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13/10/2014
1
Flints, Farmers and Forts: Ireland in Prehistory
GAP2041
Lecture 5
Neolithic Settlement
Early Neolithic domestic structures and settlement
Mobile or sedentary?
Duration?
Seasonality?
Proportion of the population?
Persistent places?
Ideological sedentism?
Bradley 2007
Ireland comes the closest to accepted definition of the Neolithic
period: changes in settlement, material culture, crops
Houses: distributed widely & associated with crops, domesticated
animals
Field systems (Cide Fields)
Mortuary monuments
In Wessex situation less clear: mobility still important, wild
resources continue in use, less cereals; domestic buildings very
few (but changing scenario); dominated by buildings for the
dead (Thomas, 1988)
S. English model explicitly based on analogy with Scandinavia
Based on concepts of social complexity in Mesolithic & small use of
domesticates: but limited evidence this model works for Britain and
Ireland (see Rowley-Conwy 2004)
Houses and settlement
Neolithic narratives often concerned with the dead
rather than the living
> 80 rectangular houses discovered due to Celtic Tiger
building boom
Change over course of Neolithic: evolution of forms
Houses signal new engagement with wider landscape
Dwelling perspective (cf. Ingold): living spaces reflects
peoples position within environment (e.g. proximity to
rivers, natural landforms, etc).
Domestic space & routine activities: ritualised over time
Interconnection between domestic & ritual (e.g. Bradley
2005)
Early Neolithic Houses
Rectangular or
apsidal
Single or
multiple
80 houses,
c. 50 sites
6-12 m long, 4-8 m
wide
Constructed using
split oak planks &
posts, post and wattle,
or combination
Probably supported
large & heavy roofs
Setting for domestic
activity
Family or kin group (c.
12 people)
LBK Longhouse
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Linear,
Space divided
Smyth 2010
Reconstruction of early Neolithic house at
Cloghers, Co. Kerry John Murphy
Selection of Irish early Neolithic houses - plans
Corbally, House 5 photo John Sunderland
Reconstruction
Ballygalley House 1
Cia McConway in
Simpson (1996)
Reconstruction Barnagore
house, Co. Cork
Reconstruction Kishoge house ,
Co. Dublin Simon Dick
Distribution of Irish
Neolithic settlements
Cooney et al. 2011
Early examples
Ballyglass, Co. Mayo
Ballynagilly, Co. Tyrone
(burnt remains beneath
blanket bog)
Widespread woodland
clearance evident in pollen
diagram from bog nearby
Ballynagilly, Co. Tyrone.
Dates on charcoal: 4750-4350 cal BC; 3950-3620 cal BC)
6.5 m in length, c. 6 m in width
Side walls: oak planks, vertically set into foundation trenches; post holes at the
end may indicate end walls (? panels of wickerwork or wattle & daub); roof
supporters in the middle; heath and burnt clay ?oven. Finds: flint flakes,
fragments of polished stone axes; pottery (Lyles Hill ware)
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Ballynagilly, Co. Tyrone
Charcoal outlier model in OxCal 4.1.7 places use firmly within the
house horizon (albeit with long early tail at 95% confidence)
Hazelnut shells
(ApSimon 1969; 1976)
Bronk Ramsey 2009
Tankardstown, Co. Limerick
Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd
Tankardstown, Co. Limerick
15 x 8m/7 x 6m
Square house (1) built entirely of
oaks planks
Burnt animal bone in foundation
trench
House destroyed by fire
Western Neo pottery
Arrowhead (lozenge)
Cereals (emmer wheat), hazel,
wild apple
Cattle, sheep/goat, pig
Corbally, Co. Kildare: 6 houses contemporary?
Smyth 2010
Corbally
internally divided, several
hearths.
Largest structure: 11x7.7 m
Wheat, barley, hazelnuts,
pottery, flints, stone axes,
saddle quern recovered
The house horizon
after McSparron 2008
Start: 3715 3650 BC
End: 3690 3625 BC
Span: 65 years or less
Based on 18 dates from
7 sites
How robust?
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Sites
Irish court tombs
(n = 36)
Start: 3715-3550 BC
(Schulting et al. 2012)
Irish house horizon
(n = 108)
Start: 3715-3675 BC
24 x 12 m (exterior)
Balbridie, NE Scotland,
Early Neolithic longhouse
3960-3500 cal BC
Arrangement of space
Floor deposits scarce
Lough Gur (site A) & Granny, Co. Kilkenny, rare examples
Certain parts of building differentiated
sleeping areas, other activity areas, concentration of artefacts around
doors ways
Configuration of space almost certainly had a role in
maintaining social relations
Doors: east & south-east common, others e.g. Enagh &
Thornhill doors towards Foyle River
Some imposing structures (e.g. Corbally) statement of
identity?
Mudstone axe, surrounded by
ring of pottery sherds in
foundation trench - probably
foundation deposit,
from trench of house at Corbally,
Co. Kildare Tobin 2003
Burnt/broken porcellanite and flint
axes from slot trench of house at
Ballintaggart, Co. Down photo S.
Large
Foundation deposits (Smyth 2010)
Often size and arrangement of
foundation deposit distinguishes it
from random material Smyth 2010
Often associated
with entrance/front
portion of house
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Smyth 2010
Porcellanite axe
blade found in situ
immediately over post
hole of annex wall
slot
Associated with
entrances
Abandonment deposits? Burnt oak post, Monanny, Co. Monaghan photo: F. Walsh
Burnt planks, Monanny, Co. Monaghan photo: F. Walsh
Burnt planks, Ballynagilly, Co. Tyrone
photo: J. Pilcher
Large portion of houses
destroyed by fire: lack of
superimposition dissolution
of household?
Middle-Late Neolithic Houses
Spreads of occupation material, pits and occasional hearths
Irish Neolithic House Size
Lough Gur, Co. Limerick
3 small round houses
Stone foundations
? Turf-filled walls
Knocknarea Mountain, Co. Sligo
Small circular buildings
beneath summit 5
excavated
Oval ditch around site to
create a bank, wooden
stakes inserted
Possibly incorporated
turf: sod layers used in
passage tombs in Boyne
Valley; but poor survival
in archaeological record
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n = 37
n = 108 Rectangular houses
(108 dates from 25 houses
from 16 sites)
Pit complexes
(37 dates from 10 sites)
Start
Rectangular houses
(108 dates from 25 houses
from 16 sites)
Pit complexes
(37 dates from 10 sites)
End
Tullahedy, Co. Tipperary
(Cleary and Kelleher 2011)
palisade
Rectangular
structures
pits
Traditional Irish landscape?
Dispersed settlement (1 - 3 households)
Thornhill: palisaded
enclosure (early Neolithic)
Logue 2003
Causewayed enclosures
The Trundle
Carn Brea
Coombe Hill Briar Hill Orsett Camp
Robin Hoods Ball Whitehawk Camp
Dated to 3800-3400 cal BC
Enclosure sites (Britain,
Ireland), rare in north
Defined by interrupted
ditches
Continuum of enclosed
settlements to hillforts
and ceremonial centres
Some have buildings,
pits, etc., others are
almost empty: ceremonial
centres or settlements?
Opinion has oscillated
Windmill Hill
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Distribution of known and
probable causewayed enclosures
70 certain and probable
examples of Early/Middle
Neolithic causewayed or
hilltop enclosures in
Britain and Ireland
3 (1 of which is possible
only) in Ireland
2 (1 possible) in Wales
1 on Isle of Man
3 possible examples in
Scotland
Irish
causewayed enclosures
Cooney et al. 2011
settlements / defended settlements
cattle enclosures
meeting places/fairgrounds
high status settlements
ceremonial sites
places for exposure of the dead
Suggested function/s Double ditch system, interrupted; palisade slot on inside of inner ditch
Internal banks
Donegore Hill
Many stake-holes but no certain houses
Several 100 postholes, pits, hearths1,500 Neolithic vessels
(carinated, plain) (45,000 sherds); porcellanite axeheads (from
Tievebulliagh, Rathlin), lithics (23,849 pieces); hazelnuts, cereals,
chaff & weeds; no unburnt bone
Donegore population: settlement evidence Area of possible settlement = 9,000 m2
Theoretical c. 200 m2 per structure and empty
space = 45 possible structures
45 x 5 = 225 maximum
Area of probable settlement =4,000 m2
Theoretical 20 structures
20 x 5 = 100
11 rectangular houses found in the vicinity
Considerable labour input (18,000 labour hrs)
considerable number of people
Assemblage different to house sites
(considerably larger)
People using Donegore & houses probably
connected through social ties, reflected via
exchange networks: role in a trading network?
(e.g. Ballygalley circulation of lithics across
Irish Sea Zone with Arran pitchstone
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8
Began: 3855-3665 cal BC; Ends: 3590-3430 cal BC (95%
probability): 200-455 years span (Cooney et al. 2011) Magheraboy causewayed enclosure
Palisade
Magheraboy, Co. Sligo
Lowland setting
c. 190m N-S
single ditch (interrupted) +
palisade
interior: shallow pits with carinated
bowl, arrowheads, axes, etc; also
porcellanite
sheep, wheat
Bayesian modeling
Start
Model A:40403850 cal BC
Model B: 3965-3780 cal BC **
Model C 4320-3775 cal BC
Cooney et al., 2011, 582
Whittle et al. 2011
Bibliography
Bradley, R. 2005 Ritual and Domestic Life in Prehistoric Europe. Routledge, London.
Bradley, R. 2007 The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland. Routledge, London. (Chapter
2)
Cooney, G. 2000 Landscapes of Neolithic Ireland. London: Routledge. (Chapter 3)
Cooney et al. 2011 Ireland. In: Whittle, A.; Healey, F. and Bayliss, A. Gathering Time;
dating the early Neolithic enclosures of southern Britain and Ireland. Oxbow Books,
Oxford, pp. 562-669.
Grogan, E. 2002 Neolithic houses in Ireland: a broader perspective. Antiquity 76,
517525.
Logue, P. 2003 Excavations at Thornhill, Co. Londonderry. In I. Armit, E. Murphy, E.
Nelis and D. Simpson (eds), Neolithic Settlement in Ireland and Western Britain.
Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 149155.
Smyth, J. 2006 The role of the house in Early Neolithic Ireland European Journal of
Archaeology 9, 229257.
Smyth, J. 2010 The house and group identity in the Irish Neolithic. Proceeding of the
Royal Irish Academy 111C, 131.
Waddell, J. 2010 The Prehistoric Archaeology of Ireland. Wordwell, Dublin (Chapter
2).
Whittle, A., Healey, F. & Bayliss, A. 2011 Gathering Time; dating the early Neolithic
enclosures of southern Britain and Ireland. Oxbow Books, Oxford. (Chapters 14-15).
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