Stone Age (7000BC-2500BC) Flashcards
Date of Stone Age
7000bc-2500bc
3 Stages of Stone Age
- Early Stone Age
- Middle Stone Age
- New Stone Age
Mesolithic Period definition and date
Middle Stone Age (7000-3700BC)
Mesolithic Period
- First human settlers lived by hunting & gathering
- Settled mostly near riverbanks & lakes
- Early housing consisted of animal skins spread over a bowl-shaped timber frame
Neolithic period
New Stone Age
Megalithic
Large stone monuments
Portal Dolmen
Megalithic monument based off a tripod, eg. Poulnabrone Co. Clare
Lithos
Large stone
Court Cairn
Megalithic monument made up of upright stones divided into different chambers. Eg. Creevykeel, Co. Sligo
Megas
Big
Neolithic Period - Developments
- Time of great change
- Development of farming
- Harvesting of cereal crops (wheat and barley)
- Breeding of animals into fields
- Land was cleared of trees and divided
- Tools - stone axes made to chop trees
- Contact with lands overseas
- Highly organised people, can be seen from house plans, stone tools, pottery fragments, stone tombs
- Housing more permanent with dwellings of circular + rectangular shapes
Technology during Neolithic Period (tools and weapons)
- Wood + stone only materials available
- Some hard stones could used as knives, scrapers, chisels, axes, spearheads, arrowheads
- Axes for felling trees + chopping wood were made by tying carefully shaped + polished stone axe heads onto wooden handles
- Wood used to make tools for digging + ploughing + some vessels
- Large stones for buildings/structures moved by dragging & levering + possibly using logs as rollers to ease progress of largest stones
Megalithic Monuments (huge stone monuments) Function
- Resting places for the dead
- Lasting monuments to ancestors
- Perhaps symbols of power
3 types of megalithic tombs
- Portal dolmens
- Court cairn
- Passage grave
Passage tombs
- On elevated ground
- Often found in groups
- Newgrange, Knowth, Dowth - Boyne Valley
- Narrow passage to central burial chamber
- Upright slabs of rock + roof by horizontal slabs
- Corbelled sone roof
- Covered by circular mound of earth + small stones
- Surrounded by large slabs (kerbstones)
Brú na Bóinne : Boyne Valley Culture
- Neolithic Boyne Valley culture
- On bend of River Boyne
- Neolithic farming population
- Forty passage tombs
- Largest collection of megalithic art in western Europe
Newgrange Passage Grave topics
- Construction - when
- Location
- Structure
- Construction techniques
- Materials used
- Function
- Decoration
- Stone Carving Techniques
Functions of passage tombs
- Hold remains of important people
- Astronomically align with sun for solstices / equinoxes
- Enact sun worship
- Hold pagan rituals relating to belief in an afterlife or a ‘cult of the dead’
- Indicate tribal territories
Meaning of motifs
- Unclear
- Probably represent solar + lunar cycles
- Possible religious meaning
- Possible form of writing
- May represent human faces
Locations of decorations at Newgrange
- Entrance stone
- Kerbstone 52
- Lintel above the roofbox
- Corbelled stones in roof of chamber
- Standing stone in chamber of Newgrange
Essay structure
1 - Introduction
2 - Discussion of artefacts with headings
3 - Reference to statement
4 - Conclusion
Newgrange Passage Tomb - Stone Carving Techniques
1 - Dressing Stone
2 - Incision
3 - Picking (chipcarving)
Dressing stone
Surface was hammered to take out rough bits, filed smooth with rough stone
Incision
Shallow linear designs scratched + scraped onto stone
Picking (chipcarving)
Pointed flint/quartz stone to chip out motifs so they stood out in low relief
Newgrange - construction
3000-2500 BC
Newgrange Structure
- Consists of passage + burial chamber covered by earthen mound
- mound - 11m high, 80m in diameter
- Passage 19m long
- 21 upright stones line passage on right, 22 on left
- Horizontal slabs form roof of passage
- Burial chamber is cross-shaped
- 5.5m in diameter
- Three side chambers off central chamber
- Stone basins contain ashes + bones of dead in side chambers
- 97 kerbstones surround outer surface of passage grave
- 12 large standing stones circle tomb
- Special opening callwed roofbox above doorway
- Purpose
Roofbox purpose
Allows rising sun to travel up passage + illuminate burial chamber each year on Winter Solstice (21st Dec)
Newgrange Location
- Located Bru na Boinne, Co. Meath, area 4km long + 3km wide
- Enclosed by bend in river Boye
- 40 mounts in area, Newgrange, Knowth, Dowth being largest
Newgrange - construction techniqes
- Roof of chamber constructed using corbelling technique
- large slabs overlap on top of each other in layers
- roof (6m high) sloped inwards like a dome + capstone sealed the top
- Builders cut grooves into outer roof stones to channel rainwater away from chamber
Newgrange - materials used
- Stone slabs brought by boat from Co. Louth
- Rolled onto logs+ pulled up earthen ramps
- White quartz came from Co. Wicklow
- Rounded granite from Cooley Peninsula
Portal Dolman - Example
Poulnabrone, Co. Clare
Portal Dolman - Form/structure
- Design based on tripod
- 2 large standing stones + lower back stone support large roof stone posititioned with heavier end above entrance
- Single slabs rest against side + back stones, forming side chamber
Portal Dolman - Function
Above ground burial chamber
Court cairn - Examples
Creevykeel, Co. Sligo
Court cairn - Form/structure
Semi-circular forecourt of upright stones leading to gallery divided into separate chambers surrounded by oval shaped cairn (mound of stones)
Court cairn - Function
Gallery possibly used to serve as tomb & court to accommodate some kind of ritual
Newgrange topics
construction structure purpose location construction techniques materials used
Portal dolman topics
Example,
form/structure,
function
Court cairn topics
example,
form/structure,
function
Decorated Mace Head - Form
- Made of flint
- Circular shaft hole for wooden handle carved through the stone
- Has likeness of human head, with shaft hole representing mouth, two-line spiral representing eyes
Decorated Mace Head - Decoration
- Incised decorative carving.
- Motifs used: single spirals, lozenges, C-shaped twin spiral
Decorated Mace Head - Function
Never intended for use as weapon, rather as ceremonial object
Decorated Mace Head - Location
Knowth, Brú na Bóinne, Co. Meath
Example of a stone age artefact
Decorated Mace Head
Name of people
Neolithic people
Designs
Freehand forms
