Ritual and Belief in the Passage Tomb Tradition of Ireland

Robert Hensey

Robert Hensey’s research is focused on investigation of religious practices and belief systems in the Neolithic period. His PhD undertaken at N.U.I. Galway (Hensey 2010) involved an exploration of the role of passage tomb artefacts, selective orientation, and megalithic art to expand our understanding of the role of passage tombs in Neolithic Ireland (also see Hensey 2008; Hensey 2012a; Hensey 2012b). His dissertation culminated in a new internal categorisation of Irish passage tombs on the basis of actual and potential ritual activity and in a new understanding of changes in belief structures and ritual practices within the tradition over time.

Recently, he has been involved in two Royal Irish Academy funded projects at the Carrowkeel–Keashcorran complex in northwest Ireland. The first of these projects has been to discover previously unrecorded passage tomb art and has resulted in the location of the first examples of megalithic art at Carrowkeel (Hensey and Robin 2011).  The second has been a radiocarbon dating project to gain more information on the chronology of the complex. These discoveries and other research are due to be published in the first major paper to deal with the Carrowkeel-Keashcorran complex since the R. A. S. Macalister led excavations in 1911 (Hensey et al. Forthcoming). Another project he has co-directed (with Dr Stefan Bergh) has been to clarify the chronology of the Carrowmore passage tomb complex, Co. Sligo by dating 25 cremated bone and antler pin fragments (Bergh and Hensey, forthcoming).

Additionally, with Dr Marion Dowd, he has co-organised an international conference entitled ' Into the earth: the archaeology of darkness’, the proceedings of which will be published as a monograph in due course.

His research interests include:

•    Religion and Archaeology
•    Megalithic art
•    Ritual activity at megalithic sites today
•    Archaeological theory

Robert can be contacted at roberthenseygmail.com and updated information on his work and projects can be found here  .

References

Hensey, R. 2012a. Assuming the jigsaw had only one piece: abstraction, figuration and the interpretation of Irish passage tomb art. In A. Cochrane and A. Jones (eds) Visualising the Neolithic: abstraction, figuration, performance, representation. Neolithic Studies Group publication . Oxford: Oxbow.

Hensey, R. 2012b. Asking stones to sing: the use of space in Irish passage tombs. In Robin, G., Bailly, M., D'Anna, A., and Schmitt, A. (eds), Fonctions, utilisations et représentation de l'espace dans les sépultures monumentales du Néolithique européen. Actes du colloque international, Aix-en-Provence, 8-10 juin 2011. (Préhistoires Méditerranéennes, supplément n°3). Aix-en-Provence: Association pour la Promotion de la Préhistoire et de l’Anthropologie Méditerranéenne.

Hensey, R. 2010. Ritual and belief in the passage tomb tradition of Ireland. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, National University of Ireland, Galway.

Hensey, R. 2008. The observance of light: a ritualistic perspective on 'imperfect' alignments. Time and Mind 1(3).

Hensey, R. and Robin, G. 2011. More than meets the eye: new recordings of megalithic art in north-west Ireland. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 30 (2).

Hensey, R. and Robin, G. Forthcoming. (prel. title). Discovering passage tomb art in the Carrowkeel-Keashcorran passage tomb complex, Co. Sligo.

Hensey, R., Moore, S., Dowd, M. and Meehan, P. Forthcoming. (prel. title). The Lough Arrow passage tomb complex: a century since the Carrowkeel excavations.

Bergh, S. and Hensey, R. Forthcoming. Unpicking the chronology of Carrowmore: 25 new AMS dates from Ireland’s most westerly passage tomb complex. Submitted to the Oxford Journal of Archaeology.

This research has benefited from funding from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (Government of Ireland scholarship).

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