Animal exploitation in medieval Ireland

• Main Author: Denham, Sean Dexter
• Published: Queen's University Belfast 2008
• Subjects: 930.1
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.492149

Two proxies are best suited to an investigation of animal exploitation in medieval Ireland, the historical record and the zooarchaeological record. Extensive analyses of both have been brought together here to address this topic. In selecting period documents to include in the study, an attempt was made t.o cover the various historical traditions seen in medieval Ireland; this includes Irish annals, Anglo-Norman administratixe documents, and narrative histories and observations from medieval writers. One of the more important aspects of this thesis was the accumulation of as authoritative corpus of zooarchaeological data as possible. Towards these ends, a large number ofpublished and unpublished reports have been brought together to form a complete picture ofthe state of the medieval Irish faunal record. Three new faunal assemblages, from Carrickmines Castle, Co. Dublin, Dunboyne Castle, Co. Meath, and Ballybarrack souterrain, Co. Louth, have also been analysed and included in the thesis. On a broader scale, this thesis highlights three problems in both the archaeology of medieval Ireland. The first of these is the integration of historical and archaeological data, and to what extent it is appropriate to do so. The second is a general problem within archaeology and that is the treatment of specialist reports. Too often such reports are either not fully published or not published at all, limiting or eliminating the usefulness of the data they contain. Alternatively, they are not readily accessible to researchers whom they would benefit. Finally, the state of the medieval Irish archaeological record is heavily biased towards Anglo-Norman/urban sites. This is of special significance in that, due to a lake of economic records, zooarchaeology is one ofthe few strands of evidence available which may shed light on animal exploitation in Gaelic Ireland. Supplied by The British Library - 'The world's knowledge'