Healing Places and Objects in Irish Archaeology

Summary

The concept of healing—in any time period—has received relatively little attention in Irish archaeology. While bioarchaeologists have examined ailments and injuries in prehistoric and historic Irish populations, discussion and understandings of how, why, and where people sought treatment, and which treatments were deemed successful, remain elusive. This paper will draw on Gesler’s (1992) concept of therapeutic landscapes, most commonly utilized in health geography, in order to examine healing places and material culture in post-Medieval and Historic Ireland. Historical and ethnographic accounts provide an extensive source material on widely used healing concepts integrated into uniquely Irish cultural and physical landscapes, such as visits to spas, sweat houses, holy wells, and rag trees. These and other places where people went to be treated by practitioners or healed through interaction with the built environment, natural world, or supernatural beings often survive as recognized sites today, and their position vis-à-vis contemporary domestic and ritual landscapes will be explored in order to gain a more nuanced understanding of healing in archaeological and historical contexts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21583