“Dealing with Difference: Investigating Social Diversity in the Central European Neolithic”

Seminar by Dr Penny Bickle, University of York 

Report by Emily Mooney

Last Thursday evening, the Archaeology Society was delighted to welcome Dr. Penny Bickle from the University of York, who gave a lecture entitled “Dealing with Difference: Investigating Social Diversity in the Central European Neolithic”. The lecture commenced with Dr. Bickle mentioning two of the projects that she has been involved in, and stating how there has been a relative tendency towards hesitation when it comes to discussing social differences during the Neolithic.

She then moved her talk onto the discussion of the archaeology of the Central European Neolithic, with a focus on the Linear Band Keramic (LBK) culture. Most of the evidence for Central European Neolithic comes from the settlement of the LBK, which consisted of villages containing longhouses, with clusters of settlements alongside river valleys.

Dr. Bickle proceeded to then discuss the pottery evidence for the LBK and what it says about regional diversity and hierarchy within the culture, with prestige objects dominating. She used the very effective analogy of football teams when explaining pottery diversity within different LBK groups - everyone was playing by the same rules, but for different teams, but there is also the possibility that they could have even been playing different ball games altogether.

She then discussed the details of her first project, “The First Farmers in Central Europe: Diversity in LBK lifeways” (2013), which utilised the study of isotopes to determine diet, which revealed that hunter-gatherers and farmers had a widespread similarity in diet, and that the evidence exhibited the sharing of food between settlements, but the project was not able to determine any changes over time.
The second project, “The Time of their Lives: Precise chronologies for the European Neolithic” (http://totl.eu/), currently ongoing and led by Dr Alasdair Whittle and Alex Bayliss, uses Baysian modelling techniques to address what the previous project could not, examining change over time across different cultural groups, but due to a limited stratigraphy resorted to the examination of the different ceramic phases of the LBK across Europe.

The results of both projects concluded that there were changes in social relations of Neolithic Europe between 5160 – 5115 BC, with periods of increased and stable settlements and then a collapse, the reason for which is unclear, with the society focusing on the contemporary social groups as opposed to previous generations being the focal point.

To conclude, Dr. Bickle’s work has shown that social relations and kinship played a central role in the LBK way of life, alongside a system of shared values, and those communities on the edges of the society exhibiting more variation. Overall it was a very engaging talk that was enjoyed by all who attended, and we look forward to hearing of Dr. Bickle’s fantastic work in the future.

 

"Violence Among Hunter-Gatherers"

 

Seminar by Dr Rick Schulting, University of Oxford

 

Report by Nicola Riordan

Dr Rick Schulting from the University of Oxford came over on the 4^th of February to give us a very interesting seminar. The seminar began with telling us that there is a debate among archaeologists as to the origin of warfare. Were hunter-gatherers engaged with warfare? Is there any evidence of even earlier warfare? When we think about hunter-gatherers, we generally think of much simpler, egalitarian, peaceful groups of people who shared the land as a community. There is evidence of high homicide rates among hunter-gatherers all over the world, but this does not represent warfare, or at least, nothing we can identify as ‘warfare’, in which we envision warriors with armour.

However, looking at hunter-gatherers from a different perspective, we can look at the northeast coast of North America, where there were chiefs in charge of groups, slaves who were either captured and brought to the group to serve or born as a slave from other slaves. An example of this was a painting from 1847 of the Songhees war party returning home, holding severed heads as trophies. Several books have been written about violence and warfare among hunter-gatherers, not exactly questioning it, but more compiling information on the evidence for murder, massacres and warfare among these groups. These books include ‘Violence and Warfare Among Hunter-Gatherers’ by Allen, M and Jones T, as well as ‘Warless Societies and the Origin of War’ by Kelly, R. A quote from literature which stands out is ‘thank prehistoric conflict for collaboration, intelligence in humans’. It is a quote like this which makes us realise that once individual groups begin to define themselves and gain a unique identity and understanding of who they are, is when the prospect of warfare begins. Within primitive warfare, size matters – a bigger group of people seem a lot more intimidating than a smaller group. According to a paper published in Science in 2009 by Bowles, S, 14% of adult deaths among hunter-gatherer groups in archaeological and ethnological regions were due to warfare in areas such as Europe, Asia and North America.

However, at one site mentioned; Téviec, it is unclear if the violence recorded was due to 3warfare or homicide within the group. At this time in this location, there were no chiefdoms or states, so if someone wronged you, you would have been free to kill them. Also, in this paper there was a lot of data missing, there are at least 30 other sites in Europe which show no signs of warfare, so it seems as though the information was chosen to back up warfare, while all of the evidence showing a lack of warfare was simply ignored. In sites such as Gøngehusvej 7 in Denmark, where a woman with a depression in her skull which showed signs of healing was found, there were no examples of unhealed cranium injuries. Another site in Tilbury, Essex from 6065-5910 BC there were many examples of healed injuries, but no evidence from either site for massacres or battle or warfare.

This brought us on to the concept that within hunter-gatherer societies, it is much more likely that there was ritualised conflict not meant to be lethal, such as stick fights which the elders would organise to diffuse conflict between groups in the younger generations. This is backed up by the lack of evidence for perimortem damages within these groups. A few weeks ago, the cover of Nature featured a ‘massacre’ at Lake Turkana. This ‘massacre’ featured individuals with healed injuries, some individuals with their hand bound suggesting some sort of execution, and some perimortem injuries including one individual with an obsidian blade still lodged in the skull. There were 20 individuals spread out over 300 meters, and have a large date range of 10500-9000 BC, suggesting that this was not a massacre, but drawn out over a longer time period.

Two sites which Dr Schulting has worked on are Ofnet in Bavaria and Cis-Baikall in Siberia. In Ofnet, two skull nests were excavated by Schmidt in 1909, and when radiocarbon dating came into use, they were dated to the 7^th millennium BC, making them Mesolithic, which had previously been debated. There were 28 skulls in the large nest and 6 in the small nest, with a range from infants to adults and males to females. There were a lot of cranium injuries present with about 75% of them having severe cranium injuries. There are two theories that are debated with this site – is this evidence of a massacre or were the skulls placed here over time? The radiocarbon dates received from the nests allow both theories to be possible – they could have all been deposited at the same time or over a timeframe of 600 years. Some skulls show signs of overkill, and have injuries to the back of the head in an execution style. All of the skulls still have their mandibles, and the first 3, 4, 5 vertebrae have cut marks; evidence that the heads were cut off before decomposition occurred.

A few of the skulls in the nests have been dated to about 6400 BC, with only one outlier in the large nest. The dates in the large nest suggest that it was either a single event or took place over 200 years. Also, the two nests appear to be of different ages. At least 30 more skulls have been dated, and this should get the date range down to about 30 years, though with the conditions of the skulls and the different ages of the two nests, the best date range scientifically achievable at the moment is more like 90 years, which is still definitely shorter than previously thought. Are these nests evidence of warfare among hunter-gatherers? In a more primitive society, if someone did you wrong you would kill the person you are angry at. However, once you start to target that person’s group and not them specifically for revenge, that is a feud or warfare between two groups of people. The killing of children shows this – it is unlikely that a young child killed someone or were the subject of sexual jealousy, so the fact that there are children’s skulls in the nest suggests that they were not targeted because they had done wrong, but because they were associated with the person who did, though this is very debatable. There are a couple of other sites where something similar has been observed like in Ofnet. In Mannlefelsa, there is a male skull with similar perimortem injuries, with cut marks present also. In Hohlenstein-Stadel there were three individuals found; a man, woman and child, all killed. The child’s skull showed it would have been about 6 years old, but it was larger than it should have been for a 6 year old, suggesting hydrocephaly. This condition would have affected the behaviour of the child, and once genetic testing has been done on these three skulls, it could be possible that the child was killed because of this condition, and its mother and father were also killed by association.

Cis-Baikal is another site which Dr Schulting has worked on. There are about 1000 well preserved hunter-gatherers around the lake here from the early Neolithic to Bronze Age. There is no evidence of farming in this region even in the Bronze Age, and it is thought that the Bronze objects were brought here through trade or other means rather than being produced and manufactured in the area, though this is not clear. One unusual aspect of this site is that the mortuary complex for the middle Neolithic is missing. This is a complete mystery, as there is some evidence of settlement for this time period nearby, but no burial evidence until the late Neolithic. One cemetery called Shamanka II around Lake Baikal contains both single and multiple burials, with microliths as grave offerings, and some skulls showing perimortem damages. Thanks to a large amount of funding, every individual around the lake has been dated. So how did the Bronze Age hunter-gatherers know to bury their dead at this site? Too much time had gone by for oral folk tradition to have provided the information, so either coastal erosion around the site had exposed some Neolithic graves, or just decided that because of the striking view it was a good place for burials.

There are two clusters of these burials – north and south. The south cluster contains four young adult males, while the north is much more varied with males, females and children. The south cluster all show signs of perimortem injuries, with projectile points or outlines of projectile points found with the skeletons. One of the skeletons in the north clusters is a young adult and contains 22+ arrowheads in the grave. These are unlikely to be grave goods as they are all pointing in different directions, so it is more likely to be evidence of overkill. One skull shows two sharp force traumas to the mandible, though no axes have been found in the area, so perhaps the perpetrators came from the outside and massacred these people in an act of war. These two clusters may have slightly different dates, with a range of 100-200 years – so perhaps this is evidence of two separate massacres? Statistically they could both be from the same group, though the fresh water reservoir effect must be taken into account, as these people would have eaten the fish from the lake which may skew the dates slightly. For a hunter-gatherer society, the amount of deaths present here are extremely high, and the closest ‘normal’ Bronze Age cemetery is about 100 km away, with no big Bronze Age settlement found nearby.

The resources at the lake may have been enough motive for the massacre(s) at Cis-Baikal, but what was the motive for the massacre(s) at Ofnet? The nests in Ofnet were in a forest, where the resources would have been the same and enough for kilometres around. This means that the massacres may have been more complex than simply killing for resources, it may have been different generations getting revenge, or jealousies which spiralled out of control, or even a matter of prestige between different groups; the bigger a group the more powerful.

"The Feast of Stonehenge and Beyond: Investigating Mobility in Late Neolithic Britain"

Seminar by Dr Richard Madgwick, Cardiff University 


Report by Ruaidhrí O Maolagáin



The Feasting of Stonehenge and Beyond
The late Neolithic in Britain and Ireland was a period from around 3000-2200 BC. This time is seen as a transitional period due to the new scale of labour mobilisation which lead to the building of Irish passage tombs such as Knowth and Dowth, and Maeshowe in Britain. After the construction of the passage tombs came the building of circles and henge enclosures and in England there is a concentration of stone circles in Wessex. There are many circular enclosures across the landscape and most have a timber enclosure accompanied by a megalithic component which generally consists of a stone circle. It is not clear as to the specific function of such monuments and there is much debate on the topic. Some ideas suggest that they may have served as power centres of chiefdoms, as places for alliance formation and feasting or as part of a ceremonial landscape. The different monuments within a single site could each have had a separate significance such as one representing life and another death. It does seem clear that these sites were centres for people coming together even though the specific reason is unknown.
At these type of sites lots of domestic animal remains turn up such as cows, pigs and sheep. At Durrington Walls such assemblages were found. However, 90% of this faunal assemblages consisted of pig remains. Lots of grooved ware pottery was also discovered and this represents the sharing of ideas and identity between Ireland and Britain at this time and little contact with Europe. Pottery fragments have the ability to retain the fats of the food which was processed in them in their fabric. Analysis of these fats can give information on the type of food which they contained. At ceremonial sites 40% of the vessels found had residue from pig processing but West Kennet palisade enclosure had 67%. At Durrington Walls there was only 27% of the pots having pig remains even though pigs made up 90% of the faunal assemblage. This difference leads to the question of how these pigs were being processed.  TEM analysis was further used on the pig remains to give more information on the cooking practices. This method is not frequently used in studies. Some fibres showed evidence of heating, and this was probably from cooking directly over a fire. If the bone fibres showed no evidence of heating this was viewed as evidence for direct filleting of the meat off the bone. The results from this appear to coincide with the lipid analysis; some meat was cooked while some was filleted.

At Durrington Walls house structures were found containing hearths. These houses were lightly built, so evidence for them could be hard to find and easily be destroyed by ploughing. These houses seem to have been only occupied for a period of about 40 year and it is unclear if this occupation was seasonal or constant. To give a clearer insight into the occupation pattern the teeth of pigs from the site were examined. Cement in pigs’ teeth develops in bands of light and dark material, and counting these bands can give the age of the animal. The outermost band represents the season in which the animal was killed. From this studies seem to show a winter occupation at the sight, but for this method to be reliable the animals would need to have had a similar diet and a tight birth range.
The animals at these sites were not all locally bred. Some of the cattle from Durrington Walls were not from the area. At Stonehenge some local materials were used in its construction but the inner circle stones originated in the Preseli hills in Wales which is a long distance away. This opens the question of where the people who were visiting the sites were coming from. Isotope analysis was carried out on some animal remains from the site in an attempt to determine the location in which they were bred. One element used in this method is strontium. Different areas have different strontium values, and animals that live in a particular area will have the corresponding strontium value in their bones and teeth. Bones cannot be used in this sort of analysis as they are too porous and when buried they will take up the strontium value of the soil that they are contained in. teeth are less porous and preserve the life value better. In Durrington Walls cattle teeth were examined for their strontium values, and the results showed that only a small number of the cattle were local and some of these animals must have come from the northern England or Scotland. However, cattle remains only make up about 8% of the assemblage from this site.

Pigs make up the majority of the assemblages at these type of sites so would be more reliable for studying. A number of different sites were chosen to see if any non-local pigs were present. Non-local were found at every site meaning that the teeth had not taken up the local strontium value, and therefore were uncontaminated. If every pig appeared to be local it could be assumed that the samples were contaminated.  A multi isotope analysis was carried out on 132 pig remains, both mandibles and teeth, from Mount Pleasant, Durrington walls, Marden and West Kennet palisade enclosure. The isotopes used in the study were, Carbon 13, Strontium 87/86, Oxygen 18, Sulphur 34 and Nitrogen 15. The aims of this study was to find out if the pigs were supplied from a certain area, how they were raised and on what type of diet. The presence of C13 would indicate a marine food supply for the animals, whereas N15 would mean they were fed on meat. The study found a wide spread of carbon values suggesting that the pigs were not fed on a specific subscribed diet and that they fed from different environments. The food that was eaten was mostly plants and there was no marine input found. The samples from Mount Pleasant showed the widest range of pig distribution. At Durrington Walls some of the pigs appear to have been raised on forest fodder. This probably occurred because the large scale feasting on pigs required them to be raised on all available land types to meet the demand. Sulphur isotope levels above 14ppm indicate that an animal was raised close to the coast. At Durrington Walls 25% of the animals were raised at the coast even though the site is roughly 56km from the sea. The other sites also showed a high percentage of costal animals. Durrington Walls had the largest amount of local pigs, with Mount Pleasant also appearing to have had a local stock. Out of the 132 pigs sampled only 10 of them are local to the area in which they were found. The local range was defined by the biosphere data of the area. Cluster analysis showed that the pigs came from 27 different regions but this is probably an underestimation. Two of the pigs might have come from the South West of Ireland.  It is difficult to match the isotope readings to specific areas and the resolution of it is relatively low.

Pigs were very popular feasting animals and this could be for a number of different reasons. Pork meat preserves well and it is quick and easy to obtain the meat. A large number of pigs can also be killed at once, as pigs have large litters the numbers can quickly be replenished and so only a few need to be kept. Pigs may have been regarded as high status animals since they do not produce any secondary products such as milk or wool.  It appears that the pigs were brought alive to the sites and then killed there. At some of the sites the pigs have pieces of flint in them that suggest that the pigs were shot with an arrow to be killed. This method of killing may have some ritual significance that is unknown.

The pigs at these sites were brought long distances from all across the British Islands. The animals used in the feasting were raised on a wide variety of different landscapes and diets meaning that no particular method of raising was required. Isotope analysis gives some indication to the regions that the animals originated from but the resolution is quite low and the method still has a long way to go. At all the sites there is the deliberate practice of bringing your own pig to the place instead of buying one when you arrive, but the significance of this is yet unknown.

Seminar report: Middle and Late Neolithic Amber, Jet and Bone ornaments contributions from the microscope

This seminar was spilt into two parts: the first discussed ornaments found at various sites throughout the Middle and Late Neolithic and the second part focused on the building of Bronze Age houses based on experimental techniques.

In order to discuss the vast amounts of information concerning this topic, Prof. van Gijn focused this lecture on three main time periods of manufacture during the Neolithic. The first is the Middle Neolithic between 3700-3400 BC, generally associated with the Hazendank group. The sites at Ypenburg and Schipluien provide incredible evidence of ornaments. Ypenburg contains a cemetery consisting of 37 graves, burials of women and children discovered containing ornaments that were shiny and had evidence of heavy wear. Jet beads discovered were all heavily worn whereas it would seem that the amber beads found in the burials were both worn and manufactured specially for burial. At Schipluiden bone beads were recovered from a child’s grave with pronounced evidence of manufacture. Further evidence at this site indicates that the amber and jet beads were not made with much thought.

The second time span refers to ornaments from the Funnel Beaker Period between 3400-2900 BC, this period saw the construction of megaliths and communal burials, generally amber ornaments were found as jet was not as easily available. One interesting characteristic about these beads is that they were reground before they were placed in the communal burials. Re-sharpened axes from the TRB megaliths - Trichterbecherkultur, ie. Funnel Beaker Culture -  add much to the debate. Van Gijn herself believes that these objects were reground in order to depersonalise them, so as to allow them into the communal tomb. Others, however, have argued that an object cannot be depersonalised as it already has a story.

The third period that was discussed is that of Beaker pottery, this time associated with more individual burials such as barrows. Ornaments linked to this period show different biographies in contrast to the Funnel Beaker tradition as they are more individual. At Hanzelijn in North Holland, 16 amber beads were recovered, all with different biographies but all were described as ‘pretty’. Another burial site, Hattemerbroek, provided 18 v-perforated beads, again with different biographies, some pretty and some worn.

During the second part of this seminar, Prof. Van Gijn focused on the more experimental side to her work and discussed the construction of a Bronze Age house. This lecture described the background to this experiment, the goals set out before hand,the construction and the final results. This house was to be constructed at Huize Hosterworld, after the Dutch National Forestry service wanted somewhere to begin walking tours. Diederik Pamstra wanted to attempt to build a house based on teachings from Hans de Haos and Prof. Van Gijn herself wanted an area to carry out other experiments. Some goals of this venture were: to use strictly stone tools and local material, the hardest goal to keep was the documentation of everything that occurred. Other problems with this building were identified during the planning stages, with for instance debates over where to locate the doors. Prof. Van Gijn gave us a great insight into the construction of the house with too much detail to fully describe.  The construction was a success, however Van Gijn states that it will need to be rebuilt again. At this point in time another structure is in the process of being built and will be finished sometime in the future and will be used to house future experiments. 

By Emily Geoghegan

Seminar: "Itineraries of Neolithic jet and amber beads: a microscopic view"

This week, we will welcome Prof. Annelou van Gijn from the University of Leiden, Netherlands, who is going to give a talk entitled

 "Itineraries of Neolithic jet and amber beads: a microscopic view".

Wednesday 26th March
5:30pm
RoomK012, School of Archaeology, Newman Building

Nota: This seminar will take place on Wednesday and not the usual Thursday, at 5:30pm , in Room K012 and not the usual A109. All welcome !

Seminar series 2013: "Land use and community differentiation in the European Neolithic"

Next week's seminar will be by Prof. Alex Bentley of the University of Bristol, who been kind enough to send us an abstract (see below). This seminar will take place

Room A109

Newman Building

Thursday 6th February

17:30

Abstract:"Community differentiation is a fundamental topic of the social sciences, and its prehistoric origins in Europe are typically assumed to lie among the complex, densely-populated societies that developed millennia after their Neolithic predecessors. Here we present recent isotopic evidence for such differentiation in early Neolithic Europe. Among the indications of the new evidence is differential land use in early Neolithic within a patrilocal kinship system. This can be put in context with new work at Bristol University on stable isotopes and organic residues preserved in Neolithic pottery, to infer the changing roles of animals in human diets (particularly dairying), economies and evolutionary genetics of LBK populations. As these large-scale projects come together, we are obtaining bioarchaeological evidence for diversity and specialization within a culture previously referred to as a homogenous 'package'."

Seminar series, lecture 5: Wrapping up the Late Neolithic in Orkney

                 This weeks seminar was entitled “ Evolution of house societies in Orkney questions of Mythopraxis and Mythologization”,  presented by Prof. Colin Richards, University of Manchester. The first topic discussed was “house societies”. He demonstrated how this idea could be translated into an understanding of Orcadian society. House societies are organised around dwellings rather then lineage. These societies were highly volatile and social status was extremely important. The development of a house society in Orkney is visible by studying their houses. In the case of Stonehall, the series of early Neolithic houses are scattered meters apart from one another. As we move through time these house move closer together, in the case of the houses of Barnhouse they are next to each other. Finally in the case of the settlement of Skara Brae the houses are physically touching each other. This is demonstrating the need for the community to come closer and try to create a stable community.
                 An interesting feature of the Orcadian society that Prof. Colin Richards noted was its transition from wood to stone houses. It has long been assumed that stone houses were the norm in Orkney due to a lack of wood to construct houses with. However recent excavations have in fact proved that people in the early Neolithic constructed circular wooded houses, examples of which have been discovered at a site called Bram of Smerquey. These houses have been dated and surprisingly, they are contemporary with the stone-built tombs. This demonstrates an odd transition as in Britain and Ireland it has been accepted that mortuary tombs can be seen as a reflection of houses. As they modelled there tombs based upon their own houses, turning the house of the living into the house of the dead. However in Orkney there seems to be a change whereby they begin by constructing there houses of wood and then shift to using stone. This shows that the people began modelling their houses to look like the tombs they built. Thus demonstrating Orcadian society was very complex and was regionally different from the rest of Britain.
                  The final topic discussed was a concept caller “wrapping”. Professor Richards has begun to apply this idea to the late Neolithic Orkney based upon ethnographical studies in Polynesia. He began by showing a series of images that demonstrated wrapping such as wrapping a Christmas present. The idea of wrapping can be seen in different cultures whereby they believe that it is important to wrap sacred places to create a barrier between the people and the ancestors and deities. This can be done by building walls around a building or in some cases people wrapped sacred temples with cloths. Richards believes that this idea can be applied to understanding the megalithic structures of Orkney. In the case of Maeshowe, Gordon Childe discovered a series of walls under the mound with no obvious structural functions. He asked the question: is this an example of the people attempting to wrap this monument? Were the people attempting to protect themselves from powerful spirits within the mound? We may never fully understand however one thing is certain is this seminar left many who attended the seminar a lot of food for thought.

By Katherine McCormack

Society trip to Rathcroghan: story and photographs!

All the photographs from the day can be seen here:
Society Trip to Rathcroghan 2013

       
    On Saturday, November 9th, a group of us went on a trip to Rathcroghan where we were given a guided tour of the complex by archaeologist Dr. Daniel Curley, currently education officer at the Rathcroghan visitor centre. Professor Muiris O'Sullivan accompanied us on the day and enlightened us with many insights on the incredible archaeological wealth of the area on our bus drive back towards Dublin.

Society trip to Rathcroghan, 9/11/2013  © A. Guglielmi

              Rathcroghan is one of the ancient "Royal Sites" of Iron Age Ireland and is considered the Royal Seat of Connaught - the others being Tara for Meath, Dún Ailinne for Leinster, and Emain Macha for Ulster. It extenders over four square kilometres and comprises circa 250 sites, spanning millennia from the Neolithic to the 17th century. It is a landscape of paramount ritual and ceremonial significance. Of these 250 sites, 27 are directly related to ceremonials and burials. Other sites include banqueting and feasting sites, as well as settlements. No excavation has so far been undertaken on the complex.

The Táin trail © A. Guglielmi

                 As Daniel Curley explained, the site is intimately linked with the story/legend/myth of Queen Medbh and the Táin Bó Cúailnge, (the cattle raid of Cooley) the famous Irish epic tale recoding the feats of, among others, the famous hero Cú Chulainn.  It was also the site of important pagan festivals like the lighting of the Samhain fire or the cattle parades for Bealtaine. Rathcroghan may also be linked to the site of Uisneach via the Corlea Iron Age trackway that was exacavated in county Longford: the track was indeed only kept in use for a very short period of time, and may very well have been built in the contact of festivals taking place at the two sites (to read in more detail about this theory, go to page 104 of Barry Raftery's Pagan Celtic Ireland, 936.15 RAF in the James Joyce library).

Muiris O'Sullivan addressing our group on the Rathcroghan mound, 9/11/13 © A. Guglielmi

               After spending some time on the Rathcroghan mound itself, Daniel Curley took us to the nearby Oweyganat cave, or the "Cave of the Cats". It is said to be the entrance to the Otherworld and is as such linked with the festival of Samhain (see above). Among the residents of the Otherworld were all sorts of creatures, the most terrible of them being the Morrígan, the goddess of battle who often appears in the shape of a raven. A legend tells of how Queen Medbh sent three Giant Cats after  Cú Chulainn in an effort to kill the hero - of course, she failed. The cave also contains two Ogham stones (out of a total of seven in Connaught), only one of which could be translated in its integrality and refers to the hero Fráech who married Findabair, Queen Medbh's daughter. At that point, a group of us entered the cave with Daniel Curley and were told more about this fascinating place.

Professor Muiris O'Sullivan and students entering Oweynagat cave © A. Guglielmi

                After enjoying a warm lunch inside the visitor centre, our group set off in the minibus with Professor O'Sullivan to view some more sites, among them the Well of Ogula and Carnfree, the inauguration place of the O'Connor kings of Connaught. Unfortunately, our bus had a technical fault and we had to abandon our plans of further exploration and make our way back to Dublin.

A huge thank you to the Rathcroghan visitor centre, Dr. Daniel Curley for his tour, Muiris O'Sullivan for accompanying us and Emmet Fennelly for organising this day !

Alexandra Guglielmi
Social Media Coordinator