Aidan O'Sullivan
Aidan O'Sullivan is Head of School and Professor at UCD School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Ireland. His research interests are in the archaeology of early medieval Ireland, AD 400-1100 in its northwest Eurpean contexts; global wetlands and maritime archaeology, and experimental archaeology and material culture. He is co-director of the UCD Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture (CEAMC).
He was a Principal Investigator of the Early Medieval Archaeology Project (EMAP; see UCD Library research repository for reports to download) and currently and has supervised 15 PhD students and mentored 7 Postdoctoral Fellows on a range of topics
Please see my UCD homepage (address below) for details of my research, teaching, publications, supervision of graduate students, etc.
Phone: 00353 (0)1 7168252
Address: UCD School of Archaeology, College of Arts and Celtic Studies, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Rep. of Ireland
He was a Principal Investigator of the Early Medieval Archaeology Project (EMAP; see UCD Library research repository for reports to download) and currently and has supervised 15 PhD students and mentored 7 Postdoctoral Fellows on a range of topics
Please see my UCD homepage (address below) for details of my research, teaching, publications, supervision of graduate students, etc.
Phone: 00353 (0)1 7168252
Address: UCD School of Archaeology, College of Arts and Celtic Studies, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Rep. of Ireland
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http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440316301431
and practice, but perhaps also of monument-building and those types of public ceremonies involving material interventions. The Banqueting Hall may well be an early medieval monument in construction or reconstructionalthough it is possible that rituals of kingship had shifted to Teltown by the late seventh century and thus any monumental intervention may have occurred before that time. The possible early medieval ‘rath’—and the underlying closely spaced multivallate enclosure—at Tech Cormaic is an intriguing site that requires explanation (and investigation), while the early medieval burials at the Rath of the Synods hint at the presence of a ferta-type burial ground. This certainly supports the historical evidence that by the late seventh century Tara had become ‘too sacred a place’.
In great contrast, the environs of the Hill of Tara were intensively settled in the early medieval period. It is evident that early medieval communities lived and worked in this landscape with great regard for the role of Tara but also that it was a living landscape. There are distinctive patterns to agricultural practice in the locality and region, particularly the very strong role of cereal cultivation and processing within a classic early medieval mixed economy; this was clearly a prosperous agricultural landscape. There are also hints of differences between the royal demesne lands of Tara and the surrounding areas in the heartland of southern Brega, where there are larger, longer-lived settlements, and furthermore there are also hints of change across the period, with the abandonment of some settlements. Finally, a review of archaeological excavations indicates their importance in contributing to an understanding of landscapes beyond the bounds of excavation trenches. In particular, we should be investigating how sacred landscapes and landscapes of power were integral to, and embedded in, other landscapes of daily life, work and economy, particularly in the early medieval period but also in other periods.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440316301431
and practice, but perhaps also of monument-building and those types of public ceremonies involving material interventions. The Banqueting Hall may well be an early medieval monument in construction or reconstructionalthough it is possible that rituals of kingship had shifted to Teltown by the late seventh century and thus any monumental intervention may have occurred before that time. The possible early medieval ‘rath’—and the underlying closely spaced multivallate enclosure—at Tech Cormaic is an intriguing site that requires explanation (and investigation), while the early medieval burials at the Rath of the Synods hint at the presence of a ferta-type burial ground. This certainly supports the historical evidence that by the late seventh century Tara had become ‘too sacred a place’.
In great contrast, the environs of the Hill of Tara were intensively settled in the early medieval period. It is evident that early medieval communities lived and worked in this landscape with great regard for the role of Tara but also that it was a living landscape. There are distinctive patterns to agricultural practice in the locality and region, particularly the very strong role of cereal cultivation and processing within a classic early medieval mixed economy; this was clearly a prosperous agricultural landscape. There are also hints of differences between the royal demesne lands of Tara and the surrounding areas in the heartland of southern Brega, where there are larger, longer-lived settlements, and furthermore there are also hints of change across the period, with the abandonment of some settlements. Finally, a review of archaeological excavations indicates their importance in contributing to an understanding of landscapes beyond the bounds of excavation trenches. In particular, we should be investigating how sacred landscapes and landscapes of power were integral to, and embedded in, other landscapes of daily life, work and economy, particularly in the early medieval period but also in other periods.