scholarly journals Neolithic ‘Celtic’ Fields? A Reinterpretation of the Chronological Evidence from Céide Fields in North-western Ireland

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Whitefield
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
County Mayo ◽  
Western Ireland ◽  
North Western ◽  
Age Disparity

It has long been claimed that the coaxial stone boundaries of Céide Fields, County Mayo, are a phenomenon of the Irish Early Neolithic — analogous to later prehistoric ‘Celtic’ fields in all but age. This study argues that the age disparity is an artefact of the research methods, and that the age of the main Céide Fields complex has been overestimated by as much as two-and-a-half millennia.

scholarly journals Long-term human impact and environmental change in mid-western Ireland, with particular reference to Céide Fields – an overview

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael O'Connell ◽  
Karen Molloy ◽  
Eneda Jennings
Keyword(s):  
Published Data ◽  
Deep Basin ◽  
Field System ◽  
Stone Wall ◽  
Blanket Bog ◽  
History Of ◽  
Early Farming ◽  
County Mayo ◽  
Western Ireland

Abstract. This paper presents new palaeoecological data from north County Mayo (Co. Mayo), western Ireland, and reviews published data with a view to achieving a better understanding of the timing and nature of early farming in the region, its impact on the natural environment, and the factors, including climate change, that influenced mid- and late-Holocene vegetation dynamics and farming in the region. A long pollen profile from Glenulra, a deep basin situated within Céide Fields, and short profiles from blanket peat that overlies the prehistoric stone-wall field system provide unambiguous evidence for substantial farming, including widespread woodland clearance, in the early British and Irish Neolithic (beginning ca. 3800 BCE). This was followed by a distinct lull that lasted several centuries until farming activity resumed again, at first modestly (at ca. 2700 BCE) and then more markedly from 2350 BCE, i.e. at the Neolithic–Chalcolithic transition. It is argued on the basis of this and other palaeoecological evidence, including pollen analytical investigations at nearby Garrynagran, that, contrary to recent suggestions, there is no reason to doubt the widely held view that the stone-wall field system – unique in a western European Neolithic context – is correctly ascribable to the earlier part of the British and Irish Neolithic. The history of pine growing in bog contexts (mainly blanket bog) in the region is considered in the light of 14C dates derived from pine timbers, and the results of dendrochronological investigations at Garrynagran that have enabled two floating pine chronologies to be constructed, are presented. The climatic implications of these data are discussed within local and wider regional contexts.

scholarly journals Bax and the ‘Celtic North’

2013 ◽  
pp. 51-87
Author(s):  
Aidan J. Thomson
Keyword(s):  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
The South ◽  
Musical Engagement ◽  
Literary Revival ◽  
Irish Literary Revival ◽  
Celtic Mythology ◽  
Western Ireland ◽  
Arnold Bax ◽  
North Western

Scholars of Arnold Bax have long acknowledged the influence of the Irish Literary Revival on the composer’s compositional output up to about 1920, of Sibelius from the late 1920s onwards, and of the continuity of styles between these two periods. In this article I argue that this continuity relies on what Bax draws from early Yeats, which is less Celtic mythology or folklore than a particular way of imagining nature; that Bax’s use as a compositional stimulus of what he called the ‘Celtic North’ (essentially the landscapes of western Ireland and north-western Scotland) had parallels in the literature and art of 1920s Ireland; and that the ‘Celtic North’ offers a means of critiquing inter-war English pastoralism, which has traditionally been associated with what Alun Howkins, after Hilaire Belloc, has called the ‘South Country’. Bax thus offers a musical engagement with nature that is essentially dystopian, sublime and (within the discourse of British pastoralism) non-Anglo Saxon.

scholarly journals Early Neolithic Agriculture in County Mayo, Republic of Ireland: Geoarchaeology of the Céide Fields, Belderrig, and Rathlackan

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (30) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika B. Guttmann-Bond ◽  
Jennifer A.J. Dungait ◽  
Alex Brown ◽  
Ian D. Bull ◽  
Richard P. Evershed
Keyword(s):  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Republic Of Ireland ◽  
Neolithic Agriculture ◽  
County Mayo

scholarly journals The Early Neolithic pottery of Keçiçayiri and its place in the North-western Anatolian Neolithisation process

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 138-156
Author(s):  
Deniz Sari ◽  
Semsettin Akyol
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Mountainous Area ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
The North ◽  
North Western

The region of Inner North-western Anatolia was a key node in the transmission of the Neolithic lifestyle from the Near East to Marmara, and from there to the Balkans and the rest of Europe. It formed the intersection between several important routes and trade networks, and the settlement of Keçiçayırı, the subject of this paper, had an essential role in the transfer of cultural elements during the Neolithic. The settlement is located on a natural communication route that connects the region of Emirdag-Bolvadin with Eskisehir across the mountainous area of Phrygia, between the distribution areas of the Hacılar and Fikirtepe cultural groups. Finds from the site include both Pre-Pottery Neolithic material and Early Neolithic ceramics, and it is therefore among the earliest permanent settlements of the Eskisehir region, and contains some of the earliest evidence for the Neolithisation process. In this paper, the pottery assemblage of the Early Neolithic settlement at Keçiçayırı is discussed, and its place in the spread of Neolithisation from the Near East to Northwestern Anatolia is evaluated when compared to other known sites.

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