New environmental archaeology blog!

A new blog has been established to highlight the work of environmental archaeologists in Ireland. Environmental archaeology is the study of human-environment interactions through the scientific investigation of ancient remains. The remains often derive from archaeological excavations. Environmental archaeologists analyse a wide variety of material, including remains of plants, wood, animals and insects. These analyses reveal what people ate in the past, how they organised their economies, and how people interacted with their local environments and wider landscapes.

The new blog: "Environmental Archaeology in Ireland"

I am an active member of the community of environmental archaeologists in Ireland. Most of us work in the private sector (in companies and as sole traders), and some work in third-level institutions. All of us are enthusiastic about what we do, and we want to share it with a wider audience, so we decided to set up a blog. The blog will showcase interesting discoveries from leading experts in Irish environmental archaeology. This could include insights into the diet of Ireland’s earliest hunter-gatherers, how we deal with enormous datasets, impacts of changing environments during later prehistory, and explorations of identity through the study of exotic medieval foods. The blog will provide readers with an opportunity to meet us and find out what we do. You can ask us questions via the comments section. We hope you follow this new blog and enjoy it!

Follow the new blog at: http://eaireland.blogspot.ie/

Food production in Bronze Age Ireland

The previous blog post focused on a paper I will present at an Agricultural History Society of Ireland (AHSI) conference next month. The paper will investigate archaeobotanical and other evidence for flax in prehistoric northern Europe. As well as the lecture programme, the conference will include several excursions, one of which will be a visit to Navan Fort. During the excursion, Prof. Jim Mallory, Prof. Mike Baillie and I will present results from our research into the archaeology, agriculture and environment of the Navan complex of archaeological sites.

Location of Haughey’s Fort, Co. Armagh within the Navan complex (after Mallory and Lynn 2002)

Emain Macha, the legendary seat of the kings of Ulster, has long been identified with the Navan complex of archaeological activity. This complex comprises more than a dozen prehistoric monuments. The major portion of the Navan complex is anchored between two large enclosures. On the east is Navan Fort, which is defined by a hengiform bank-and-ditch enclosure containing a ring-work and a mound. The main phases of activity at Navan Fort date to the Late Bronze Age to Iron Age. At the eastern base of the drumlin on which the enclosure is located lies Loughnashade, a small lake from whose marshy edge four large Iron Age horns were recovered. The western monument is Haughey’s Fort, a trivallate Late Bronze Age hillfort whose elliptical shape has a maximum diameter of c. 340m. Nearby is the King’s Stables, a Late Bronze Age artificial pool from which both animal and human remains have been recovered. Many of the archaeological remains within the Navan complex appear to represent ritual behaviour rather than secular occupation, assuming that such a distinction can be made. The only possible settlement site is Haughey’s Fort. At the AHSI excursion, I will talk about my work on the plant remains recovered from excavations at Haughey’s Fort (McClatchie 2014).

A large assemblage of cereal grains was found at Haughey’s Fort. Naked barley was the dominant cereal, with occasional evidence for hulled barley, possible emmer wheat and possible naked wheat. Naked barley is often the dominant cereal at Late Bronze Age sites in Ireland, but it fell out of favour over the following millennia. Hulled barley is the type of barley that is most often grown in modern-day Ireland.

It appears that the cereal deposits from Haughey’s Fort were at a relatively late stage of processing. Most ‘contaminants’, such as arable weed seeds and cereal chaff, had been removed, and the crop was largely ready for consumption. When I examined the arable seeds that remained, I found that they reflected diverse ecological environments, with both mildly acidic and slightly calcareous environments represented, as well as wet and free-draining sediments. It is possible that this mixed weed assemblage from Haughey’s Fort represents crops harvested from a variety of environments or farms, perhaps representing the labours of different communities and signalling the bringing together of crops to a centralised location. The hillfort may therefore have functioned as a storage or distribution centre, or perhaps an assembly location where large-scale consumption, such as feasting, took place.

Further results from my work on the Haughey’s Fort plant remains can be found in the McClatchie 2014 paper. The conference, “Farming and local economies today and yesteryear in north-eastern Ireland”, will take place from 5^th to 7^th June 2015 in Armagh, Northern Ireland. For further information on the conference, see here.

Reference 

Mallory JP, Lynn CJ (2002) Recent excavations and speculations on the Navan complex. Antiquity 76, 532-541.

McClatchie M (2014) Food production in the Bronze Age: analysis of plant macro-remains from Haughey's Fort, Co. Armagh. Emania 22, 33-48.

Preparing a conference paper: Flax in prehistoric northern Europe

I am currently preparing a paper that I will present at an Agricultural History Society of Ireland (AHSI) conference in June. The title of my paper will be “Flax in prehistoric northern Europe: insights from archaeobotany”. I always enjoy participating in AHSI conferences because they attract people from a great variety of backgrounds.

The AHSI is open to all people with an interest in the history of agriculture and food in Ireland. Their website notes that current members include historians, farmers, archaeologists, palaeoecologists, agricultural advisers and specialists, as well as students and the interested public. By bringing together such a variety of people, the AHSI conferences often encourage me to look at ancient farming in new ways, highlighting traditional practices that I had not previously encountered or considered.

My paper will examine archaeobotanical evidence for flax in prehistoric northern Europe. Flax was one of the first cultivated crops to be introduced into Ireland during the Neolithic period, along with wheat and barley (McClatchie et al. 2014). Flax is what we might call a ‘multi-functional’ plant. Linen textiles can be produced through the retting of flax stalks, oil from the crushed seeds can be used in cooking, lighting and other activities, and flax leaves provide useful fodder.

One of the earliest and largest prehistoric flax assemblages ever found in Ireland was recorded at Tullahedy, Co. Tipperary (McClatchie 2011), where a Neolithic enclosure with associated settlement was discovered during road construction works (Cleary and Kelleher 2011). The site at Tullahedy was located on an esker. The surviving remains of the enclosure consisted of a palisade on two sides, with stretches of mire and open water surrounding the esker and forming a natural barrier or enclosing feature elsewhere. The main settlement evidence comprised three Neolithic structures (possible houses) with associated hearths. Neolithic pits and hearths were recorded in the vicinity of all three houses, and many further pits were located nearby. Later during the Neolithic, deep layers of glacial till were deposited onto the lower slopes of the mound. There are also indications of use of the mound in historic times.

Many Neolithic artefacts were uncovered during the excavation, including polished stone axe-heads, arrowheads, scrapers and pottery sherds. Some of the artefacts reflect imported goods, such as exotic axe-heads and non-locally produced pottery. The excavators suggest that Tullahedy functioned as an exchange centre, connected to the trading of resources including crops, raw materials, craft produce and perhaps people (Cleary and Kelleher 2011).

Tullahedy is an unusual and important Neolithic site in Ireland due to its large size, relatively unusual architectural arrangement, and quantity and variety of artefacts and crops. More than 40 charred seeds of flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) were recorded in Neolithic deposits at Tullahedy, which again is unusual, because oily seeds such as flax are relatively rare in the archaeological record. What was happening at Tullahedy that produced such a large quantity of flax remains?

The answer may be related to perceptions of identity in Neolithic Ireland. Social and cultural differentiation may have been marked by clothing during this period. Textile production would have enabled the creation of garments to signal how individuals were placed in society, as well as symbolising changes in their status (Sørensen 1997). Textiles from plants such as flax may have helped individuals, therefore, to create and maintain social distinction. At a morphologically unusual and artefact-rich site like Tullahedy, such symbolism may have been particularly important.

The evidence from Tullahedy is just one of the examples that I will highlight during my paper at the AHSI conference. The conference, “Farming and local economies today and yesteryear in north-eastern Ireland”, will take place from 5^th to 7^th June 2015 in Armagh, Northern Ireland. For further information on the conference, see here.

You can purchase the excellent book on the Tullahedy excavations here.

References

Cleary RM, Kelleher H (2011) Archaeological excavations at Tullahedy, County Tipperary: Neolithic settlement in North Munster. Cork: Collins Press.

McClatchie M (2011) Analysis of non-wood plant macro-remains. In: RM Cleary, H Kelleher, Archaeological excavations at Tullahedy, County Tipperary: Neolithic settlement in North Munster, pp.162-185. Cork: Collins Press.

McClatchie M, Bogaard A, Colledge S, Whitehouse N, Schulting R, Barratt P, McLaughlin R (2014) Neolithic farming in north-western Europe: archaeobotanical evidence from Ireland. Journal of Archaeological Science 51: 206-215.

Sørensen MLS (1997) Reading dress: the construction of social categories and identities in Bronze Age Europe. Journal of European Archaeology 5(1): 93-114.

Food in an early Irish monastery

A beautiful new volume details the results of excavations at the early medieval monastery of High Island, off the west coast of Co. Galway, Ireland (Scally 2014). Ancient remains of many stone structures have survived quite well here because the island is hard to access and has long been uninhabited. Over the years, the monastery has fallen into a ruinous state. The excavations, directed by Georgina Scally, took place between 1995 and 2002 in conjunction with extensive conservation works carried out by the National Monuments Service. Just under half of the area within the monastic enclosure was excavated. Stone-built domestic huts were identified around the church, and other remains included stone structures, graves, extensive paved areas, and elaborate drainage and water collection features. As well as the excavation results, the volume contains contributions from many experts on associated historic sources, artefacts, burials and environmental remains. I wrote a section on the plant remains recovered from the excavations (McClatchie 2014), revealing the types of foods that were eaten at the monastery.

Charred plant remains were present in several areas at High Island: in the vicinity of the domestic huts and the extended monastic enclosure, as well as around the church and other areas. Barley was the predominant cereal type (mainly six-row hulled barley), with oat also present. These crops were used by the island’s inhabitants over several centuries, during occupation of the monastery (AD eighth to late-twelfth/early-thirteenth century) and re-occupation of the island after the decline of the monastery (late-twelfth/early-thirteenth to mid-fifteenth century). The presence of an ancient horizontal water-mill outside the monastic enclosure at High Island underlines the importance of cereals at this location; the water-mill would have enabled large-scale processing of cereals. Cereals may also have been processed on a smaller scale using the rotary-quern and dished grinding-stones that were found.

 

The predominance of barley and oat at High Island reflects a more general trend that can be detected at other early medieval sites throughout Ireland, AD 400-1150 (McCormick et al. 2014). During the earlier part of the medieval period (post-AD 1150), barley and oat continued to be important, particularly in areas beyond Anglo-Norman control (McClatchie 2003). The cultivation of barley is relatively low-risk, as barley will yield at least part of its crop even after a poor season. Barley will also grow equally well on light and heavy soils. Oat is well suited to the humid and wet Irish climate, and will tolerate poorer soils that may have discouraged the cultivation of other cereal types.

Barley

A previous blog entry explored how oat was used to produce a variety of foods and drinks. What was barley used for? In modern times, barley is often grown for brewing, and it is possible that brewing was being carried out at the High Island monastery. But the absence of grains that displayed signs of malting (malted grains can often be identified by the presence of a 'sprouted' embryo) means that the barley here may have been used in other products. Documentary sources of the early medieval period regularly list bread as one of the main foods consumed in monastic diets, and where cereal type is mentioned, the bread is often made of barley (Kelly 1997; Sexton 1998; Murray et al. 2004). Barley flour produces a coarse, dense loaf, in keeping with the penitential existence associated with monasteries. Tigernach of Clones, Co. Monaghan, for example, is said to have lived exclusively on barley bread, water-cress and hot water (Kelly 1997). Documentary sources were often concerned with issues of fasting and dietary penance, and it is possible that extreme eating regimes, like Tigernach’s mentioned above, were not continually observed at all monasteries (Murray et al. 2004). But the importance of barley in the monastic diet, as noted in the early documentary sources, is supported by the archaeobotanical evidence from High Island.

For further reading on the High Island plant remains and archaeology, you can purchase the newly published volume here.

References

Kelly F (1997) Early Irish farming: a study based mainly on the law-texts of the 7th and 8^th centuries AD. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

McClatchie M (2003) Section 12: the plant remains. In: RM Cleary, MF Hurley (eds), Cork city excavations 1984-2000, pp 391-413. Cork: Cork City Council.

McClatchie M (2014) Non-wood plant macro-remains. In: G Scally, High Island (Ardoileán), Co. Galway: excavation of an early medieval monastery, pp. 261-269. Archaeological Monograph Series: 10. Dublin: Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

McCormick F, Kerr TR, McClatchie M, O'Sullivan A (2014) Early medieval agriculture,livestock and cereal production in Ireland, AD 400-1100. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 2647. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Murray E, McCormick F. Plunkett G (2004) The food economies of Atlantic island monasteries: the documentary and archaeo-environmental evidence. Environmental Archaeology 9(2): 179-188.

Scally G (2014) High Island (Ardoileán), Co. Galway: excavation of an early medieval monastery. Archaeological Monograph Series: 10. Dublin: Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

Sexton R (1998) Porridges, gruels and breads: the cereal foodstuffs of Early Medieval Ireland. In: MA Monk, J Sheehan (eds), Early Medieval Munster: archaeology, history and society, pp 76-86. Cork: Cork University Press.