Ancient Ireland

• The Mesolithic Stone Age

• The Neolithic Stone Age

• The Bronze Age

• The Celts

MesolithicStone Age

7000 BC

?

4000 BC

Bronze Age

2000 BC

?

500 BC

Neolithic Stone Age

Iron AgeCelts

Ancient Ireland

Mesolithic Stone Age

• First people in Ireland• 8000 BC• Tools and weapons made of stone• Hunter gatherers• Ate berries, nuts, fish, wild pig, deer and

other animals• Mount Sandal, River Bann Northern Ireland

AxesSpears and HarpoonsScrapersBone Needles

Neolithic Stone Age

• Means ‘New Stone’ Age – they still made weapons and tools from stone

• 4000 BC: First farmers

Changes

Sharper polished stone tools

They introduced pottery, farming, ploughs, barley and wheat, farm animals like sheep, cattle and pigs

Built bigger stronger houses made of wattle and daub walls and thatched roofs

Megaliths

Neolithic farmers brought pottery to Ireland.

• They used stones to grind the wheat for bread

Look at the houses on page 21• Usually rectangular.• thatched roofs made of straw.• A hole in the roof was a chimney for fires, lit on a

stone in the middle of the floor.• They drove timber posts into the ground and held

them in place with rocks.• They made walls out of ‘wattle’ and ‘daub’. • Wattle was made by weaving twigs and branches

through sticks (like basket making)• Daub is a mixture of mud and straw which was

‘daubed’ on the wattle.• Wattle and daub made the houses warmer and less

drafty.

First Farmers: SitesBecause the ‘Neolithic FarmersA. Settled in one placeB. Had a reliable food supply they were able to form

communities and work together, for example:C. They were able to build bigger structures: megalithsD. Megaliths prove they believed in life after death

Sites where neolithic farmers lived1. Lough Gur, County Limerick, 2. The Ceide Fields, County Mayo,

Court Cairn, Creevykeel, Co SligoCourt Cairns consist of:1. A semi-circular ‘Court’ at

the front where bodies were cremated.

2. An entrance way made of two upright stones and a capstone.

3. A ‘Passage’ leading to the burial chamber

4. A Chamber where cremated remains were placed

5. A cairn, a mound of smaller stones placed over the structure.

Creevkeel, Co Sligo

Court Cairn

Poulnabrone Dolmen, the Burren, Co Clare

• Dolmens are stone age tombs

• Cremated remains, human bones, pottery and weapons have been found in Dolmens.

• Poulnabrone Dolmen on the Burren in Co Clare was used for 500 years to bury the dead.

Capstone

Portals

Passage Graves

• A long passage leads to a chamber deep inside

• The walls of the passage are made of large upright slabs

• The roof is corbelled and covered with an earth mound

• Examples are Newgrange, Dowth and Knowth

• Newgrange is a case study

Newgrange: Case Study

• 4500 years old: oldest building in Europe

• Long passage leads to a chamber.

• The roof is corbelled

• Stones are decorated with spirals

• The light box over the entrance is positioned so that sunlight lights the inner chamber on the shortest day of the year

• They knew a great deal about the sun.

• They were skilled builders

After Excavation

Neolithic Settlements

• Lough Gur, Co Limerick

• Circular houses with wattle and daub wall and thatched roofs

• Post holes

• Ceide Fields, Co Mayo

• Sewed wheat and barley

• Ground the grain with a rotary quern

• Kept cows, sheep and goats in stone walled fields

The Bronze Age

What’s new?• Bronze to make weapons and tools• New jewelry: torcs and lunalae• Fulacht fia• Individual graves: 1. Cist Graves2. Wedge Graves3. Standing Stones

How Bronze objects were made

• Rock containing copper was broken and smelted over a fire

• Smelted copper (from Killarney) and tin (from Cornwall, England) were mixes and poured into a mould

• Brone axes, arrowheads, spear heads, and the first swords

Bronze Age Jewelry was made by smiths: a new craft to Ireland

Lunala: thin and moon

shaped

Torc: gold twisted into

bracelets and necklaces

Fulacth Fia

• Fulacht fia was an ancient cooking place

• Dug near a river, so it would fill with water

• Lined with stone slabs• Rocks are heated in a fire

and put in the water to boil it

• Cooked meat wrapped in straw

Bronze Age Graves• 1. Cist Grave • Carnmore, Co Louth• Rectangular pit lined

with stone slabs• Person buried in

crouched position with grave goods such as food and weapons

• Wedge Tombs• Lisdoonvarna, Co

Clare• Shaped like a wedge

of cheese

• Standing Stones• Drombeg, Co Cork• Might have been a

type of calendar

Wedge Tomb

Mesolithic Stone Age

Neolithic Stone Age Bronze Age

8000 BC

Hunter Gatherers

Hut-like houses

Weapons and tools made of stone

Mount Sandal

4000 BC

First Farmers

Wattle and daub houses

Pottery, wheat and barley

Pigs, sheep and cattle

Megaliths

Dolmens (Poulnabrone)

Court Cairns(Creevkeel)

Passage Graves (Newgrange)

Ceide Fields

Lough Gur

2000 BC

Weapons and tools made of bronze

Torc & Lunala

Smelting and moulds

First smiths

First swords

Fulacht fia / rotary querns

Individual graves

Cist Graves (Carnmore, Co Louth)

Wedge Tombs (Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare)

Standing Stones (Drombeg, Co Cork)