St. Patrick - Ireland's Patron Saint

 

Stained glass image of St. Patrick. Photo: Wikipedia

Place of Birth

Much controversy surrounds the details of St. Patrick's life. He is believed to have been British by birth, the son of a decurio or town councillor. His place of birth is said to have been somewhere in the west between the mouth of the Severn and the Clyde. He was born sometime between 385 and 389. Patrick himself tells us he was of Romano-British origin. The names of his parents were Calpurnius and Concessa.

Captured Slave

While still a youth he was captured by Irish pirates and reduced to slavery. For six years he herded swine or sheep in Co. Antrim or on the coast of Co. Mayo. During the period of Patrick's captivity in Ireland he learned the native language and got to know the pagan practices of the Druid priests.

Escape

St. Patrick eventually escaped and returned to his family. However, he was constantly troubled by visions of the pagan Irish imploring him to walk among them once more.

Ordained Bishop

Patrick was later ordained a bishop and in the year 432 AD he returned to Ireland. He knew very well that if he was to succeed in Ireland then he must first convert the kings and chieftains. Otherwise, the people would not be allowed to worship in peace. He faced many dangers including assassination, the military might of kings, and opposition of the powerful druids whose very existence he threatened.

First Church

It was the Chieftain Dichu who gave Patrick a plot of land on which to build his first church in Co. Down. St. Patrick spent many years in Ireland although exactly how long we do not know. During this time, he travelled extensively. He writes:

“I journeyed among you, and everywhere, for your sake, often in danger, even to the outermost parts beyond which there is nothing, places where no one had ever arrived to baptise or ordain clergy or confirm the people.”

Celtic Religion and Art

Ireland, in those days, was quite different from Britain in many ways: it had its own language, political structures, customs and laws. It had not been invaded by Roman legions. It was also located at the furthest reaches of the known world.

Decorated Grave Slab from Carrowntemple, Co. Sligo (Replica)

We can also see the merging of pagan and Christian art as Christianity gradually replaced paganism. Two of the grave slabs at Carrowntemple, Co. Sligo, bear art of the Early Christian period that is derived from the Celtic art of the preceding Pagan Iron Age. One of these is close to a design in the Book of Durrow and is datable to c. 650 AD. Several of the panels of the seventh century Moylough Belt-shrine, found only a few miles west of Carrowntemple, have this same mix of Pagan and Christian artwork.

Early Irish texts suggest that holy wells may have remained associated with non-Christian rituals and were even protected by the old religion. For example, it is believed that wells were used instead of baptisteries in Ireland, which may explain the substantial number of holy wells throughout the country.

In some respects, the nature of the Celtic religion helped in the development of Christianity. Their belief in the indestructibility of the souls of the dead helped in understanding the resurrection of Christ. The Celts also had their own sacrifices and ritual meals which, in a sense, mirrored aspects of Christian message.

Lough Gara formerly known as Loch Techet

Patrick Travels to the West

We know from ecclesiastical history that he travelled to the west of Ireland. After visiting Elphin and Croghan, he came around the north of Loch Techet, the ancient name for Lough Gara, through the present townlands of Cuppenagh and Templeronan. It is said that he went to Gregraidhe of Loch Techet. The Gregraidhe (horse people) or Gregory comprised the baronies of Coolavin in Sligo and Costello in Mayo. According to an entry in the Annals of Tigernach (AU 665) Cummeni, Abbot of Clonmacnoise, was of the Gregraige of Loch Techet.

When the tribe responded to the Gospel, an enclosure would be set aside, with boundaries and ‘termon’ crosses, sometimes with a ditch, sometimes with a wall, clearly marking out to everyone that the area was sacred. Within it a tiny church of wattle and daub would be built.

Monasteries

Many monasteries were built at tribal meeting places or on tribal boundaries. As monastic communities grew, they attracted a resident local community. The monasteries provided for the spiritual needs of local families and taught the children. The monastery and the village grew together. Monks undertook tasks such as the creating and copying of literature and highly specialised metalware.

According to Tirechan, the Bishop of North Mayo, Patrick came from the plain of Mirteach, between Castlerea and Ballaghaderreen, to a place called Drummut Cerrigi or Drumad of the Ciarraige. This is now the townland of Drumad in the Parish of Tibohine. It is said that he dug a well here and no stream went into it or came out of it, but it was always full. The well was named Bithlan (i.e. ever full).

Here, the saint found two brothers, Bibar and Lochru, the sons of Tamanchend, fighting about the division of their father's lands. St. Patrick reconciled them by a miracle, and he blessed them and made peace between them. The brothers gave their land to Patrick, and he founded a church there.

Patrick then went to Aileach Esrachta which was at Telach Liac or Telach na Cloch, which later became known as Tullaganrock in the Parish of Kilcolman. It is said that local people were afraid of the stranger and the eight or nine men accompanying him, so they decided to kill him. The crowd was restrained by a brave man named Hercait of the race of Nathi. Hercait and his son Feradach were babtised and Feradach joined St Patrick. Patrick gave Feradach a new name calling him Sachail. He eventually became bishop and was associated with a famous church called Basilica Sanctorum which is now known as Baslik - a parish between Castlerea and Tulsk.

Croagh Patrick, Co. Mayo. Photo: Wikipedia

Forty Days and Nights

Patrick spent forty days and nights fasting on the top of Croagh Patrick, Co. Mayo. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a church/oratory dating from the early Christian period on the top of this mountain. The entire summit was enclosed by a stone wall which may have been the enclosing wall of an early monastic site.

Death

We are told that when the shadow of death came near, Patrick returned to the first church he had built at Soul, Co. Down and died on March 17th, 461. There is, however, some uncertainty as to the actual year of his death.

Legend has it that St. Patrick expelled snakes from Ireland, explained the Trinity using the shamrock, and accomplished single-handed great missionary tasks of conversion. Scholars doubt if there were ever snakes in Ireland.

St. Patrick remains the most popular of Irish saints. In art, he is usually depicted wearing the vestments of bishop treading on snakes. In the National Museum of Ireland shrines survive of his bell and his tooth (12th & 14th century). His fame has spread throughout the world, and we celebrate his feast day on 17th March.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIphXep4nSQ

 

Ballymacombs More Woman

 

       The site in Bellaghy, Co Londonderry, where human remains were found in October 2023

Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Irish bog bodies are in the news again with the discovery in October 2023 of ancient human remains in a Co Derry bog. It was found by workers at a peat extraction company at Newferry, near Bellaghy. The remains have been dated to around 343 BC to 1 BC, during the Iron Age.

Originally believed to be male, it is now thought the remains are those of a woman aged between 17 and 22 years old who has been given the name Ballymacombs More Woman. The individual had an estimated height of around 1.7m (5' 6").

The study, led by National Museums NI, has involved collaboration with organisations across Ireland, the UK and Europe, including the Police Service of Northern Ireland, National Museum of Ireland, Queen's University Belfast, Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, University of Copenhagen, University of Glasgow, and University of Bradford.

This discovery has caused considerable excitement among archaeologists and is even more significant given that most of the bog preserved individuals that have been found from this period are male.

       The PSNI’s body recovery team at the site in Bellaghy

Photograph: Police Service of Northern Ireland/PA Wire

            The body was well preserved, but the skull was absent and was not recovered. Cut marks on the neck vertebrae indicate the cause of death as intentional decapitation, possibly as part of a ritual and sacrifice during the Iron Age period. Interestingly, part of an unidentified woven item made of plant material was also recovered from the burial site. Specialists are currently working to identify the object.

Bog Bodies

The term “Bog Bodies” is used to describe human remains which have been naturally preserved by the chemistry of Northern Europe’s bogs. Hundreds of bog bodies have been discovered in the boglands of Europe over the last few centuries, of which about 130 have been found in Ireland. Some of the human remains discovered show signs of torture and execution, with evidence of hanging, strangulation, stabbing and bludgeoning.

The Ballymacombs More Woman has been hailed as ‘one of the most important archaeological discoveries on the island of Ireland’ Photograph: Police Service of Northern Ireland/PA Wire

The oldest known bog body is the Koelbjerg Woman from Denmark, who has been dated to 8000 BC, during the Mesolithic period or Middle Stone Age. Most bog bodies – including famous examples such as Tollund Man, Grauballe Man and Lindow Man – date from the Iron Age and have been found in Northern Europe, particularly Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. The newest bog bodies are those of soldiers killed in the Russian wetlands during the Second World War.

In 1950, Tollund Man’s discoverers “found a face so fresh they could only suppose they had stumbled on a recent murder.” Photograph: Smithsonian Magazine

Many bog bodies have been found in marginal areas such as ancient boundaries and wetlands. While most of Northern Europe lay under a thick canopy of forest, bogs did not and were open to the sky. In a sense, they were borderlands to what lay beyond. Radiocarbon dating shows that most bog bodies date from the Iron Age, between 500 B.C. and A.D. 100.

Other Irish Bog Bodies

In Ireland, Cashel Man was unearthed in 2011 in Cul na Mona bog in Cashel, County Tipperary.

In 2003, peat cutters found Oldcroghan Man and Clonycavan Man in two different bogs in Ireland. Both had lived between 400 and 175 B.C., and both had their nipples mutilated. The best-preserved bodies were all found in raised bogs, which contain few minerals and very little oxygen.

Kingship

Experts believe that many of the Irish Iron Age bog bodies are the remains of former kings who were sacrificed. The scarcity of such finds suggests that the sacrificial killings were only undertaken when a king’s reign had proven unsuccessful because of defeat in war, or due to famine or pestilence.

In ancient Ireland, sucking a king’s nipples was a gesture of submission and a means of placing oneself under the protection of the king. Archaeologists believe that the cutting of the nipples was part of the ritual in which he was ‘decommissioned’ from the role of king.

The archaeologist, Eamon Kelly, Keeper of Antiquities at the National Museum of Ireland, points out that a key aspect of kingship was to ensure the annual success of the harvest, to safeguard crops and livestock from disease, and to prevent inclement weather, warfare, and theft.

Important discovery

Niamh Baker, Curator of Archaeology at National Museums NI, described the Ballymacombs More Woman as one of the most important archaeological discoveries on the island of Ireland".

"This important discovery gives us a glimpse into the lives of the people of our ancient past and offers insights into how they lived, interacted with their environment, and developed their cultures," she said.

Professor of Archaeology at the School of Natural and Built Environment at Queen's University, Eileen Murphy, who conducted the osteological assessment which provided a biological profile for the individual and ascertained the cause of their death said:

“As is the case for so many Iron Age bog bodies, the young woman suffered a highly violent death which involved the flow of blood from her throat followed by decapitation.

The head was taken away, but the body was left where it fell only to be discovered by machine workers some 2,000 years later."

Conclusion

Ballymacombs More Woman from County Derry has been dated to 343 BC to 1 BC, during the Iron Age. The discovery is particularly significant given that most of the bog preserved individuals that have been found from this period are male. Cut marks on her neck vertebrae indicate the cause of death as decapitation, possibly as part of a ritual and sacrifice.

Other recent bog bodies from Ireland include Cashel Man, Oldcroghan Man and Clonycavan Man. Famous examples such as Tollund Man, Grauballe Man and Lindow Man, all dating from the Iron Age, have been found in Northern Europe, particularly Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.

For more information see:

https://www.rte.ie/news/ulster/2024/0125/1428560-bog-body-derry/

            https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/europe-bog-bodies-reveal-secrets-180962770/

            https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/lindow-man-0013470

 

St Brigid (450-525 AD) – Feast Day: 1st February 2025

 

                             Saint Brigit as depicted in Saint Non's chapel, St Davids, Wales.

On, 1^st February, we celebrate the feast day of St Brigid of Ireland. Originally, this was a pagan festival called Imbolc which marked the beginning of spring.

Who was St Brigid?

St Brigid is one of the Patron Saints of Ireland, together with St Patrick and St Colmcille. She was born in Faughart, north of Dundalk, Co Louth in Ireland, approximately 450 AD and was the founder of the first monastery in County Kildare. Her father was a pagan chieftain of Leinster named   and her mother was a Christian slave named Brocca.

Dubthach’s wife insisted that he get rid of the slave girl. He sold Brigid’s mother to a poet but not the child in her womb for whom he was responsible. Later, the poet sold Brigid’s mother to a druid. As Brigid was filled with the Holy Spirit, she could not digest the druid’s ‘unclean’ food and

‘thereupon he chose a white cow and set it aside for the girl, and a certain Christian woman, a very God-fearing virgin, used to milk the cow and the girl used to drink the cow’s milk and not vomit it up as her stomach had been healed. Moreover, this Christian woman fostered the girl’.

When she was young, St Brigid wanted to join a convent. However, her father insisted that she marry a rich man to whom he had promised her hand. According to legend, Brigid prayed that her beauty be taken so no one would want to marry her and her prayer was granted. It was not until after she made her final vows that her beauty was restored. 

Brigid enlisted God’s help again to convince her father to give her land on which to build a convent. Her father agreed to give her as much land as her cloak could cover. It is said that the cloak grew to cover 2,000 acres of land! One of five ancient roads in Ireland that lead to Tara passed through Kildare.

According to tradition, around 480 AD Brigid founded a monastery at Kildare (Cill Dara: “church of the oak”), on the site of a pagan shrine to the Celtic goddess Brigit. Her monastery developed a reputation for hospitality, compassion and generosity. It was known as the ‘City of the Poor’. St Brigid worked with the sick, poor, and outcast.

As monastic communities grew, they attracted a resident local community. The monasteries provided for the spiritual needs of local families and taught the children. The monastery and the village grew together. The monks undertook tasks such as the creating and copying of literature and highly specialised metalware.

St Brigid’s Rush Cross

On one occasion, St Brigid was sitting by the sick bed of a dying pagan chieftain comforting him with stories of her faith in God. She told him the story of Christ on the cross while at the same time picking up rushes from the ground to make a cross. Before he died, the chieftain asked to be baptised. People made similar crosses to hang over the door of their homes to scare off evil, fire and hunger. Word spread of St Brigid’s kindness and faith and the making of the cross from rushes that we know today became associated with her name.

It was said that St Brigid could miraculously milk her cows three times a day to provide a meal for visitors. According to the Celtic tradition, the guest was seen as Christ and hospitality was extended in that spirit.

Brigid later founded a school of art that included metalwork and illumination. It was at this school that the Book of Kildare, which Gerald of Wales praised as "the work of angelic, and not human skill," was beautifully illuminated. Sadly, this book was lost three centuries ago.

We can also see the merging of pagan and Christian art as Christianity gradually replaced paganism. For example, two of the grave slabs at Carrowntemple, Co. Sligo, bear art of the Early Christian period that is derived from the Celtic art of the preceding Pagan Iron Age. One of these is remarkably close to a design in the Book of Durrow and is datable to c. 650 AD.

The Celts worshipped hundreds of gods and goddesses. In some respects, the nature of the Celtic religion helped in the development of Christianity. Their belief in the indestructibility of the souls of the dead helped in understanding the resurrection of Christ. The Celts also had their own sacrifices and ritual meals which, in a sense, mirrored aspects of Christian message.

Brigid’s enduring legacy

St Brigid still lives on 1,500 years later in the minds and hearts of the people of Ireland. Her monastery grew and grew and people from all over Ireland came here, many of whom joined the monastery. St Patrick and St Brigid paved the way for Christianity in Ireland and later to Europe.

Hundreds of holy wells are dedicated to St Brigid in Ireland. Early Irish texts suggest that holy wells may have remained associated with non-Christian rituals and were even protected by the old religion. For example, it is believed that wells were used instead of baptisteries in Ireland, which may explain the large number of holy wells throughout the country.

More places names in Ireland are named after St Brigid than St Patrick himself. St Brigid is associated with fertility on the land. Straw doll-like effigies of St Brigid known as Breedeag were used to bless homes.

St Brigid’s relevance today.

St Brigid appreciated the importance of the land, nature and the seasons. At a time when our planet is threatened by global warming and climate change, Brigid reminds us of the need to confront these challenges now. Today, we can learn from her example of compassion, kindness, generosity, and hospitality, as the World deals with the consequences of poverty, war, population displacement and the current Covid-19 pandemic.

On February 1^st, 525, St Brigid died of natural causes. Her body was initially kept to the right of the high altar of Kildare Cathedral. In 1185, John de Courcy had her remains relocated in Down Cathedral. Today, Saint Brigid's skull can be found in the Church of St. John the Baptist in Lumiar, Portugal. The tomb in which it is kept bears the inscription,

"Here in these three tombs lie the three Irish knights who brought the head of St. Brigid, Virgin, a native of Ireland, whose relic is preserved in this chapel. In memory of which, the officials of the Altar of the same Saint caused this to be done in January AD 1283."

In 1905 Sister Mary Agnes of the Dundalk Convent of Mercy took a purported fragment of the skull to St Bridget's Church in Kilcurry. In 1928, Fathers Timothy Traynor and James McCarroll requested another fragment for St Brigid's Church in Killester, a request granted by the Bishop of Lisbon, António Mendes Belo.

For further information please see:

 

References:

(1) Sacred Heart Messenger, February 2019 – article by John Scally

Videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UwJD00w9UM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndQKbE0M7l8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqpJkSfIrAc

Walking in the footsteps of dinosaurs

An artist’s impression issued by the University of Birmingham of how a megalosaurus and cetiosaurus may have created the footprints. Photograph: Mark Witton/PA

What has been described as the UK's biggest ever dinosaur trackway site has been discovered in a quarry in Oxfordshire. Around 200 huge footprints, which were made 166 million years ago, criss-cross the limestone floor. They represent two different types of dinosaurs that are thought to be a long-necked sauropod called Cetiosaurus and the smaller meat-eating Megalosaurus.

The longest trackways are 150m in length, but they could extend much further as only part of the quarry has been excavated.

"This is one of the most impressive track sites I've ever seen, in terms of scale, in terms of the size of the tracks," said Prof Kirsty Edgar, a micropalaeontologist from the University of Birmingham.

The tracks were discovered by quarry worker, Gary Johnson, who noticed a series of humps in the ground at intervals of three meters. He realised the regular bumps and dips could be dinosaur footprints.

At the time, the dinosaurs lived in an environment covered by a shallow lagoon, leaving their prints as they walked across the mud. The tracks were found in the Jurassic limestone of the Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire. These giant animals, some weighing up to ten tonnes, left behind in the mud both an impression of the foot and a rim of displaced mud around the print.

           

Footprints made by a 166 million year old dinosaur (c) Kevin Church/BBC

The discovery of the dinosaur track was followed by an extensive excavation this summer, jointly led by the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham, which is featured in the latest series of Digging for Britain. The team found five different trackways, four of which were made by sauropods, plant-eating dinosaurs that walked on four legs. These ancient creatures reached up to 18m in length.

The fifth track is thought to have been created by a Megalosaurus which was a large meat-eating dinosaur that lived in the Middle Jurassic Period of Europe. This species was found in 1824, and was the earliest dinosaur named. The carnivorous creatures walked on two legs leaving a distinctive triple-claw print and were active hunters.

From left: Kirsty Edgar, Richard Butler, Duncan Murdock, Alice Roberts and Emma Nicholls with dinosaur footprints found at the quarry. Photograph: University of Birmingham/PA

The team studied the trackways in detail during the dig making casts of the tracks. They took more than 20,000 photographs to create 3D models of both the complete site and individual footprints.

Professor Butler, a paleobiologist at the University of Birmingham, said:

"The really lovely thing about a dinosaur footprint, particularly if you have a trackway, is that it is a snapshot in the life of the animal.”

One area of the site even reveals where the paths of a sauropod and Megalosaurus once crossed.

Dinosaur footprint (c) Sky News

The prints are so well preserved that the team of researchers have been able to understand which animal passed through first. They believe it was the sauropod, because the front edge of its large, round footprint is slightly squashed down by the three-toed Megalosaurus walking on top of it.

"Knowing that this one individual dinosaur walked across this surface and left exactly that print is so exhilarating," said Dr Duncan Murdock from Oxford University.

Scientists think that something must have happened to preserve the fossils, such as a storm which deposited sediments on top of the footprints preventing them from being washed away. Dinosaurs ruled the Earth around 66 million years ago, but suddenly disappeared in what is known as the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction.

Scientists believe that the extinction of dinosaurs was caused by an enormous asteroid crashing to Earth. The size and impact velocity of the collision would have caused an enormous shock wave and is likely to have triggered seismic activity. This would have created plumes of ash thought to have covered the whole planet, making it impossible for dinosaurs to survive.

Researchers are working with Smiths Bletchington, operators of the quarry, and Natural England on options for preserving the site for the future.

The excavation is featured on Digging for Britain on BBC Two at 20:00 on Wednesday 8 January. The full series will be available on BBC iPlayer on 7 January.

For more information see:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c24nzeqq1l2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIEmgtpO3RU

https://news.sky.com/story/hundreds-of-dinosaur-footprints-discovered-from-in-oxfordshire-13282803

The Marlow Warlord - An Anglo-Saxon Burial

Site of the Marlow Warlord burial
Photograph: University of Reading

The discovery of a warrior burial in Berkshire, England, could change our understanding of southern Britain in the early Anglo-Saxon period. The burial of the aptly named “Marlow Warlord” was discovered on a hilltop affording views of the Thames valley. Archaeologists from the University of Reading have dated the burial to the late 5^th to early 6^th Century.

Isolated Burial

Unlike many burials of the time, the Marlow Warlord was not buried in a cemetery but set apart from the rest of the community directly overlooking the River Thames. He was buried along with a collection of expensive luxuries and weapons, including a sword in a decorated scabbard, spears, bronze and glass vessels, and other personal equipment.

The remains of the Marlow Warlord are unearthed. 

Photograph: University of Reading

The pagan burial had remained undiscovered for more than 1,400 years until metal detectorists Sue and Mick Washington of the Maidenhead Search Society came across it in 2018 and reported finding a copper alloy bowl to the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

"The nature of his burial and the site with views overlooking the Thames suggest he was a respected leader of a local tribe and had probably been a formidable warrior in his own right" – Professor Gabor Thomas, University of Reading.

Copper alloy bowl recovered from site
Photograph: University of Reading

A team led by the Department of Archaeology at the University of Reading conducted a full survey and excavation in August 2020. The burial was at a very shallow depth, making the excavation necessary to protect it from farming activity, especially ploughing.

Archaeologists conducted a targeted excavation to recover the very fragile bronze vessels and recovered a pair of iron spearheads which suggested it was likely to be an Anglo-Saxon grave.

Professor Thomas, a specialist in Early Medieval Archaeology at the University of Reading, said:

“We had expected to find some kind of Anglo-Saxon burial, but what we found exceeded all our expectations and provides new insights into this stretch of the Thames in the decades after the collapse of the Roman administration in Britain.”

This is the first burial of its kind found in the mid-Thames basin and suggests that the people living in this area may have been more important than historians previously suspected. The nature and location of his burial suggest he was a respected leader of a local tribe and a formidable warrior in his own right. Analysis of the human remains was carried out at the Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, to establish the man’s age, health, diet, and geographical origins.

Imposing Figure

Sword and scabbard found with the remains. 

Photograph: University of Reading

The ‘Marlow Warlord’ was in his late 40s/early 50s, 6’ – 2” to 6’ – 6” tall compared to the height of the average Anglo-Saxon male which was 5’ – 7”. Analysis of his skeleton and associated grave goods showed that he was right-handed, spent a long time riding a horse, and suffered from osteoarthritis.

For the first eight years of his life, he lived on a chalky site like where he was buried. His DNA indicated that he had come from across the sea from what is now Germany, Denmark, or the Netherlands.

Early Saxon Period

The early Anglo-Saxon period was one of great change in England with substantial levels of immigration from the continent. The collapse of the Roman administration around 400 AD created a vacuum which led to the formation of new identities and power structures.

At the time the Marlow Warlord lived, England was occupied by local tribal groupings, some of which extended into Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, such as Wessex, Mercia, and Kent. The region of the mid-Thames between London and Oxford was previously thought to be a ‘borderland’ with powerful tribal groups on each side. This new discovery implies that the area may have been populated by important groups of its own.

For more information see:

https://archive.reading.ac.uk/news-events/2020/October/pr848532.html

Watch: How the 'Marlow Warlord' was discovered >>>

Watch: Who was the 'Marlow Warlord'? >>>

Must Farm pile-dwelling settlement - Part 2

 

Food

The extraordinary preservation of material at Must Farm provides a unique opportunity to examine food that was being stored, processed, and possibly eaten shortly before the fire. The food and drink mixtures from Must Farm are exceptional in prehistoric Brit­ain. They represent the remains of porridges, stews, brewing mashes, doughs, and sugary or oily liquids, all of which were being stored or potentially even eaten or drunk at the time the settlement burnt down.

Residue of food in one of the Must Farm bowels
Photo: (c) Must Farm Website

A coarseware bowel found beneath Structure 5 was half full of a thick porridge-like mix of roughly ground wheatmeal. The wooden spatula used to stir this porridge was still leaning against the inner edge of the bowl.

Meat was very evidently an important dietary component. Animal remains included large and small mammals, fish, birds, reptiles and amphibia. Pig/wild boar, followed by sheep/goat, red deer, and fish (pike and perch) were the main animal foodstuffs.

The considerable evidence for fish consumption at Must Farm is unparalleled in British later prehistory, partly because of the exceptional preservation and the recovery methods employed. Evidence for Late Bronze Age fishing practices is provided by fragments of knot­ted net – possibly fishing net – that were associated with a possible ceramic net weight, in Structure 4.

Fish were often eaten either raw or only partially cooked and the fish bones were commonly consumed along with the flesh: fish bones, scales, and teeth (including fish heads) were a regular feature of human excrement.

Two other noteworthy foodstuffs from the settle­ment are milk and honey/beeswax. Organic pot residues of these were widespread suggesting that their use was relatively com­mon.

Cattle are barely represented at Must Farm representing less than 4% of the animal remains in total. Although pigs were clearly an important dietary component, there is little evidence to suggest that they were being raised and slaughtered at the settlement.

Items of pottery from Must Farm
Photo: (c) Must Farm Website

The occupants of Must Farm processed emmer wheat into meal and flour and used these ingredients for making stews, dumplings, and bread. They used ceramic bowels to eat their porridge, mixed their dough in wooden ‘dough’ troughs and carried their drink­ing water in buckets.

Overall, the evidence from Must Farm makes clear that later prehistoric food practices in Britain are more complex and more varied than has previ­ously been recognized. As the Must Farm researchers point out, the food-related evi­dence is outstanding and allows us to imagine not only the food tastes of Must Farm’s occupants’ but also the ‘recipes’ they used. We learn about the food harvested, made, stored, and consumed.

Fabric Production

Must Farm has produced extraordinary evidence of fibre processing and fabric production. All the fabrics from the Must Farm pile-dwelling were made from plant fibres, predominantly flax, although lime bast was also used.

Illustration of one of the Must Farm textiles showing the weave and thread direction
Photo: (c) Must Farm Website

Processed flax fibre was in turn spun and spliced into thread, which was then wound onto wooden dowels or into balls. The site produced at least 8 spindle whorls, 36 dowels or bobbins wound with thread, a number of balls of thread, as well as a cone of thicker cord.

One of the finest examples of textiles was found in Structure 1. This large, fine piece of folded cloth was woven from threads of around 0.3 mm in diameter and must have been made by a highly experienced weaver.

Artefact distributions, suggest that different stages of textile production were performed across buildings. For example, flax was probably processed in Structure 1, with the spinning of fibres into yarn carried out across Structures 2, 4 and 5 (if not all buildings). This was then finally woven into textile on the warp-weighted loom located back in Structure 1.

Wider Connections

The beads, appear to have travelled distances, possibly from Iran, Egypt, Switzerland, and Ireland. The site’s location on a waterway networked into the North Sea made it easier for its inhabitants to acquire objects from further afield.

Socketed bronze axe
Photo: (c) Must Farm Website

Nine logboats, ranging in date from the late Early Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, were found in the Must Farm chan­nel, upstream of the pile-dwelling. Wooden trackways or causeways may have provided a connection between the river and fen-edge.

Comparison with other settlements

The Iron Age Glastonbury ‘Lake Village’ in Somerset is comparable to Must Farm, in terms of size, location and economy. Unlike Must Farm, Glastonbury Lake Village could only be reached by canoe. This limited means of access would have provided an enhanced level of protection.

Glastonbury and Must Farm both represent villages rather than just one or two family groups. A minimum of five structures were in use at the same time at Must Farm. Glastonbury Lake Village was more extensive and accommodated forty roundhouses. At its peak it has been estimated that there were thirteen houses in use.

The Must Farm roundhouses were raised up above the water on tall piles while the lake village settlement was raised above the water by adding large amounts of brushwood and logs, and clay directly to the wet peat. This material was par­tially retained by lines of upright posts, both within the settlement and forming a palisade around the exterior.

The remains of a wooden bucket that contained scrap bronze
associated with Structure 4
Photo: (c) Must Farm Website

At Glastonbury, the village was located on a sig­nificant water transport route, as was Must Farm. Glastonbury relied on the neighbouring dryland for the basis of its food economy, despite the exploitation of wetland resources. The same was true at Must Farm.

Late Bronze Age sites in Ireland such as Ballinderry crannog No. 2, Co. Offaly and Rathtinaun, Co. Sligo, are still amongst the richest settle­ment sites from the period, in terms of artefacts despite the discovery, in the last decade, of significantly more ‘dryland’ settlements in Ireland.

Late Bronze Age crannogs or lake-dwellings have produced evidence for livestock (animal bones) and food production (saddle querns), as well as domes­tic pottery, wooden finds, and basketry. Some sites have produced evidence of high-status goods, such as socketed axes, bronze rings, swords, and spearheads, and amber and lignite.

For example, Late Bronze Age wetland settlements, like Rathtinaun, Co. Sligo, have produced evidence for industrial or metalworking activities, such as layers of burnt stone, clay mould fragments, saddle querns in large numbers, and evidence for large hearths and fires.

Abandonment of Settlement

The summer/early autumn end date for the settlement is indicated by the 3–6 month old lambs killed in the fire. The rarity of fruit stones and seeds (sloes, cherries, hazel nutshell) suggests much of the settlement’s occupation was during the spring/early summer months when such fruit was absent.

There seems to have been little effort by the occupants of Must Farm to return and recover precious frag­ments of their lives, despite the obvious material wealth that had been lost. Retrieving precious items in the aftermath of the fire may there­fore have been taboo.

The abandonment of wetland settlements is likely to have been a complex social process. The death of a person strongly associated with the dwelling such as a tribal leader or shaman, can result in abandonment and the dwelling may even be burnt down.

Conclusion

In the mid-9th century BC, a disaster happened to a small community when fire swept through their palisade-enclosed pile-dwelling settlement, built only a year earlier across a narrow sluggish river channel in a wetland landscape.

The fire caused the collapse of the structures, and as the floors burnt through, the contents of the buildings and walkways came crashing down into the shallow muddy waters below and were buried by river borne silts. The occupants escaped with their lives and in a matter of hours, they lost their homes and possessions, as well as their means of subsistence: tools, food stores, livestock.

A wooden artefact from Must Farm - exact use unknown
Photo: (c) Must Farm Website

The Must Farm settlement gives us a rare glimpse of life in the Bronze Age. There were live lambs inside the buildings at the time of the fire, beside rushes and flax harvested in late summer and willow withies cut when the leaves had fallen in the winter.

The Bronze Age settlement at Must Farm, with its remarkable survival of a wide range of evidence, provides a unique opportunity to think about how people understood their worlds. The anthropolo­gist, Clifford Geertz, considered that the important questions we should ask of any society are: who do people think they are; what did they think they were doing, and to what end did they think they were doing it?

In the words of Volume 1 contributor Aidan O’Sullivan:

“… the objects found at Must Farm – beads from Iran, Switzerland, Ireland; amber long circulating from the Baltic regions; a bucket and other bronze fragments from Ireland – all hint at far-flung water-borne connections. But for all that, most of the objects recovered, including pottery, wooden bowls, platters, buckets and troughs, balls of thread and woven, twined and knotted fabrics of flax and lime bast indicate that they were doing ordinary, routine things; living in houses, chatting, sleeping, cooking and eating, raising children, storing stuff, making clothes, managing resources, presumably all the time, feeling that they were ‘at home’.”

The people who inhabited Must Farm possessed a deep-rooted familiarity with erecting structures in the wet: knowledge of piling and of which timbers to cut at what lengths; knowledge of how to support heavy roofs, elevated floors, and hearths above an active waterway.

The skill displayed by the architecture sug­gest that this was not the first or only pile-dwelling to be founded in the wetland. As construction could have required labour input from beyond the resident group, this building knowledge may have been widely available in the local community, sug­gesting wetland living was commonplace.

For more information see:

“Must Farm pile-dwelling settlement: Vol. 1. Landscape, architecture and occupation.” (2024). Edited by Mark Knight, Rachel Ballantyne, Matthew Brudenell, Anwen Cooper, David Gibson & Iona Robinson Zeki

“Must Farm pile-dwelling settlement: Volume 2. Specialist reports.” (2024). Edited by Rachel Ballantyne, A. Cooper, D. Gibson, Mark Knight & I Robinson Zeki

Both volumes are freely accessible via the Must Farm website

https://www.mustfarm.com/bronze-age-settlement/

Must Farm pile-dwelling settlement - Part 1

 

Close-up of post-excavation plan showing the positions of Structures 1,2,4 and 5
(c) Must Farm Website

Introduction

In previous posts I have written about the Must Farm Bronze Age settlement in Cambridgeshire, in Britain. Now that the results of post-excavation analysis have been published, it is an opportune time to revisit this amazing archaeological site.

Must Farm pile dwelling settlement, Vols 1 and 2, highlight the wonderful and, in many ways, unparalleled archaeology of the Must Farm pile-dwelling settlement. It provides an account of life in a damp but extremely well-connected setting on the northwest fringes of Europe nearly 3000 years ago.

Must Farm is the most completely preserved prehistoric settlement in Britain and has been called Britain’s Pompeii. It has provided a unique insight into the lives of people towards the end of the Bronze Age. The excavation of the Must Farm settlement challenges many of our ideas about the material worlds that people inhabited, shedding new light on aspects of architecture, food, woodland management, landscape change, and wetland living.

A 3D model of one of Must Farm's large storage vessels
Photo: (c) Must Farm Website

The settlement comprised a palisade enclosing five stilt-raised houses. It was built in the mid-9th century BC and destroyed by fire less than a year after construction. The occupants escaped but the remains of all five buildings and their artefact-rich contents collapsed into the riverbed. It is currently the only Late Bronze Age pile-dwelling settlement known in Britain.

Five Structures

The technique of pile-driving would have been well-known to the fen-dwellers, but this method of construction is not common in other wetland settlements on the British mainland. Each roundhouse consisted of a circular space with a hearth, the household’s primary source of light, at its centre. Archaeologists believe that the hearth may have been suspended above the floor by a clay-built ‘plate’ or ‘box’ set beneath a clay-lined hood or flue.

Standing at the threshold, the interior space to the right would have been furnished for food preparation; that to the left, for textile production. At the ‘back left’ young lambs may have been kept beside a quiet area to the ‘back right’ reserved for sleeping. Wattle partitioning may have separated different areas within the roundhouses. The presence of slender split and mortised timbers may indicate simple items of furniture.

The rectangular form of Structure 4 is unusual for the period but not unknown. The size and shape of this building results from it being secondary to the original pile-dwelling layout, squeezed between the existing roundhouses and palisade walkway.

The positioning of beads at the site seems to indicate that some would have
formed composite necklaces of amber, glass, stone and jet.
Photo: (c) Must Farm Website

The buildings contained a similar set of artefacts (pots, buckets, troughs, loom weights, spindle whorls, bobbins, axes, gouges, sickles, querns, beads, seed caches etc.). A prime example is the number and combination of axes, gouges, and sickles in the metalwork collection with each structure equipped with a similar toolkit.

The resources utilized in the construction of the site itself point to a substantial work force behind the felling, moving and erection of timbers, particularly for the palisade. To undertake work of this scale, the residents may have drawn on shared labour from the wider com­munity.

The framework of the roof was comprised of mostly alder and ash poles used as radial rafters that bridged the outer and inner rings of vertical posts. The roofing material comprised a combination of turf, possible thatch, and clay.

The floor consisted of lightweight wattle interwo­ven around radial floor joists made of slender alder poles. It was supported underneath by a mass of alder poles, driven into the riverbed at an angle and bowed over to form an arch. An intermediate ring of short vertically driven ash and alder stakes provided additional support to the floor.

In the middle of the settlement, there was a particularly well-preserved central walkway. This structure was over 5.9m long, made of a continuous, metre-wide, hazel hurdle panel, founded on small-diameter stakes, and supported by poles which were tied into the floors of the adjacent build­ings.

Image showing palisade posts
Photo: (c) Must Farm Website

Wood and Woodworking

The wood used to construct the Must Farm Settlement was sourced from a range of habi­tats and floated up or down the river. Less buoyant green oak logs may have been rafted together with ash and other more buoyant species to facilitate their movement.

The felling season for the trees used was between September and March in a single winter. At the time of the pile-dwelling’s construc­tion and occupation, the main species were oak and hazel, together with less evident ash, lime, beech, and elm. Ash wood was used in large quantities and was readily available and accessible nearby.

Axe or adze was most commonly used to fell or shape wood. There was no evidence of the use of saws. Gouges or chisels were also occasion­ally employed in the building process. The jointing technol­ogy used for the bulk of the structures was functional, consisting of axe cut, with somewhat rough mor­tise holes. The level of skill displayed suggests that the people involved were non-specialist woodworkers.

Most of the wood was used in an unchanged form with the bark still intact. This included the piles of the main structures and the palisade as well as the lighter sections such as roof rafters and floor supports.

Fifteen two-piece wooden buckets, made from hollowed-out alder logs with a separate base, are thought to have been used to store or transport liquids such as water or milk. A collection of bronze objects was found in one of these containers.

Other wooden artefacts involved in textile production include 40 wooden bobbins, 36 of which still had threads or fibres wrapped around them. Wooden hafts or handles belonging to several bronze tools and weapons were also recovered.

Late Bronze Age socketed axe complete with handle
Photo: (c) Must Farm Website

Nine axe hafts of ash, oak and field maple were identified, three with the bronze socketed axe-heads still attached. Nine spear shafts or fragments of shafts, mainly of ash, were also found, two inserted in spear heads.

Perhaps, one of the more exciting artefacts found at Must Farm was an almost complete cartwheel made of alder planks together with fragments of a second, from Structure 3. An alder yoke designed to harness a single animal was also found in this building.

Household Equipment

At Must Farm, culinary equipment (pots, querns, troughs, and buckets); tools (sickles, gouges, axes) and textile-related items (loom weights, spindle whorls, plant fibre bundles and sticks of yarn), were consistently situated on the eastern side of buildings.

Various pots during the pottery re-fitting exercise
Photo: (c) Must Farm Website

Four of the five main buildings included a mix of jars, bowls, and cups, finewares and coarsewares, most of which were grouped within the eastern side of each building which may have been the ‘kitchen’ area.

Culinary tools include querns, stirrers and scoops, and chopping/serving boards. Fragments were found from at least six possible quernstones, three of which are traditional saddle querns.

Pottery is one of the most common categories of find from the Late Bronze Age. Some 128 individual vessels were identified, including at least 38 jars, 49 bowls and 12 cups. Most of the jars were medium or large, with capacities in the region of 4–6 litres and 10–19 litres, respectively.

The collection of at least 49 glass beads is unparalleled in a British context. All but one of these were monochrome, probably originally blue, green or turquoise in colour. In contrast, the bead necklaces were present in significant numbers only in the two larger roundhouses (Structures 1 and 5) while dogs were present only in Structure 5.

In Part 2, I shall look at food, wood and woodworking, fabric production, wider connections, the comparison with other settlements and abandonment.

For more information see:

“Must Farm pile-dwelling settlement: Vol. 1. Landscape, architecture and occupation.” (2024). Edited by Mark Knight, Rachel Ballantyne, Matthew Brudenell, Anwen Cooper, David Gibson & Iona Robinson Zeki

“Must Farm pile-dwelling settlement: Volume 2. Specialist reports.” (2024). Edited by Rachel Ballantyne, A. Cooper, D. Gibson, Mark Knight & I Robinson Zeki

Both volumes are freely accessible via the Must Farm website

https://www.mustfarm.com/bronze-age-settlement/