A Site with a View? A 3D Reconstruction of the Structures at Dun Ailinne

Summary

This is an abstract from the "On the Periphery or the Leading Edge? Research in Prehistoric Ireland" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The site of Dún Ailinne (Knockaulin) in County Kildare is one of four major ceremonial sites of the Irish Iron Age. The site sits on a large, isolated hill in an otherwise flat landscape on which a large earthen bank and ditch encloses approximately 13 ha of land at the top. Excavations in the 1960s-1970s, as well as ongoing excavations today have defined several timber structures and phases of construction at the site. The stunning vistas that the hilltop affords today have inspired archaeologists, including myself, to consider the importance of vision in the experience of ceremony at the site. While archaeologists have postulated that gaps in the timber structures would have controlled not just access but also views, these studies have largely focused on the location of the structures, without taking into account the visibility of the building themselves. This paper builds upon this work by presenting the results of a 3D reconstruction built for the site and exploring the structures visibility and invisibility both within the site itself and in the larger landscape. In so doing, this paper seeks to understand the impact these structures would have had on local performance and activity.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• On the Periphery or the Leading Edge? Research in Prehistoric Ireland

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26067