History of primitive Ireland

The Mesolithic era (8000 av JC - 4500 av JC)

The little which we know of the time pre-Christian woman in Ireland us comes from some rare mentions in Roman writings , poetry and the Irish mythology, and Archéologie.

The Mesolithic represents in Ireland the oldest period of human settlement. The oldest proof of human occupation after the withdrawal of the ice was dated between 8000 and 7000 years before JC. Establishments of hunters-gatherers were found in a half-dozen of sites on all the island of Ireland: the Sandel mount close to Coleraine in Northern Ireland, Woodpark in the County of Sligo, in the estuary of the river Shannon, in Lough Boora in the County of Offaly, in Curran in the County of Antrim and in some smaller sites in the Munster. It is generally allowed that these first inhabitants colonized initially the North-East of the island coming from Scotland. Even if the sea level were at the time much low than it is it at the present time, Ireland was probably already an island when the first inhabitants arrived by boat. This is not to surprise, since the first sites inhabited with the Mesolithic era are located along the coasts. Obviously, these first inhabitants were sailors, who depended largely on the sea for their subsistence. This irrefutable fact was partly due to the natural elements: they had to wait centuries so that the Permafrost stripped left the place to fertile and timbered grounds.

The hunters-gatherers of the Mesolithic era nourished fish and shells, birds, of Sanglier S and Noisette S. They drove out with lances, arrows and harpoons equipped with fine flint points named Microlithe S. They supplemented their food mode by gathering nuts, fruits and bays. They lived in seasonal shelters which they built with skins of animals tended on a simple reinforcement out of wooden. The hearth for the kitchen was located outside the hut.

During the Mesolithic era, the population of Ireland should not have exceeded a few thousands of individuals.

The transitional period between the Mesolithic era and the Neolithic era in Ireland is marked by the first traces of breeding. They were found on the archeological site of Ferriter' S Cove in the Péninsule of Dingle.

The Neolithic era (4500 av JC - 2500 av JC)

The Neolithic saw the introduction of the Agriculture and the Poterie in Ireland, as well as the use of more elaborate stone tools. It was thought a long time that these innovations were due on arrival of a new wave of colonizers, but there does not exist any obvious proof of an invasion with large scales at this period of the Irish history. It seems rather than the revolution of the Neolithic era came from long and slow evolution resulting from the trade and the cultural exchanges with agricultural communities from Great Britain or unintermitting .

Agriculture began around the 5th millenium before JC. Sheep, goats, bovines and cereals were imported south-west of continental Europe. The population of the island increased significantly. In Céide Fields in the County of Mayo, a vast system of fields of the Neolithic era, undoubtedly one of oldest in the world, was found, preserved under a thick layer of Tourbe. This system consists of a whole of small separate fields from/to each other by dry stone low walls. " Céide Fields" were exploited during many centuries between 3500 and 3000 before JC. The principal cultures were the Blé and the barley.

The pottery made its appearance about at the same period as agriculture. Crockery similar to that found in the north of England was updated in Ulster (Lyle' S Hill) and at Limerick. The typical parts of this pottery are round bottom and mouth bowls broad.

But the most outstanding characteristic of the Neolithic era in Ireland is the sudden appearance of monuments Mégalithique S and their spectacular proliferation. Most important of these tombs are clearly religious and ceremonial places important for the Neolithic population. In the majority of the tombs which were excavated, human remainders, generally incinerated were found, but not systematically. Funerary offerings, pottery, arrowheads, pearls, pendentive, axes, etc, were also exhumed. These megalithic tombs, more than 1200 are now listed, are divided into four distinct groups:

Cairn - They are characterized by the presence of short a covered Allée. One almost exclusively finds them in the north of the island and belong to oldest monuments the.
Tumulus - They constitute more the small group as regards the number, but are most impressive by their size and their importance. They are localized mainly in north and is island, largest and most known having been discovered in the four large Neolithic “cemeteries” of Bru Na Boyne, of Loughcrew (both in the Comté of Meath), of Carrowkeel and Carrowmore in the Comté of Sligo. Most known of all is the tumulus of Newgrange, registered with the World heritage of humanity. It is one of the monuments aligned on the oldest stars of the world. It was built around 3200 years front JC. With the Solstice of December, the first rays of the sun penetrate by an opening practiced above the entry of the tomb, and illuminate the death chamber which is in the center of the tumulus. In the vicinity, the tumulus of Knowth contains the oldest chart of the moon engraved in the stone.
Dolmen S - the majority of them are gathered in two units, one in the south-east of the island (the dolmens of Knockeen and Gaulstown in the Comté of Waterford are exceptional examples), the other in the north of the island.
Dolmens in corner ( wedge-shaped gallery serious ) - It is about the Irish shape of dolmens, named in reference to the shape of the death chamber which finishes in corner (marked by a contracting of the west towards the east of the width and height). It is largest and most widespread of the four groups. These tombs are particularly present in the west and the south-west of Ireland. The Comté of Clare in is very rich. It is the most recent whole of the four types of tombs, it completion date of the Neolithic era.

The theory according to which these four groups of monuments would be associated with four waves different of colonization always has its partisans, but no archaeological trace makes it possible to confirm it. They could be only local expressions of a world practice. The growth of the population necessary to their construction can not be caused by the arrival of new migrants. It was perhaps only the simple consequence of the introduction of agriculture.

With the apogee of the Neolithic era, the population of Ireland probably exceeded them: 100000 individuals, until perhaps awaiting the bar of: 200000. But around 2500 years before JC, it seems that there was an economic crisis, which caused a decline of the population. At that time, the Métallurgie was already known on the island.

The Bronze Age (2500 av JC - 700 av JC)

The Bronze Age starts truly when Cuivre is combined with tin to produce objects in Bronze. In Ireland, that occurred towards 2000 av JC when some axes punts and of the similar objects were manufactured in Ballybeg. The previous period is called the Chalcolithique or the Âge of the copper, during which the majority of the axes of Ballybeg and Lough Ravel were produced. Bronze was used to manufacture at the same time weapons and tools. Swords, axes, scraping-knives, halberds, pointed, goblets, trumpets are among the objects discovered in the sites of the Bronze Age. The Irish craftsmen became particularly famous for their trumpets in the shape of horn, manufactured by the method of the lost Cire. One finds some in all Europe, and one can see of it a representation near the dying Gaulois, sculpture Greek allotted to Épigone.

Copper, necessary to the manufacture of bronze, was extracted in Ireland, mainly in the south-east of the country, while tin was imported of Cornouailles in Great Britain. The oldest copper mine known in these islands is located in the peninsula of Ross Island at the Lacs of Killarney, in the Comté of Kerry. Mining and the metallurgy were carried out on the spot between 2400 and 1800 av JC. Another of the copper mines best preserved Europe was discovered with the Gabriel Mount in the Comté of Cork. It functioned during several centuries in the middle of the second millenium. It is estimated that the mines of Cork and Kerry produced not less than 370 ton S of copper during the Bronze Age. As the objects out of updated bronze account for only approximately 0,2% this production, one can suppose that Ireland was one of the principal copper exporters of this period.

Ireland was also rich in Or in a native state, and the Bronze Age saw the first important exploitation of this noble metal by Irish craftsmen. From all Europe, it is in Ireland that the greatest number of gold treasures of the Bronze Age was discovered. Gold ornaments made in Ireland were found until in Germany and Scandinavia. During the first times of the Bronze Age, these ornaments consisted of simple crescents or discs made with thin gold sheets. Later, the torque Irish well-known made its appearance. It was a Collier made of a stem or a twisted metal ribbon, formed in loop. Earrings out of gold, solar disks and lunules (lunar crescents carried around the neck) were also manufactured in Ireland during the Bronze Age.

One of the most distinctive types of pottery, the ceramic in the shape of bell, made its appearance in the island during the Bronze Age. It differed much from the fine pottery at round bottom of the Neolithic era. One thought one moment that this pottery was associated with particular people, the campaniform population, whose arrival would have coincided with the introduction of the metallurgy. But this theory is not now justifiable any more: there was no campaniform population, and the metallurgy had been established in Ireland well before the appearance of ceramics at round bottom. The Irish alternative of this pottery is of local origin, and its appearance is the proof of a foreign influence more than of a massive invasion.

Moreover smaller dolmens in corner continued to be built during the Bronze Age, but the imposing tombs with passage of the Neolithic era were abandoned for always. Towards the end of the Bronze Age, the first tombs with cistus appeared: they consisted of a small rectangular stone trunk, covered of a flagstone, hidden at a shallow depth. Many stone circles were set up at this period, in particular in Ulster and with the Munster.

During the Bronze Age, the climate of Ireland worsened, and of vast deforestations were carried out. At the end of this era, the population in Ireland counted probably more: 100000 people, reaching perhaps even them: 200000 individuals, is hardly more than with the apogee of the Neolithic era.

Celts

In Ireland, the Âge of iron corresponds to the presence of a named population the Celtes. According to T.F. O' Rahilly, this population was distinguished from her predecessors by the use of the Fer, and shared a certain number of common cultural features with the other Celtic people of the center and the west of Europe. The relative importance of the massive invasions and the slow cultural diffusions in the appearance of these similarities is still matter with debates. It was thought traditionally that they were the Celtic invaders who brought with them in Ireland the Celtic Langue, but of recent genetic and archaeological studies suggests now that the adoption of the language and the culture Celtic was a process much more progressive, animated by cultural exchanges with Celtic groups of the interior of the country and south-west of continental Europe.

This field suffers owing to the fact that it is common to several university disciplines, and that the attempts at interdisciplinary syntheses often give place to controversies. Thus, the historical syntheses realized there are several decades, and based mainly on mythological studies and Linguistique S, are still quoted frequently like references, whereas more modern analyzes of these same materials lead to more general interpretations, or that archaeological or genetic evidence suggests other conclusions. What complicates still more the things are the complex bonds existing between the interpretation of Irish prehistory and the design of the Irish national identity.

The Celtic languages of Great Britain and Ireland can be divided into two groups: the group Gaelic or goidelic and the group brittonic. The appearance of the first writings at the 5th century revealed the use of Gaelic in Ireland, and brittonic in Great Britain. It was thus natural to suppose first of all that Ireland had been invaded by gaelic Celts, while Great Britain was it by brittonic Celts. Today still, it is not rare to intend to support that there was only one single Celtic invasion in the Irish history. According to this theory, in 350 av JC, a group of people, called the Milesiens, introduced the Irish language in Ireland, and subjected the pre-Celtic populations thanks to its higher armament and with its russet-red hair. But that concerns more mythology.

The truth is more complex. First of all, of recent studies of DNA suggest that, if the people which introduced the Celtic languages were well celtophones, they did not belong to the Celtic race, except the Galician and the Celtibères. From the ethnic point of view, they cannot be distinguished from the Pre-Indo-European S which preceded them. Some scientists think that being given their weak genetic impact, they would not have been more few thousands. Bryan Sykes, in its book Blood off the Isles (2006), affirms: … the presence of a great number of representatives of the oceanic clan of Jasmines says to me that there was a movement on very vast scale since the Iberian peninsula, directed towards north along the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, which started at the beginning of the Neolithic era, and perhaps even front. The number of exact correspondences or close relations between the maternal clans of the west and the north of the Iberian peninsula with those of the western half of British Isles is really impressive, much more than that, weaker, of the correspondences with the clans of continental Europe. (page 280) … The genetics shows that a broad proportion of Irish Celts, as well men as women, arrived to Ireland since the Iberian peninsula, at the time when agriculture reached this island.

The relationship with the Spain is also in the myth of Brutus This as can be the weak echo of the same original myth as that of the Irishmen milesiens, and the relation with the Iberian peninsula is almost as strong in the British areas as it is not it in Ireland.

Pictes: They belong to the same mixture of Mesolithic ancestors ibériens and Europeans, who forms the Celtic infrastructure picte/British Isles. (page 281-282)

The Y chromosomes of the current Irishmen, characterized by the Mutation M343, which defines the Haplogroupe R1b, dominating to differing degree since the Iberian peninsula until in Scandinavia, are narrowly correlated with those of the Iberian population (Spain and Portugal), particularly to those of the Basque S. This had led some anthropologists to conjecture that the Basques were vestiges of the pre-indo-European population of Western Europe, and that the pre-Celtic language of Ireland could have belonged to the same family as the Euskara, the Basque language.

Historical model of O' Rahilly

The specialist in the Celt, T.F.O' Rahilly, proposed a model for Irish prehistory, based on his study of the influences on the Irish language, and a critical analysis of Irish mythology and pseudo-history. Its ideas, although still extremely influential, are not universally any more accepted. He distinguishes four successive waves Celtic invaders:

the Cruithne or the Priteni ( towards Years -700 - Years -500)
the Builg or the Iverni ( Érainn ) ( towards Years -500)
the Lagin , the Domnainn and the Gálioin ( towards -300)
the Goidels or the Gaëls ( towards -100)

The conquest Gaelic of Ulster

The writings known today in Ireland do not go up beyond 431. The king Gaelic of Tared, known under the name of Niall Noigiallach or “Niall with the nine hostages”, is the oldest historical figure, whose existence is not disputed, and of which we are informed some. According to the existing files, his/her father, Eochaid Mugmedon, were a king de Tara, and it directed the kingdom of Mide.

Niall succeeded his/her father about year 400, and it would have reigned during twenty-seven years. Its reign marked the rise of Tared like the dominant power of the country. At the origin of this capacity, there was the conquest of Ulster, the result of centuries of conflict between Gaëls de Tara and Ulaids of Emain Macha. This conflict is evoked in the known mythical cycle under the name of Cycle of Ulster, which includes the Irish national epopee, the Táin Bó Cúailnge.

The conquest Gaelic of Ulster was undertaken mainly by three of wire of Niall, Conall Gulban, Eógan and Énda, which were rewarded by three under-kingdoms in the west for the lately conquered province. The direct result of this conquest was the reorganization of Ulster in three on-kingdoms:

Ulidia, in the east, covered the greatest part of the modern counties of Antrim and Down. It was directed by the Dál nAraidi, a dynasty indigenous cruthnienne, which had taken the party of Niall during the war. Ulaid or the Dál Fiatach, which had constituted the dominant power in Ulster during centuries, was overcome, their royal seat with Emain Macha destroyed, and they were pushed back towards the east in the county of Down. The conquest Gaelic had also a significant impact on the Scottish history . One of the tribes éméiennes of Ulster, which had been reduced to vassalage by Niall, was the Dal Riada, whose traditional territory was located at the North-East of the country. Following their defeat, some of Dal Riada crossed the sea and colonized the Argyll. In the course of time, this colony became the dominant power of the north of Great Britain. The kingdom of Scotland was created at the 9th century by the union of Dal Riada and the indigenous kingdom of the Pictes.
Airgallia, sometimes anglicized under name Oriel , in the center of Ulster covering most of the counties of Armagh, Coleraine, Fermanagh, Louth, Monaghan and Tyrone. This kingdom was actually a confederation of nine under-kingdoms, each one of them directed by an indigenous dynasty, which had been reduced to vassalage by the conquest of Niall. In order to make sure of their honesty, it obliged them to send to him to Tara eminent members their families like hostages. It is from there that the name came from Airgialla, which means “donors of hostages”, and undoubtedly also the epithet of Niall, Noígiallach , which wants to say “to the nine hostages”.
Ailech, in the west, occupied the same extent as current the Comté of Donegal. In the beginning, it was composed of three under-kingdoms, Tír Eógain, Tír Chonaill and Tír Énda, but Tír Énda was conquered by the descendants of Conall and was built-in Tír Chonaill. The two remaining kingdoms increased in the face and importance, and their names were preserved in the names gaelic of the two modern counties of Ulster: Donegal and Tyrone. Ailech was directed during more than eight centuries by the descendants of Conall and Eógan, known collectively under the name of the Uí Néill, which provided several top-kings d' Irlande. Towards 425, the catch of Ailech, the royal seat which had become the capital of Uí Néill of the north, and which gave its name to the kingdom, marked the end of the conquest Gaelic of Ulster.

After the death of Niall, his/her son, Lóegaire mac Néill, succeeded to him as king de Tara. It is during its reign that the Christianisme was officially introduced into the country. Niall with the nine hostages with the honor to be the ancestor of all the top-kings of Ireland, except two, which reigned on the country since the 5th century until the time of Brian Boru at the beginning of the 11th century.

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