Exploring the Gaelic Social Order through Castle Archaeology

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Exploring the Gaelic Social Order through Castle Archaeology," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In Western Europe Gaelic social and political systems persisted up to the Early Modern period. The aristocratic stratum of these societies commenced to construct fortified residences of stone between the 13th and 15th centuries AD. Despite the information potential of these compounds for informing about the organization of Gaelic society, cultural social interactions between Gael and non-Gael, the medieval political economy, and about changes to the Gaelic social order itself caused by interaction or integration with state-level political systems there has been very little investigation of these residences until recently. The participants in this symposium will report on the results of recent projects undertaken in Ireland and other Gael cultural areas that shed light on these topics.

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Documents
  • Castle Ballintober, County Roscommon, Ireland: The Castles in Communities Project (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Samuel Connell. Niall Brady. Kathryn Maurer. Daniel Cearley.

    This is an abstract from the "Exploring the Gaelic Social Order through Castle Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Castles in Communities program at Ballintober Castle in County Roscommon, Ireland has been studying the construction sequence of the castle and the newly discovered deserted medieval village in the hinterlands. As we work with the community of Ballintober we are faced with a conundrum of how best to present our results as...

  • Down and Out at Dysert O'Dea (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only D. Gibson.

    This is an abstract from the "Exploring the Gaelic Social Order through Castle Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Díseart Molanín castle was constructed by a leading lineage of the O’Dea clan in the late 15th century in north central Co. Clare, Ireland. The clan occupied a territory within a composite chiefdom that had been dismembered and incorporated into a primitive state in the 12th century AD, led by the O’Briens. The O’Deas hung on...

  • Revealing a Medieval Village: The Advantages and Limitations of Applying Geophysical Techniques (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Daniel Cearley. Andrew Bair. Samuel Connell.

    This is an abstract from the "Exploring the Gaelic Social Order through Castle Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Geophysical surveys have become a common feature in archaeological investigations in Ireland and the United Kingdom. The collection of data sets tend to be carried out rapidly and in many cases results can be immediate, however the interpretation of this data is not necessarily consistent nor are the formative processes of...