2000 BCE - Late Neolithic

by Kathleen NiBhriain and Larry Chamberlin

The Late Neolithic begins with the introduction of yet another type of burial, or rather two types. Here we see that the late Neolithic people are now utilizing cists (small stone chambers) for the burial of single bodies, predominantly male. They are accompanied by more personal artifacts than the previous burials. There were also large megolithic chambers like those found earlier, but having only one room. A few Passage Graves were being built at this time as well. Single Graves were also found in abundance during this period in southern Russian and northern Juteland.

The Beaker People (so named because of a type of beaker shaped pottery they made) move in from Rhineland, and are responsible for the erection of solitary stone monuments and some of the stone circles. The arrived directly from Europe, and were sophisticated farmers and stockbreeders, using copper and bronze. They settled in the Western World, particularly Co. Munster, and may have been responsible for a shift from communal tombs to individualistic entombment in the Crouched Burial position. These people left weapons & other possessions with the interment, including highly decorated drinking vessels. Flint arrow heads and bronze wrist guards from this period show evidence of archery in this culture.

In the East, a second group appeared from Britain, the Food Vessel People, who included such items in the burials as bowls (with Crouched Burials) and vases (with incinerated ashes). Cremation was used almost exclusively by the next wave of immigrants, the Cinerary Urn people, who seem to have mixed in with the Food Vessel people. Bronze Age people often reused earlier tombs, but were noteworthy for the construction of stone circles (e.g. Grange, County Limerick; Dromleg, County Cork; and Lissyviggeen, Kilarney, County Kerry), and crannógs, timber houses built on man-made islands in lakes and generally surrounded by palisades (e.g. Dowris district of County Offaly).

Sources:

A History of Ireland, Peter & Fiona Somerset Fry, © Barnes & Noble Books, 1993, New York, ISBN 1-56619-215-3. (Orig. printing © 1988, Peter Fry, Routledge Press)

Ireland In Prehistory, Michael Herity and George Eogan, Routledge, ©1997, ISBN 0-415-04889-3

prepared by Kathleen NiBhriain and Larry Chamberlin

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