Pre-Christian Ireland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FncwFd1RzQ

Categories

•Stone Age 7,000BC – 2,000BC•Bronze Age 2,000BC – 500BC• Iron Age 500BC – 450AD

Stone Age

•Mesolithic Period 7,000BC – 3,700BC•Neolithic Period 3,700BC – 2,000BC

Stone Age Vocabulary

• Lith = Stone•Mesolithic = Middle Stone

Age•Neolithic = New Stone Age•Megalithic = Big Stone

Artistic & Architectural Importance of the Period

•Megalithic Monuments are the earliest examples of Irish art & architecture•Megalithic Monuments are

from the Neolithic Period

The Neolithic Period

• Lifestyles changed from hunter-gathering to settled communities with evidence of farming.

• Highly organised and complex society.• Food producing methods such as

harvesting of crops and breeding of animals spread across from mainland Europe

Megalithic Monuments

•Portal Tombs or Dolmens•Court Cairns•Passage Tombs

Portal Tomb/Dolmen

•Dolmen is an old Brehon word meaning ‘stone table’

Poulnabrone, Co.Clare

Kilclooney, Co. Donegal

Brownes Hill, Co. Carlow

Form/Structure

• Three to seven upright stones. • One or two very heavy capstones

which slope which slope downwards towards the back.• Tripod in design• A capstone is a top stone that acts as a

roof

Function

•Dolmens are above ground burial chambers

Court Cairns

• Probably the earliest megalithic monuments built in Ireland•Most built in the north of

Ireland

Layout

Creevykeel, Co. Sligo

Form/Structure

• A semi-circular forecourt of upright stones leading to a gallery divided into separate chambers surrounded by an oval-shaped cairn or mound of stones

• The Forecourt (or courtyard) had no roof but the gallery was covered.

• A burial chamber was situated in the covered gallery

• The gallery was divided into two or three chambers by protruding stones like doorjambs

• A doorjamb is like the side pieces of a door frame. In this case doorjamb were large vertical slabs of stone

Function

•Burial chambers•Ritual site