Chapple, R. M. 2012 'Review: In the Lowlands of South Galway: archaeological excavations on the N18 Oranmore to Gort National Road Scheme' Blogspot post (original) (raw)
Related papers
Time and Mind, 2008
In terms of geography, the distribution of Welsh Neolithic burial monuments and their setting has recently been discussed by Tilley (1994), Children and Nash (2002), Cummings and Whittle (2004), Burrows (2006) and Nash (2006). Tilley has applied an ancestral geography, its roots embedded in the Mesolithic, to a number of Neolithic ritual/burial monuments occupying the core areas of south-west and central Wales. Cummings and Whittle have approached monument location using the concept of view sheds. (i.e., the landscape features that can be seen from each monument). Children and Nash, and recently Nash, have explored similar approaches, focusing on intervisibility between neighboring monuments and monument, chamber, and passage orientation. Although some of these approaches have been seen as flawed (e.g. Fleming 2005), the interaction between burial, monument construction, and landscape must be considered as being important to a monument’s builders and users. Steve Burrows has provided a good introduction to the construction and use of Neolithic burial-ritual monuments using the excellent archive recourses of the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. Children and Nash (2002) identify a number of clusters within south-west Wales that appear to conform to a number of architectural and landscape rules; one of these groups, the Fishguard Group, is located on Strumble Head (Nash 2006). Nash has recognized that elements of this group form a linear distribution comprising up to ten monuments. This paper discusses in detail the architecture of each of the Strumble Head monuments and explores the concept of linearity, a trait that is common in the siting of European Bronze Age barrows and cairns but limited in respect of Neolithic ritual/ burial monuments. It is clear that there is intentionality in the distribution of the Strumble Head monuments, which utilize a series of jagged peaks along the uplands. Keywords: linearity, monument, landscape grammar, uplands, visibility
The Archaeology of Prehistoric Burnt Mounds in Ireland
Archaeopress Archaeology, 2018
This book details the archaeology of burnt mounds (fulachtaí fia) in Ireland, one of the most frequent and under researched prehistoric site types in the country. It presents a re-evaluation of the pyrolithic phenomenon in light of some 1000 excavated burnt mounds. Charcoal-enriched soil, along with spreads and mounds of heat-affected stone, are one of the most common types of site found in Ireland, largely as a consequence of numerous discoveries made in the course of road building. They represent an accumulation of firing material associated with a prehistoric pyrolithic technology, which involved a process of heat transfer that centred on the use of hot stones immersed in water-filled troughs or placed in small, lined/unlined pits/ovens. During the Bronze Age, the use of this technology became widely adopted in Northern Europe, particularly Ireland, where the phenomenon is represented in the field as a low crescent-shaped mound. Even though burnt mounds are the most common prehistoric site type in Ireland, they have not received the same level of research as other prehistoric sites. This is primarily due to the paucity of artefact finds and the unspectacular nature of the archaeological remains, compounded by the absence of an appropriate research framework. This is the most comprehensive study undertaken on the use of pyrolithic technology in prehistoric Ireland, dealing with different aspects of site function, chronology, social role and cultural context.