Ancient Ireland - First draft

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Ancient Ireland

 

 

  • 8000 B.C. → The Middle Stone Age (Hunters and gatherers only)

  • 4000 B.C. → The New Stone Age (First farmers)

  • 2000 B.C. → The Bronze Age (First metal users)

  • 500 B.C. → The Iron Age (The Celts)

 

 

The Middle Stone Age

People first arrived in Ireland about 8000 B.C., during the Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age. They had not yet learned to make and use metals, so their weapons and tools were made from stone. Mesolithic people were hunters and gatherers.

Middle_stone_age

The New Stone Age

The first farmers arrived in Ireland about 4000 B.C. They were called the Neolithic or New Stone Age people. They sometimes settled on upland areas with light soils because these places were less forested and easier to till.

Neolithic people were more advanced than Mesolithic people:

  • They hunted with polished (smoothed) axes, which were of better quality than earlier axes. But they did not use any metal yet.

  • They built large megalithic (“great stone”) tombs.

  • They made pottery and used it for cooking, storing food and in burial ceremonies.

  • They grew wheat and barley and kept cattle, sheep and pigs.

  • They lived in permanent settlements and so they built stronger houses than people before them.

New_stone_age

Neolithic tombs

Neolithic people believed in live after death, so they built megalithic tombs for important people who died. There are three different types of Neolithic tombs: court cairns, portal dolmens and passage graves.

Court cairns

Court_cairn
They had an open area (“court”) at the entrance of the burial chamber, bodies were cremated there. The remains were then placed in a chamber which was built of standing stones and covered with a cairn.

Portal dolmens

Portal_dolmen
These tombs had two or three upright stones (“portals”) and on top there was a large capstone. The cremated remains of a body were placed under the capstone and covered with a pile of smaller stones.

 

Passage graves

These graves (which were found for example at Newgrange [picture], Dowth and Knowth) are covered by a huge circular mound. Through the mound runs a passage which leads to a chamber. Each year, on Midwinter Day (21 December), the rising sun shines through the dark passage and briefly lights up the chamber. (More information below.)

Newgrange

Newgrange

Newgrange is a prehistoric passage grave on the eastern side of Ireland. It was built about 3200 B.C. That makes it older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Giza. It is one monument within the “Brú na Bóinne” complex of passage graves and as such is a part of the Brú na Bóinne UNESCO World Heritage Site.

There is no certainty about what it was used for but it has been speculated that it had some religious significance because on the winter solstice, the light of the rising sun floods the stone room with light. They began studying it as a prehistoric monument in the seventeenth century AD and in the 1970s, Newgrange was restored. Nowadays, it is a very popular tourist site and widely recognised as one of the most important megalithic structures in Europe.

Newgrange_winter_solstice

 

The Bronze Age

About 2000 B.C. people came to Ireland who had discovered how to make sharp weapons and tools out of bronze (a mixture of copper and tin). They also made weapons out of gold but as gold was too soft to be used for weapons or tools, they made necklaces and bracelets (torcs → picture) of gold.

 

The Ogham [/ˈoʊ.əm/] Script

Ogham_stone1

The origin of the Ogham script remains a mystery until the present day. It is certain though that Ogham, similar to Runes, is a Celtic Tree Alphabet. This means that each letter is named after a different tree. The climax of its use was in the 5th and 6th century. About 400 years afterwards the Irish started using the Roman alphabet and the Ogham script lost its importance. Stones on with ogham inscriptions are called “Ogham stones” and are at least one foot high. Those stones were used to mark boundaries, territories and changes in ownership but experts claim that it was more common to write on pieces of wood and trees.

Angelika Schmidt

Angelika Schmidt

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