800 Years of Making: Early Medieval Craftworking and an 8th-Century Decline in Ireland. Issue 2 (3rd July 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hannah, Emma
• Is Part Of: Medieval archaeology. Volume 65:Issue 2(2021)
• Page Start: 238
• Page End: 268
• Publication Date: 2021-07-03
• Subjects: Middle Ages -- Periodicals; Great Britain -- Antiquities -- Periodicals; Europe -- Antiquities -- Periodicals; 940.1
• DOI: 10.1080/00766097.2021.1999070
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0076-6097

Abstract

Abstract : METHODOLOGICAL ADVANCES IN STATISTICAL MODELLING of chronological data have enabled fresh perspectives of the past to be gained from the analysis of large numbers of radiocarbon ( 14 C) dates. A new analysis of radiocarbon dates associated with craftworking activities — handicrafts like antler-working or wood-working and metalworking technologies — from Irish sites of early medieval date is presented using a bootstrapped kernel density estimation (KDE) method. These models are used to assess whether the arrival of urbanism to Ireland in the 10th century brought about a major change to craftworking traditions, and to build a new and nuanced understanding of long-term trends at both secular and ecclesiastical sites of the period. These are shown to have differed, especially in the 8th century, at a crucial point in time. The findings add to the emerging narrative of demographic 'decline' from similar data-driven investigations of Ireland's early medieval past, which pinpoint the beginning of the 8th century as a seminal moment of change. Crucially, however, they also reveal a more complex pattern of change involving a combination of processes, independent of urban development, but related to demographics, socio-economic re-organisation, changing settlement patterns, and the influence of the Church.