Mapping Death

Burial in late Iron Age and early medieval Ireland

Elizabeth O'Brien

• Publisher: Four Courts Press
• Year: 2021
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781846829857
• Subtopic: Irish History
• Index: History

Burial rites and associated events can provide a unique insight into the attitudes and beliefs of diverse communities at any given moment in time. This book—the outcome of forty years of research—takes an interdisciplinary approach to burial practices in Ireland in order to interpret and to chart the development of burial rites as they appear in the archaeological record of the late Iron Age (c.200 BC–AD 300) and early medieval period (c.AD 400–800). Sources used include archaeological excavation evidence, c14 (radiocarbon) dating evidence, strontium and oxygen isotope evidence for movement of peoples, and osteo-archaeological evidence. This is combined with a careful and discerning examination of references to death, burial, and associated events that appear in Irish hagiography, penitentials, laws, and canons compiled during the seventh and eighth centuries. Topics covered include: the transition from cremation to inhumation, re-use of ancient ancestral burial places, occasional use of grave-goods, funeral feasts, atypical or deviant burials, mobility of people within and into Ireland, the exceptional burials of some women, the cessation of burial of Christians among their ancestors, and burial in early Church cemeteries.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Table of contents
• List of illustrations, plates, maps and tables
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1. Iron Age cremation burial, c.400BC–AD400
• 2. Iron Age inhumation burial, c.200BC–AD200
• 3. Inhumation in the Early Medieval period, c.AD400–800
• 4. Grave, burial and secular cemetery types
• 5. Grave goods
• 6. Atypical or deviant burials
• Plates
• 7. Mobility of peoples
• 8. Unusual or exceptional women: evidence from the grave
• 9. Cessation of burial of Christians among ‘pagan’ ancestors
• Conclusion
• Gazeteer 1. Artefacts in cremation deposits
• Gazeteer 2. Early Medieval burial and cemetery types
• Gazeteer 3. Early Medieval burials with grave goods
• Gazeteer 4. Early Medieval atypical or deviant burials
• Gazeteer 5. Iron Age and Early Medieval burials selected for isotopic analysis
• Gazeteer 6. Early Medieval exceptional or unusual women’s burial
• Gazeteer 7. Ecclesiastical sites
• Bibliography
• Index