donegal
•Stones stand on a raised bank.
Embanked Circles - Beltany, Co. Donegal
•The ring is 44.2m (145ft) in diameter and still contains 64 stones, though originally there were eighty or more
Embanked Circles - Beltany, Co. Donegal
•Note the entrance in the top slide (bottom left of the circle).
•This is also visible in the bottom photo.
Embanked Stone Circle:Athgreaney, The Pipers Stones, Co. Wicklow
Embanked Stone Circle:Castleruddery, Co. Wicklow
These ‘embanked’ stone circles are very similar to henge monuments and appear to be of the same sort of date (i.e. Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age).
Embanked Stone Circle:Grange, Co. Limerick
•Excavated in the 1940s.
•Appears to date to the Bronze Age
Embanked Stone Circle:Grange, Co. Limerick
•Embanked stone circles show many of the symmetrical features of henge monuments.
Ballynahatty, Co. Down (Henge)
Northern Type(s)
•While a lot of stone circles are known from the northern half of Ireland – the various types have not been properly studied.
•There are a number of early circles which may be embanked circles (other than Beltany)
•The remainder are best described individually!
Similar to Breton circles called Fer-aux-chevaux
Stonehenge – Bluestone phase
Ballynoe, Co. Down
Ballynoe, Co. Down
Copney, Co. Tyrone
Copney: Circle A
Beaghmore: Site B
Along alignment towards B
Beaghmore: Site D
Beaghmore: Site E
Drumskinny, Co. Fermanagh
Four-Poster: Mullaghmore, Co. Down
•Four-Poster Circle
•Excavation produced traces of a cremation in a bucket-shaped pot.
Four-Poster: Mullaghmore, Co. Down
•Mullaghmore as excavated: M marks the spot where the bones of an adult male cremation were recovered, C is where the similar remains of a child were recovered.
Ring ditch 2 burial
•Oval in plan 6 by 5m
•Central burial used twice
•First burial a small cist, contained remains of an adult male 35 years+
•The second burial an adult 35 years +
•Capstone recovered from ditch
•No associated funerary vessel
•Four post holes surrounding central burial
•Dated Cal BC 1380-920
A Four-Poster in a barrow at Loughbrickland, Co. Down
Multiple Stone Circles: Drombeg, Co. Cork
Bohonagh, Co. Cork – Boulder Burial
•Boulder Burial located close to the Stone Circle
Bawngare, Co. Cork
•Boulder burial. Similar to an out of proportion portal tomb.
Kenmare, Stone Circle and Boulder Burial
Five Stone Circle: Oughtihery/Keel Cross, Co. Cork
•Has same symmetry as recumbent and multiple stone circles.
Five Stone Circles
Kealkil, Co. CorkFive Poster with Stone Row in background
Stone Circles: Dating Evidence
•The different types of circle appear to be of different dates.
•The Great Circle at Newgrange and the embanked circles seem to date to around 3000-2000 BC
•Many of the Northern types appear to date to 2000-1500 BC
•The Four-Poster and many of the types from Cork and Kerry date to the Late Bronze Age (1200-800 BC)
Maughanasilly, Co. Cork: Stone Row
Standing Stones: The Rocking Stone, Carrowkeel (Sligo)
Standing Stones:The Longstone, Co. Armagh
Standing Stone:Rathiddy, Co. Louth
Rock Art:Reyfad, Co. Fermanagh
Rock Art: Mullagharoy, Co. Meath
Rock Art:The Witches Stone, Oldbridge, Co. Wicklow
Rock Art:Clearagh, Co. Cork
Kealduff Upper, Co. Kerry
Stone with rock art from pit in the interior ofHaughey’s Fort, Co. Armagh
•Private and public art
Turoe Stone, Co. Galway
Killycluggin, Co. Cavan
Boa Island, Co. Fermanagh

BA Cultures

2008-11-20T12:05:00.000-08:00

Bronze Age Burial

2008-11-20T12:04:00.000-08:00

Individual Burial in Ireland during the Bronze Age

Bronze Age: Chronology
•The Bronze Age begins around 2350 BC in Ireland
•First evidence of use of copper dates to around 2350 BC
•By 2000 BC, copper is being alloyed with tin to make bronze
•Gold appears around this time as well
•Conventionally the Bronze Age is divided into three phases:
–Early (2350 BC to 1700 BC);
–Middle (1700 BC to 1200 BC)
–Late (1200 BC to 700 BC).

Characteristics of the Early Bronze Age
•Individual burials
•Flat axes
•Tanged daggers
•Barbed and tanged arrowheads
•Decorated pottery
•Archers wristguards
•V-perforated buttons
Characteristics of the Early Bronze Age
•Individual burials
•Flat axes
•Tanged daggers
•Barbed and tanged arrowheads
•Decorated pottery
•Archers wristguards
•V-perforated buttons
Characteristics of the Early Bronze Age
•Individual burials
•Flat axes
•Tanged daggers
•Barbed and tanged arrowheads
•Decorated pottery
•Archers wristguards
•V-perforated buttons
Characteristics of the Early Bronze Age
•Individual burials
•Flat axes
•Tanged daggers
•Barbed and tanged arrowheads
•Decorated pottery
•Archers wristguards
•V-perforated buttons
Characteristics of the Early Bronze Age
•Individual burials
•Flat axes
•Decorated Pottery
•Tanged daggers
•Barbed and tanged
arrowheads
•Decorated pottery
•Archers wristguards
•V-perforated buttons
Characteristics of the Early Bronze Age
•Individual burials
•Flat axes
•Decorated Pottery
•Tanged daggers
•Barbed and tanged
arrowheads
•Decorated pottery
•Archers wristguards
•V-perforated buttons
Characteristics of the Early Bronze Age
•GOLD
Characteristics of the Early Bronze Age
•GOLD
Lunulae
Two main types:
Classical (heavily decorated, symmetrical), from Killarney, Co. Kerry
Unaccomplished (i.e. little decoration, asymmetric) as shown here from a hoard of four from Dunfierny in Co. Kildare

Characteristics of the Early Bronze Age
•Halberds
•Battleaxes
Pottery
Bowl Tradition pottery

Vase Tradition pottery
Urns from the Vase Tradition
Collared Urn (Tara, Co. Meath)
Cordoned Urn (Gortlush, Co. Donegal)

Ballinagore (Co. Wicklow)
Finds associated with Collared Urns
Finds associated with Cordoned Urns
Razors found with Cordoned Urns
Faience Beads

Burial Mounds
•Poulawack, Co. Clare
Burial Mounds
•Poulawack, Co. Clare
•Excavation revealed multiple phases of use
Poulawack, Co. Clare
Clogher Lower (Co. Roscommon)
•Typical mound – Bronze Age in date.
•Central burial sealed by cairn/earthen mound.
Clogher Lower (Co. Roscommon)
Ballinagore (Co. Wicklow)

Knockast, Co. Westmeath
Knockast, Co. Westmeath

Individual Burial
•CISTS
Segmented Cist
Laughanstown, Co. Dublin

Ballygalley,County Antrim

Death and Burial in continental Europe
Variation in practice across Europe
Early Bronze Age: Dominant Burial Rites
•Tumulus Burials (i.e. in a mound, barrow, cairn or kurgan): Ireland, Britain, Southern Russia, Southern Scandinavia, Northern Germany, Netherlands, Brittany, East Hungary, West Serbia, Albania

•Flat Inhumation Cemetery: Central Europe, Italy, Central Russia, Northern Russia.

•Cremation Cemetery: Hungary

Early Bronze Age: Dominant Burial Rites
•Tumulus Burials (i.e. in a mound, barrow, cairn or kurgan): Ireland, Britain, Southern Russia, Southern Scandinavia, Northern Germany, Netherlands, Brittany, East Hungary, West Serbia, Albania
•Novaya Kvasnikovka, Volgograd (kurgan 4, burial 5) – 2000 BC
Early Bronze Age: Dominant Burial Rites
•Novaya Kvasnikovka, Volgograd (kurgan 4, burial 5) – 2000 BC
Early Bronze Age: Dominant Burial Rites
Early Bronze Age: Dominant Burial Rites
•Tumulus Burials (i.e. in a mound, barrow, cairn or kurgan): Ireland, Britain, Southern Russia, Southern Scandinavia, Northern Germany, Netherlands, Brittany, East Hungary, West Serbia, Albania
•Chastiye, Kurgan 20, Lower Don (Russia)– 2000 BC
Kurgan, Aliaga Steppe, Ukraine
Kurgan Vizir, Romania
Normanton Down barrow cemetery
Bush Barrow
Bush Barrow Finds
Golden Barrow
Golden Barrow
Helmsdorf, Germany (EBA)
Leubingen, Germany (EBA)
Middle Bronze Age: Dominant Burial Rites
•Tumulus Burials (i.e. in a mound, barrow, cairn or kurgan): Central Europe, Northern Europe, Pontic Zone, Parts of the Balkans
•Inhumation Cemetery: Rare
•Cremation Cemetery: Rare
Middle Bronze Age: Dominant Burial Rites
•Tumulus Burials (i.e. in a mound, barrow, cairn or kurgan): Central Europe, Northern Europe, Pontic Zone, Parts of the Balkans
•Egtved kommune, Denmark
Middle Bronze Age: Dominant Burial Rites
•Tumulus Burials (i.e. in a mound, barrow, cairn or kurgan): Central Europe, Northern Europe, Pontic Zone, Parts of the Balkans
•Egtved kommune, Denmark
Middle Bronze Age: Dominant Burial Rites
•Tumulus Burials (i.e. in a mound, barrow, cairn or kurgan): Central Europe, Northern Europe, Pontic Zone, Parts of the Balkans
•Egtved kommune, Denmark
Middle Bronze Age: Dominant Burial Rites
•Tumulus Burials (i.e. in a mound, barrow, cairn or kurgan): Central Europe, Northern Europe, Pontic Zone, Parts of the Balkans
•Egtved kommune, Denmark
Middle Bronze Age: Dominant Burial Rites
•Tumulus Burials (i.e. in a mound, barrow, cairn or kurgan): Central Europe, Northern Europe, Pontic Zone, Parts of the Balkans
•Boat-shaped graves (Sweden)
Lugnaro, Sweden
Middle Bronze Age: Dominant Burial Rites
•Tumulus Burials (i.e. in a mound, barrow, cairn or kurgan): Central Europe, Northern Europe, Pontic Zone, Parts of the Balkans
•Toterfout (Netherlands)
Middle Bronze Age: Dominant Burial Rites
•Tumulus Burials (i.e. in a mound, barrow, cairn or kurgan): Central Europe, Northern Europe, Pontic Zone, Parts of the Balkans
•Toterfout (Netherlands)
Middle Bronze Age: Dominant Burial Rites
•Tumulus Burials (i.e. in a mound, barrow, cairn or kurgan): Central Europe, Northern Europe, Pontic Zone, Parts of the Balkans
•Balkans (various)
Late Bronze Age: Dominant Burial Rites
•Tumulus Burials (i.e. in a mound, barrow, cairn or kurgan): Central Europe (rare), Parts of Balkans, Steppe zone
•Inhumation Cemetery: Central Europe (rare)
•Cremation Cemetery: Ireland and Britain, Central Europe, Italy, Northern Europe, France, Spain, most of the Balkans
Late Bronze Age: Dominant Burial Rites
•Inhumation Cemetery: Central Europe (rare)
•Vyčapy-Opatovce
Late Bronze Age: Dominant Burial Rites
•Cremation Cemetery: Ireland and Britain, Central Europe, Italy, Northern Europe, France, Spain, most of the Balkans
•Vollmarshausen (Germany) - Urnfield Cemetery
Vollmarshausen - Urnfield Cemetery
Cemeteries
•Provide useful data on population health and general demographics.

•Estimated life expectancy in Britain was 31.3 (male) and 29.9 (female). Only 3.3% live to see 50.

•Central Europeans – life expectancy poor beyond 40, but in Iberia it is a different picture.

Thapsos, Sicily
Tholos, Mycenae

The "Agamemnon" MaskGold, from Tomb V at Mycenae Sixteenth century BC

Trackways in Ireland

2008-11-11T08:38:00.000-08:00

TRACKWAYS
Valentia Island Tetrapod Trackway, County Kerry
A series of the footprints of a tetrapod - a large amphibian animal that walked on soft sediment 385 million years ago. A unique record of the transition of life from the sea to land.
Valentia Island, Tetrapod Trackway, County Kerry
First major modern find was Corlea in Co. Longford
This was dated by dendrochronology to 148 BC
Corlea
Excavated by Prof. Barry Raftery from UCD
This led to some international debate over the lack of research in Irelands bogs.
Trackways in Bogs
Further examination of the Corlea part of the Mountdillon Bogs revealed further sites
Irish Archaeological Wetland Unit (IAWU)
IAWU was set up in UCD in the early 1990s and a programme of bog surveys was started.
Corlea Visitor Centre
A portion of the Corlea trackway was preserved and put on display in a visitor centre in the bog.
Function?
Their function isn’t always as obvious as we would expect.
Some trackways bridge a chain of bogs.
Some are designed to use part of the bog.
Cooleeny, Site 31, Co. Tipperary
Dated to c. 620 BC, crosses bog.
Cooleeny, Site 31, Co. Tipperary
Cooleeny, Site 31, Co. Tipperary
Killoran, Site 18, Co. Tipperary
Dates to c. 1450 BC – crosses bog from east to west.
Killoran, Site 18, Co. Tipperary
Trackways that don’t cross a bog…
Some trackways are built to access the resources available in bogs (trees, bushes, water courses, wild-life).
Some structures are built as dry islands for various uses.
Trackways that don’t cross a bog…
Derryfadda, Co. Tipperary
Short trackway
Trackways that don’t cross a bog…
Derryfadda, Site 23, Co. Tipperary
Short trackway made of planks
Dated to 1590 BC
Trackways that don’t cross a bog…
Cooleeny, Site 306, Co. Tipperary
Short trackway using mixture of brushwood and roundwood (but no planks)
Trackways that don’t cross a bog…
Killoran Site 315, Co. Tipperary
Short trackway incorporating panels of woven wood (hurdles)
Platforms in bogs
Similar to crannogs and other artificial islands but smaller and not permanently occupied.
Post Rows
Sometimes a long line of posts are recorded.
These are often marking off areas of very wet bog.
Killoran Site 54, Co. Tipperary.
Post Row
Derryfadda 209, Co. Tipperary.
Marks off area of very wet bog.
Dates to Late Bronze Age
Trackways have been found dating to all periods
Fenor Bog, Co. Waterford
Building a Trackway

Fulachta Fiadh/Burnt Mounds

2008-11-11T08:36:00.000-08:00

FULACHT FIADH and BURNT MOUNDS

Burnt Mound v Fulacht Fiadh
Fulacht Fiadh: A horseshoe-shaped or kidney-shaped, mound consisting of fire-cracked stone and charcoal-enriched soil built up around a sunken trough located near or adjacent to a water supply, such as a stream or spring, or in wet marshy areas. The term 'fulacht fia' is ascribed to these sites by Geoffrey Keating. Often associated with cooking, they date primarily, but not exclusively, to the Bronze Age.
Burnt Mound: A burnt mound consists of a circular or irregularly shaped mound of material consisting of burnt stones, ash and charcoal with no surface evidence of a trough or depression. See also fulacht fia.

Keating’s account (from 17th century AD)
'However, from Bealtaine until Samhain, the Fian were obliged to depend solely on the products of their hunting and of the chase … And it was their custom to send their attendants about noon with whatever they had killed in the morning's hunt to an appointed hill …
Keating’s account (from 17th century AD)
… and to kindle raging fires thereon, and put into them a large number of emery stones: and to dig two pits in the yellow clay of the moorland, and put some meat on spits to roast before the fire and to bind another portion of it with súgain in dry bundles, and set it to boil in the larger of the two pits, and keep plying them with the stones that were in the fire … until they were cooked. And these fires were so large that their sites are today in Ireland burnt to blackness, and these are now called Fulacht Fian by the peasantry.

Burnt Mound
Spread of heat shattered stone.
Employ shallow fresh water wells to get water
Cherrywood, Site 3, County Dublin(dated c. 2400-2100 BC)see www.excavations.ie
Killoran, Site 240 (County Tipperary)In Gowen, Ó Néill, Phillips (eds) 2005 Lisheen Mine Archaeological Project. Wordwell
Wells are sometimes lined with wood
These are often referred to as troughs.
Pit and spread of heat-shattered stone.
Killoran Site 26, Co. Tipperary.
Shows typical layout – shattered stone spread around the pit or trough.
What can they tell us?
Where the stones survive from the last use, we can gain some idea of how they were used…

Plot showing the volume of stone required to raise the temperature of 1 litre of water by 1° C, relative to the temperature to which the stone was heated.
Buildings
Some burnt mounds have produced evidence of buildings.
These are simple circular settings of posts
These are simple stone-built buildings.
These are complex, 2-roomed structures.
Drombeg, Co. Cork
Functions other than cooking?
Keatings story ends by saying:
'As to the Fian … each of them stripped off, and tied his shirt around his waist; and they ranged themselves around the second pit … bathing their hair and washing their limbs, and removing their sweat, and then exercising their joints and muscles, thus ridding themselves of their fatigue.
Central America
Charlesland, Co. Wicklow
Panpipes
Dates for Ireland

Out of the Distant Past: Domestication Timeline

2008-11-06T10:33:00.000-08:00

Neolithic Notes on the Development of Agriculture

2008-11-06T10:28:00.001-08:00

Domesticating the wild
The origins of farming in the Levant
In this lecture we will discuss the beginnings of food production, primarily focusing on the region of southwest Asia known as the Levant, but we will also briefly discuss the beginnings of farming in other parts of the world. We will review the various forms of evidence archaeologists have employed to investigate the onset of cereal cultivation and animal domestication from c.10,000 years ago. This will be addressed in relation to several key sites that provided a focus for early agriculture. We will close with a discussion on the different interpretations on how and why these changes may have taken place in the Levant at that particular time.
Key terms and phrases: origins of agriculture, domestication, cultivation, plants and animals, Levant, Natufian, Epi-palaeolithic, tell sites, PPNA/B, Abu Hureyra, Jericho, Çatalhöyük

Marching West
The 'advance of agriculture' across Europe
For the second lecture in this series we will move further west to central and eastern Europe and consider the arrival of neolithic lifeways there. We will discuss a number of key locations and review the main changes as well as continuities from earlier periods. While considering the large scale, global, phenomenon of these developments we will continually hone in on the local events visible in the archaeological record, such as evidence for settlement, material culture and the treatment of the dead.
Key terms and phrases: spread of agriculture, models, colonisation, migration, demic/cultural diffusion, Mediterranean, Cyprus & Crete, the Balkans, Franchthi Cave, Danube Gorges, Lepenski Vir, central and west Mediterranean, cardial ware.
Lecture 10. Longhouse life ? Settlement and daily life in neolithic Europe
This lecture will continue the themes of the previous one but will pay particular attention to aspects of daily life within the so called Linear Potter Culture (LBK) of central and eastern Europe. We will primarily examine the evidence from the longhouse ?villages? so typical of the period from c.5500BC and discuss what this evidence can tell us about people?s lives within and around these settlements. Again we will seek to make inferences about technology, social organisation and ideology, but in slight contrast to the previous lecture aim to focus our analysis at a smaller scale with questions relating to people?s daily life in early neolithic central Europe at its heart. As part of this we will also explore questions of social organisation, conflict and ideology.
Key terms and phrases: Linear Pottery Culture (LBK), Long house settlements, distribution, rapid spread, treatment of the dead, ideology, conflict
Lecture 11. Postcard from the Alps ? Ötzi the Iceman, a case study for neolithic daily life
For the final lecture on the neolithic period in continental Europe we will change our perspective, from looking for clues on a rather broad scale level of the earlier lectures to the material related to one particular discovery. More specifically, we will consider in detail the fate of one later neolithic person who died in the Similaun glacier close to the Italian ? Austrian border around 3300BC. Instead of asking who that person was and what brought him there we will investigate what this find can reveal about the conditions of the lives of people in late neolithic ? also known as Chalcolithic ? central Europe.
Key terms and phrases: ice mummy, Ötzi, organic preservation, equipment, materials, tattoos and body art, conflict
Lecture 12. Neolithic beginnings in Ireland
The first lecture on the neolithic period in Ireland will begin by addressing the question of the earliest evidence for domesticated animals and cultivated cereal crops on the island. We will then move on to discuss other developments of the late fifth and early fourth millennia BC, such as the first use of pottery, the construction of large timber and stone built structures, and changes in lithic technology. We will consider this evidence in the context of contrasting views, interpreting these developments as primarily economic ones on one hand or largely ideologically driven ones on the other.
Key terms and phrases: Island ecology, environmental signatures, elm decline, pollen diagrams, cereal crops, domesticated animals, pottery, lithic artefact technology, timber post built structures, neolithic ?houses?, causewayed enclosures, colonisation, migration, indigenous adoption
Lecture 13. Grand statements in stone ? Irish middle neolithic trends
This lecture will concentrate on the period between c.3600 and 3100BC, best known for the increase and diversification in the construction of large megalithic monuments, with three of the four commonly classified tomb types largely dating to this phase, although at least some of these may have had their origin in preceding centuries. Therefore along with continued construction of rectangular timber structures ? often referred to as neolithic ?houses? ? the use of these monuments suggests some degree of continuation from early neolithic times. We will also address the significance of wide and far reaching exchange links between many parts of Ireland, Britain and continental Europe, which represent another important feature of the archaeology of the fourth millennium BC.
Key terms and phrases: megalithic tombs (passage, court, portal tombs), Linkardstown burials, continuity, exchange networks, stone axe ?trade?, communication
Lecture 14. Continuity and change in late neolithic Ireland
The final lecture in our neolithic series will concentrate of the last five centuries of the period, preceding the arrival of metal working. Once again this phase shows continuity from the earlier middle neolithic but equally into the earlier Bronze Age. While initially passage tombs appear to remain in use we will see that they are oftentimes associated with new pottery styles and also a tendency to create ?ritual complexes? or landscapes. We will also discuss the significance of an increase in open-air ?ceremonial? enclosures. Our exploration of neolithic Ireland will draw to a close with the arrival of the fourth type of megalithic tomb in Ireland and that of beaker pottery. These events, which appear to immediately precede ? or even coincide with ? the development of metallurgy, will provide us with a suitable point from which to reflect on the changes of the preceding 1500 years.
Key terms and phrases: passage tomb complexes, open air enclosure, henges, cursus monuments, grooved ware, wedge tombs, beaker pottery.

Palaeolithic and Mesolithic

2008-10-02T10:07:00.001-07:00

This lecture will provide an introduction to the topic and will get us started with review some of the best known finds from earliest prehistory and a small exercise on what it means to be a modern human. This lecture provides a general introduction to the study of human origins. We will build on our exercise from Lecture 1 and briefly examine some key themes in the definition of humanity before reviewing the key techniques used for understanding human evolution: material culture, physical anthropology, genetics etc. Finally, we provide a very brief chronological framework for human evolution, and compare bushes and ladders as models of evolution.
Key phrases and themes: hominids/hominins, palaeolithic: lower,/middle/upper, palaeontology, archaeology, physical anthropology, genetics, ladders and bushes

The earliest hominids in Africa and Europe
In this lecture we examine the origins of hominids in Africa in their environmental context, from divergence from apes at about 7 million years ago, through to the migration from Africa at about 1.8 million years ago. We will look in detail at Australopithecine afarensis and consider the importance of bipedalism. Homo habilis provides us with an opportunity to examine the significance of tool-use. Finally, we look at the increasing complexity evidence in hominids after the migration from Africa. Homo heidelbergensis allows us to consider the importance of hunting, as well as examine some wonderful evidence of stone working. Heidelbergensis also raise the issue of pre-modern symbolic behaviour.
Key phrases and themes: Australopithecine (A. afarensis), slender and robust, bipedalism, Homo n(H. habilis, H. Heidelbergensis), tool-making, Olduwan/Oldovan, Acheulean, symbolic behaviour, climate change, Ice Age Europe

The origins and spread of modern humans and the extinction of the Neanderthals
Here we focus on the two best known species of humans; Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis. We begin by outlining evidence for the Neanderthals noting the changing interpretations of their humanity over time. We then examine the origins and migrations of modern humans (Homo sapiens), from ill-understood beginnings in Africa and following movement to all corners of the globe. Finally we turn our attention in detail to the modern human arrival in Europe, and the vexed question of the relationship between Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis. And the still much debated evidence for the arrival of modern humans in Britain and other parts of northwest Europe.
Key phrases and themes: Homo sapiens, modern human mind, culture, upper palaeolithic, H neanderthalensis, Châtelperronian, extinction, Swanscombe, Boxgrove

Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers, technology and lives
In this lecture we examine modern humans living in Europe at the end of the last Ice Age, the during the most recent part of the old stone age, known as the upper palaeolithic period. Here we focus especially on evidence of technology and settlement, highlighting the interplay of symbolism in all aspects of hunter-gatherer life. We will look at chronological and geographic variation within the upper palaeolithic, and review changes over time in their environmental context as well as regional variations.
Key phrases and themes: Upper Palaeolithic, Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean, Magdalenian, Ice Age, Late Glacial Maximum, hunter-gatherers, mobility, mega fauna, burial rites, Meizerich

Upper Palaeolithic art
This lecture looks at the world famous ?art? of Ice Age Europe including both cave (or parietal) art and portable art. We review how the art was discovered, and touch on debates about its antiquity, before focusing on the most frequently found motives and how they were expressed. We will examine the competing interpretations of what this art might mean. As this lecture concludes the palaeolithic section of the course we will finish with a brief review of what we have heard and seen so far.
Key phrases and themes: rock art/cave art/parietal art, interpretations, Lascaux, Chauvet, Alta Mira, Creswell, dating, mobiliary art, Venus figurines, Willendorf

Mesolithic Europe: key sites, key sources
This lecture provides a basic introduction to the mesolithic period, or middle stone age, in Europe, with an especial focus on northwest Europe. We will look for definitions for the term mesolithic, and review the important environmental contexts for the period. We will also explore the most characteristic types of evidence of the period, with a focus on the key role of waterlogged sites and underwater archaeology in understanding hunter-gatherer lives. For this lecture we will primarily focus on material from continental Europe, but some comparisons to the British and Irish evidence will also be made as appropriate and important sites such as Star Carr, Oronsay and Mount Sandel will be introduced.
Key words: mesolithic, Holocene, post-glacial, sea level, woodlands, preservation, Star Carr, Oronsay. Mount Sandel

The mesolithic in Ireland
This lecture provides an outline of the mesolithic period in Ireland, examining how settlement in the area might have varied, given the context of a particular and restricted island ecology. We will examine evidence from some of the most important Irish mesolithic sites and introduce some of the themes and debates currently central to the study of the period. In particular, we will focus on questions of technological and settlement change and will also discuss Important new discoveries that challenge our understandings of the period in Ireland.
Key Words: Mouont Sandel, Hermitage, Ferriter?s Cove, fish traps, early and later mesolithic technology, Larnian tradition / Bann flake, wild and domesticated animals

Archaeology Sources in Ireland

2008-03-06T08:57:00.001-08:00

Example:
1st Edition Ordnance Survey Map
Hill of Tara
SMR No: ME 31/33
NGR:29201/259793
RMP No: ME 031-033-16

Data Resources
(Maintained by National Monuments, Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government)
Record of Monuments and Places (RMP)
Sites and Monuments Record (SMR)
Register of Historic Monuments
Maritime Sites and Monuments Record
Urban Archaeological Surveys
National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH)
Published County Archaeological Inventories and Surveys
Office of Public Works river drainage files
National MonumentsArchaeological conservation is dealt with by the National Monuments service operating under the National Monuments Acts, 1930 - 1994, with two sections, the Archaeological Survey of Ireland and the Archaeological Archive being the primary producers and managers of data:
The following areas of responsibility are involved :The Register of Sites and Places / Sites and Monuments Record: This comprising some one hundred and twenty thousand protected archaeological sites throughout Ireland. Many important or threatened archaeological site which are not in the ownership of the state, are specifically protected under legislation from being damaged or interfered with by the legal owners of the land.The National Monuments Service is the licencing authority for all archaeological excavation, which can only be carried out by qualified and registered archaeologists. The register of excavations maintains details of all excavations carried out in Ireland together with a large archive of excavation reports. Excavations at the moment, exceed 1000 per annum.A register of historic shipwrecks is also maintained.
Ordnance Survey Ireland
Ordnance Survey first and subsequent editions
Ordnance Survey Namebooks/Letters/ Memoirs
Aerial photographs
National Map Library
Early maps and estate maps

Other sources
Irish Antiquities Division, National Museum of Ireland Topographical Files
County Development Plans
Excavations Bulletin (www.excavations.ie)
Relevant published archaeological corpora
Local archaeological societies

RMP No: ME031-033-16
Hill of TaraSMR No: ME 31/33NGR:29201/259793RMP No: ME 031-033-16
www.excavations.ie(published annually as Excavations 1997 etc by Wordwell)
Northern Ireland Monuments and Buildings Record
Can be inspected in person at Environment and Heritage Service, Waterman House, Hill Street, Belfast
Can be accessed on-line at: http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/
Sites and Monuments Records for Britain and other on-line resources can be accessed via the same website. More detailed information for found via the relevant websites for the Royal Commissions or Cadw, English Heritage or Historic Scotland.

www.archaeology.ie

Ecclesiastical Enclosures in Ireland

2008-02-29T14:59:00.000-08:00

Early Ecclesiastical Centres
Skellig Michael: Early Church Sites
Skellig Michael
Skellig Michael: Hermitage
Moyne, near Shrule, County Mayo
Lusk, Co. Dublin
Early Ecclesiastical Centres
•Christianity was probably first introduced to Ireland sometime at the very end of the 4th century AD or early in the 5th century AD
•The earliest church sites are not easy to identify or date
•Sometimes only placename evidence survives

Early Ecclesiastical Centres
•Earliest church developed as members of the aristocracy were converted by the earliest missionary/converts (such as St. Patrick)
•Initial Christianisation appears to occur in the south half of Ireland and spreads to the northern half by around 450-460 AD
Early Ecclesiastical Centres
•As the earliest churches were associated with the aristocracy, the early parish and bishopric boundaries tend to be similar to the early kingdoms or chiefdoms in Ireland
•As a result – the power of bishops was confined to their own kingdom

Early Ecclesiastical Centres
•Monastic sites and hermitage emerge that are independent of the parish-bishopric system
•They appear to have been given separate endowments and are economically independent
•Successful monasteries are able to set up or acquire additional monasteries and increase their prestige
•This system survives in various forms until the arrival of the Normans in the 12th century AD

Early Ecclesiastical Centres
•These early Christian centres often survive today as large enclosures, sometimes with multiple concentric earthworks or ditches.
•Today these are often only visible as crop marks from the air.
•In some cases, only the placename evidence survives:
–Cell often anglicised as Kill
–Domhnaig often anglicised as Donagh or Downey
–Teampall often anglicised as Temple

Nendrum,Co. Down
Nendrum
Eccelesiastical Enclosures: Typical features
•St. Johns Point, Co. Down
•Some early styles of church may be associated with an enclosure.
Eccelesiastical Enclosures: Typical features
•Gallarus Oratory
Eccelesiastical Enclosures: Typical features
•Round towers date from the 10th century to around 1200.
Eccelesiastical Enclosures: Typical features
•These are the north cross (top) and south cross (bottom) at Ahenny at Kilclispin.
•They are among the earliest high crosses that were manufactured and represent a translation into stone of a style of wood and metal crosses.
•They are over 3 m in height.
•They date to the late 8th to the early 9th century AD.
Ahenny, Co. Tipperary
•These are the north cross (top) and south cross (bottom) at Ahenny at Kilclispin.
•They are among the earliest high crosses that were manufactured and represent a translation into stone of a style of wood and metal crosses.
•They are over 3 m in height.
•They date to the late 8th to the early 9th century AD.
Eccelesiastical Enclosures: Typical features
•Decorated grave slabs may be the only evidence.
•Rathdown slabs and Tau cross Killegar, County Wicklow
Eccelesiastical Enclosures: Typical features
•These two of Rathdown slabs are examples from Rathfarnham and Rathmichael both did appear to have marked actual graves.
•They date to the 9th and 10th century AD.
Eccelesiastical Enclosures: Typical features
•Cross slabsFahan, Co. Donegal
Eccelesiastical Enclosures: Typical features
•Cross slabsInishmurray (off Sligo coast)
Eccelesiastical Enclosures: Typical features
•Bullaun Stones
•Usually natural rocks or boulders with deliberate hollows.
•Often found on ecclesiastical sites.
•Their origin and date is obscure, but they are at least medieval in date.
Eccelesiastical Enclosures: Typical features
•Mount Offaly, Cabinteely (ESSO Station)

•Enclosed cemetery site
–3 ditches
– 6 phases
–>1500 burials

•Finds: Local material
•Finds: Imported material
•Industrial remains

Cabinteely: Burial Types
Cabinteely: Burials

Cabinteely: Phase 1
Cabinteely: Phase 2
Cabinteely: Phase 3
Cabinteely: Phase 4
Cabinteely: Phase 5
Cabinteely: Phase 6
Cabinteely: Finds

Souterrains

2008-02-29T14:57:00.000-08:00

Main publication: Mark Clinton, The souterrains of Ireland.
INTRODUCTION
Souterrains are underground passages
They are usually built of stone but can also be tunnelled into rock or compact clay or gravel.
Souterrains are sometimes found apparently independent of any enclosure and are also found in Early Christian ecclesiastical enclosures.
Places of refuge
Places for storage
Distribution
It had been suggested that two factors influenced the distribution of souterrains:
The prevailing soil type
The prevailing geology
The local distributions do not reflect ‘political’ units
Some features (e.g. trapdoors) are found in particular areas and suggest local building ‘schools’
Donaghmore, Co. Louth
Donaghmore, Co. Louth
Donaghmore, Co. Louth
Newrath BigKellsCo. Meath
Coolcran,Co. FermanaghWooden souterrainoaks found that were dated to 822+/-9 AD
Tateetra, County Louth
Tateetra, showing cross-inscribed slab (see www.aegisarchaeology.com)
Newtownbalregan, County LouthRingfort and Souterrain (from www.nra.ie)
Newtownbalregan, County Louth
Newtownbalregan, County Louth
Roof slab – re-used from elsewhere – is covered in megalithic art.
Carn More, County Louth(from www.nra.ie)
Dunisky, Co. CorkRock-cut souterrain
Entrance TypesRamp
Entrance TypesPit-drop
Entrance TypesShaft
Entrance TypesStepped
Entrance TypesHatch
Passage and constrictions
Passages either unrestricted or restricted.
Unrestricted passage have no additions to impede access or movement.
Restricted passages can contain various features to make movement difficult such as:
An extremely narrow section of passage
A reduced roof height (e.g. a crawl space)
Porthole Slabs

Porthole Slabs(Smerwick, Co. Kerry)
Armoy,Co. Antrim
Chambers
Chambers can be various shapes:
Elliptical
Circular
Rectangular
Oblong (where the passage merely widens)
Undifferentiated (where there is no distinction between the passage and the chamber)
Donaghmore, Co. Louth
Rectangular chamber
Drumadoon, Co. Antrim
Oblong chamber
Trapdoors
Deliberate obstruction placed in passage or chamber
May include covering devices
Other features
Steps and stepped features (such as sudden drops)
Air vents and drains
Cobblestone and paving
Internal (wooden) doors
Cupboards and cubbyholes such as the one below from Guilford in Westmeath
Dating
Earliest dates are from 7th or 8th century AD
Latest dates are from the 13th or 14th century AD (such as finds of medieval pottery from construction material).
Drumadoon, Co. Antrim
Drumadoon, Co. Antrim

Crannogs

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Name derives from Irish word ‘crann’ meaning a tree (referring to the wooden elements of a ‘crannog’).
The terms ‘inis’ and ‘oilean’ are also found in texts (usually pre-9th century). Both mean island and often refer to crannogs.
Ballydoolough
Lough Boora
A lake settlement site at Lough Boora from the earlier Mesolithic (8000-6500 BC) also has been identified as similar in nature to a crannog.
Earliest
Some crannog or artifical islands or platforms are known from the Mesolithic.
These include sites like Lough Gara where platforms of stone as shown here produced Mesolithic finds.
Lough Gara
Rathjordan
Some crannogs or lake settlements also appear to have been built in the Neolithic such as at Rathjordan shown here.
Moynagh Lough
At other sites, activity near artificial islands is quite different.
At Moynagh Lough – a well known lake settlement – there was a major find of a hoard of flint objects.
Cullyhanna
Lake settlements like these are more widely known from the Bronze Age.
Such as Cullyhanna shown here.
Cullyhanna, Co. Armagh
Ballinderry
Clonfinlough
Moynagh Lough, Co. Meath
Lisnacrogher
Craigywarren, Co. Antrim

Main publication: The Archaeology of Lake Settlement by Aidan O'Sullivan

Hillforts

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Hillforts and Coastal Promontory Forts
A number of hilltop enclosures are identified as a distinct type of monument
While ringforts and cashels are known from the top of hills, in general, a hillfort is an enclosure placed around the summit of a hill which is larger than a ringfort or a cashel
Rathcoran, County Wicklow
Rathcoran in County Wicklow
Here there is a hillfort
A later ringfort stands in the centre (on top of a passage tomb)
Rathcoran, Co. Wicklow Plan
Rathcoran, Co. Wicklow
Passage Tomb
Types of Hillfort
A small number of basic types of hillfort can be recognised in Ireland
Hillforts where there is a single line of earthworks enclosing the summit of a hill
Hillforts where there are multiple lines of earthworks
Inland Promontory Forts
Hillforts with a single line of defences
Hillforts where there is a single line of earthworks enclosing the summit of a hill
Univallate
Typically enclose an area of 2 – 9 hectares (20,000 to 90,000 m²)
Previously people would include various sites in this category that would not be considered as ‘hillforts’ (e.g. Navan Fort in County Armagh)
Hillforts with a single line of defences
The enclosed area can sometimes include an earlier burial mound
It is unclear how we should interpret this:
Is it necessary to enclose a mound to ‘sanctify’ the site
Or, was just impossible to find a hill without a pre-existing mound?
Hillforts with a single line of defencesDownshill, Co. Wicklow

Hillforts with a single line of defencesDownshill, Co. Wicklow
Hillforts with a single line of defencesBallybuckley, Co. Wexford
Knocknashee,Co. Sligo
Hut sites, passage tombs and other features in the interior
Garrangrena Lower, Co. Tipperary
Hillforts with a single line of defences
Few excavated examples with dating evidence
Freestone Hill, Co. Kilkenny. Excavated by Gerhard Bersu, finds included a 4th century AD Roman coin but no clear idea of date of construction. There is also one unreliable radiocarbon date of 810-550 BC.
Knocknacarrigeen in Co. Galway and Clenagh in Co. Clare have been investigated but neither produced a date for the construction of the ramparts

Hillforts with a single line of defencesBrusselstown Ring, Co. Wicklow
Hillforts with a single line of defencesBrusselstown Ring, Co. Wicklow
Hillforts with a single line of defences
Brusselstown Ring in County Wicklow is actually part of a series of hill top earthworks that includes the enclosed summit of Spinans Hill
Hillforts to the North-east of Baltinglass
Hillforts with multiple lines of defence
Hillforts where there are a more than one line of earthworks enclosing the summit of a hill
Multivallate
Generally have two or three lines of rampart that are often widely spaced
The enclosed area can be up to 20 hectares (200,000 m²)
Rathgall (also known as Rath East)Co. Wicklow
Rathgall, Co. WicklowCentral enclosure in the Late Bronze Age
Hillforts with multiple lines of defenceMooghaun Fort, Co. Clare
Hillforts with multiple lines of defenceMooghaun Fort, Co. Clare
Hillforts with multiple lines of defenceHaughey’s Fort, Co. Armagh
Hillforts with multiple lines of defenceHaughey’s Fort, Co. Armagh
Excavated by Prof. Jim Mallory
Three concentric circles of trenches investigated
Also produced some evidence of internal structures
Hillforts with multiple lines of defenceHaughey’s Fort, Co. Armagh
A number of sections were excavated across the lines of the ramparts
Only the ditches survived as no traces of banks were recorded
Hillforts with multiple lines of defenceHaughey’s Fort, Co. Armagh
Ditch was waterlogged allowing for the survival of wooden finds and other organic material
Hillforts with multiple lines of defenceHaughey’s Fort, Co. Armagh
Investigation of the interior produced evidence of various pits and postholes suggesting there were structures within the innermost ditch
Hillforts with multiple lines of defenceHaughey’s Fort, Co. Armagh
Features in the interior of Haughey’s Fort
Hillforts with multiple lines of defenceHaughey’s Fort, Co. Armagh
Finds from the interior include bronze rings, a gold stud and a fragment of the handle of a decorated bronze cup
Hillforts with multiple lines of defenceHaughey’s Fort, Co. Armagh
Stone with rock art from pit in the interior
Hillforts with multiple lines of defenceGrianan Aileach, Co. Donegal
Stone Forts: Staigue, Co. Kerry
Dun Aonghusa, Inis Mór, Aran Islands
Excavation has shown that the earliest phases of Dun Aonghusa begin in the later stages of the Bronze Age.
Dún Dúchathair, Inis Mór
Promontory Forts
A number of promontories cut off either by stone walls or ditches are recognised as a distinct class of site – Promontory Forts
These can either be coastal or, occasionally, on inland promontories
Inland Promontory Forts
Few have been investigated
Knockdhu,Co. Antrim
McArts Fort, Cavehill, Co. Antrim