Agriculture, settlement and society in Early Medieval Ireland

Quaternary International 346 (2014) 119e130

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Agriculture, settlement and society in Early Medieval Ireland Finbar McCormick School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University Belfast, University Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history: Available online 7 November 2013

During the early medieval period, Ireland was politically organised into a large number of very small kingdoms. Unlike much of Western Europe, it had not been incorporated into the Roman Empire, and as a consequence, settlement remained exclusively rural in character until the Viking period. Extensive documentary, archaeological, zooarchaeological and macro-plant evidence provides a detailed reconstruction of the livestock and arable economy of the period. Cattle ownership formed the basis of wealth as well as being an indicator of status in society, and this is reflected in its clear dominance of the livestock economy during this period. From the eighth century onwards, however, cereal production appears to grow in importance as subsistence farming gave way to the production of agricultural surplus. This is reflected in cereal diversification and in the construction of watermills and more efficient graindrying kilns. At the same time, settlement underwent significant changes and the relative importance of cattle in some areas began to decline. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction The geographical location of Ireland provides an oceanic climate that differs greatly from that of most of Continental Europe. The prevalent westerly winds from the warm waters of the northern Atlantic ensure frequent rain coupled with low annual temperature ranges. Extremes of heat and cold are rare, and the mild, moist climate favours luxuriant vegetation growth and is particularly favourable for grass, making the farming landscape best suited for pastoralism rather than arable farming (Aalen et al., 2011). A wide range of data sources can be used for studying agriculture in early medieval Ireland. A large body of documentary sources survives from the period, in particular legal texts from the seventh and eighth centuries and an annalistic record that spans the entire period. Ireland is well endowed with peat bogs which provide good palynological coverage for much of the island. The recent growth in infrastructural investment in motorway construction has also led to a massive expansion in the excavation of sites dating to the period, and as a consequence a large body of zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical material has become available. Pollen analysis has the potential to identify changes in land use, but the chronological resolution in these studies is often insufficient to identify short-term trends during this period. There is a general consensus that after a period of agricultural decline, forest

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clearance and agricultural expansion can be seen during the third and fourth centuries A.D. (Hall, 2000; Cole and Mitchell, 2003; Hall, 2005; Plunkett, 2007), although occasionally there is evidence for later wholesale forest clearance. For example there is significant woodland clearance in Co. Antrim during the ninth century (Hall et al., 1993). The early phase of land clearance clearly predates the arrival of Christianity in the fifth century and may well be due to Romano-British influence, as cultural material from Britain shows a marked increase during this period. While pollen analysis can readily identify forest clearance or regeneration it is less successful in identifying changes in land usage between grassland and crop growing. Hall (2000, 348) found that modern studies demonstrate that, ‘when a few metres from the edge of a cereal field, the value of cereal pollen falls sharply from levels as high value of 20% to about 1%’. Thus, pollen evidence from blanket bog cores, which would be expected to be a considerable distance from arable fields, can only record the extremes of cereal production and is incapable of recording the subtle, yet significant, changes and differences in the farming economy. Apart from the areas of highlands and extensive bog cover, the pollen evidence for early medieval Ireland indicates a landscape of scrubby woodland and mixed farming, almost invariably dominated by pastureland. Large areas of extensive forest were rare with one ninth-century text stating that there were only three areas of forest wilderness in the whole of Ireland (Ryan, 2000). Arable farming is present to some extent in nearly all areas, and although there is considerable local variation, significant regional or chronological trends in farming are difficult to identify.

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Palaeoclimatic proxies for Ireland suggest that, in general terms, the early medieval climate was warm and wet. The large numbers of grain-drying kilns indicate that it was difficult to dry crops without resorting to artificial means (Monk and Power, 2012), and recent palaeoenvironmental studies suggest that climatic conditions took a downturn during the latter part of the early medieval period (Kerr et al., 2009). These studies combined evidence for extreme weather based on the annalistic records with testate amoebae-derived water table reconstructions. The palaeohydrological data suggests that a date of c. A.D. 770 marks the end point of a 750 year long dry phase and the beginning of a wetter period that culminated in the Little Ice Age of the later medieval period. The annalistic records confirm a change at this date with the ninth century records recording more frequent records of hard frosts, severe snows and heavy rains while the summer drought recorded in earlier centuries become rare. Dendrochronological evidence has also been used to try to evaluate climatic change in Ireland during the early medieval period. In their most recent overview, however, Baillie and Brown (2011, 562) concede: ‘it is not possible to interpret oak ringwidths in any direct fashion . we cannot say that wide rings represent wet, dry, warm or any specific climate.’ Extremes, however, can be noted. Narrow ring widths, for instance, indicate an extreme but short-lived downturn in the conditions for a decade centred in A.D. 540; and the Irish oak record displays similarities with Swedish pine data in the period between A.D. 800 and 850, which in the Swedish instance can be associated with a period of wetter climate. With both tree-ring evidence and the Irish palaeohydrological data indicating wetter conditions from the ninth century onwards, this climatic deterioration may account for some of the contemporary changes noted in the archaeological record. 2. Society and land Early medieval Ireland consisted of at least one hundred and fifty small kingdoms (Byrne, 2001, 7). This contrasted greatly with contemporary Britain and Continental Europe where the political landscape comprised smaller number of large kingdoms. Although estimations of populations at this time are highly speculative, it has been suggested that each kingdom might have had a population of about 3,000 (Kelly, 1988, 4). Society was divided into the nobility, freemen, semi-freemen (tenants-at-will) and the unfree, which included slaves. Land was privately owned by the nobility and freemen, with a portion of each kingdom attached to the office of kingship. Some of the latter lands provided for the royal bureaucracy such as judges, physicians, or chief poet (Kelly, 1988, 101). The relationship between nobility and landowning freeman was one of lord and client, with the institution of clientship being the basis of social and economic stability within society. The status of the lord depended on the number of clients that he had contracted to himself. The contract was enacted by the lord advancing a ‘fief’ generally comprising cattle, but sometimes comprising land or agricultural equipment (Kelly, 1988, 29). In return, the client made annual returns of cattle and food rents which included bread, wheat, bacon, milk, butter, onions and candles. The size of the ‘fiefs’ and consequent rents depended on the status of the client. The result of these arrangements was that the free farmer needed to produce a surplus for his lord but whether this allowed the lord to accumulate a surplus that he could trade is less clear from the texts. There also existed a form of clientship that took place between members of the noble class but the texts are less clear about its detail. It seems, however, to have involved only the exchange of livestock and did not include food-rents. The outcome of this is that while all classes of land owners were involved in agriculture production, there was constant exchange of agricultural produce and

there may have been specialization in certain aspects of agricultural activity. The settlement type site of the period is the ringfort regarded as a family farmstead of which nearly 50,000 have been identified (Stout, 1997, 53). With the exceptions of the larger monasteries, many of which were the headquarters of extensive monastic confederations as well as being centres of craft industry and trade, it was thought that settlement was generally scattered, with no equivalent to the villages of Anglo-Saxon England. More recently, however, enclosure complexes have been discovered which may have had multiple occupation (Corlett and Potterton, 2010, 2011). It is difficult to ascertain to what degree the landscape was enclosed into fields. Different types of fences are discussed in detail in the texts (Kelly, 1997, 372e378) but the archaeological evidence for field-systems that can be securely dated to this period is rare. It is clear also that some of the fences described in the texts, such as those of post and wattle, were of a temporary nature and would not survive in the archaeological record. Recent excavations show that ringforts are generally located in an open landscape (O’Sullivan et al., 2013) and at present there is little evidence for an agricultural landscape organized into permanent fields. Many of the enclosures and annexes present in non-ringfort settlements are also likely to be paddocks and gardens. In most instances, livestock would have been grazed on the individual farmlands. The laws stress that individual farmers were obliged to maintain properly constructed fences around their land in order to avoid grazing trespass (Kelly, 1997, 135). The early texts indicate that livestock were sometimes brought to the farm at night or kept in enclosures. The ringfort, with a circular enclosure surrounding the dwelling, was designed for the purpose of protecting livestock (McCormick, 2008). The annexes noted on the complex enclosure sites are likely to have been constructed for such purposes. Direct convincing evidence for animals within ringforts, however, comes from insect material found at Deer Park Farms, Co. Antrim. The presence of dung beetles (Carpelimus bilineatus, Aphodius prodromus and Cercyon analis), animal fleas (Damalinia ovis, Damalinia bovis, and Damalinia caprae), and sheep ticks (Ixodes ricinus), provide evidence for the presence of livestock within the enclosure (Fig. 1) (Kenward and Allison, 1994, 95e96; Kenward et al., 2011, 521e22).

Fig. 1. Deerpark Farms cattle louse Damalinia bovis (Kenward and Allison, 1994).

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Given the long growing season, the Irish did not save hay until relatively recently, and it was possible to leave livestock outdoors all year around. Such advantageous circumstances were a source of envy to early commentators. In the first century A.D., Pomponius Mela noted of Ireland: ’so luxuriant is the herbage, in quality both nutritious and savoury, that cattle eat their fill in a small part of the day, and if they are not restricted from feeding would have, by eating too long burst’ (Kenny, 1929, 131); while in the early-eighth century, the Saxon cleric Bede noted that: ‘[in Ireland] there is no need to store hay in summer for winter use’ (Sherley-Price, 1965, 39). A similar statement was made in the Konungs Skuggsja, a Norwegian work written c. A.D. 1250: ‘all through the winter the cattle find their feed in the open’ (Larson, 1917, 105). Grazing must have been strictly managed and areas known as etham ndíguin (preserved grassland) were set aside to provide winter grazing (Kelly, 1997, 45). There are references in the text to summer pastures in mountain areas, and one of these sites (Fig. 2) has been identified at Ballyutoag in the mountain slopes near Belfast (Williams, 1984). The site comprised of large circular enclosures within which were a series of small huts, one of which produced a seventh-to ninth-century date. Presumably the animals were let

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3. Livestock farming In order to investigate agriculture at a site or regional level, one must turn to the archaeological evidence (Fig. 3). As part of the Irish Early Medieval Archaeological Project (EMAP) the raw faunal and macro-plant data from published and unpublished excavations have recently been compiled (McCormick et al., 2011) and much of the following discussion is based on this data. Table 1 presents the MNI (minimum numbers of individuals) values of the three main species in those assemblages where the MNI total is greater than forty. The MNI values are chosen rather than the more simple count of fragments (NISP) in order to avoid problems created by differential recovery and fragmentation which can make inter-site comparisons less reliable. The age-slaughter patterns are displayed using the age criteria of Higham (1967). While the mandibular ageing data on most of the sites was also recorded using the methodology of Grant (1982), the Higham method is used because it allows some important sites to be used that did not use the Grant method. The ages ascribed in the histograms are very approximate estimates and can be accused of spurious accuracy, but they allow easy visual inter-site comparison.

Table 1 MNI percentages for samples where MNI total is more than forty (after McCormick and Murray, 2007; McCormick et al. 2011). Site

Phase

Site type

Date

Cattle

Sheep/goat

Pig

Total MNI

Armagh Baronstown

Cathedral Hill 1 2 2 IIIeIV Ring ditch Ring fort 1 2 3 2 1-V 2 3 Plots 1 and 2 Banks and Wall 2

Eccleciastical Enclosure complex

5the8th 6the7th 7the9th 5the8th 8the10th 5the7th 7the9th 7the9th 10th 11th/12th 7the8th 7the8th 5the7th 7the9th 10e11th Early 12th 5the7th 7the9th 6the7th 10e11th 7th/8th 7th/8th 8th 8the9th 5the7th 500e700 600e800 Mid 6th Mid 7th 8th 600e900

44.8 52.9 46.5 40,0 34.2 55.2 56.6 47.5 44.3 39.8 55.9 46.2 49.4 55.2 35.3 58.8 55.3 45.8 56.6 41.5 45.0 40.3 24.5 19.3 48.4 46.7 37.5 53.5 41.4 44.4 52.9

19.0 24.5 27.9 25.7 17.8 10.3 14.5 20.9 22.0 19.5 27.1 19.3 28.4 22.4 10.6 11.3 10.6 30.5 21.7 26.8 20.0 22.5 42.9 52.6 20.3 29.0 40.6 27.9 25.7 30.9 22.1

36.2 22.6 25.6 32.9 47.9 34.5 28.9 31.6 33.6 40.6 16.9 34.5 22.2 22.4 55.8 29.9 34.0 23.7 21.7 31.7 35.0 37.2 32.7 28.1 31.3 24.3 21.9 18.6 32.9 24.7 25.0

58 208 43 110 73 116 76 244 336 384 59 119 81 67 1053 97 47 59 83 41 40 258 49 57 64 107 64 43 70 81 68

Castlefarm Clogher Clonmacnoise

Colp West Deerpark Farms Dowdstown Fishhamble St Dublin Johnstown Killickaweeney Knowth Marshes Upper Moynagh

Rathoath Raystown Roestown

Sroove

1 2 Ditch 3 D House k A1 Early II III 1a 2a 2b Phase 3e4

Enclosure complex Royal site Ecclesiastical

Enclosure complex Ringfort Enclosure complex Urban Viking Settlement cemetery Enclosure complex Royal Ringfort Crannog

Enclosure complex Enclosure complex Enclosure complex

Crannog

graze on the mountainside by day and brought into the enclosure at night for protection. Such sites are sometimes referred to in the texts as a ‘summer milking place’ (Kelly, 1997, 44). It is not clear how prevalent was the use of these grazing lands given that most Irish farmland was not located near mountain areas. Furthermore, since early Irish jurists were much concerned with grazing-trespass it is unlikely that one would have been allowed to bring ones herds across private land in order to access faraway summer pastures. This may help explain the increased value the laws attached to lands that are set near good quality roads (Kelly, 1997, 390ff).

4. Cattle Cattle were the dominant feature in the livestock economy of the period and are generally the most numerous species present in early medieval assemblages (Fig. 4), and account for 40%e50% of the main domesticates on most sites. The greatest deviation from this general trend is produced by a stratigraphically late sample from Moynagh crannog. However, this particular assemblage was from deposits dumped outside the crannog palisade and can be regarded as an aberration. The almost universal predominance of

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Fig. 2. Summer transhumance site at Ballyutoag (after Williams, 1984).

cattle in the early medieval Irish economy differs from contemporary England, where sheep tend to be the dominant species (O’Connor, 2011, 367). Cattle, or more specifically cows, were of exceptional importance in the lives of the early Irish (Lucas, 1989). The cow was the basic unit of wealth and an individual’s social status in this rigidly hierarchical society was to a large extent dependent on the number of cows that one had at one’s disposal. The principal value of the cow lay in its ability to provide milk and other dairy foods, and the Irish laws note that a ’dry cow’ has only half the value of a milk cow (Kelly, 1997, 65). Fig. 5 shows the value of cattle of different ages based on the early law tracts. It indicates that, with the exception of those kept for traction, males were not ascribed a value after they were three years of age. Presumably the great majority were killed off for their meat by this stage. Cattle metrical data confirms that the majority of adult cattle present in early medieval assemblages are female (McCormick, 1992). Despite the advantageous grazing available in Ireland, the metrical analysis indicates no significant difference in cattle size with those present in AngloSaxon England (McCormick and Murray, 2007). Irish cattle seem to display some traits that appear to be less developed than those present elsewhere. For example, the law tracts indicate that cows were not expected to produce their first calf until they were four years old (Kelly, 1997, 64). In contrast, Welsh medieval law indicates that the first calf was produced a year earlier. Another example of the ‘primitive’ nature of Irish cattle may be

seen in the age-slaughter patterns. While dairying is generally accepted as the most widespread form of cattle farming in early medieval Ireland, the expected culling of very young calves predicted in Payne’s (1973) dairying model is not apparent in the Irish evidence. Fig. 6 shows the age-slaughter pattern of cattle from those sites that have produced useful quantities of cattle mandibulae. Relatively few calves were slaughtered, and virtually none of these were less than 5e6 months of age (McCormick and Murray, 2007). This seems to be due to the fact that cows in Ireland would not give their milk without the calf being present (McCormick, 1992). Cattle age-slaughter distributions indicate two distinct patterns. In the first group there is a pronounced killing of cattle in their second year, i.e. prime meat animals that were reaching full size. This group seems to represent a producer/consumer regime where large numbers of younger animals, not needed for breeding, dairying or traction, were being fattened and then killed. In the second group the emphasis is on killing older animals. On the basis of tooth wear, most of these were several years old at the time of slaughter. These would seem to represent consumer sites where the meat was being primarily procured from outside sources. This is certainly the case at Fishamble Street, Dublin, which was an urban Viking settlement. The major ecclesiastical settlement of Clonmacnoise could also be regarded as a consumer settlement with much of its meat requirements being supplied by outside producers. The enclosure complexes at Baronstown and Roestown are more problematic. Baronstown is characterised by unusually strong defensive features which led its excavators to conclude that it was primarily a ‘military-type’ enclosure (Linnane and Kinsella, 2009). An analogy may be drawn with later medieval Irish castles which also produced high levels of older animals (Murray and McCormick, 2011, 420). The high incidence of older animals at Roestown is more difficult to explain. The enclosures at Roestown are more complex than those found on similar sites, but this is likely due to the longevity of the site’s occupation. Evidence for fine metalworking and imported pottery were found at Roestown. These finds are generally absent on other enclosure complexes and are traditionally indicative of a high status site. It is not possible, however, to draw an analogy between the status of the occupants of the site and the age-slaughter pattern of cattle, as the royal site at Moynagh is clearly a producer/consumer site. When Roestown, and other enclosure complexes, are fully published, it may be possible to identify a satisfactory explanation for its unusual ageslaughter pattern. 5. Pig The early documentary sources provide much information about pigs that complements the zooarchaeological evidence. Pigs had a wide range of colours including ‘white’, ‘grey’, ‘black’, ‘reddish-brown’ and possibly ‘blue-black’, the term for the latter being obscure (Kelly, 1997, 80). Farrowing occurred only once a year, in spring, and litters of up to nine are recorded, with the weakest in the litter often being hand-reared on milk (Kelly, 1997, 81). Young pigs were kept near the farm until August, after which they were let loose in the woods where pigs belonging to more than one owner would be jointly herded by a swineherd who was often a slave. Pigs fed on acorns in the woods but were frequently fattened on cereals or milk before slaughter. Documentary sources record the killing of sows after they have produced two or three litters, and sows who failed to become pregnant were also killed. Pork was consumed in fresh and salted form. Bacon and chitterlings were popular as can be seen in the descriptions given in the twelfth-century satirical poem Aislinge Meic Con Glinne (Meyer, 1892).

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Fig. 3. Locations of sites discussed in the text.

Pigs are generally the second most important domesticate on early medieval settlement sites. The age-slaughter patterns (Fig. 7) indicate that in most sites a distinct peak in slaughter occurred when the pigs were between a year and a half and two years old. It can be assumed that this represents the time when the animals were reaching full size and at the optimal stage for slaughter. Uncommonly high percentages of pigs are found on two sites e Fishamble Street, Dublin, and Castlefarm. The high incidence in Viking Dublin is unsurprising. The city was surrounded by a politically unstable and often hostile hinterland leading the inhabitants to produce a reliable source of home-grown animal protein. A farrowing pen at Fishamble Street (McCormick and Murray, 2007) confirms that pigs were being bred inside the town of Dublin. The high incidence of pig at the rural site of Castlefarm is more difficult to explain. The age-slaughter of pigs at Castlefarm, with its emphasis on the killing of younger animals, is also the same as that noted at Dublin. At Dublin, the high incidence of 6e12 month olds reflects a situation where it was difficult to rear larger numbers of the animals to a more economic size due to a combination of a shortage of suitable food and the fact that numbers of these troublesome omnivorous beasts would have had to be kept under control within a congested urban environment. Castlefarm is a rural site so the high incidence of slaughter of young animals is more difficult to understand. It may well be that the intensive regime of

pig rearing found on this site may have necessitated killing larger numbers of young pigs. The pig age-slaughter-pattern at Clonmacnoise, one of the most important monasteries of the period, differs from the other two distributions in that there is a greater percentage of older animals than that found on other sites. Given that it has already been argued on the basis of the cattle age-slaughter profile that Clonmacnoise was a consumer site, it may well be that the Clonmacnoise pig slaughter profile represents animals from different sources given as rents or ecclesiastical payments of some form rather than the produce of their own herds. 6. Sheep The documentary sources provide valuable information to complement the faunal evidence. Except for the few kept for breeding, all males were castrated after they were weaned, and it is specifically noted that wethers were considered to be summer and autumn food (Kelly, 1997, 69). Only a small number of sheep were white in colour, with the majority being dun-coloured or black. As a consequence the law tracts indicate white sheep, presumably because of their more desirable wool, were considered much more valuable than the others (Kelly, 1997, 70). Female lambs were considered to be of more value than male, presumably because of

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Fig. 4. Minimum numbers of individuals (MNI) distribution based on Table 1.

their breeding abilities and potential to produce milk. Sheep milk was regarded as inferior to that of goat (Kelly, 1997, 75e6). Very few goats have been noted on early medieval rural sites, so it can be presumed that the great majority of the caprovines present are sheep, although a higher incidence of goat was noted on urban rather than rural sites (McCormick and Murray, 2007). Caprovines generally comprise between 20% and 30% of the MNI totals, with especially low values noted in Viking Dublin (11%). There were occasional high instances of sheep, such as Raystown, Phase 2, and the exceptional sample already noted at Moynagh. A high incidence of sheep can also be associated with a few sites located in environmentally marginal areas. The samples from the Dún Eoganachta, where sheep comprised 40% of the MNI, and Larrybane, where they comprised 50% of the MNI, both fell below the MNI threshold for inclusion in Table 1 (Jope, 1961-2; Murray, 2013). Dún Eoghanachta is located on an exposed, relatively barren island off the west coast of Ireland. A dominance of sheep had already been noted on Bronze Age sites on the same island (McCormick and Murphy, 2013). A marginal environment might also explain the high incidence of sheep at the cliff-top promontory fort at Larrybane. The faunal evidence indicated that the majority of sheep are killed off before the age of 28 months (Fig. 8). Generally only about

20e35% survived beyond this age. At Moynagh, most of the older animals (96%) fell into Payne’s tooth wear stage 11G class (McCormick, 1987; Payne, 1987) which gives an estimated age of 4½ - 6½ years (Jones, 2006). At Knowth, 55% of the older animals fell into this age range with 45% falling into the 28 month e 4½ year range (McCormick and Murray, 2007, 160). The highest incidence of older sheep is noted at the monastic site at Clonmacnoise. This, as in the case of the high incidence of older cattle and pig, probably reflects the assumption that the monastery is primarily a consumer rather that a producer/consumer site. The negligible numbers of young sheep present at Clonmacnoise would seem to confirm this assumption. 7. Cereal production Evidence for cereal production in early medieval Ireland is derived from documentary sources, tools used in cereal production and processing; structures associated with cereal processing, in particular drying kilns and mills; and finally in the macroplant remains from excavated sites. Plough parts are rarely found, and it is generally believed that the coulter does not appear until c. the tenth century (Brady, 1993; Kelly, 1997, 47). Recently, it has been suggested that the coulter was in use as early as the seventh/

Values of cattle in early Ireland 30

Female

Male Third calf

Scruples

25

Plough ox

Second calf

20

First calf Bull = 12 scruples Dry cow = 12 scruples

15 10

No general values for males after two years

5

Meat value of dead cow or ox including hide

ov em be r Th ir d M ay Fo ur th Fo M ay ur th No ve m be r Fi fth M ay Si xt h M ay Se ve nt h M ay Ei gh th M Sl ay au gh te rV alu e

M ay Se co nd

N

r

Se co nd

ov em be

Fi rs tN

Bi rth

0

Fig. 5. Values of cattle based on law tracts (McCormick and Murray, 2007). A scruple is generally equated with tree pence (Kelly, 1997).

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Fig. 6. Cattle age-slaughter pattern from early medieval sites.

eighth century (McCarthy, 2011, 245) on the basis of a find from Ballynakelly, Co. Dublin. This would make them contemporary with the earliest Anglo-Saxon coulters (http://antiquity.ac.uk/ projgall/thomas334/). The small size of the Ballynakelly artifact, however, makes its identification as a coulter highly questionable, and a later date for its introduction to Ireland is still more likely. There is no evidence for the presence of the more developed Frankish ‘floating’ coulter which can imply the presence of a mouldboard (Henning, 2009, 13e156). This is likely to be a postNorman innovation. The early medieval sources mention the use of the harrow (Kelly, 1997, 478) but these have not survived in the Irish archaeological record. McClatchie has recently compiled a detailed review of available published and unpublished macrofossil evidence from early medieval excavations, and the following discussion is primarily based on her results (McCormick et al., 2011). In considering the presence/ absence of cereal type in 160 time phases from 60 sites, oat and barley are present on the great majority of phases but rye is infrequently encountered (Fig. 9). Where identification was possible, the cereal species is also indicated. This pattern showed little change between the earlier and latter part of the period (Fig. 10). Looking at the same data in terms of regional distribution, the only difference noted was that wheat was more commonly found in the east and west of the country than in the north and south. This distribution is difficult to understand, as it would have been expected that wheat would have been more difficult to grow in the wetter western regions of Ireland. The early texts rank the perceived status of cereals with bread-wheat followed by rye at the top, and oats at the bottom

(Kelly, 1997, 219). The archaeological record, however, has not demonstrated that wheat was encountered more on high status sites rather than low ones. This is unsurprising given that high status sites would have been likely to have included large numbers of low status household members. That said, it has not been demonstrated either that wheat is absent from sites that can be identified as being low status. Analysis of the relative dominance of cereal types in cereal assemblages, however, does indicate temporal change during the early medieval period. In order for a cereal type to be deemed dominant, McClatchie decided that it has to represent more than 50% of an assemblage and be recorded at a level at least 10% higher than the next nearest cereal type. Assemblages were placed in a mixed category if these limits could not be reached. Analysis indicated an increase in both oat-dominated and mixed assemblages during the later period (Fig. 11). Crop diversification, indicated by the increase in mixed assemblages during the latter part of the early medieval, is accompanied by an increasing incidence of other cultivars such as flax, pea and bean. The dominance of oat and barley is unsurprising given that they are suitable for wet conditions and are tolerant of both rich and poor soils. Wheat, in contrast, is ecologically more demanding. The increase in the importance of oats during the later centuries of the period may be related to increasing wetness. McClatchie also notes that macro-plant assemblages generally occur more frequently during the latter part of the early medieval period. This may reflect an increase in cereal production, as is indicated by the increase in water mill use from the eighth century onwards.

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Fig. 7. Pig age-slaughter patterns.

The early texts make frequent reference to the barn which might more correctly be described as a granary. The laws state that a prosperous farmer was to have his own located near his house, while the less wealthy farmer merely had a share of a barn held in communal ownership O’Kelly, (1997, 242e3). Two potential types have recently been identified in the archaeological record. The ‘four poster’ and ‘nine poster’ structures found at Sallymount, Co. Limerick may represent the foundations of granaries that were raised off the ground (Fig. 12). These are similar to structures commonly found on Iron Age sites in north-west Europe which Waterblock (2008, 12) interprets as being the remains of covered platforms where ‘grain, hay or other produce could be stored’. At Drumadoon, Co. Antrim (McSparon and Williams, 2009, 122e3), a circular clay and wicker structure, 2 m in diameter (Fig. 13), is almost certainly an early medieval grain store as it contained nearly 20,000 charred oat grains. The dampness of the Irish climate made it especially important that grain was dry before it was stored. Wet grain spoils easily and is difficult to mill. Monk (1981, 217e8) notes that experiments have shown that drying the grain speeds up the process of grinding even when using a hand rotary quern. A direct response to climatic conditions, grain-drying kilns are a north-western ‘coastal’ European phenomenon and are scarce in Anglo-Saxon England or southern Continental Europe. Drying kilns are very rarely present on ringforts, but are found on most complex enclosure sites and settlement cemeteries. At Sallymount, two kilns are located outside the site enclosure (Fig. 12). This was a typical location for kilns as they were a fire hazard and needed to be kept separate from

dwellings. Several hundred kiln sites have been excavated in the last two decades as a consequence of extensive road construction projects. Their use seem to increase until the beginning of the eighth century after which their numbers appear to decline, at least in some areas of the country (Monk and Power, 2012). The later kilns, however, tend to be of the larger and better built ‘keyhole’ type rather than the smaller, less sophisticated ‘figure-of eight’ type more common in the earlier part of the period. The chronology of water mill construction rather surprisingly shows the opposite trend to that noted in the case of corn drying kilns as their use increases from the eighth century onwards (Fig. 14) with the highest concentration being built between A.D. 750 and

Fig. 8. Sheep age-slaughter pattern.

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Fig. 9. Relative occurrence of cereal types from 165 phases on 60 sites. Purple ¼ cereal genus; Blue ¼ cereal species/variety (McCormick et al., 2011). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 10. Relative occurrence of cereal types during the different time periods (McCormick et al., 2011).

850. The earliest mills date to the early seventh century, and it is perhaps relevant that the oldest dated mill was found at Nendrum, a monastic site. This might suggest that this Roman technology was an innovation introduced by the church. Vertical and horizontal mills both make their appearance in the seventh century but the vertical type was soon abandoned, and only re-introduced in the later medieval period. Mills have an uneven distribution, being found for the most part in the south and south east part of Ireland (Brady, 1996, 46), areas which include some of the best arable land in the country. The law tracts indicate that mills were often jointowned although those of higher rank could own a mill singularly (Kelly, 1997, 484). There is also documentary reference to a muilenn túaithe e ‘mill of a kingdom’. Kelly speculated that this was a central, communally-used mill worked by a professional miller, a profession also mentioned in the texts. This could indicate an attempt to centrally control grain processing in individual kingdoms, a process that might also be reflected in the smaller number of bigger grain drying kilns noted from the eighth century onwards.

8. Discussion and conclusion The study of the archaeology of early medieval Ireland is presently undergoing significant revision. This is due to the massive increase in data that has become available since the beginning of this century because of several large motorway schemes. Much of the material is as yet unpublished in full although the various EMAP reports (http://www.emap.ie/emap_reports.html) have placed much of the results of these excavations into the public domain. Prior to this, it was thought that settlement was confined to ringforts, at least for the earlier part of the period. It is now clear that a previously unknown type, namely enclosure complexes, many including cemeteries, were a crucial part of the settlement landscape. Some begun as ringforts, e.g. Dowdstown, but most are completely different in form comprising a core settlement area with attached annexes, paddocks and gardens. Although imperfectly understood, it seems these are the working centres of large agricultural estates.

Fig. 11. Relative dominance by cereal types by period (McCormick et al., 2011).

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Fig. 12. Sallymount, Co. Limerick (after Kerr et al., 2012).

Many strands of evidence have identified the late seventh/eighth century as a period of change. It is at this time, for instance, that mill building begins to increase and large numbers of small grain-drying kilns gave way to smaller numbers of larger ones. The macro-plant evidence for the latter part of the early medieval period suggests increased levels of production and a trend towards diversification in arable farming. Sites such as Baronstown, Clonmacnoise, Moynagh and Raystown (Fig. 4) also indicate a decline in the importance of cattle in the livestock economy as time progresses. McCormick (2008) has argued that this matches a decline in the importance of cattle as a currency, giving way to the increasing use of silver as a means of exchange. The ringfort also goes into decline and is replaced with new forms of settlement such as the ‘raised rath’ or open unenclosed settlements (Kerr, 2007; McCormick, 2008). It has also been shown that the raised rath clearly indicated a preference for sites of greater arable agricultural potential (Kerr, 2009). It cannot yet be demonstrated whether the settlement change reflects a move away from family based settlement. Unfortunately, excavations of the new enclosure complexes have been characterised by a lack of house structures, a consequence of the fact that they were all heavily plough truncated before discovery. Sites such as Knowth and Ballywee, however, indicate that rural settlements with large numbers of houses were in existence during the tenth and eleventh centuries (Eogan, 2012). As noted above, the widespread introduction of the large keyhole type kiln can be interpreted as a manifestation of the social elite gaining control of crop production. Crops are more labour intensive than cattle, and the fact that the decline of the ringfort, a settlement type designed to protect livestock, is accompanied by the increasing occurrence of the souterrain (artificial

caves), for protecting people, reflects a fundamental change in the nature of agricultural production. The seemingly increasing importance of cereal production during the latter part of the early medieval period (McCormick and Murray, 2007, 114e5; McCormick, 2008) would appear to indicate a move away from subsistence farming to the production of agricultural surplus controlled by the political elite. The agricultural and settlement change in Ireland seems to reflect changes noted outside the country. Hamerow (2009, 69e70) concluded that the period from c. A.D. 680e830 marks a period of change throughout Europe. Settlements based on the household gives way to types designed to accommodate larger non-nuclear households. These changes suggest ‘a shift away from essentially (though never entirely) self-sufficient communities, whose economies involved reciprocal exchange and the circulation of prestigious goods, towards an economy based on the redistribution of surplus and trade of commodities via regional networks’. This change involved an intensification of agricultural production, especially arable farming, and the growth of ‘consumer’ communities such as towns and monasteries (Hamerow, 2002, 139). However, there seems to be significant differences between the Irish and overseas evidence. In north-west Europe, for instance, the intensification in crop-production is often accompanied by species specialisation (Hamerow, 2002, 135) while in Ireland diversification of crop production seems to have been the trend. Given the vast amount of new early medieval archaeological data that is beginning to emerge in Ireland, it is ironic that the period is now less understood than it was previously as many of the earlier certainties, and assumptions have given way. The summary of the evidence

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Fig. 13. Drumadoon, Co. Antrim (after McSparon and Williams, 2009).

presented here is extremely ‘provisional’ in nature, and may need radical re-appraisal as more of the recently excavated sites reach full publication. It is, however, emblematic of the way in which archaeological and palaeoenvironmental research and data interpretation may both augment and challenge received wisdom.

Acknowledgements Most of the zooarchaeological and macroplant data used in this article is derived from the EMAP project 2008e2013 which has been generously financed by the Heritage Council Ireland as part of the Irish National Strategic Archaeological Research Programme (INSTAR). The author would like to thank Thomas Kerr for his comments on the text. References

Fig. 14. Dendrochronological dates for water mills.

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