Prehistory

Owing to the island’s remoteness from the literate civilizations of the Mediterranean and independence from Rome, there are almost no recorded events in Ireland before the 5th century ad.

Eriu, pre-Norman Ireland: places and groups mentioned in the article, various periods. M = Mesolithic site; N = Neolithic site; B = Bronze Age site; F = Iron Age site; R = Roman and/or Romano-British finds; E = Early Medieval secular site; V = Viking town. (Map by John T. Koch)

The Mesolithic (c. 7000-c. 4000 bc)

Middle Stone Age inhabitants are reflected mainly in distinctive stone tools; circular huts occupied over several centuries from around 7000 bc have been found at Mountsandel near Coleraine, Co. Derry (Cuil Raithin, Contae Dhoire).

The Mesolithic inhabitants were not Irish in the ethnolinguistic sense, although their language may have contributed to Irish as a substrate.

The Neolithic (c. 4000—c. 2400 bc)

Handmade decorated pottery of various sizes and shapes appears in the 4th millennium. Small, dispersed domestic settlements, suitable for nuclear or extended families, with various building types are the norm.

The great megalithic tombs of the Neolithic have made an enduring impact on the Irish landscape and tradition. Several subtypes have been identified: Hundreds of ‘court tombs’ are distributed over Ireland’s northern half; ‘portal tombs’ occur in the north as well as in pockets in the west and southeast; and the distinctively shaped ‘wedge tombs’ occur mostly in a dense arc from Antrim (Aontroim) in the northeast, over the western half to Co. Cork (Contae Chorcai). Of the hundreds of passage tombs, distributed mainly over the north and east, the most famous are those of the valley of the Boyne (Old Irish Boand), including Newgrange (Brug na Boinne), Knowth, and Dowth (Dubhadh). These great tombs figure importantly in early Irish mythological literature, in beliefs concerning the Otherworld (see also sid), and in modern folk beliefs concerning the fairies.

The Copper Age (c. 2400—c. 2100 bc)

As in Britain and Europe, daggers and other artefacts made of cast copper (sometimes hardened with arsenic) occur together as what has been termed a ‘Beaker assemblage’. Overall, the Beaker phenomenon has been seen as the arrival of the metal-using warrior aristocracy who had close cultural connections with the Continent. See also agriculture.

The Bronze Age (c. 2100 bc—)

Ireland enjoyed a rich Bronze Age as a vital node in trading networks linked to Armorica, Britain, the Iberian Peninsula, west-central Europe, and southern Scandinavia. Single (as opposed to collective) graves prevail, comprising both cremations and crouched inhumations; stone cists are common.

By the Middle Bronze Age (from c. 1500 bc), fine metalwork in both bronze and gold comes to be found more commonly in hoards from wet settings—lakes, rivers, and bogs—thus anticipating the watery depositions of the Celtic Iron Age. Conversely, burials become rarer. Cult practices were evidently changing and, arguably, the religious beliefs behind them. From growth in the bronze arsenal we can assume the rising social importance of bronze smiths and their warrior aristocratic patrons through the 2nd millennium.

Neck ornaments are prominent among Bronze Age gold work. Crescent-shaped sheet-gold lunulae with incised geometric design occur in the Early Bronze Age. Bar and ribbon torcs, usually twisted and with a simple clasp formed by reverse bends at the two ends, become common in the Middle Bronze Age and are found in western Gaul and Britain, as well as in Ireland. These objects can be interpreted as displaying the special status of an emerging elite social group.

The Late Bronze Age (from c. 1150 bc)

The tree-ring sequence reveals a major climatic disaster between 1159 and 1142 BC, which can be attributed to the effects of a massive eruption of Mount Hekla in Iceland. This point also appears to be a significant watershed for several cultural developments—some breaking with the past and others continuing trends noted in the Middle Bronze Age. True swords appear with leaf-shaped blades, effective for slashing as well as stabbing, and parallel central European Late Bronze Age (Hallstatt B) types. Circular shields occur, such as the large bronze example from Lough Gur, Co. Limerick, decorated and strengthened with concentric circles of repousse nobs.

In light of the fact that many of the cultural features of Ireland at this period—for example, watery depositions, swords based on Hallstatt A-B models, hill-forts, cauldrons, and gold neck ornaments—can be linked to defining patterns of early Celtic Europe, Koch argues that a recognizably Celtic Ireland emerged in the Late Bronze Age.