PAGAN CELTIC IRELAND, Barry Raftery, Thames and Hudson, London,
1997

This survey of Irish archaeology begins with a preface on page seven
containing thanks to the author's family, including his father,
Joseph, and references to dating.

Chapter One, "Introduction" (pp. 9-16), starts by recalling the
Celtic attack on Rome in 387 BCE, the earlier Hallstatt development
and use of iron, then the La Tene intrusion into the Classical world
and the flamboyant impression the Celts made on southerners leaving
written records:

   Thus they appear to be fearsome yet naive, courageous yet
   foolhardy, vain, deeply religious and with a well-defined social
   hierarchy. p. 10

Classical authors such as Diodorus, the elder Cato, Athanaeus and
Caesar are quoted for Celtic heroic individual combat, skill on
horseback and prodigious oral command of language. Archaeological
remains testify to La Tene artistic skill in metal working. There's
a look at Roman expansion and Irish literature for its depiction of
Iron Age culture.

Chapter Two, "From Bronzesmith to Blacksmith" (pp. 17-37), begins
with Irish contact with Britain, France, Germany, the Baltic and
possibly Iberia in the early First Millennium BCE, the importation
of amber and the skill of Irish bronze and gold smiths. It looks at
the forested and marshy land, and the wild life: red deer, wild pig,
wolf, otter, etc.

   The country was probably tolerably well settled at this time and
   population was doubtless on the increase. A network of routeways
   by now existed, hacked through the forest and extending along
   river valleys and natural ridges. To traverse the endless bogs,
   trackways of varying type (sometimes of quite considerable
   sophistication) were laid down. These were of branches, hewn oak
   planks or carefully woven brushwood rods cut from coppiced hazel
   stands. The tracks were sometimes several kilometres in length
   and provided local links in a chain of communications which were
   spreading tentacle-like across the country. p. 18

Scattered family dwellings seem the norm, though crannogs (lakeside
abodes with platforms and fences) enclosed settlements on dry land
and defended hilltops are evidenced. Horses, cows and dogs were
known. Block wheels, canoes and two metres long oars survive. There
were bronze tools and "breathtaking" (p. 23) goldwork. More than six
hundred swords remain. Some one hundred and fifty hoards have been
discovered, including one half a mile from Navan Fort and the "Great
Clare Hoard" (p. 25).

The spread of iron from Hallstatt to the British Isles (early sites
include Wiltshire, Cambridgeshire, Glamorgan and along the Irish
rivers Shannon and Bann) is outlined. Some fifty early Hallstatt
Irish swords, distinct in type from contemporary British swords,
survive. Two transitional axe heads and other early iron artefacts
are adduced. The site at Rathtinaun in Sligo, excavated by Joseph
Raftery from 1952 to 1955, is described. Among the remains were
"bronze tweezers... a necklace of amber beads, rings of bronze, of
pure tin and three of lead with gold-foil cover... a bronze pin and
six boar's tusks" and of iron "a fork-like implement" another item
that may be a "sickle" and an "axehead" (p. 34). Climatic changes
are among speculated causes for the termination of the incipient
Hallstatt period in Ireland and a suggested time of "insular
isolation" (p. 37)

Chapter Three, "Hillforts" (pp. 38-63), begins by distinguishing
these from historical ringforts, estimating between sixty and eighty
hillforts and describing four classes of them: with one line of
defense, with multivallite lines of defense, those built on island
promontories and those constructed on coastal promontories. Some are
seen as temporary places of refuge, others as more permanent
habitations. The assumption that these structures were purely
defensive is complemented by concepts of communal assembly,
commerce, political activity, pilgrimmage and diplomacy. There is
consideration of excavations at Haughey's Fort in Armagh, Rathgall
in Wicklow and Firestone Hill in Kilkenny. There is little
indication in hitherto excavated sites to indicate Iron Age
settlement. Among others the impressive Spinans Hill complex,
enclosing 132 ha, is mentioned.

Chapter Four, "King and Tribe" (pp. 64-97), begins with "Tara,
Cruachan, Dun Ailinne and Emain Macha." (p. 64) Mentioned are: the
continuing prestige of Tara, the lengthy poetic treatment in the
Eleventh Century Dindshenchas, the early Nineteenth Century
correlations made by George Petrie and the modern enumeration of
almost forty sites at Tara:

   Tara is thus a site of considerable antiquity. It was an
   important burial place in the Neolithic and earlier Bronze Ages,
   and two magnificent gold torcs from the hill now in the National
   Museum -- dating to the end of the second millennium BC --
   demonstrate the continuing significance of Tara into the later
   Bronze Age. It may very well be, however, that a majority of the
   earthworks on the ridge belong to the Iron Age. The preponderance
   of mounds and barrows, the internally ditched enclosure of Rath
   na Riogh, the parallel banks and the Lia Fail, seem all to
   emphasize the overwhelmingly non-secular character of the site.
   pp. 69-70

Cruachan near Tulsk in Roscommon has been little excavated. Dun
Ailinne in Kildare was excavated "between 1968 and 1975" (p. 72)
revealing occupation radiocarbon dated to the period c. 390 BCE -
320 CE.

Emain Macha (Navan Fort), excavated in 1963 and from 1965 to 1972,
was occupied from Neolithic times and reached its height in Phase
Four with a large (thirty seven metres in diametre) circular
structure dated dendrochronologically (including from some of the
stump of the central oaken pillar) to 95/94 BCE. The trunk of the
possibly enclosed tree was 55 cm in diametre and the tree may have
stood thirteen metres high. This structure is thought to have had a
spiritual purpose and Maxentius of Tyre is cited for the Celtic
image of Zeus being a great oak.

Other prominent structures are considered, especially those
associated with prehistoric burials: Knockbrack in County Dublin,
Cornashee in Fermanagh and Raffin in Meath. The reader is cautioned
against too great a reliance on Irish "poetic" (p. 80) traditional
accounts and even historical reports, such as the pagan horse
sacrifice in Geraldis Cambrensis based on hearsay and political
motivation. There is reference to popular assemblies possibly
originating as funeral games. Inauguration sites and inauguration
trees (biles) are mentioned. Linear earthworks, their impression on
an early Nineteenth Century antiquarian, some speculated purposes
(defensive, as impediments to large cattle raids, etc.) their
various datings (Fifth Century CE or more recent for Dane's Cast in
Down, 490-90 BCE for Black Pig's Dyke in County Monaghan, 350-30 BCE
for the Dun of Drumsna in Roscommon and, by dendrochronology, 95 BCE
plus or minus nine years for the Dorsey in Armagh) complete the
chapter.

Chapter Five, "The Road to God Knows Where" (pp. 98-111), begins by
quoting the passage from the Wooing of Etain describing Midir's folk
building a road through an impassable bog and proceeds to describe
the road over the Corlea Bog in Longford dated by dendrochronology
to 148 BCE. The project is estimated to have involved the cutting of
some five hundred trees, birches for the substructure and planks of
oak (a fifth of a metre thick, two thirds of a metre wide and three
to four metres long) fastened to the substructure where necessary by
some five thousand pegs. The roadway covered some two kilometres of
bog.

Beyond these timbers and other remains from the bog (an ash board,
wooden mallet, possible cart frame, etc.) providing evidence of
Irish skill at carpentry, the wider question of the function and
significance of the road is raised, though it is admitted that such
theories as its connection to Cruachan, some twenty five kilometres
away, are wholly speculative. Speculative also remains the chariot,
although:

   A vehicle of this type, almost entirely made of wood and
   apparently with few metal fittings, would have little or no
   chance of survival except in wetland sites. Its virtual absence
   from the Irish archaeological record is not, therefore, an
   indication that it never existed. p. 106

Bridle-bits, nearly one hundred and forty of which have been found,
are discussed and y-shaped pendants. The chapter closes with mention
of water transport: canoes (one has been found from the period),
perishable coracles and ships (a gold model of one for eighteen
oarsmen was found in Derry).

Chapter Six, "The Invisible People" (pp. 112-146), begins by stating
the unrepresentative survival of evidence of the numerically
inferior upper classes and the hitherto near absence of indications
of the majority of the population. This includes Iron Age pottery,
leading to thoughts of the prevalence of wooden vessels, etc. The
use of various trees is raised: alder for shields and wheels, ash
for spearshafts, hazel and willow for baskets and fishtraps, etc.
Then comes the skill of Irish carpenters and the efficacy of their
instruments. There are scant survivals of textiles, leatherwork and
bone, including a bone gaming piece from Meath.

Pollen studies suggest a decrease in agricultural production from
the Bronze Age. One iron sickle was found in Antrim and some two
hundred querns have been excavated, though not in the southernmost
third of the island. A controversy concerning the prevalence of
dairy cattle in contrast to beef is noted.

Two mirrors have been found and shears, possibly for human hair.
Literary sources refer to the use of lime in hair. Most torques
appear to be imports. There are fibulae, brooches, etc. As to
warriors, only one helmet, speculated to be for ritual, no slings,
thirty short swords (37 to 46 cm long p. 141), eight partial
scabbards, nearly fifty "knobbed spearbutts" (p. 144), a bronze
shield boss and an alder and leather shield ("57 by 35 cm" p. 146)
have been found.

Chapter Seven, "Technology and Art" (pp. 147-177), begins with the
role of the Celts in European iron use, the paucity of iron remains
from Iron Age Ireland and the importance of Brian Scott's study of
iron work in Ireland. There is mention of sources (bogs and
mountains) and method, including heating to 1100 or 1200 degrees,
specialist tools, the continuation of expertise by Irish
bronzesmiths into the new metal, the survival of more Iron Age
bronze than iron and methods of bronze making, including cire
perdue. Some bronze finds are described, enamel, red only surviving
from the early La Tene, and repair, usually patching by rivetting.

Then comes a look at gold working (what little survives is of
impressive craftsmanship), stone work (some high quality work) and
curvilinear La Tene style.

   La Tene art is an art of power and imagination which was lavished
   above all on high-staus objects of metal. It is an art of waves
   and tendrils, scrolls and spirals which twist and turn with
   restless, sinuous grace across the surface to be adorned. It may
   be in two dimensions or in the round. Designs are often conceived
   to convey deliberate, contrived tension between symmetry and
   asymmetry and shapes constantly change as first one element of
   the design then another is allowed to take prominence in the eye
   of the beholder. It is an art of the oakwoods with a constant
   flickering interplay between light and shadow. p. 163

Chapter Eight, "Cult, Ritual and Death" (pp. 178-199), begins with
Celtic spirituality, the pervasive presence of the divine, nature
spirits (in rivers, springs, lakes, forests, bogs, caves and on
mountain tops), tribal deities and trans-tribal deities (Cernunos,
Lugh, etc), the druidic order and the importance of divination. It
underlines the uncovering by archaeology of artefacts and the
speculative nature of opinions concerning the function and purpose
of what the archaeologist finds.

There is a look again at hilltop enclosures, burial mounds,
monoliths and deposits in bogs, rivers and lakes. Then comes
representation of the head, Celtic perception of the head as the
location of personality and soul. There follow wooden figures, the
five metre long perhaps human shaped log at Corlea, Lucan's
reference to a grove with divine images, wooden figures in
Scandanavia and Germany, bog bodies and the variety of burial
practices, including cremation. Remains examined are largely of
younger people, adults being on average in their twenties.

Chapter Nine, "Beyond the Empire" (pp. 200-219), begins with the
possible arrival of some survivors of the Brigantes' Revolt to the
island of Lambay, with references to Ireland in such Classical
writings as Ptolemy's, with Solinus (mid 3rd Century CE) for the
first references to Ireland being devoid of snakes. Tacitus is cited
for trade between Ireland and merchants from the Empire. A burial at
Stonyford, Kilkenny suggests a possible Roman trading post. Roman
coins, boat remains displaying Mediterranean influence, foreign
inhumations, including at New Grange and Tara, are mentioned.
Speculations attend coins and silver ingots. Among other
explanations are that such items could represent Imperial payment to
Irish auxiliaries in Rome's service. An oculist's stamp and a
reference in Juvenal to Roman arms in Britain, the Orkneys and
Ireland lead some to speculate there may have been unsuccessful
Roman soldiers in Ireland.

Chapter Ten, "Celts, Culture and Colonization" (pp. 220-228),
introduces the archaeological and literary record of the Iron Age on
the European continent, the scantier testimony for Iron Age Ireland,
the introduction of Iron Age technology from outside Ireland, the
broad topic of La Tene culture in Ireland, including the near
absence of La Tene artefacts from the south, the entry of the Celts
to the island and the paucity of archaeological evidence with which
to substantiate a large scale Celtic migration or conquest.

   Archaeology presents us with a perplexing picture, one that is
   largely at variance with that presented by philology, early Irish
   history, folklore and tradition. It seems almost heretical to
   insist that a Celtic invasion of Ireland never happened. In this
   regard, however, the archaeologist should bear in mind the
   deficiencies of his discipline. Perhaps, as in the field of
   religion, he should adopt a stance akin to that of the agnostics
   rather than one of outright atheism. Perhaps there was, indeed, a
   migration of 'Celts' to Ireland. The only problem is, archaeology
   cannot prove it. p. 228

There is an appendix on radiocarbon dates, notes, bibliography and
index. The volume is also extensively illustrated with numerous
sketches and many fine plates. This book is highly recommended.

Michael McKenny June 2, 2003 C.E.


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