Bronze Age Ireland

Bronze Age Ireland. ‘Bronze Age’ is a technocultural term denoting the time during which metal was first used in Ireland, beginning around 2500 bc. It is subdivided into an Early Bronze Age and a Late Bronze Age, each defined by mainly metalwork typologies. Comparatively little is understood about the transitory period—the Middle Bronze Age.

The earliest metal objects are mainly copper, and copper mines are known at Mount Gabriel, Co. Cork, and Ross Island, near Killarney, Co. Kerry. The occurrence of a distinctive pottery coinciding with the earliest metal objects led some archaeologists to the belief that ‘Beaker folk’ travelled across Europe spreading the knowledge of metalworking. Others believe, however, that beaker pots were prestige objects, appropriated and copied for their associated social value. Beaker pots are often associated with a range of distinctive objects (sometimes referred to as the ‘Beaker Package’), including stone wristguards, tanged copper daggers, barbed and tanged arrowheads, and V‐perforated buttons. The continuation of Neolithic traits, such as the use of megalithic tombs, indicates the important role of the indigenous population in the spread of metalworking throughout Ireland.

The Early Bronze Age proper is marked by the addition of tin (probably imported from Cornwall)to copper to make bronze at around 2000 bc. This period is best known from its burials, pottery, and bronze artefacts. The pottery is highly decorated and is found mainly in graves. The bronze tools were simple in form and include flat axes, daggers, and halberds that were cast in open stone moulds. Gold was the other primary metal utilized, mainly for personal ornaments, and includes ‘sun discs’, earrings, and the spectacular half‐moon shaped necklaces known as lunula. The burial evidence shows that both inhumation and cremation were used to dispose of the dead and the fact that many graves contain the remains of only one individual indicates the increasing importance of the individual in society. Inhumations were often positioned on their side in a crouched position and placed in a stone‐lined grave called a cist, or just a simple pit in the ground. Cremations were also placed in cists and pits, either in a flat unmarked grave or a visible burial mound. Collective cremation is also known and sometimes both disposal customs are represented in one grave. Cemeteries of burials exhibiting the range of burial practices have been discovered, and at Cloghskelt, Co. Down, 25 such graves have been excavated. Analysis of the human remains from Bronze Age graves indicates that adult males, females, and children were accorded the same treatment. Grave goods can also indicate status and the crouched burial of an adult male associated with pottery and a copper dagger decorated with gold wire from Topped Mountain, Co. Fermanagh, suggests this individual was of high social status. Settlement evidence for this period is scarce, but a new range of megalithic monuments appears which includes stone circles, stone rows, and standing stones.

The transitional period, or Middle Bronze Age, occurred between the 15th and 12th centuries bc. An enigmatic and extremely common monument of this period is the so‐called fulacht fiadh, which is an outdoor cooking place comprising a trough and mound of burnt stones.

Metal technology in the later part of the Bronze Age became increasingly sophisticated with the use of multi‐component clay moulds. Gold ornaments such as torcs, dress and sleeve fasteners, and collars, and metal weapons including spearheads, socketed axes, and swords, were produced. Both gold and bronze objects are often found in hoards. The deposition of many objects in lakes and rivers, and the construction of sacred ponds, suggests a ritual connected with what the pollen evidence suggests was a drastically deteriorating climate. The rise of a warrior aristocracy, and of social instability, is indicated by numerous weapons and the construction of hillforts, which seem to have served as centres of power. Social stresses were probably exacerbated by the worsening climate and by population movement away from the increasingly water‐logged highlands.

By the end of the Bronze Age great technological advances had occurred, vast quantities of warlike objects had been produced, and habitation had become focused on hilltop enclosures. Strengthened contacts and communication with Britain and Europe are suggested by the importation of amber and the exportation of Irish metal ores and metalwork. For the four centuries from the 6th century until the inception of the Iron Age in the 3rd century bc information about Irish society is almost totally lacking.

Bibliography

Cooney, G., and and Grogan, E. , Irish Prehistory: A Social Perspective (1994)

Sinéad McCartan