From cult centre to royal centre: monuments, myths and other revelations at Uisneach (original) (raw)

Uisneach Midi a medón Érenn: a prehistoric cult centre and royal site in Co. Westmeath

Journal of Irish Archaeology 15, 39–71, 2006

The celebrated umbilical centre of Ireland in early tradition, the Hill of Uisneach (County Westmeath) has long been recognised as an important pre-Christian cult centre and as a major royal site, yet its archaeological components have seldom been discussed. This paper represents the first detailed study of Uisneach to be published since R.A.S. Macalister and R.L. Praeger undertook a campaign of excavations there between 1925 and 1930. A substantive reinterpretation of a conjoined earthwork enclosure excavated by Macalister and Praeger (1928) on the summit of Uisneach is presented. Three main structural phases are postulated, the principal components of which comprise a late prehistoric ceremonial enclosure, an early medieval conjoined ringfort and a field system of possible medieval date. The changing role of the site from sanctuary to domestic settlement during the early medieval period, and the possibility that the conjoined ringfort was a high-status, perhaps royal, residence of the Clann Cholmáin kings of Uisneach, are also explored.

GARRANES: AN EARLY MEDIEVAL ROYAL SITE IN SOUTH-WEST IRELAND

2021

Ringforts were an important part of the rural settlement landscape of early medieval Ireland (AD 400–1100). While most of those circular enclosures were farmsteads, a small number had special significance as centres of political power and elite residence, also associated with specialized crafts. One such ‘royal site’ was Garranes in the mid-Cork region of south-west Ireland. In 1937, archaeological excavation of a large trivallate ringfort provided evidence of high-status residence during the fifth and sixth centuries AD. The site had workshops for the production of bronze ornaments, with glass and enamel working as well as indications of farming. Pottery and glass vessels imported from the Mediterranean world and Atlantic France were also discovered. That trade with the Late Roman world is significant to understanding the introduction of Christianity and literacy in southern Ireland at that time. This monograph presents the results of an inter-disciplinary project conducted 2011–18, where archaeological survey and excavation, supported by various specialist studies, examined this historic landscape. Garranes is a special place where archaeology, history and legend combine to uncover a minor royal site of the early medieval period. The central ringfort has been identified as Rath Raithleann, the seat of the petty kingdom of Uí Echach Muman, recalled in bardic poetry of the later medieval period. Those poems attribute its foundation to Corc, a King of Munster in the fifth century AD, and link the site closely to Cian, son-in-law of Brian Bóruma, and one of the heroes of Clontarf (AD 1014). This study provides new evidence to connect the location of Rath Raithleann to high-status occupation at Garranes during the fifth and sixth centuries, and explores its legendary associations in later periods.

O’Sullivan, A. and Kinsella, J. (2013) Living with a sacred landscape: interpreting the early medieval archaeology of the Hill of Tara and its environs, AD 400-1100. M. O’Sullivan (ed.) Tara: from the past to the future. Wordwell, Bray. pp 321-344.

2013

The Hill of Tara itself—although indisputably symbolically and ideologically significant—was used in ways that have left relatively little surface archaeological trace after the fourth century AD (although geophysical surveys indicate the importance of archaeological excavation as part of the future research programme there). It was a place obviously set apart from daily life and practice, but perhaps also of monument-building and those types of public ceremonies involving material interventions. The Banqueting Hall may well be an early medieval monument in construction or reconstructionalthough it is possible that rituals of kingship had shifted to Teltown by the late seventh century and thus any monumental intervention may have occurred before that time. The possible early medieval ‘rath’—and the underlying closely spaced multivallate enclosure—at Tech Cormaic is an intriguing site that requires explanation (and investigation), while the early medieval burials at the Rath of the Synods hint at the presence of a ferta-type burial ground. This certainly supports the historical evidence that by the late seventh century Tara had become ‘too sacred a place’. In great contrast, the environs of the Hill of Tara were intensively settled in the early medieval period. It is evident that early medieval communities lived and worked in this landscape with great regard for the role of Tara but also that it was a living landscape. There are distinctive patterns to agricultural practice in the locality and region, particularly the very strong role of cereal cultivation and processing within a classic early medieval mixed economy; this was clearly a prosperous agricultural landscape. There are also hints of differences between the royal demesne lands of Tara and the surrounding areas in the heartland of southern Brega, where there are larger, longer-lived settlements, and furthermore there are also hints of change across the period, with the abandonment of some settlements. Finally, a review of archaeological excavations indicates their importance in contributing to an understanding of landscapes beyond the bounds of excavation trenches. In particular, we should be investigating how sacred landscapes and landscapes of power were integral to, and embedded in, other landscapes of daily life, work and economy, particularly in the early medieval period but also in other periods.

Rathcroghan: A 'Royal Site' of Ancient Ireland

Based on references found in numerous medieval Irish texts, it’s believed the Rathcroghan Complex in County Roscommon was one of the six ‘Royal Sites’ of ancient Ireland. However, as the texts are overwhelmingly collections of myth, legend and folklore, written centuries and even millennia after the fact, questions arise as to the legitimacy of any claim to that title. It is, therefore, the purpose of this paper to re-examine what scant archaeological evidence exists, in conjunction with clues found in the texts, to determine whether the geographical boundaries of the site are in fact what the academics have defined, and more importantly whether the site truly was ‘Royal’, in the sense that it served as a seat of power during the Iron, Early Christian and Medieval Periods.