’Royal’ landscapes from prehistory to the early middle ages

Project Description

With on-going research at no fewer than four (Tara; Cruachain; Uisneach and Dun Ailinne) of the great so-called ’royal sites’ of late prehistoric Ireland, this research cluster identifies one of the key areas of expertise at the department of Archaeology. Our research is at both macro- and micro-level, from landscape analysis to high-resolution geophysics.

As demonstrated through our writings, such landscapes are sacralised arenas of ceremony, burial and worship, and this is the paradigm that informs our research at NUI Galway. Royal landscapes lend themselves extremely well to landscape analysis. Associated in early medieval and medieval texts with cult, kingship, authority and assembly, they all share extraordinarily long histories, from deep prehistory to the early medieval period and beyond. What gives these landscapes real texture, however, is the clear convergences of monuments, topography, text and placenames.

The genesis of our research at Tara is Conor Newman and Joe Fenwick’s involvement with the Discovery Programme’s Tara Archaeological Survey (1992-97). Since then the research has continued as a highly successful collaborative venture between the department and the Discovery Programme, including also, of course, continuing collaboration with Edel Bhreathnach who has been responsible for so much ground-breaking historical analysis of Tara. Considerably more geophysical survey has been undertaken, improving our understanding of the sequencing of the monuments immeasurably. The most recent survey was applied to the interior of Raith na Ri and the full report is in preparation. Gerard Dowling has completed a dedicated study of the phenomenon of multivallation, an architectural form that occurs at some of the most significant monuments in the Tara landscape. Some, such as Ringlestown Rath, served a defensive purpose but in other cases multivallation is used to demarcate religious and funerary monuments. Such instances reveal the symbolic importance of the boundary and introduce the concept of liminality.

More recently, Tara has found itself in the news for different reasons, namely the building of a new motorway across the royal landscape. Campaigning against this act of wilful vandalism has pre-occupied those of us who study and revere Tara for the past eight years. The campaign attracted massive national and international support. Further information is available here (LINK).

Research at Rathcroghan began in 1994 with the ArchaeoGeophysical Imaging Project, funded by the Heritage Council. The fruits of this research Rathcroghan: archaeological and geophysical survey in a ritual landscape (Waddell, J, Fenwick, J. and Barton, K.) were published in 2009. Representing, first and foremost, a reading of the cultural landscape, it also includes in-depth analysis of some of the more prestigious monuments, none more extraordinary and iconic than Rathcroghan Mound, itself an entombment of earlier buildings and the centrepiece of a cluster of funerary monuments contained within an enclosure of truly enormous size. All this has been revealed through sustained cogitation on what is probably the most forensic and complex geophysical and topographical surveys ever undertaken on an Irish archaeological monument. Further research at Rathcroghan is a component of the Connacht Project.

Roseanne Schot’s on-going research at Uisneach applies the same rubric of detailed topographical and geophysical survey, re-assessment of older excavations and detailed documentary analysis to a site that is traditionally regarded as the meeting point of the five ancient provinces of Ireland. Her research is funded by the IRCHSS and the Heritage Council and will appear in monograph form in due course.

Archaeology has much to contribute to our understanding of the royal sites beyond recording and data analysis. Landscape analysis has opened the door unto the sacralisation of these landscapes by tracing the activities of successive generations as they curated and developed the sanctity of these places, and connected their presents with the associated historical and mythological pasts. Landscape analysis also allows us to map out these landscapes. Maeve Moriarty’s work in the Blackwater Valley, Co. Meath, explored how a landscape whose footprint was defined in the first instance by topography was recognised as such and fixed by the construction of monuments of all periods along its borders. Looking at this landscape as a culturalised palaeohabitat, Mary Dillon revealed how wood species available locally were harvested in the name of ceremony when a skull was being buried at Raffin Fort (mid-3 ^rd to late-4 ^th century AD). Moreover, her species identification from the charcoal assemblage was useful in supplementing the pollen diagram (by Karen Molloy, Palaeobotany, NUI, Galway) from nearby Emlagh Bog with species whose pollen dispersal does not lend itself so readily to recording.

Finally, we have also collaborated with Dr Susan Johnson of George Washington University by providing the geophysical survey and analysis for her Heritage Council-funded survey of the great hengiform enclosure of Dun Ailinne, royal centre of the Laigin in later prehistory, excavated by Bernard Wailes. Padraig Clancy’s work on the monuments on the Curragh represents the first serious attempt to map and examine the wider ritual landscape of Dun Ailinne, revealing quite extraordinary concentrations of barrows on the Curragh and a host of far more enigmatic monuments besides.

We are committed to the principle of wide, public dissemination and have been closely involved in the development of the guidebook and audio-visual display at Tara and of the visitor’s centre Cruachain Aí at Tulsk.

Contact Details

John Waddell ( Profile); Conor Newman ( Profile); Joe Fenwick ( Profile); Roseanne Schot; Ger Dowling

Department of Archaeology,

School of Geography and Archaeology, NUI, Galway

Contact: john.waddellnuigalway.ie

Contact: conor.newmannuigalway.ie

Contact: joe.fenwicknuigalway.ie

Funding Bodies

The Heritage Council

The Discovery Programme

Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences

PRTLI 2

Links

Project Publications

Dillon, M., Newman, C., Molloy K. and O’Connell M. 2008. Environment and Ritual in a Late Iron Age Context: and example from Raffin Fort, Co. Meath, Ireland. In G. Fiorentino and D. Magri (eds) Charcoals from the Past: Cultural and Palaeoenvironmental Implications. Proceedings of the Third International Meeting of Anthracology, Cavallino-Lecce (Italy), June 28 ^th – July 1 ^st 2004, BAR (Int. Ser.) 1807, 75-92.

Dowling, G. 2006 The liminal boundary: an analysis of the sacral potency of the ditch at Ráith na Rí, Tara, Co. Meath. Journal of Irish Archaeology 15, 14-36.

Fenwick, J. and Parkes, M. 1997.Oweynagat¹, Rathcroghan, Co. Roscommon, and associated karst features, Irish Speleology 16, 11-15.

Fenwick, J., Brennan, Y. and Delaney, F. 1996. The Anatomy of a Mound: Geophysical Images of Rathcroghan, Archaeology Ireland 10, no. 3, 20-23.

Fenwick, J., Brennan, Y., Barton, K. and Waddell, J. 1999. The magnetic presence of Queen Medb (Magnetic gradiometry at Rathcroghan, Co. Roscommon), Archaeology Ireland 13, no. 1, 8-11.

Fenwick, J., Geraghty, L., Waddell, J. and Barton, K. 2006. The innermost secrets of Rathcroghan Mound, Archaeology Ireland 20, no. 2, 26-29.

Newman C. 2007. Procession and symbolism at Tara: analysis of Tech Midchuarta (the Banqueting Hall) in the context of the sacral campus. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 26.4, 415-438.

Newman, C. 2007. Misinformation, disinformation and downright distortion: the battle to save Tara 1999-2005. In C. Newman and U. Stromayer Unihabited Ireland: Tara, the M3 and public spaces in Galway. Re-Thinking Irish Democracy 1 (series editors T. McDonough, Á Ní Léime and L. Pilkington), 59-102. Aarlen House, Galway.

Newman, C., O’Connell, M., Dillon, M., Molloy, K. 2006. Interpretation of charcoal and pollen data relating to a late Iron Age ritual site in eastern Ireland: a holistic approach. Jnl. Vegational History & Archaeobotany, 1-17.

Newman, C. 2005. Re-composing the archaeological landscape of Tara. In E. Bhreathnach (ed.) The Kingship and Landscape of Tara, 361-409. Four Courts Press, Dublin.

Fenwick, J. and Newman C. 2002. Geomagnetic survey on the Hill of Tara, County Meath - 1998/99, Discovery Programme Reports 6, 1-18. Discovery Programme/Royal Irish Academy, Dublin.

Newman, C. 1998. Reflections on the Making of a ’royal site’ in early Ireland, in R. Bradley (ed.) The Past in the Past, World Archaeology (30)1, 127-141.

Newman, C. 1997. Tara : an archaeological survey. Discovery Programme Monographs 2. Discovery Programme/Royal Irish Academy, Dublin.

Schot, R. 2006 Uisneach Midi a Medón Érenn: a prehistoric ’cult’ centre and ’royal site’ in Co. Westmeath. Journal of Irish Archaeology 15, 39-72.

Waddell, J. and Barton, K. 1995. Seeing beneath Rathcroghan, Archaeology Ireland 9, no. 1, 38-40.

Waddell, J., Fenwick, J. and Barton, K. 2009 Rathcroghan, Co. Roscommon: archaeological and geophysical survey in a ritual landscape. Wordwell, Dublin.

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