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The environmental context and function of Burnt-Mounds: new studies of Irish Fulachtaí Fiadh

The environmental context and function of Burnt-Mounds: new studies of Irish Fulachtaí Fiadh
The environmental context and function of Burnt-Mounds: new studies of Irish Fulachtaí Fiadh
Burnt mounds, or fulachtaí fiadh as they are known in Ireland, are probably the most common prehistoric site type in Ireland and Britain. Typically Middle–Late Bronze Age in age (although both earlier and later examples are known), they are artefact-poor and rarely associated with settlements. The function of these sites has been much debated with the most commonly cited uses being for cooking, as steam baths or saunas, for brewing, tanning, or textile processing. A number of major infrastructural development schemes in Ireland in the years 2002–2007 revealed remarkable numbers of these mounds often associated with wood-lined troughs, many of which were extremely well-preserved. This afforded an opportunity to investigate them as landscape features using environmental techniques – specifically plant macrofossils and charcoal, pollen, beetles, and multi-element analyses. This paper summarises the results from eight sites from Ireland and compares them with burnt mound sites in Great Britain. The fulachtaí fiadh which are generally in clusters, are all groundwater-fed by springs, along floodplains and at the bases of slopes. The sites are associated with the clearance of wet woodland for fuel; most had evidence of nearby agriculture and all revealed low levels of grazing. Multi-element analysis at two sites revealed elevated heavy metal concentrations suggesting that off-site soil, ash or urine had been used in the trough. Overall the evidence suggests that the most likely function for these sites is textile production involving both cleaning and/or dyeing of wool and/or natural plant fibres and as a functionally related activity to hide cleaning and tanning. Whilst further research is clearly needed to confirm if fulachtaí fiadh are part of the ‘textile revolution’ we should also recognise their important role in the rapid deforestation of the wetter parts of primary woodland and the expansion of agriculture into marginal areas during the Irish and British Bronze Ages.
0079-497X
259-290
Brown, Antony G.
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Davis, Steven R.
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Hatton, Jackie
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O'Brien, Charlotte
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Reilly, Fiona
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Taylor, Kate
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Dennehy, Emer K.
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O'Donnell, Lorna
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Bermingham, Nora
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Mighall, Tim
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Timpany, Scott
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Tetlow, Emma
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Wheeler, Jane
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Wynne, Shirley
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Brown, Antony G.
c51f9d3e-02b0-47da-a483-41c354e78fab
Davis, Steven R.
0098405e-b90b-4fd2-83ed-f5eb0ba35e7c
Hatton, Jackie
8b0781fb-6ee8-4cae-93f6-ee12cec8b0f6
O'Brien, Charlotte
0ef081e2-1a21-46de-91b2-f62ce05a029b
Reilly, Fiona
bafbcb24-1556-4682-9c93-7fcebef9db31
Taylor, Kate
ef8d315e-9910-4527-991f-a921048d7010
Dennehy, Emer K.
e2d0507f-77c0-4c3e-996d-db40a4f36087
O'Donnell, Lorna
fd5deca0-4612-4f84-baa1-dbdf2a873a65
Bermingham, Nora
37ceb9f6-0f56-4163-adef-9954a8eb903c
Mighall, Tim
038b0688-0734-4a01-8b4c-82945c795cab
Timpany, Scott
ea42db6e-c1a9-4286-8e20-e04c93fca1a5
Tetlow, Emma
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Wheeler, Jane
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Wynne, Shirley
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Brown, Antony G., Davis, Steven R., Hatton, Jackie, O'Brien, Charlotte, Reilly, Fiona, Taylor, Kate, Dennehy, Emer K., O'Donnell, Lorna, Bermingham, Nora, Mighall, Tim, Timpany, Scott, Tetlow, Emma, Wheeler, Jane and Wynne, Shirley (2016) The environmental context and function of Burnt-Mounds: new studies of Irish Fulachtaí Fiadh. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 82, 259-290. (doi:10.1017/ppr.2016.7).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Burnt mounds, or fulachtaí fiadh as they are known in Ireland, are probably the most common prehistoric site type in Ireland and Britain. Typically Middle–Late Bronze Age in age (although both earlier and later examples are known), they are artefact-poor and rarely associated with settlements. The function of these sites has been much debated with the most commonly cited uses being for cooking, as steam baths or saunas, for brewing, tanning, or textile processing. A number of major infrastructural development schemes in Ireland in the years 2002–2007 revealed remarkable numbers of these mounds often associated with wood-lined troughs, many of which were extremely well-preserved. This afforded an opportunity to investigate them as landscape features using environmental techniques – specifically plant macrofossils and charcoal, pollen, beetles, and multi-element analyses. This paper summarises the results from eight sites from Ireland and compares them with burnt mound sites in Great Britain. The fulachtaí fiadh which are generally in clusters, are all groundwater-fed by springs, along floodplains and at the bases of slopes. The sites are associated with the clearance of wet woodland for fuel; most had evidence of nearby agriculture and all revealed low levels of grazing. Multi-element analysis at two sites revealed elevated heavy metal concentrations suggesting that off-site soil, ash or urine had been used in the trough. Overall the evidence suggests that the most likely function for these sites is textile production involving both cleaning and/or dyeing of wool and/or natural plant fibres and as a functionally related activity to hide cleaning and tanning. Whilst further research is clearly needed to confirm if fulachtaí fiadh are part of the ‘textile revolution’ we should also recognise their important role in the rapid deforestation of the wetter parts of primary woodland and the expansion of agriculture into marginal areas during the Irish and British Bronze Ages.

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Burnt Mound PPS Paper v14 with Figs.pdf - Accepted Manuscript
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BM PPS Paper v5 accepted ms.pdf - Accepted Manuscript
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 19 May 2016
e-pub ahead of print date: 17 August 2016
Published date: December 2016
Organisations: Palaeoenvironment Laboratory (PLUS)

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Local EPrints ID: 396786
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/396786
ISSN: 0079-497X
PURE UUID: 3251863c-31ea-49d1-b927-67e92a478f18
ORCID for Antony G. Brown: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1990-4654

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Date deposited: 14 Jun 2016 11:16
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 05:39

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Contributors

Author: Antony G. Brown ORCID iD
Author: Steven R. Davis
Author: Jackie Hatton
Author: Charlotte O'Brien
Author: Fiona Reilly
Author: Kate Taylor
Author: Emer K. Dennehy
Author: Lorna O'Donnell
Author: Nora Bermingham
Author: Tim Mighall
Author: Scott Timpany
Author: Emma Tetlow
Author: Jane Wheeler
Author: Shirley Wynne

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