Social and cultural change in Ireland was largely an insular development, although influenced by outside cultures, for example Roman civilisation across the Irish Sea in Britain for 350 years, but also influences from Francia and the Mediterranean area generally in the post-Roman period. We should bear in mind that there was no invasion of or migrations into Ireland before the Viking Age.
The pace of social and cultural change in Ireland quickened in the 5th and 6th centuries AD. Ireland had been tribal, with communal organisation ritually based with its leaders as much priests as secular rulers but with power firmly rooted in tribal organisation. The tribe was all. As we move into the 5th and 6th centuries AD territorial lordship, that is power based on landholdings came to the fore and dynastic kins and families rose to power.This is not unlike changes we see in other societies influenced by the Roman Empire - we could claim similar developments in Frankish society for example and at a later date much the same sort of changes we have dimly perceived in Norwegian society.
Inevitably the competition for power amongst these dynasts led to aggression in society, the acquisition of dependants and war-bands - conflict. We see emerging in Ireland in this period some 150 or so small kingdoms or tuaths, which come to be dominated by individual families, who change with displacement and upheaval. Out of the concept of priest-kings with great power over the tribes from centres like Tara north of Dublin came the concept of high kings or overlords, as a few families began to dominate politically.
So there were changes in the nature of secular power in the period, but also the conversion to Christianity brought Ireland into even closer contact with the continent and just as Christianity shaped Irish society so also the Irish dimension made the Irish church peculiar to Ireland. A primitive alphabet - ogam, consisting of groups of straight lines arranged either side of a vertical line or the corner of a stone, developed from the third century AD onwards. It was used primarily on upright pillars of stone, forming crosses, memorials or grave markers. Though based on Latin and some - a minority of stones - include Latin as well as ogam, this development again displays a peculiarly Irish dimension.
This period saw increased contact with the outside world. As conflict in society and competition increased, we see from place-name and archaeological evidence as well as entries in the annals Irish influence in and the movement of Irish into western Scotland, Galloway, south-west Wales especially and some influence also extending into south-west England. A variety of mechanisms may be represented here, with Irish raids on Britain reported in 4th century Roman writers and in the pages of the early medieval writer Gildas writing in the 6th century. The movement of elites seeking power and wealth elsewhere we have already observed in Dalriada. Colonisation has been suggested in south-west Wales, though it may be merely the influence of the cultural traits of a new Irish elite in the area.
Finally there were commercial contacts - Mediterranean manufactured pottery appears on both ecclesiastical and secular sites in small quantities in 5th- 6th and rather larger quantities of Frankish pottery manufactured probably in the Loire Valley in the 7th and 8th, though there is also some Merovingian and Anglo-Saxon metalwork from Ireland. Finally of course the universal Christian Church brought contacts - the most obvious of which was the art of the illuminated manuscript from the 7th century, where clearly scriptoria were in touch with each other across the Christian world and the written record tells of Irish missionaries on the continent.
Archaeologically, it is rather difficult to detect these changes precisely. Elite groups or royalty in society may be identified by mention of particular sites as royal in later annals but without that the identification is less clear. There are some 120 crannogs identified in Ireland - natural or artificial islands in lochs or estuaries.
By the nature of their construction they show the use of labour on some scale and thus the likelihood of elite activity. There is evidence of metalworking on excavated sites. Finds of imported pottery and evidence for the consumption of foodstuffs e.g. meat also supports the recognition. Home farms on the mainland have been recognised close to some crannogs again suggesting dependence.
The rath or enclosed site, as we shall see is typical of the period, but some are multi-vallate and elaborate and some appear to be an aberration in an otherwise dense settlement pattern, with greater space around them.
Some enclosed sites, cashels, are merely stone versions of the earthwork raths, but again indicate perhaps their ability to command labour services.
There are perhaps 60,000 enclosed sites known in Ireland, but not of course contemporarily occupied.
Probably first built in the 5th - 6th centuries AD, some were still occupied in the 13th. Perhaps no more than 10,000 were occupied at any one time. An estimated population for the whole of Ireland at this time is ¾ million. If we take an average of 5 people to each site that gives a total population of only 50,000 in the enclosed sites, so the vast majority of people must have lived in open sites, some of which are beginning to appear in the archaeological record, although archaeology finds them much more difficult to detect. Excavated enclosed sites often prove to have a single house with outbuildings.
The houses were wattle - or post-built, stone-founded or -built in stone areas and circular, although rectangular houses do begin to appear from the eighth century. No internal roof supports are known in these buildings. Features may include central hearths and benches for sitting and sleeping. They occupy the best farming land. Defendable sites were not chosen, rather the lower slopes, out of the flood plains. They appear to be single family farmsteads within landholdings of perhaps 20 -100 hectares. The nature of the sites still indicate an elite - local lords and their families are perhaps represented by these sites, with landholding the basis of their wealth and power and with some obligations owed to the tuathan (tribal) kings and over-kings.Their dependants of course are the almost invisible mass of the population in open sites, some at least distributed as single buildings amongst the field systems.
The major and comparatively rich monasteries of Ireland were situated in populous areas, and had some of the functions of urban sites and estate centres.
They were connected into long distance trade, local and regional markets, manufacturing, and they acted in concert with kings functioning as royal treasuries and their senior ecclesiastics were royal advisers. Their abbots could be powerful men, whose names, appointments and deaths are recorded in the annals. To some extent the diocesan system, with its boundaries, introduced from Gaul in the conversion period was modified by the Irish system of major monasteries, with daughter houses away from the central house and powerful abbots in charge. No agreed higher authority emerged in the Irish church in the early medieval period. Armagh often claimed overall authority, but it was never able to make good the claim even within its own region. Some bishops were based on monasteries, some bishops had their seats outside. Some abbots exercised paramount power.
Then there were the much smaller, isolated, eremitic houses, which shunned populous areas and whose adherents were hermit-like in their devotions.
Situated on headland, island, coastal and estuarine sites, they were vulnerable to attack, though the quantities of portable wealth available at such sites must have been small.
Questions for you to think about
- Trace the stages by which kingship developed in Ireland.
- What was ogam and how was it used?
- Describe a rath.
- What functions did monasteries perform in Irish society?
Quiz
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