Ancient Ireland

Catalog description

This class explores the “history before history” of Ireland as revealed through the field of archaeology. Archaeologists reconstruct prehistoric “lifeways” via the examination of artifacts (tools as well as food remains [both animal and plant]), humanly-created features on the landscape such as dwellings, burials and tombs, and even entire settlements. For this course, we will cover the original peopling of Ireland by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers at the end of the last Ice Age ca. 11,700 years ago, through the introduction of agriculture to the island (the Neolithic), and the Bronze Age through the Iron Age. We finish by discussing Medieval Ireland, including Viking settlements.