Un método de prospección en Arqueología de la Arquitectura. La arquitectura medieval «invisible»

[ES]Propuesta que se encuadra en el estudio de una serie de edificaciones anteriores al románico en la Diócesis de Vitoria, supuestamente inexistentes hasta el momento, en el marco del análisis de las técnicas constructivas medievales del territorio. Para ello se debía contar con una muestra de edificios bien fechados,algo imposible hasta la fecha dado que la historiografía negaba la existencia de iglesias prerrománicas en Álava. Por esto era necesario conseguir una muestra sobre la cual trabajar, para lo que se recurrió a un proceso de selección de edificios en los que se conservaran evidencias anteriores al románico, diseñándose el modelo de prospección que presentamos.

The Viking age glass beads of Ireland and their North Atlantic context

Hitherto, the majority of studies which have included the discussion of Viking glass beads have mainly focused on the assemblages from individual sites, with limited use of known parallels. Exceptions to this include recent publications regarding the Icelandic material and Callmer’s 1977 catalogue of the finds from mainland Scandinavia, now over thirty years old. Analysis of these finds from Ireland was, for the most part, non-existent. The aim of this research is to address this lack of analysis within Ireland, while incorporating the wider context of the beads within the Viking North Atlantic. The research thus examines the use of glass beads of diagnostically Scandinavian manufacture and import found in Ireland, particularly in relation to their context and distribution. The history of research from Ireland as well as from across the Viking world is considered and explored throughout the thesis, with critique of methods and discussions used. Focussed analysis of both published and unpublished material detailing artefacts from Scandinavia (especially Vestfold), Britain, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and L’Anse aux Meadows is presented within the thesis in order to provide the greater picture for the core section of the thesis, the glass beads found in Ireland. Three appendices are included within Volume 2, databases of the glass beads under discussion from Ireland, the Vestfold region graves in Norway and the topsoil finds from the Kaupang trading place, also located within Vestfold. These appendices therefore represent the first-hand analysis of glass beads by the author. In total, this research represents the most up-to-date analysis of Viking glass beads from Ireland and presents a new look at the patterns of use, trade and interpersonal contact that affected the everyday lives of individuals living within Viking Age Ireland.

Medieval Irish vision literature: a genre study

This dissertation examines medieval literary accounts of visions of the afterlife with an origin or provenance in Ireland from the perspective of genre, analysing their structural and literary characteristics both synchronically and diachronically. To this end, I have developed a new typology of medieval vision literature. I address the question in what manner the internationally attested genre of vision literature is adapted and developed in an Irish literary milieu. I explore this central research question through an interrogation of the typological unity of the key texts, both in formal arrangement and in the eschatological themes they express. My analysis of the structure and rhetoric of these narratives reveals the primary role of identity strategies, question-and-answer patterns and exhortation for their narrative cohesion and didactic function. In addition, I was able to make a formal distinction at text-level between the adaptation of the genre as an autonomous unit and the adaptation of thematic motifs as topoi. This further enabled me to nuance the distribution of characteristic features in the genre. My analysis of the spatial and temporal aspects of the eschatological journey confirms a preoccupation with personal eschatology. It reveals a close connection between the development of the aspects of graded access and trial in the genre and a growing awareness of an interim state of the soul after death. Finally, my dissertation provides new editions, translations and analyses of primary sources. My research breaks new ground in the hitherto underexplored area of genre adaptation in Ireland. In addition, it contributes significantly to our understanding of the nature of vision literature both in an Irish and a European context, and to our knowledge of the transmission of eschatological thought in the Latin West. Discusses the visions of: Laisrén, Fursa, Adomnán, Lóchán, Tnugdal, Owein and Visio Sancti Pauli Redactions VI and XI.

Skin and bone: the face in the archaeological imagination

Thirteen unique archaeological countenances from Ireland were produced through the Manchester method of facial reconstruction. Their gaze prompts a space for a broad discourse regarding the face found within human and artefactual remains of Ireland. These faces are reminders of the human element which is at the core of the discipline of archaeology. These re-constructions create a voyeuristic relationship with the past. At once sating a curiosity about the past, facial reconstructions also provide a catharsis to our presently situated selves. As powerful visual documents, archaeological facial reconstructions illustrate re-presentations of the past as well as how the present can be connected to the past. Through engagment with Emmanuel Levinas’s (1906- 1995) main philosophical themes, the presence of the face is examined in a diachronic structure. The ‘starting point’ is the Neolithic period which has been associated with the notion of visuality with a reconstruction from the early Neolithic site of Annagh, Co. Limerick. The following layer of analysis appears with attention to intersubjectivity in the early medieval period with facial reconstructions from Dooey, Co. Donegal and Owenbristy, Co. Galway. Building upon the past concepts, the late medieval period is associated with the notion of alterity and paired with faces from Ballinderry, Co. Kildare and a sample of males from Gallen Priory, Co. Offaly. The final layer of examination culminates with the application of response and respons-ibility to the post-medieval Irish landscape with facial reconstructions from the prison on Spike Island, Co. Cork. These layers of investigation are similar to the stratigraphical composition of both the archaeological landscape and the skeletal/soft tissue landscape of the face. The separation of the neglected phenomenon of the face from the overwhelming embrace of the field of craniometrics is necessary. Through this detachment a new manner in which to discuss the face and its place within the (bio)archaeological record is possible. Encountering the faces seen in mortuary contexts, material culture, and archaeological facial reconstructions, inform and shape the archaeological imagination.

Three medieval buildings in the port of Ardglass, Co Down

Three buildings in what is now a small port in Ardglass, Co. Down are connected by their location on the ridge overlooking the harbour and quay. Because of the Irish vernacular style related to tower houses they have all been called castles, but analysis shows that they were originally more commercial in their purpose. The largest of the buildings is identified as a line of shops. The building adjacent to that was possibly used as a warehouse or communal hall, while the third building appears to have been used as a watch tower for the port. As such they relate to other commercial buildings found in late medieval Irish towns, notably Kilmallock, Co. Limerick.

New Ways of Looking at the State Apparatus and the State Archive in Nineteenth Century Ireland: Curiosities from that Phonetic Museum - Royal Irish Constabulary Reports and their Political Uses, 1879-91

This essay seeks to contextualise the intelligence work of the Royal Irish Constabulary, particularly in the 1880s, in terms of the wider British and imperial practice and, as a corollary, to reflect upon aspects of the structure of the state apparatus and the state archive in Ireland since the Union. The author contrasts Irish and British police and bureaucratic work and suggests parallels between Ireland and other imperial locations, especially India. This paper also defines the narrowly political, indeed partisan, uses to which this intelligence was put, particularly during the Special Commission of 1888 on 'Parnellism and crime', when governmentheld police records were made available to counsel for The Times. By reflecting on the structure of the state apparatus and its use in this instance, the author aims to further the debate on the governance of nineteenth-century Ireland and to explore issues of colonial identity and practice. The line of argument proposed in this essay is prefigured in Margaret O'Callaghan, British high politics and a nationalist Ireland: criminality, land and the law under Forster and Balfour (Cork, 199

UV-fluorescence microscopy and the coherence of pollen assemblages in environmental archaeology and Quaternary geology

UV-fluorescence microscopy provides a powerful tool for the assessment of the coherence of pollen and organic-walled microfossil assemblages in situations where recycling or the intrusion of younger pollen is suspected. It also provides sensitive information about the thermal maturity of pollen, important for assessing whether material has been heated. Examples are given from the Palaeolithic sites at Barnham, Suffolk, UK; Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, UK; High Lodge, Suffolk, UK; Niah Cave, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo; and Holocene sites at Wadi Dana, Jordan; Milldale and Creswell, Derbyshire, UK; and Dooncarton Mountain, County Mayo, Republic of Ireland.

The horse in early Ireland

The main object of this paper is to review the development of horse exploitation in Ireland between its introduction in the Bronze Age and the medieval period. The review considers the evidence of the use of horse for riding and traction and contrasts this with the evidence from neighbouring Britain. The change in horse size is traced as is the development of horse-related technology. The association of horse with burial ritual and the inauguration of kings is also considered.