Robin, G. 2010. Spatial structures and symbolic systems in Irish and British passage tombs: the organisation of the architectural elements, parietal carved signs and funerary deposits. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 20(3), 373-418. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Artefact versus architecture: the use of space in Irish passage tombs
Préhistoires Méditerranéennes [En ligne], Colloque | 2014, mis en ligne le 29 octobre 2014, consulté le 05 janvier 2015, 2015
This paper examines the relationship between interpretation and material culture in the Irish passage tomb tradition. Specifically, it asks whether the finds of human bone and associated artefacts from passage tombs or the built structures themselves should take precedence when interpreting the role of these monuments. It is proposed that just as finds have the potential to illuminate the past, they have an equal capacity to deflect us from past realities – a point that is sometimes insufficiently considered by archaeologists. Though the deposition of human remains may have been central to the construction of passage tombs, it is equally possible they had only a partial role in the activities associated with these spaces. If we consider space as the primary arbiter when interpreting the role of these sites, then it becomes possible to consider other ways that passage tombs may have been used.
Moving on in Neolithic studies: Understanding mobile lives, 2016
The Carrowkeel-Keshcorran passage tomb complex is one of the four principle passage tomb complexes in Ireland; the others being Cúil Irra, also in County Sligo (Knocknarea, Carrowmore Cairns Hill); Loughcrew and the Boyne Valley, both of which are found in County Meath. Elements of architectural design and landscape setting at these passage tomb clusters contain concepts of crossing physical and symbolic thresholds. The positioning of passage tombs in landscape settings such as mountain tops, prominent ridges or locations overlooking important river systems appear to be deliberate acts by the Neolithic architects. Landscape features common to many passage tombs clusters include relationships with water that may suggest movement along, or movement across. Other features that many passage tombs possess is that they contain architectural devices that control movement into and through the monument along with a system of physical and symbolic concentric spaces, both internally and externally, and a series of thresholds. This paper examines mobility across liminal zones in the Irish passage tomb tradition in general and at the Carrowkeel-Keshcorran passage tomb complex in particular.
This article considers the interpretation of stone and wood in Neolithic chambered tomb architecture in Britain and Ireland. Against a broader theoretical agenda of both relational materialities and animistic ontologies, it is argued that the qualities and essences of stones dictated their choice and use in monuments. Essentially, it was the hidden natures of stones which gave them meaning, and as archaeologists we can explore this through understanding lithic sourcing, quarrying techniques and the movements of stones, as well as their final resting place within monuments. These ideas are explored through the life history of one monument, that of Blasthill in Kintyre. These ideas are then expanded out to include wood and provide a critique of the wood–stone dichotomy prevalent in current interpretations of Neolithic monumentality.
ARCHITECTURAL PARTICULARS OF STONE-DOOR CAVES AND EXAMPLES OF THEIR USE IN PREHISTORIC IRELAND
2010
Circular, large size burial constructions - tombs stand out among numerous prehistoric archaeological monuments on the isles of Great Britain by the perfection of their architectural plan, polyfunctionality, firmness and longevity of constructions. Irish Tara is the only one of its kind and stands out advantageously against a background of other monuments of the isles. We have observed a great number of similarities between Tara and ornaments and symbols of petroglyphs and cave anthropogenic constructions spread in Armenia. Conceptual similarity and structural generalities among their architectural designs make us think that we deal with architectural, building and spiritual phenomena preserved in archaeological and material testimonies springing from the same source and belonging to one general civilization.
"The passage tombs of Ireland, Wales and Scotland were built during the second half of the fourth millennium B.C. and rank with the most impressive funerary monuments of Neolithic Europe. These large tumuli, sometimes over 80 m in diameter, are enclosed by a façade of kerbstones and cover one or several megalithic chambers whose architecture is complex (access passage, antechamber, vaulted chamber, cells). The international renown of these tombs results in great part from their parietal art: executed by carving on the inner and outer walls of the monuments, its repertoire includes exclusively geometric signs (circles, spirals, arcs, chevrons, squares, etc.), which distinguishes it from the other contemporary funerary representations on the continent (Brittany, Iberia), mainly composed of figurative motifs. Around the Irish Sea, passage tomb art seems impenetrable, abstract in its geometric elements and complex in its rich and various compositions. Nevertheless, behind the apparent chaos of the signs, could it be possible to identify recurrent structures attesting an organization of the figures? Could there be a code, a system within the decoration that a simple comparative analysis could discover? Without seeking to interpret the signs, this book proposes to analyse their architecture, i.e. their spatial structure(s) on several scales. On the basis of a corpus of 634 carved stones from 89 monuments, the organization of the signs in recurrent combinations, their relations with the structural stones on which they are found and, above all, their distribution within the complex architecture of the tombs are examined. The various syntax rules identified show for the first time a model of spatial representation that determines not only the location of the signs but also the location of the monument structures and funerary deposits. Additionally, those newly discovered rules make it possible to reconstruct the initial position of reused stones whose carvings, in a secondary position, are spatially disorganised."