Ch.2-Ancient Ireland

Question 1

Where did the first settlers arrive in Ireland?

Answer 1

Mount Sandel,Co.Derry

Question 2

What did the first settlers come in?

Answer 2

Dugout-canoes (animal skins held together by wooden frame)

Question 3

Why did the first settlers live along the coast of ireland?

Answer 3

Because the forest was very dense

Question 4

What were the first settlers called?

Answer 4

hunter-gatherers

Question 5

What were hunter-gatherers huts like?

Answer 5

The frame was built from saplings (young trees) and then covered in animal skins or rushes. There was a hearth in the middle and small heaps of kitchen waste on the outside called middens.

Question 6

What were hunter-gatherers tools like?

Answer 6

They were made from small stones and pieces of flint called microlits. The stones were then set into pieces of wood to make axes or spears.

Question 7

How were hunter-gatherers clothes made?

Answer 7

Using animal skins and they were stitched together using a needle made of bone. Stones called scrapers were used to clean them

Question 8

Why were they called hunter gatherers?

Answer 8

Because they hunted wild boar and birds and gathered nuts and berries.

Question 9

What were the first farmers called?

Answer 9

Neolithic farmers

Question 10

How were the neolithic tools made?

Answer 10

With polished stone

Question 11

How did neolithic farmers prepare land?

Answer 11

With mattocks or wooden ploughs. They grew wheat and barley. they placed the crops into a hollow stone and used a smaller one to grind it (a quern).

Question 12

How did neolithic farmers make their clothes?

Answer 12

From animal skin and sheep’s wool. The art of spinning and weaving was used and dyes from plants was used to add colour.

Question 13

How were neolithic houses made?

Answer 13

They were made from wood and/or stone. They were rectangular. The walls were made from placing large posts in the ground and weaving branches in between them (wattle) and then a mix of mud and straw was plastered on (daub) to keep the rain out. The roof was made of straw or rushes

Question 14

How did neolithic people cook?

Answer 14

In a fireplace in the middle of the floor. A hole was made in the roof to act as a chimney

Question 15

What was neolithic food stored in?

Answer 15

Clay pots

Question 16

What were the three main tombs?

Answer 16

They were called megoliths. Dolmen, court cairn and passage grave

Question 17

Explain dolmen

Answer 17

It means stone table. It was made of 3 standing stones and a capstone. The body/ashes and grave goods were placed under and a heap of earth covered it

Question 18

Explain court cairn

Answer 18

It had a small entrance area. standing stones were then covered by earth

Question 19

Explain passage grave

Answer 19

Its a long passageway leading to a burial chamber. E.g. Newgrange in meath. It has a corbeled roof (each layer of stone was placed slightly sticking out from the one below it. A roof box was small opening at main entrance

Question 20

What was a roof box

Answer 20

It was a small opening at the entrance that allowed sunlight into the passage to light the chamber at dawn on the 21st of December.

Question 21

How is bronze made?

Answer 21

Its a mix of tin and copper that was began in 2000bc

Question 22

What was a sickle

Answer 22

It was a common bronze age tool used to cut crops and grass

Question 23

What was gold used for in the bronze age?

Answer 23

Jewellery -> lunala = a half moon necklace (plural is lunalae)

Question 24

What were bronze age graves called?

Answer 24

Cist graves and wedge tombs

Question 25

Describe a cist grave

Answer 25

It was a shallow pit lined with stone slabs and covered by a big flat stone. Bodies were in a crouched position or the ashes would be in a big pot in the grave. Food was placed in in smaller pots

Question 26

Describe a wedge tomb

Answer 26

They were built above the ground. Stone slabs were low and narrow at back and high and wide at front. Covered by a big flat stone. Then covered in earth.

Question 27

What was a stone circle?

Answer 27

They were circles of upright standing stones. They might have been used as a place of worship or as some type of calendar

Question 28

What is a fulachta fiadh?

Answer 28

It was a hole dug in damp ground and lining it with flat stones or wood. They poured water into the hole and heated it by placing heated stones from the fire into it. The meat was then wrapped in straw and placed in