Ancient Ireland

Question 1

Mesolithic Stone Age period

Answer 1

8,000-3500 BC

Question 2

Nomadic

Answer 2

To regularly move from place to place

Question 3

How were Mesolithic people buried?

Answer 3

They were cremated (burned) and buried with axes and other valuable items known as grave goods.

Question 4

Neolithic period

Answer 4

Between 3,500-4,000 BC

Question 5

New settlers skills

Answer 5

Farming, bread making, tomb building and pottery making.

Question 6

Major Neolithic sites

Answer 6

Céide fields, Mayo. Lough Gur, Limerick and Boyne Valley, Meath.

Question 7

Life of Neolithic the farmer

Answer 7

The land was ploughed with stone mattocks and ploughs. The first farmers grew crops like wheat and barley and domesticated animals like sheep and pigs.
They hunted and gathered, like the Mesolithic people, but it was no longer their main source of food.

Question 8

What were pots made from and used for during the Neolithic times?

Answer 8

local clay, they were used to store food, tools or the ashes of the dead.

Question 9

Neolithic houses

Answer 9

Houses were more permanent than the Mesolithic houses.
Their houses had poles driven into the ground, which left post holes, or had walls of wattle and daub, the roof was thatched with straw or rushes.

Question 10

Wattle and daub

Answer 10

Wooden sticks, woven together like a basket and covered with a mixture of mud, dung, sad and straw.

Question 11

Megalith

Answer 11

Huge stone

Question 12

Passage graves

Answer 12

Hugh mounds built over a central passage, which led to a chamber for the dead.

Question 13

Court cairns

Answer 13

These had an open space (court) at the front and a chamber at the front and a chamber originally covered by a mound of stones (cairn)

Question 14

Portal dolmens

Answer 14

Two or more standing stones and a huge capstone resting across the top with the remains placed inside

Question 15

Bronze Age in Ireland period

Answer 15

2,000 BC

Question 16

Why did they use bronze to make tools and weapons?

Answer 16

It was stronger than stone, but was also much easier to shape.

Question 17

How was bronze made?

Answer 17

By the process of smelting copper and tin, combining them and pouring them into moulds to set.

Question 18

Smelting

Answer 18

Melting metal at a high temperature to separate it from the ore.

Question 19

What did smiths make from bronze and gold?

Answer 19

Bronze pots and cauldrons for cookings, horns for music, jewellery in gold and bronze, like bracelets, armlets, earrings, necklaces.

Question 20

Quern

Answer 20

Used to grind corn into flower for bread.

Question 21

Fulacht fiadh

Answer 21

A stone lined pit which was filled with water. Stones were heated in a fire and lowered into the water to make it boil. The meat was wrapped in straw and left boiling until ready to eat.

Question 22

Houses in the bronze age

Answer 22

Bigger, circular, made from wattle and daub, had thatched roofs, and other smaller buildings were enclosed behind timber fences, these may have been to defend the people from attacks, keep their animals safe at night, or both.

Question 23

Burials during the Bronze Age

Answer 23

The body was buried in a crouched or foetal position with its grave goods, they were buried in cist graves, these were stone lined graves in the ground.

Question 24

Iron Age in Ireland period

Answer 24

500-300 BC

Question 25

What did the celts bring over to Ireland

Answer 25

Culture, language, religion and the knowledge of iron working.