Top Ten Sites of the Celtic Tiger

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    current archaeology|www.archaeology.co.uk

    IRELAND Celtic Tiger archaeology

    October 2010|

    imagine also that these excavations were fiercely

    regulated to control their quality. This sounds like

    an archaeo-utopia: but for a short time it existed.

    This was Irelands Celtic Tiger archaeology.

    Current Archaeology last published a special

    issue on Irish archaeology in September 1970 (CA

    22). The sites reported on then by Andrew Selkirk

    (Knowth, Newgrange, Navan Fort and Ballyglass)

    remained state-of-the-art for the following 30

    12

    When the Celtic Tiger

    During the Celtic Tiger economic boom, Ireland experienced a period ofprosperity which led to an unprecedented golden age for commercialarchaeology. In a four-part series, Brendon Wilkins examines the top sites,

    finds and controversies that defined over a decade of discovery.

    the golden years of commercialarchaeology in Ireland

    Imagine a place where the term million-

    aire archaeologist would not sound

    ridiculous, and where young archae-

    ology students could look forward to

    excellent career prospects with salaries

    equivalent to any other profession.

    Imagine hundreds of excavations up and down

    the country crying out for help, willing to pay

    handsomely, even for inexperienced diggers;PHOTO:HeadlandArchaeology(Ireland)Ltd

    ABOVE Frosty morning:looking south on the N9/N10 motorway projectat Russellstown, CountyCarlow.

    When the Celtic Tiger

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    war reconstruction boom happened long before

    such restrictions were commonplace.

    Weighing up the legacy of the Celtic Tiger eco-

    nomic boom, it is clear that it was a golden age for

    archaeologists; however, was it also a golden age

    for archaeology? And, what insight does that giveus into how archaeology is practised in the UK?

    Rumsfeldian archaeology

    The majority of archaeologists in both Britain

    and Ireland are employed to work on develop-

    ment-led (commercial) projects. Embedding

    archaeology in the planning process has been

    called Rumsfeldian Archaeology, because it is

    best explained by a somewhat mystifying speech

    given by the former US Secretary of State for

    Defence, Donald Rumsfeld:

    As we know,

    There are known knowns.

    There are things we know we know.

    We also know

    There are known unknowns.

    That is to say

    We know there are some things

    We do not know.

    But there are also unknown unknowns,

    The ones we dont know

    We dont know.12 February 2002,

    Department of Defence news briefing

    In both Britain and Ireland, large-scale devel-

    opments are preceded by an impact assessment

    where archaeological remains are a material con-

    sideration (the known knowns). In the case of

    road schemes, these known sites are avoided, and

    a desk-based study of maps, documents and other

    non-invasive techniques is used to assess the land

    adjacent to these sites: the known unknowns. If

    these have archaeological potential, test-trencheswill be excavated to evaluate whether full excava-

    tion should proceed.

    In Ireland, these trenches are not just focused

    around known areas of potential. The entire road

    corridor is comprehensively tested, with a centre-

    line trench running from start to finish, designed

    to find the unknown unknowns; sites that would

    otherwise fall through the net. This represents

    a considerable investment in the front end of

    archaeological works prior to construction, com-

    pared to Britain where a much smaller percentage

    of the road corridor is tested.

    Archaeologists have never quite shared in soci-

    etys wealth, no matter how successful the wider

    economy. In Ireland, however, the archaeology

    boom was fuelled by longer-term trends: gen-

    erous European structural funding, attractive taxincentives and, crucially for archaeology, a com-

    prehensive National Development Plan designed

    to fix the countrys inadequate infrastructure.

    With an annual budget of 1.5bn, the road

    building programme in Ireland initiated some

    of the largest infrastructure archaeology projects

    undertaken anywhere in the world. Irish archae-

    ology benefitted significantly from this unprec-

    edented investment, underwritten by a cast-iron

    legal framework designed to protect the historic

    environment from development impact a situ-

    ation that differed from Britain, where the post-

    current archaeology|www.archaeology.co.uk

    IRELAND Celtic Tiger archaeology

    October 2010|14

    ABOVE Todays news,tomorrows chip paper:whenever archaeologyis in the news in the UK,it is a positive story; in

    contrast, during the CelticTiger, archaeology madeheadlines in Ireland for allthe wrong reasons.

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    resourced; not so much preservation by record

    as destruction in denial. But they may respond

    by citing the law of diminishing returns, insisting

    that the sampling approach is more cost-effective

    and a better way of filtering out the irrelevant,

    compared to the indiscriminate information-gathering of the Irish model. Is it precisely this

    indiscriminate approach, however, that safe-

    guards archaeology from commercial pressure?

    Students of excavation theory will recognise an

    echo in this debate that harks back to the foun-

    dations of archaeology as a scientific discipline:

    General Pitt-Rivers believed everything should be

    recorded, irrespective of perceived significance,

    because fresh problems in archaeologyare con-

    stantly arising; while Flinders Petrie advocated a

    discriminatory approach because the excavator

    does not find anything he does not look for.But this does not explain how these different

    methods were adopted in Britain and Ireland. For

    that, we must look back to see how commercial

    archaeology evolved in each country.

    Ground Zero

    Commercial archaeology in the UK is a legacy of

    the Rescue Revolution a reaction to post-war

    current archaeology|www.archaeology.co.uk

    IRELAND Celtic Tiger archaeology

    October 2010|16

    Nowhere were these tactics more apparent than during the

    excavations on the M3 as it passed through the Tara-Skryne valley in

    Co. Meath. The Hill of Tara is a complex of earthworks dating from the

    Neolithic to the early Medieval period, and according to tradition was

    the seat of the High King of Ireland. The distance between the new

    motorway and the exact site of the hill is 2.2 km (1.37 miles), and the

    preferred route was selected from a number of different options, all of

    which attempted to steer clear of known archaeological sites.

    Nevertheless, in such a rich archaeological landscape it was inevitable

    that entirely new sites would be unearthed, and when a highly significant

    Iron Age enclosure was discovered at Lismullin, the excavation rekindled

    debate in the media on the proposed route. The site was seized upon by

    pressure groups opposed to development, and the motorway

    was widely reported as being built through the hill of Tara. The

    perception at home and abroad was that Ireland was riding

    roughshod over its past, blatantly bulldozing one of its most iconic

    monuments. Public opinion was polarised, and commercial field

    archaeologists, engaged by the NRA, were caught in the crossfire.The fiercest critics of Celtic Tiger archaeology object on

    principle. Condemning the development at all costs agenda, the

    Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney criticised modern day Irelands

    pursuit of the secular above the sacred. In an interview with

    the BBC in March 2008, he said, If ever there was a place that

    deserved to be preserved in the name of the dead generations

    from pre-historic times up to historic times up to completely

    recently it was Tara. His call to arms was echoed by Jonathan

    LEFT The Hill of Tara ceremonial complex. The new motorwayis further away from the monument than the existing roadway,

    shown at the bottom of the photo.

    treated as potentially unique,

    requiring 100% excavation

    and preservation by record.

    A legal framework under-

    writes all decisions that

    may potentially impact on

    the archaeological heritage,and any proposed develop-

    ment must be preceded by full

    excavation of all sites and features.

    But, digging larger quantities means larger

    costs. If this is undertaken in the public interest,

    one has to ask: does digging more equal value

    for money? Who does it better, the British or

    the Irish? Initially, it appears the British are the

    losers, with excavations understaffed and under-

    ABOVE This stoneartefact, broken duringmanufacture and thenreused probably as afishing weight, was foundadjacent to the BronzeAge trackway at Site 34,Newrath.

    PHOTO:He

    adlnadArchaeology(Ireland)Ltd

    PHO

    TO:MichaelFox/Knowth.c

    om

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    current archaeology|www.archaeology.co.uk

    IRELAND Prehistoric wetland archaeology

    November 2010|

    On a misty morning 8,000 years

    ago, two young women pushed

    their way through the head-

    high reeds of a tidal estuary, 6m

    below the busy streets of what

    is now modern Dublin. As they

    stepped onto the shifting mud flats, their baskets,

    wattle work and fishing ground came into view,

    and they could see, even from this distance, that

    it had been a bountiful evening.

    They belonged to the period known as the

    Mesolithic, and were the first people known to

    36

    From ancientwaterways

    to modernhighways

    As Irelands land-hungry Celtic Tiger economicboom targeted wetland landscapes oncethought too boggy for modern development,it became clear these sites had been home tovibrant prehistoric communities, settled alongwhat would have been ancient thoroughfares.Brendon Wilkins explains the evidence.

    Irelandsprehistoricbeginnings

    PHOTO:HeadlandArchaeologyLtd.

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    www.archaeology.co.uk|current archaeology|Issue 248 37

    microbacterial decay are slowed to a halt. In late

    2004, Melanie McQuade, a Site Director for Mar-

    garet Gowen and Co., excavated just such a site.

    Mesolithic Fisher-Foragers

    During routine archaeological monitoring

    development works at North Wall Quay in Dub-

    lins Docklands, McQuade and her team found

    the remarkably preserved remains of seven Late

    Mesolithic fish traps dating to between 6100 and

    5700 BC. These are the earliest securely dated

    have lived in Ireland, between 8000 and 4000 BC

    (there is as yet no evidence for Palaeolithic occu-

    pation in Ireland). The majority of artefacts were

    organic and perishable, rarely surviving the life-

    time of the people who made them. But it is not

    just the durability of the artefacts or activities that

    take place on a site that determines how much

    is found. What survives is also a product of the

    burial environment, which on some lucky occa-

    sions can be exceptionally favourable to archaeo-

    logical remains: either because it is waterlogged,

    frozen, or so dry that the natural processes of

    ABOVEPre-excavationshot of the multi-periodPrumplestown Lower site.The Early Bronze Age pitcircle is visible at centre.

    IRELAND

    Granny

    Dublin

    Prumplestown

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    current archaeology|www.archaeology.co.uk

    IRELAND Prehistoric wetland archaeology

    November 2010|

    fish traps in Ireland or the UK, and are also someof the earliest examples recorded in Europe. Wet

    boggy sites adjacent to rivers known as estua-

    rine and alluvial wetlands provide a wealth

    of scientific information, but it is the record of

    human presence in these landscapes that makes

    them special. The fish trap remains illustrate the

    value of this 70m stretch of the Liffey Estuary,

    which was in use over almost three millennia of

    Irish prehistory, as well as

    the technological skill of

    their makers and raise

    several points concerningthe social implications of

    trap fishing.

    At this time in Ire-

    land, the population was

    heavily reliant on fish, due

    to the fact that the limited

    native fauna provided little

    opportunity for hunting.

    The importance of fishing is shown by the con-

    centration of Mesolithic material recovered from

    lakeside, riverine and coastal settings, and is also

    highlighted by the high percentage of fish bonewithin assemblages of that period. In contrast to

    Britain, the Irish Mesolithic was a fisher-forager

    society, rather than one of hunter-gatherers.

    The fishing ground

    The fish traps were buried within estuarine silts,

    where most of the remains were preserved in situ

    at depths of 4m to 6m below sea level. They were

    set to the south of a gravel shoreline about 30m

    north of the existing quay wall, which repre-

    sented either the northern bank of the prehistoric

    channel of the Liffey, or the shore of a tidal islandwithin the estuary.

    The fish traps and the pieces of stakes and wattle

    scattered across the site were the remains of struc-

    tures that operated on the principle of passive

    fishing: fish in the incoming or outgoing tides

    were caught in traps, and then retrieved at low

    tide when the traps were accessible. The system

    is separated into weirs of wattle work designed to

    guide the fish, and traps

    designed to catch them.

    Most of the remains from

    North Wall Quay wereparts of ebb weirs, which

    caught fish that drifted

    with the falling tide. Ebb

    weirs are typically con-

    structed of large wooden

    fences (or stone walls) that

    form a V-shape, with a

    basket set at the junction

    to trap the fish.

    Four of the ebb weir pieces were Late Mesolithic

    in date. In addition to the ebb weirs, Late Meso-

    lithic dates were also obtained on a C-shaped fishtrap and a basket fragment. Evidence for a Middle

    Neolithic fish trap was also discovered, which

    comprised a beautifully preserved section of a

    wattle weir (4.41m by 4.16m), found at the edge of

    the shore where it had probably been washed up

    by the tide. All the remains were so closely dated

    that they could have been used by the same or

    successive generations of fishermen.

    The high level of preservation enabled detailed

    analysis of the wood used in their construction.

    The traps were made almost exclusively of hazel,

    with small amounts of birch, ash and fruitwood

    38

    1

    2

    3

    4

    5cms

    ABOVEA Late MesolithicC-shaped fish trap.

    ABOVE RIGHTThissection of beautifullypreserved wattle weir waspart of a Neolithic fishtrap that had been left onthe shores edge, probablywashed up by the tide.

    RIGHTEarrings and blueglass beads discovered at

    Prumplestown.

    BELOW The wedge-cutpointed end of a LateMesolithic fish trap.

    PHOTO:MargaretGowenandCoLtd.

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    www.archaeology.co.uk|current archaeology|Issue 248

    also used. The selection of hazel was an obvious

    one, since it is a pliable wood, ideal for use as

    wattling and withies. It grows in dryland areas,

    however, and is unlikely to have grown in the

    estuarine environment of this site thus, the

    wood must have been sourced elsewhere. Manyof the stakes from the Late Mesolithic fish traps

    displayed worked ends, with most cut to a point

    on the end.

    These took the form of chisel (cut on one face),

    wedge (two cut faces) and pencil (multiple cuts)

    points. The visible tool marks were mostly flat,

    although a few were concave, indicating the use

    of convex, narrow bladed, smooth stone axes,

    comparable to the narrower examples of such

    recorded from Late Mesolithic sites.

    Catch of the dayIn his seminal 1986 studyReading the Irish Land-

    scape, Frank Mitchell argued that dense wood-

    land covered Ireland during the Mesolithic,

    perhaps explaining why the majority of finds

    from this period come from coastal, alluvial and

    estuarine sites. The restriction on inland move-

    ment meant that people would have travelled

    most easily along river valleys, and the fish traps

    at North Wall Quay support this picture.

    Reconstruction exercises have shown that har-

    vesting the raw material and manufacturing aconical fish trap takes at least seven hours a con-

    siderable investment in time and resources. While

    parts of the traps such as baskets and wattle panels

    could have been constructed off-site, they would

    have to have been assembled and positioned

    during low tide when the estuary was accessible

    from the shore; thus, the people fishing at North

    Wall Quay must have lived within easy reach of

    the traps, so that they could harvest the fish and

    carry out any repairs at low tide.

    The traps could potentially have caught any of

    the fish swimming into estuarine waters, namelyherring, whiting, bass, sole, trout, flounder, plaice

    and mullet, as well as seasonal runs of salmon and

    eel. Such a wide variety of fish may have facili-

    tated year-round fishing; it could then be argued

    that the construction of fish weirs may have laid

    the foundation for a trend of sedentism and social

    complexity. Ireland had become isolated from

    Britain since it was originally settled around 8000

    BC, developing its own distinctive settlement

    pattern and material culture. Whether the drive

    towards agriculture came from within the native

    population, or without, there were dramatic

    39

    TOPThe Neolithichouse discovered duringair reconnaissance ofthe route for the N25Waterford Bypass at

    Granny in Co. Kilkenny.

    ABOVE Cobbles insidethe Neolithic house,representing a floorsurface, during excavation.

    LEFT North-west wallof the house, showingpacking stones.

    PHOTO:HeadlandArchaeologyLtd

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    current archaeology|www.archaeology.co.uk

    IRELAND Prehistoric wetland archaeology

    November 2010|

    changes happening beyond the Irish Mesolithic

    world such as the wave of colonisation that was

    sweeping into central Europe from the Balkans

    and Western Asia. As our next site shows an

    early Neolithic house from the River Suir valley

    prehistoric waterways again came to the fore.

    Hearth and home

    In 2004 freelance archaeologist Joanne Hughes

    had her suspicions, but it wasnt until she got

    an excited call from NRA Project Archaeologist

    James Eogan just landed from a reconnaissance

    helicopter flight along the route of the N25

    Waterford Bypass that she was convinced: the

    faint square outline gradually appearing beneathher teams busy trowels was the first Neolithic

    house discovered in Co. Kilkenny. It has since

    turned out to be one of the best examples so far

    unearthed in Ireland.

    The Neolithic period in Ireland dates broadly

    to between 4000 and 2500 BC, and is typified

    by a change in stone technology, a reliance on

    domesticates, and a transformation in social

    attitudes. It was a significant departure from

    the Mesolithic life-way. Stable isotopic analysis

    of Neolithic human remains indicates a general

    shift in this period from marine to a terrestrialdiet, dominated by meat, bread and dairy prod-

    ucts. Settlements were much more permanent,

    housing small farming communities dependent

    on a narrow range of intensively managed food

    sources.

    This change is expressed at the early Neolithic

    house site discovered at Granny, Co. Kilkenny, on

    the N25 Waterford Bypass. Surrounded by tilled

    fields and penned animals, it was an isolated

    dwelling on a south-facing slope overlooking the

    River Suir, measuring 6.5m by 7m, and dating to

    between 3950 and 3715 BC. It had been built byconstructing a square foundation trench, into

    which postholes had been cut at regular intervals

    to hold a substantial timber frame supporting

    the roof. High quality stone objects, including

    chipped flakes and leaf-shaped arrowheads, were

    deposited into some of these postholes, before

    the posts were packed in and fastened together.

    A lighter wall-cladding of split timber planks was

    then added, with packing stones wedged against

    them in the foundation trench.

    Oak charcoal was found throughout the foun-

    dation trench, suggesting that planks had been

    40

    ABOVE Site plan of features on bothsides of the River Lerr, PrumplestownLower and Woodlands West.

    ABOVEReconstructionsof how the Neolithichouse at Granny wasconstructed, based onexcavation information.

    PHOTOS:HeadlandArchaeologyLtd

    Iron Age ring-

    ditch cemetery

    Wetlands area

    with trackways

    Neolithic

    timber circle

    Early Bronze

    Age pit circle

    Causewayed

    Iron Age ring-

    ditch

    Neolithic

    timber circle

    Cow mandibles found here

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    current archaeology|www.archaeology.co.uk

    IRELAND Iron Age

    December 2010|

    but we cannot see them, he wrote. Thus we may

    truly describe them as the invisible people.

    Archaeologists throughout the world will rec

    ognise this conundrum: does absence of evidence

    equal evidence of absence? Are Iron Age people

    invisible because Ireland was plunged into aDark Age of economic and cultural stagnation?

    Or are Iron Age people invisible because our

    excavation strategies have hitherto been ineffec

    tive? As the Celtic Tiger boomed, archaeologists

    were presented with a once in a lifetime oppor

    tunity to finally find Pearses dead generations.

    Changing times, changing fortunes

    Perhaps it was his long years as a dairy farmer that

    honed Gerry Mullinss acute archaeological sen

    sitivity to changes in landscape. As the machinebucket exposed yet another ditch crossing the

    road corridor, the excavation director was quick

    to notice what a field walking team, desk study

    and geophysical survey had failed to discover.

    Employed by Cultural Resource Development

    Services (CRDS Ltd) to undertake test excava

    tions on the N6 Galway to East Balinasloe Road

    Scheme, Mullins recognised that a series of four

    concentric ditches cut into the flanks of Rahally

    hill were the remnants of one of the largest hill

    forts ever discovered in Ireland.

    Irish hillforts date to the Late Bronze Age, butwere occupied for many centuries after, poten

    tially shedding light on the nature of society in

    Late Prehistoric Ireland. The number of known

    hillforts in Ireland has increased dramatically

    in recent years (from estimates of 40 in 1972 to

    30

    The National Monuments Act was enacted

    in 1930, when the nascent state was grasping a

    new identity, independent of its former colonialmaster. If the last 700 years could be dismissed

    as enslavement to the English garrison, then

    archaeology could be called upon to reveal a

    Gaelic Ireland that was fully free. But, as archae

    ology matured into a professional discipline

    focussed on the scientific recovery of information

    about the past, evidence for the native Celtic Ire

    land, glorified in art and literature, was far from

    forthcoming.

    The Irish Iron Age is represented by a handful

    of high profile royal sites, occasional deposits

    of metalwork and an oral tradition of epic sagas.The late Barry Raftery argued in his seminal

    1994 book,Pagan Celtic Ireland, that these scant

    remains were the trappings of a small aristocratic

    elite, shedding little light on how the majority of

    the population had lived. These people existed

    ABOVE Aerial view ofRahally, showing theprojected outline of the

    hillfort ditches.

    Dead generationsDebates concerning unRoman Britain should look across the Irish

    Sea. Ireland was never brought under Roman control, which means

    the country missed out on the gift of a coherent network of long

    straight roads. The Gaelic for road is bothar, literally translated

    as cowpath, a word that gives some insight into the ineffective

    transport network that Ireland inherited at the beginning of

    the Celtic Tiger boom. With no topdown reorganisation of the

    landscape, Ireland maintained a dispersed rural population long

    into the Early Medieval period. There were no major urban centres

    until the Vikings arrived, and without the driving thrust of Roman

    industrial pottery production, Irish sites are largely ceramicfree

    from the later Prehistoric until the later Medieval periods. Without

    the conventional bookmarks of 43 AD and 410 AD, archaeologists

    have developed a different chronology, based on radiocarbon, that

    better reflects the duration of Irish time periods, which retain the

    same nomenclature as Britain.

    Britain

    8000BC 4000BC 2500BC 700BC 43BC AD410 AD1066

    Ireland

    AngloSaxon Medieval

    Early Medieval Late Medieval AngloNormanMesolithic Neolithic BronzeAge Iron Age

    AD400 AD850 1150

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    current archaeology|www.archaeology.co.uk

    IRELAND Iron Age

    December 2010|

    tool handles and many items of unknown func

    tion, is one of the largest collections of woodenobjects ever to be archaeologically recovered from

    a raised bog in Ireland, and it is believed to represent

    a distinct Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age practice of

    votive deposition.

    The trackways and assemblage would surely be

    more than enough to please any archaeologist;

    but it would be a hidden gem, found buried in

    the base of a large trackway, that would leave

    the entire team absolutely amazed: part of a

    wooden block wheel, now known to be the

    earliest wheel in Ireland. Fragments of three

    different wooden wheels, of varying form anddate, were found in total, and represent the

    first instance in Ireland where archaeologists

    have discovered wheels and trackways in direct

    association. The presence of wheels at Eder

    cloon is most curious, when taken in light of

    the fact that none of the trackways from which

    these artefacts were recovered were suited

    to the use of wheeled vehicles. Additionally,

    there is a broad chronological span between

    the three wheel fragments from as early as 1206

    BC through to 880 AD which points to a local

    tradition of wheel manufacture over many centuries. This evidence combines to indicate that

    these wheel fragments were likely to have been

    deliberately placed within the trackways as part

    of ritual activity, rather than lost as a result of use.

    With such breathtaking finds and structures,Edercloon certainly brings the invisible people

    a bit closer; but the homes and structures of

    the builders are still missing. Even the artefacts

    deposited at Edercloon were arguably selected for

    symbolic reasons, and are not representative of

    daytoday lives in a way that might be expected

    at a similarly complex settlement site. If the elusive

    Iron Age still cannot be found at one of the best pre

    served sites ever excavated in Ireland, then perhaps

    it is necessary to look at the most controversial.

    Much ado about nothing?

    The controversy surrounding the construction

    of the M3 as it passed through the TaraSkryne

    valley in Co. Meath was described in CA 247.

    What is sometimes lost in the polarised debate

    about the validity of the road are considerations

    of the significance of the archaeology itself.

    Taking the invisible people barometer used to

    assess the other sites in this article, we might ask:

    was the protest about Lismullin much ado about

    nothing?

    Between January and December 2007, excavations in advance of the DunshaughlinNavan

    section of the M3 motorway revealed a large, post

    built ceremonial enclosure, dating to the early Iron

    Age (6th to 4th century BC), in the townland of

    Lismullin, Co. Meath. The excavation was under

    taken by ACS Ltd, fielding one of the largest profes

    sional archaeology teams ever assembled in Ireland,

    including six excavation directors, and managed by

    Aiden OConnell. A committee of national experts

    from the museum, curatorial and academic sector

    were also drafted in to advise on the excavations.

    Lismullin was a multiperiod site with evidence

    34

    If ever there was a place that deserved to be

    preserved in the name of the dead generations

    from prehistoric times up to historic times

    up to completely recently it was Tara.

    RIGHT Archaeologistscleaning the outer

    enclosure stakeholes atLismullin in preparationfor preliminary drawing.

    PHOTO:MaryDeevy

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    and the brutal warfare that engulfed the country

    during Irish Rebellion.

    The End of the Road

    In his recent book, Europe Between The Oceans(profiled in CA 229, 230, 231), Barry Cunliffe

    assessed how the relatively minor peninsula of

    Europe came to dominate world affairs. By the

    15th century, Europe was a driving world force,

    and the prehistoric origins for this success lay

    in the dynamic mix of natural resources, strong

    seafaring traditions and continual interaction

    between different cultures. The movements and

    migrations of people throughout Irish prehis

    tory are complex and every bit as convoluted as

    the political history of our modern age. As the

    westernmost outpost of the European peninsula,Ireland was a rich, fertile ground for travellers

    and traders from afar.

    When the Celtic Tiger reached the end of the

    road, it became clear that the enduring gift of this

    neverbeforeseen scale of work has allowed us to

    grasp Irelands historical complexity through

    Richard OBrien and Ian Russell, 2004. The HibernoScandinavian site of Woodstown 6, County

    Waterford. Recent Archaeological Discoveries on Road Schemes 2004, the National Roads

    Authority Monograph No. 2, ISBN: 9780954595517.

    Matthew Seaver, 2006. Through the mill: excavation of an Early Medieval settlement

    at Raystown, County Meath, Settlement, Industry and Ritual, National Roads Authority

    Monograph No. 3, ISBN 9780954595524

    FURTHER READING !

    Ca

    ABOVE The only surviving upstanding wall with window of Carrickmines Castle, Co.Dublin, which was incorporated into a later postmedieval structure. This section of thecastle wall has been preserved in situ.BELOWA section of the revetted fosse at the site of Carrickmines Castle, Co. Dublin,preserved in situ under the roundabout of the current motorway interchange.

    PHOTOS:RisnBartonMurray

    all the site directors and companiesughout these articles. Special thanks toFrank Zac, Ronan Swan and all at the

    who have given so generously of their timehe project from start to finish.