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local kin-based identities onto a topography of as- sembly that articulated more encompassing scales of polity and community. The decision by the con- stituent communities of a polity to bury on the royal estate near to its boundaries was something that re-imagined and sanctified that office and estate for those communities through the passing of genera- tions. Notably, this was by the internment therein of the corporeal fabric of the body politic, such that the Importantly, the propensity for these complexes to be situated close to boundaries suggests that they were consciously defining and demarcating assembly landscapes that served to bring communi- ties of the living and dead together. As they cluster together, and were associated with specific kin- groups, it seems clear they were deeply implicated in maintaining local, kin-based identity. We can also consider them as sepulchral landscapes that mapped Figure 3. Map of 115 assembly places in Ireland within their local tricha cét, with places showing evidence for early me- dieval burial also shown.

Figure 3 local kin-based identities onto a topography of as- sembly that articulated more encompassing scales of polity and community. The decision by the con- stituent communities of a polity to bury on the royal estate near to its boundaries was something that re-imagined and sanctified that office and estate for those communities through the passing of genera- tions. Notably, this was by the internment therein of the corporeal fabric of the body politic, such that the Importantly, the propensity for these complexes to be situated close to boundaries suggests that they were consciously defining and demarcating assembly landscapes that served to bring communi- ties of the living and dead together. As they cluster together, and were associated with specific kin- groups, it seems clear they were deeply implicated in maintaining local, kin-based identity. We can also consider them as sepulchral landscapes that mapped Figure 3. Map of 115 assembly places in Ireland within their local tricha cét, with places showing evidence for early me- dieval burial also shown.

Related Figures (4)

Figure 1. Map of 115 assembly landscapes (from the catalogue in Gleeson 2014) within their local tricha cét (after Mac: Cotter 2008). if not also the assemblies one may hypothesize for subject communities within petty kingdoms (further Gleeson 2014). This equation, of course, is not an exact science, and the inherently dynamic nature of the early Irish geo-political landscape necessitates a caveat that the scale of assembly such places relate to could change overtime. Nevertheless, appreciat- ing the existence of a tiered structure of interlocking 1996; O Corrain 1978), the existence of a hierarchy of assemblies is neither unique nor surprising within a northwest European context. In terms of the scale of polity that these tiers relate to, an 6enach is prob- ably best regarded as the equivalent of an althing or shire moot of Scandinavian or Anglo-Saxon poli- ties, while the lower-order thing or hundred moot relates more readily to assemblies of local tuath,
Figure 1. Map of 115 assembly landscapes (from the catalogue in Gleeson 2014) within their local tricha cét (after Mac: Cotter 2008). if not also the assemblies one may hypothesize for subject communities within petty kingdoms (further Gleeson 2014). This equation, of course, is not an exact science, and the inherently dynamic nature of the early Irish geo-political landscape necessitates a caveat that the scale of assembly such places relate to could change overtime. Nevertheless, appreciat- ing the existence of a tiered structure of interlocking 1996; O Corrain 1978), the existence of a hierarchy of assemblies is neither unique nor surprising within a northwest European context. In terms of the scale of polity that these tiers relate to, an 6enach is prob- ably best regarded as the equivalent of an althing or shire moot of Scandinavian or Anglo-Saxon poli- ties, while the lower-order thing or hundred moot relates more readily to assemblies of local tuath,
Figure 5. LIDAR model of Raheennamadra hill, the core focus of Oenach Clochair, Munster’s pre-eminent assembly place. The ring-barrow on the crest of the hill is approached through a (later) northeast-southwest orientated avenue, and has two tall satellite mounds located immediately south. The avenue skirts around a large oval enclosure containing a platform ringfort that was constructed in the second half of the early medieval period, probably as a royal seat. Although full exploration of the latter point is be- yond the present paper’s scope, there are examples where the effects of such processes are visible within assembly landscapes. For brevity, I confine myself to a single instance, namely Nenagh, County Tip- perary (from “denach”), which was Oenach Aurmu- man, “the denach of east Munster”, also known as Oenach Téite. Téite was a mythical female said to have been interred within the assembly mound and in whose memory the games were said to have been convened in Middle Irish literature (cf. Bergholm, in press; Ettlinger 1953). A large cemetery complex at
Figure 5. LIDAR model of Raheennamadra hill, the core focus of Oenach Clochair, Munster’s pre-eminent assembly place. The ring-barrow on the crest of the hill is approached through a (later) northeast-southwest orientated avenue, and has two tall satellite mounds located immediately south. The avenue skirts around a large oval enclosure containing a platform ringfort that was constructed in the second half of the early medieval period, probably as a royal seat. Although full exploration of the latter point is be- yond the present paper’s scope, there are examples where the effects of such processes are visible within assembly landscapes. For brevity, I confine myself to a single instance, namely Nenagh, County Tip- perary (from “denach”), which was Oenach Aurmu- man, “the denach of east Munster”, also known as Oenach Téite. Téite was a mythical female said to have been interred within the assembly mound and in whose memory the games were said to have been convened in Middle Irish literature (cf. Bergholm, in press; Ettlinger 1953). A large cemetery complex at
Related topics:
Medieval HistoryLandscape ArchaeologyEarly ChristianityEarly Medieval ArchaeologyEarly Medieval IrelandKingship (Medieval History)Burial Practices (Archaeology)
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