S2-Early Ireland Flashcards
Why did people come to Ireland 7,000BC?
Ice melted
Ireland became an island
Trees grew
People came :)
How did the first people get to Ireland
Short journey by sea
What did Mesolithic people eat, and how did they get it?
-Ate:
Fish, boar, berries, nuts, etc
- Hunted and gathered their food
What types of tools did mesoltihic people use?
Flint tools
How did we know about mesoltihic people?
From archaeology
Eg. Mount sanded, co. Derry.
Where did Mesolithic people give evidence of them existing in Ireland?
Mount Sandle, Co. Derry
Hat types of houses did mesoltihic people live in?
Done/tents made from animal skins, propped up by bent beams of wood in post holes
What food evidence was found at Mount Sandle?
Shells of: hazelnuts, fish
Bones of: fish, deer, duck, pig
When did people live in Mount Sandle
7000-6500BC approx.
Who cam water the Mesolithic people? What does their name mean?
Neolithic people
“New Stone Age”
What changed that showed historians/scientists that Neolithic people came?
Pollen from grass, wheat and barley found
Bones form cattle sheep and goats found
-> farming arrived
Ie. Trees cut, crops planted, animals raised
(4,000BC -2,000BC)
What tools did Neolithic people use?
Porcelanite tools
Neolithic people made their tools form a certain material, examples can be found all over Ireland .
Where was this material found in Ireland originally? What conclusion can be drawn from this?
Porcelanite is from Antrim and Rathlin island only,
But tools were found everywhere
THEREFORE
Neolithic people travelled and traded
Where is your studied excavation for Neolithic people?
Louth Gur, Co. Limerick
Céide Fields, Co.Mayo
What house did Neolithic people live in?
- Wooden round/rectangular huts
- caked with wattle and daub
- open fire, no chimney
What did Mesolithic people wear?
-animal skins
What did Neolithic people wear?
- spun and wove clothes
- dyed with berries and plants
- bone and stone jewellery
What did Neolithic people make?
- clay pots
- walled fields
- rotary quern stones
- tombs
Céide fields. Go.
Walled fields-stop attacks and wandering
Ploughed fields
Dissapeared for seemingly no reason
Where did farming originate from?
Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and Iran)
Describe Neolithic pottery
- clay bowls/pots
- decorated w/ stick/fingernails
- baked over fire
- found all over Ireland
Placed of evidenced for Neolithic people
- Louth Gur, co. Limerick
- Ceide Fields, co. Mayo
- Bogs (bones n teeth)
Types of Neolthic tombs
Court cairns
Dolmens
Passage tombs
Court cairns
- earliest
- cairn =”pile of stones”
- pottery, ashes, tools
- passage leading to remains
- mainly in N.I.
Dolmens
- 2/3 large stones topped with a capstone
- capstone can weigh 100 tones
- stones brought using logs, levers and ramps
- eg. Burren, Co.Clare, (poulnabrone: 22 remains)
Passage tombs
- very big court cairns
- 200+
- we. Newgrange, co. Meath
Newgrange physical facts
- passage =19m long
- chamber =6m high (some call chambers too)
- stones from Wicklow 60+ km away
- cor belled roof
- artwork
- roof box
New grange reasons?
-tomb, because remains BUT very few remains
•sacrificial remains?
•remains of leaders?
-calendar?
Time + manpower to create new grange?
400 men
16 years
Time frames for Newgrange
- excavation 1960s
- older than pyramids+ Stonehenge
- 4,500 years old
- 17 mins light @ 21 December
Newgrange tells us that Neolithic people were ….
- skilled builders
- artistic
- religious (afterlife)
- astronomers
- respectful for dead
Where, when how is copper mined from rocks?
- Middle East
- 2,500BC
- fire lit
- fire extinguished; rock cracks
- coppery rock smacked out
- Stony bits hammered off
- stony bits melted off
- Copper castes (also mixed w tin)
When did the Bronze Age begin? How?
-2,500BC, skill of mixing copper and tin to make bronze spread throughout Europe
What showed that the Bronze Age had arrived iIn ireland?
BEAKER PEOPLE
- 2,000 ‘beaker pottery’ spread
- they brought it to Ireland
Mines FO metal (beaker people)
- Mount Gabriel, Co.Cork (copper)
- Cornwall, England (tin)
Smiths (beaker)
Made moulds (carved into rock)
- poured and cooled metal inside -> casting
- travelled country, buried belongings-> holds
Eating (beaker)
- bread and meat
- used fulacht fiadh
- meat wrapped in straw, boiled in water heated by red hot stones in a pit lined with wood
Jewellery (beaker)
- earrings, bracelets, necklaces, lunalae, torch, brooches
- copper, bronze, GOOLLLD
Hoard for Beaker people
The Broighter Hold, Co.Derry
- found 1896 by farmer
- found: gold collars, torch, boat and oars
Farming (beaker)
- horses introduced
- fulacht fiadh
Homes(beaker )
Found Tipperary and Cork
- thatched+ wattle + daub
- surrounding by wooden fences/stone walls
- not many indoor fires, cause it’ll burn duh lol get rekt
Name Beaker People’s tombs
- wedge tombs
- cosy graves
- stone circles/rows
Cist grave
- stone lined pit
- ashes or crouching position
- personal artefacts buried too
Wedge tombs
- like dolmen, but cleverly flat and wedgy
- most common in Ireland
- cremated remains out in pottery
Stone circles
-tall upright stones in circles/rows
-come contain remains
-align with sun
(Religious? Calendar?)
-eg, Beaghmour Stone Circle, Co.Tyrone
Bronze Age people summed up
1first to make metal tools w copper and tin 2 beaker people -new pottery 3 2,500 BC 4 Mount Gabriel Co.Cork Copper mine 5 Tin imported from Cornwall 6 Gold jewellery and ornaments 7 Fulacht Fiadh 8 Cist graves, wedge tombs, stone circles
When did the first people arrive in Ireland?
Around 9,000 years ago
7,000 BC
