Chapter 2 - Ancient Ireland

Question 1

What is the oldest settlement in ireland?

Answer 1

Mount Sandel, Co. Derry

Question 2

What are postholes?

Answer 2

Foundations of huts built with upright posts

Question 3

What is flint?

Answer 3

Small pieces of flint - bones of bird and fish

Question 4

What was the hearth?

Answer 4

Fireplace

Question 5

Where did the first settlers come from?

Answer 5

Scotland or whales

Question 6

What did the first settlers arrive to ireland in?

Answer 6

Dugout canoes - small tub like boats made from animal skin and a light wooden frame

Question 7

What are saplings?

Answer 7

Young trees which built a frame for the early irish settlers circular huts

Question 8

What was the midden?

Answer 8

A heap of kitchen waste next to the hut

Question 9

What was a microlit?

Answer 9

Tools made from stones and flint e.g. Axes, spears, arrows

Question 10

What were early irish settlers clothes made from?

Answer 10

Animal skin

Question 11

What were scrapers?

Answer 11

Flat stones that cleaned animal skin - skins were then stitched together with bone needles

Question 12

How did hunter gatherers get food?

Answer 12

• hunted birds , wild boar , fish

- gathered nuts and berries

Question 13

What does nomadic mean?

Answer 13

They moved from place to place in search of a food supply

Question 14

When did the neolithic farmers arrive in ireland?

Answer 14

-about 4000BC from Britain and mainland europe

Question 15

What did the first farmers believe about death?

Answer 15

• afterlife

- death was marked by megaliths (tombs)

Question 16

What were the three main types of tombs?

Answer 16

• dolmen
• court cairn
• passage grave

Question 17

What is a dolmen?

Answer 17

• consists of three standing stones and a huge capstone on top
• grave goods such as food, pottery, jewellery placed alongside the remains
• mound of earth covered the dolmens (today eroded away)

Question 18

What is a court cairn?

Answer 18

Burial chamber with a small entrance are or court

-built from standing stones covered in earth

Question 19

What is a passage grave?

Answer 19

• most impressive megalithic tombs in Ireland
• built for rich important people
• builders were good engineers and had a good understanding of astronomy
• Newgrange, Co. Meath, winter solstice light shines through the roof box marks

Question 20

When did the Bronze Age begin?

Answer 20

2000BC

Question 21

What is bronze?

Answer 21

A mixture of tin and copper

Question 22

How is bronze used?

Answer 22

Beaten, melted, poured into weapons and goods

Question 23

What is a lunalae?

Answer 23

A bronze age gold necklace

Question 24

What were the bronze age burial tombs?

Answer 24

• cist graves

- wedge tombs

Question 25

What is a cist grave?

Answer 25

A shallow pit lined with slabs covered by a large flat stone

Question 26

What is a wedge tomb?

Answer 26

A tomb built above the ground from stone slabs covered in earth

Question 27

What is a stone circle?

Answer 27

• large upright stones forming a circle

- place of worship/ calendar for farmers

Question 28

• dug hole in the ground
• lined with flat stones or pieces of wood
• poured water into the hole and boiled it by dropping in large stones that had been heated in a fire

Answer 28

What is fulachta fiadh?

Question 29

What was wattle and daub?

Answer 29

Interwoven sticks plastered together with mud and straw to make a rectangular house

Question 30

What was a quern?

Answer 30

Used to grind grain, wheat and barley

Question 31

What were mattocks and wooden ploughs?

Answer 31

Farming tools used to turn the soil