Material Culture and Identity in Early Modern Ireland: Archaeological Investigations in Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim

Author(s): Rachel S. Tracey

Year: 2015

Summary

The early demise of Carrickfergus in the 18th- century has ensured the remarkable preservation of the town's post-medieval archaeology, a relatively unique phenomenon in urban archaeological investigations in Northern Ireland.  Established as an Anglo-Norman caput in the 12th-century, by the 17th-century Carrickfergus was serving as the cultural, commercial, and civic hub of Ulster; a trans-Atlantic port, home to the Lord Deputy of Ireland and a diverse population of competing political allegiances and cultural identities, namely the English, Irish and Scots.  Cumulative excavations within the town since the 1970s has yielded a wealth of material culture, fundamental to understanding the tangible expression of cultural change and continuity during the tumultuous expansion of British control in Ireland.  A range of archaeological material will be presented in order to explore themes of identity, cultural entanglements, contested narratives and the extent of the emerging British Atlantic economy in late-medieval and early modern Carrickfergus.

Cite this Record

Material Culture and Identity in Early Modern Ireland: Archaeological Investigations in Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim. Rachel S. Tracey. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Seattle, Washington. 2015 ( tDAR id: 433945)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

min long: -8.158; min lat: 49.955 ; max long: 1.749; max lat: 60.722 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 125