The later medieval countryside lying beneath (original) (raw)
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Current research and future directions in medieval rural settlement in Ireland
Medieval rural settlement research in Ireland may be a young discipline but it is a vibrant one. The dynamics of inter-cultural development between colonizer and the indigenous Irish remains a principal theme in current research. There is active study of landscapes where archaeologists, historians, historical geographers, and environmental historians increasingly work together, creating that most healthy framework of interdisciplinary study. It is from within such a methodological paradigm that researchers are beginning to touch on the ‘total economy’. This will lead in time to the more complex and ultimately rewarding observations of human dynamic across Ireland’s medieval countryside and its developing urban landscapes. Ireland’s rich archaeological record combined with the application of complex data analysis presents a model for other areas that share a relatively modest corpus of contemporary written sources.
Óenach: Forum for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Ireland Reviews, 4(2).
These are interesting times to be a scholar of the early medieval period in Ireland. The unprecedented number of excavations conducted here over the past twenty years has produced a similarly unprecedented amount of data. Scholars could be at the cusp of a whole new understanding of the period, although there is much data to be digested and discussed first. An impressive number of the sites investigated during the recent infrastructural boom in Ireland have been published in various levels of detail, and many of them are of interest to early medieval scholars. So much so that it is becoming increasingly difficult, but thankfully not impossible, to keep up to date! This collection of papers, edited by Christiaan Corlett and Michael Potterton, represents the third in the series, 'Research papers in Irish archaeology', following Rural Settlement in Medieval Ireland (Wordwell, 2009) and Death and Burial in Early Medieval Ireland (Wordwell, 2010). Both of these have already made significant contributions to our knowledge of medieval Ireland, and the present volume continues in this vein.
2012
Haggardstown townland, Co. Louth, has been the focus of intense archaeological investigation, mostly between 1994 and 2002, due to a range of infrastructural developments. Jordan, back in the 1930s, referred to the removal of stones from an underground passage and this is one of the first references to a souterrain in the area. Subsequent excavations have revealed enclosures, souterrains, field boundaries, cereal-drying kilns and industrial areas. Many of these features have been dated, by morphology and artefactual evidence, to the early medieval period. However, certain features such as the cereal-drying kilns and a variety of ditches, may not belong to this period, and radiocarbon dates are needed to resolve this. Undoubtedly though, Haggardstown was an intensively settled and farmed landscape during the early middle-ages as evidenced by the variety and scale of archaeological features discovered to date. Test excavation, in advance of a housing development, was undertaken by Campbell in 1994 on the southwest corner of a 23-acre field with clear views towards the sea. A previously unrecorded enclosure, with a possible entrance to the east, was discovered that measured 45m east-west by 40m north-south. A section through the ditch determined that it was 5.5m wide and 2.2m deep. Further test trenches across the interior of the enclosure uncovered 11 features including a possible small souterrain. Three ditch-like features were also located immediately north of the enclosure. In 1995, the remains of a dry-stone souterrain were identified during land reduction at an ongoing housing development. Monitoring and test excavation by McConway determined that the passageway survived for 10m east-west before turning sharply south, for a further 11m, to a single, badly collapsed, chamber. The passage was approximately 1.5m wide and the chamber was sub-rectangular in shape and measured 3.5m by 5m. Test trenches around the perimeter of the souterrain revealed an enclosure ditch that had a diameter of 30m. A section through the ditch showed that it was 3.4m wide and 1.8m deep and it contained organic-rich deposits of shell and bone. Archaeological monitoring of two fields in a low-lying area, mostly below 15m OD, was undertaken by O'Carroll in 1999 in advance of a housing development. The proposed development avoided the nearby enclosure, partially excavated by Campbell, to the northwest and its surrounding area. A field boundary, which contained iron slag, and an associated stonefaced bank were revealed to the southeast of the enclosure as well as a narrow gully. Their date is unknown but they may relate to field enclosure activity associated with the enclosure. A drystone-constructed keyhole-shaped cereal-drying kiln and rake-out spread, which had been built into an earlier ditch, were also exposed. These tend to date to the latter part of the early medieval period and late middle-ages. Archaeological testing in 2001 by Moore, on top of a hill and its environs at Haggardstown, revealed a number of north-south and east-west ditches and related features. The ditches may relate to a series of settlement enclosures. One of the ditches included a fragment of souterrain ware and human bone. Substantial areas of burning, including frequent fragments of animal bone and shell, were also revealed on top of the hill which is suggestive of an occupation layer. A possible souterrain was revealed in a field to the east.
Development-led excavation in Ireland increased dramatically in recent years, which revealed a large number of previously unknown early medieval enclosed settlements and settlement/cemetery sites. Many of these sites are non-circular in shape, which has led to the suggestion of a new site type. It is argued here that this is not the case and that the mistaken perception of the circularity of the Irish ring-fort has led to the incorrect identifi cation of recently discovered early medieval settlements. There is emerging evidence, however, for settlement/cemetery sites that are mostly non-circular with origins, in many instances, in the late Iron Age/early medieval transitional period. It is the association of settlement and burial that differentiates these from the thousands of variously shaped enclosures known as ring-forts and cashels in the Irish country-side. This paper assesses the archaeological settlement landscape evidence and material culture for a range of enclosed early medieval sites and explores these fi ndings against the backdrop of social status and mobility, which were such important aspects of Irish society during the early Middle Ages. The fi ndings are based on a small sample of excavated non-circular enclosures-in some cases from interim excavation reports and unpublished research-and an examination of a larger corpus of material may reveal differing outcomes. The aim of this paper is to continue the critical evaluation of archaeological fi ndings as they reveal themselves at a pace not seen before in Irish archaeology. This paper will explore and assess the recently excavated non-circular sites variously referred to as D-, heart-and plectrum-shaped enclosures. It is the writer's belief that these sites were the dwelling-places for a variety of social classes, as described in the seventh-and eighth-century law texts, from the ordinary small farmer (ócaire); to the strong farmer (bóaire); and the lordly classes (aire/rí)see for an in-depth analysis of the law tracts and society in early medieval Ireland during the seventh and eighth centuries. The archaeo-90 logical remains refl ect diversity in the agriculture and industry practised by the occupants and retainers of these households. It is argued-as opposed to and -that the majority of non-circular enclosures do not represent a new early medieval settlement type but that they mirror the type of material remains discovered on previously excavated ring-forts. This paper begins with a detailed examination of the morphological, chronological, landscape and artefactual evidence for early medieval ring-forts. The archaeological evidence suggests social hierarchical divisions within both circular and non-circular enclosures and reveals that enclosure shape had no relevance to the types of activities or status of the people within these settlements. It is suggested that a simplifi ed approach has been taken regarding the classifi cation of ring-forts and their supposedly uniform circular plan, and that this has led to the wrongful identifi cation of a host of 'newly recognised' early medieval settlement types. However, excavations are now revealing mainly non-circular settlement/ cemetery sites that emerged in the late Iron Age/early medieval transitional period and they can be differentiated archaeologically from the evidence discovered at many ring-fort excavations. Often, it was the settlement's relationship with the cemetery that resulted in its development and prominence in the surrounding landscape.
Early Medieval Dwellings and Settlements in Ireland, AD 400–1100
2014
full implications of the data collected from these excavations have not yet been fully realised or synthesised, and it is our hope that this volume will assist in that process. Woodworking assemblages rarely survive except in waterlogged sites such as Lagore, Moynagh Lough, Ballinderry I and II, Deer Park Farms, Lissue, Nendrum and within the Scandinavian towns. It is impossible to identify meaningful patterns regarding the levels of woodworking activity at different types of early medieval settlements based on this limited dataset. However, Comber (2008, 78) has suggested that the corpus of material from sites such as Moynagh Lough and Lagore may indicate that these produced a surplus of wooden items for 'external consumption', while this craft activity was perhaps undertaken on a lower subsistence level in most other places.
Early medieval houses in Ireland, as elsewhere, were the places where people slept, worked on crafts, prepared and consumed food, gathered together at night, and where a household extended hospitality to kin and neighbors. 1 Early medieval houses and dwellings were key venues for the enactment or performance of social identities of ethnicity, social status, gender, kinship, and community. As in most house societies worldwide, these buildings were effectively the places where social identities were created. Children were socialized through routine life, and, through watching their elders, learned how one interacted with people of different genders, ages, kin groups, and rank.