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History of Ireland
Prehistory (8000 BC–400 AD)
Ireland during the Ice Age
Main article: Prehistoric Ireland
What is known of pre-Christian Ireland comes from references in Roman writings, Irish poetry and myth, and archaeology. While some possible Paleolithic tools have been found in Ireland, none of the finds are convincing of Paleolithic inhabitants in Ireland. The earliest inhabitants of Ireland were Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who arrived some time after 8000 BC, when the climate had become more hospitable following the retreat of the polar icecaps (although remains thought to be from before 9000 BC have been found at Kilgreany Cave in County Waterford). While some authors take the view that a land bridge connecting Ireland to England still existed at that time, more recent studies indicate that Ireland was separated from Britain by c. 14,000 BC, when the climate was still cold and local ice caps persisted in parts of the country. The people remained hunter-gatherers until about 6000 BC. It is argued this is when the world's first signs of complex agriculture started to show with the discovery of the Céide Fields in County Mayo, leading to the establishment of a high Neolithic culture, characterised by the appearance of pottery, polished stone tools, rectangular wooden houses and communal megalithic tombs. Some of these tombs are huge stone monuments, such as the Passage Tombs of Newgrange (arguably the oldest astronomically designed structure in the world), Knowth and Dowth, many of them astronomically aligned (most notably, Newgrange). Four main types of megalithic tomb have been identified: Portal Tombs, Court Tombs, Passage Tombs and Wedge Tombs. In Leinster and Munster, individual adult males were buried in small stone structures, called cists, under earthen mounds and were accompanied by distinctive decorated pottery. This culture apparently prospered, and the island became more densely populated. Near the end of the Neolithic new types of monuments developed, such as circular embanked enclosures and timber, stone and post and pit circles.
The Bronze Age properly began once copper was alloyed with tin to produce true bronze artefacts; this took place around 2000 BC, when some Ballybeg flat axes and associated metalwork was produced. The period preceding this, in which Lough Ravel and most Ballybeg axes were produced, is known as the Copper Age or Chalcolithic, and commenced about 2500 BC. This period also saw the production of elaborate gold and bronze ornaments, weapons and tools. There was a movement away from the construction of communal megalithic tombs to the burial of the dead in small stone cists or simple pits, which could be situated in cemeteries or in circular earth or stone built burial mounds known respectively as barrows and cairns. As the period progressed, inhumation burial gave way to cremation and by the Middle Bronze Age, remains were often placed beneath large burial urns.
Prehistory (8000 BC–400 AD)
Ireland during the Ice Age
Main article: Prehistoric Ireland
What is known of pre-Christian Ireland comes from references in Roman writings, Irish poetry and myth, and archaeology. While some possible Paleolithic tools have been found in Ireland, none of the finds are convincing of Paleolithic inhabitants in Ireland. The earliest inhabitants of Ireland were Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who arrived some time after 8000 BC, when the climate had become more hospitable following the retreat of the polar icecaps (although remains thought to be from before 9000 BC have been found at Kilgreany Cave in County Waterford). While some authors take the view that a land bridge connecting Ireland to England still existed at that time, more recent studies indicate that Ireland was separated from Britain by c. 14,000 BC, when the climate was still cold and local ice caps persisted in parts of the country. The people remained hunter-gatherers until about 6000 BC. It is argued this is when the world's first signs of complex agriculture started to show with the discovery of the Céide Fields in County Mayo, leading to the establishment of a high Neolithic culture, characterised by the appearance of pottery, polished stone tools, rectangular wooden houses and communal megalithic tombs. Some of these tombs are huge stone monuments, such as the Passage Tombs of Newgrange (arguably the oldest astronomically designed structure in the world), Knowth and Dowth, many of them astronomically aligned (most notably, Newgrange). Four main types of megalithic tomb have been identified: Portal Tombs, Court Tombs, Passage Tombs and Wedge Tombs. In Leinster and Munster, individual adult males were buried in small stone structures, called cists, under earthen mounds and were accompanied by distinctive decorated pottery. This culture apparently prospered, and the island became more densely populated. Near the end of the Neolithic new types of monuments developed, such as circular embanked enclosures and timber, stone and post and pit circles.
The Bronze Age properly began once copper was alloyed with tin to produce true bronze artefacts; this took place around 2000 BC, when some Ballybeg flat axes and associated metalwork was produced. The period preceding this, in which Lough Ravel and most Ballybeg axes were produced, is known as the Copper Age or Chalcolithic, and commenced about 2500 BC. This period also saw the production of elaborate gold and bronze ornaments, weapons and tools. There was a movement away from the construction of communal megalithic tombs to the burial of the dead in small stone cists or simple pits, which could be situated in cemeteries or in circular earth or stone built burial mounds known respectively as barrows and cairns. As the period progressed, inhumation burial gave way to cremation and by the Middle Bronze Age, remains were often placed beneath large burial urns.