Houses, dwelling spaces and daily life in early medieval Ireland: an experimental archaeological approach (submitted 2010)
Triona Nicholl
Supervisor: Dr. Aidan O'Sullivan
Funded by: The Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Abstract
Within the settlement landscape of early medieval Ireland, houses and the dwelling spaces created within and around them were highly active and expressive environments. It was within these bounded social spaces that families and extended community groups both negotiated, established and performed the various identities and ideologies that formed an integral and defining part of their world.
Roundhouse on reconstructed crannóg, Irish National Heritage Park, Co. Wexford
Given the social importance of these settlements in terms of our understanding of early medieval Ireland, we might expect scholars to have attempted to investigate how the various domestic spaces created within them were exploited. However most studies to date have tended to focus on typological descriptions rather than attempting any practical analysis of how the architecture functioned and what impact this had on its use.
This study aims to explore how these spaces were constructed, defined and utilised in order to understand daily life in early medieval Ireland. It will apply a multi-disciplinary approach to the investigation of the use of houses and dwellings incorporating archaeology, history, social theory and other related disciplines. In particular, this study will apply a critical and theoretically informed investigation of early medieval settlement through experimental archaeology utilising accurately reconstructed examples of early medieval structures at the Irish National Heritage Park and numerous other sites, both within Ireland and abroad.
Through this more intimate interaction with both the archaeological and historical evidence a vibrant and detailed picture can be created of how these settlements would have functioned. This will ultimately allow for a much needed practical, social and ideological interpretation of daily life in early medieval Ireland while also giving unparalleled access to the fundamentals of how architecture and its uses can be controlled by those who inahabit it to express and negotiate complex social and ideological identities.
Roundhouse on reconstructed crannóg, Irish National Heritage Park, Co. Wexford
Roundhouse on reconstructed crannóg, Irish National Heritage Park, Co. Wexford