Burials of the Irish Iron Age and transitional periods c. 800BC—600AD
Tiernan McGarry
Supervisor: Professor Barry Raftery
Funded by: Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS Government of Ireland Scholar)
Also supported by:
Humanities Institute of Ireland (Honorary HII Scholar)
Abstract
The evidence from burials is often the most illuminating for those who wish to understand human behaviour and circumstances during a prehistoric period, but the rarity of burials accompanied by chronologically-diagnostic artefacts, such as pottery or La Tène or Roman objects, has until recently made Irish Iron Age burials extremely difficult to identify with confidence. However, a considerable number of burials from the period have now been identified as a result of new artefactual evidence, and radiocarbon date determinations, produced during the surge in development-led archaeological excavations over the past few decades. This research project will identify, catalogue, clarify, and explain the evidence from burials of the period within wider Irish, Insular and European contexts.
The core themes will focus on ritual, political, and economic matters, but it should also be possible to explore what the burials can further reveal about Irish settlements, ritual landscapes, as well as contemporary relationships and practices relating to gender, ethnicity and identity.
The degrees of continuity, intrinsic development, and exotic influence, identified in mortuary practices between the end of the Bronze Age and the start of the Early Christian period should also contribute to a clearer understanding of the level of continuity in society, population origins, and religious beliefs against a background of external contacts and cast further light upon the range of relationships and cultural diversity within Ireland and between Ireland and Britain and the Continent.