Forts and Fields: A Study of 'Monastic Towns' in Seventh and Eighth Century Ireland Author(s): Catherine Swift Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of Irish Archaeology, Vol. 9 (1998), pp. 105-125 Published by: Wordwell Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30001695 . Accessed: 25/02/2013 09:54

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Journal of Irish Archaeology, IX 1998 FORTS AND FIELDS: A STUDY OF 'MONASTIC TOWNS' IN SEVENTH AND EIGHTH CENTURY IRELAND'

CATHERINE SWIFT Due to the work of CharlesDoherty, the phrase'monastic century 'monastic town' at Kildare is raised in his town' is now part of the common parlanceof medieval analysis of an extractfrom Cogitosus'sLife of Brigit" Irish archaeology and settlement studies. This was a phrase which had earlier been used by 0 Corrain2to And what words are capableof setting forththe characterisemajor eighth- and ninth-centurychurches. very greatbeauty of this churchand the Doherty popularised the expression in three articles countless wondersof that monasterywhich we written in the first half of the 1980s. In these, it was may call city (civitas) if it is possible to call city argued that, after ecclesiastical sites adopteda standard that which is enclosed by no circle of walls. format in the seventh and eighth centuries,they became However,since innumerablepeople come 'urban' from the tenth century. His model has been togetherwithin it and acquiringthe name city accepted by medieval archaeologistssuch as Bradley, because of its throngsthis is a very great Edwards and, to some extent, by Ryan.' In contrast, metropolitan city (civitas et metropolitana); in Mallory and McNeill have drawna distinctionbetween its suburbs(suburbana), the clear boundariesof early church sites as major centres of resources(which which holy Brigit markedout herself,no human they see as plausible)and the same sites as large centres foe or chargeof enemies is feared.But it is a city of population (with which they disagree). Grahamhas of refuge (civitas refugii),the safest amongthe pointedout thatthere is no knownparallel for a theoryof externalsurburbs (suburbana) with all their urbanisationfounded almost entirelyon monasticismand fugitives in all the lands of the Irish.' argues that the lack of a precise definition of the 'monastic town' compromises Doherty's concept. The specifically 'urban' language here is Elsewhere, Graham has suggested that such 'proto- supported in Doherty's model by analysis of eighth- towns' should be viewed in the contextof mixed secular century canons which he interpretsas referringto the and ecclesiastical settlementswhich he postulatesas the presence of a lay populationliving on the peripheryof norm in early medievalIreland from the seventhcentury.' major monasteries.'"The ceremonial complex at the More recently,Valante has queriedthe whole concept of centre of the settlement is left relatively free from an Irish monastic town on the groundsthat she sees no habitation while the suburbana, known as the ferann evidence for early ecclesiasticalsites being the 'hub of a fognama in Irish, were service lands, inhabited by redistributivesystem', nor for their 'urban' status. She monastictenants." Doherty leaves the questionof density defines urbanas 'distinct from a ruralsettlement where of populationon these settlementsopen; pointingout that the majority of denizens rely on agricultural 'in the courseof time' majormonasteries had a population production...'and suggests thatin a pre-industrialsociety, reflectingall gradesof society fromserf to noble and that commerce, manufacturingand provision of services are not all who lived within monastic settlements or on obvious possibilities for a non-farmingeconomic base.6 monastic property could be classed as 'religious'.' Up until recently, the concept of the Irish Despite the reference to service lands, the over-all monastictown was basedalmost entirely on documentary emphasisof Doherty'swork on the urbanassociations of material with relatively little archaeological evidence early ecclesiasticalsettlements has resultedin his model being deployed. Recently, however, Bradley has being interpretedby subsequentcommentators such as 6 publisheda definitionof an Irishmonastic town in which Corrniin,Mytum, Bitel, Stoutand, by inference,Bradley" the criteria for inclusion are as much archaeologicalas as indicatingthe existence of largenucleated and 'urban' historical, namely settlementcomplexity with a central or 'proto-urban'settlements from the seventh or eighth core where majorchurch buildings are located,domestic century. houses and workshops,streets, fairs and trade,enclosure My purposein this paperis to examine a number and defence and an importantpolitical role for the site.' of the words and phrasesused to describe ecclesiastical On the otherhand, the case studyof Clonmacnoisewhich settlementin the eighth-centurycollection of Irish canon he provides is still largely dependenton documentary law, the Collectio Canonum Hibernensis.'" I believe that referencesand for the most partrefers to the eleventhand since our currentarchaeological interpretation of larger twelfth centuries.Archaeological investigation by King ecclesiasticalsites is so heavily influencedby Doherty's and others at Clonmacnoise has producedevidence of model, it is importantfor archaeologiststo discuss these settlement at that ecclesiastical centre but evidence of documentarysources in detail.A detailed investigationof density and date have yet to be publishedin detail. the words in the Hibernensis, with due regardfor their In Doherty'swork, the possibilityof a seventh- biblical and vernacularcounterparts, has led me to three

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions general conclusions which I would like to contributeto a great advantage in the huge number and variety of the debate.Firstly, I do not believe thatthe textualsources surviving texts in the vernacular. To an extent supportthe suggestionthat Irishecclesiastical settlements unparalleledin other northerncultures, it is possible to were 'urban' in the sense that they housed large test the meaning of Latin words and phrases used by concentratedpopulations in the late seventh or eighth medieval Irishwriters by looking at theirOld and Middle centuries. Rather, they appear to reflect a dispersed Irishcounterparts. This is a vitally importantresource for pattern with little or no evidence for nucleation. The Irisharchaeologists, eager to identifythe monumentsand churchbuildings are surroundedby fields andpasture and settlementtypes describedin our documents.On the other the people associated with the settlement lived in hand,it is importantthat we acknowledgecertain features dwellings spread across the local landscape. Secondly, in this data base, as presently constituted,which limits there is no single precise translationfor the many Latin any attemptto use Irishlanguage sources in this way. words used to describechurch-settlements and these were The numberof scholars working in the field of frequently viewed as synonyms by the Hiberno-Latin Old Irish is historicallyvery small and the productionof writers.Thirdly, I would argue that the languageused to the Dictionary of the Irish Language has involved the describeecclesiastical settlement does not differfrom that energies of many of the key figures working in the field pertaining to secular sites and that, in over-all between 1913 and 1976. Such men and women were organisation, the layout of both were probably linguists, interested in the grammaticalcomplexities of comparable. the Irish language and, for the most part, particularly concernedto elucidatethe connectionsbetween Irishand WORDS AS ARCHAEOLOGICALEVIDENCE its ancestor Common Celtic and, further back, Indo- A major problem in any such enquiry concerns the European.As archaeologists,we tend to imagine that the difficulties imposed by the various languagesinvolved. primaryfocus of a dictionaryis translation,but as least as The Hibernensis was written in Latin, a language in important to the Dictionary compilers was the common use throughoutWestern Europe during the early identificationof specific stem classes (for nouns) and the MiddleAges as a sacredor cult language.'"It presentedan ancestralpre-verbs which made up the verbal complexes amalgamof Christianand indeed of Romantradition to in Old Irish. English translationswere often not their its medieval Irish audience and as such, it does not and primaryinterest and they tended to be taken verbatim cannotreflect a single materialculture. The realitywhich from editions extantat the time the particularsection was lies behind the use of specific words in such a 'cultic' being compiled. Many of the translationsfor material language thus becomes difficult, if not impossible to objects, for example, are drawn from the nineteenth- discern. The primary text in early medieval European century translationsof Ancient Irish Laws or the sagas culture was the Vulgate Bible; a Latin translationof translatedby languagescholars at the turnof the century, Hebrew and Greek sources by St Jerome,who wrote in men such as Whitley Stokes or Kuno Meyer."'Such the last years of the fourthcentury. Forthe archaeologist, translations,one need hardlyadd, were producedat a time this text concentrateson a Near Easternculture of the last when the study of Irish medieval archaeologywas in its millenniumbefore Christ but includes as well a number infancy. of shortertexts writtenin the Hellenicisedworld of Asia In short, simply adopting the translationof a Minorin the first centuryof our era.Jerome himself came given Irish word as listed in the Dictionary is often too from the Roman province of Dalmatia in the western minimalist an approach. Given the tiny numbers of Balkans. He spent some years as a hermit in Syria and individualsinvolved and the very differentstructure and othersas a radicalproselytiser among wealthy females in aims of Old Irish as an academic discipline, we cannot Rome. Finally, after a scandal caused by the death of a assume that Old Irishscholars are going to automatically young noblewoman under the severe ascetic regime provide us with texts which provide a clear cultural which he had imposed, he retiredto Bethlehem.As a context for the phenomenawe see in the field. As Irish translator,his vocabularymight be presumedto reflecthis archaeologists wishing to use documentarysources to diverse experiences. Furthermore,both Jeromehimself, illustrate cultural realities, it is our responsibility to as well as subsequentproducers of Latin biblical texts, produce our own definitions of words, based on our were influencedto varying degrees by older translations understandingof the archaeologicalrecord, as well as on of Hebrewtexts into Greekand of Greektexts into Latin. the texts themselves. For the results to be meaningful,it Some of the older biblical texts were producedin North requiresthe investigationof all the given instancesof a Africa, others in the huge urbancentres of Antioch and particularword - in the same way that identifyinga bead Alexandria."In short, the first step of an archaeologistor or a brooch involves a general overview of an entire historianwho seeks to identify a materialreality behind corpus. In settlementterms, this process has begun with the use of Latin vocabularyin Hiberno-Latintexts must the work by Malloryon the variousvernacular terms for be to acknowledgethe lack of a uniformusage in Biblical forts'"but comparativestudies of Hiberno-Latinand Old Latin. Irishvocabulary for specific monumenttypes have yet to Unlike other countriesin north-westernEurope, be undertaken. however, studentsof medieval Irishdocumentation have

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions CHURCH LAW COURTS AT THE ENTRANCE- place which the Lordwill have chosen."' WAYS TO ECCLESIASTICAL SETTLEMENTS For the early Irish, the consequences of the cultural Although this has the appearance of a mere diversity that lay behind their use of Latin as a sacred summary of biblical citations, this canon is in fact language was the existence of many words which they significant for our purposes for these details about the interpreted as synonyms. One such word was porta of the tabernaculumdo not, in fact, occur in the tabernaculumwhich in the Vulgatemeant either a tent, a Vulgate text at all. There is no reference to Solomon dwelling or the specific monumentwhich coveredthe Ark judging 'in the ostium of the tabernaculum'.Similarly, of the Covenantand was an area of communalworship."'9 there is no referencein the Vulgate to Moses making a In Irish sources, this last meaningappears to have been judgementin the porta of a tabernaculumalthough there extendedso thatthe wordcould be used to describeeither is a descriptionof Moses going into the tabernaculumin a church building or the church-settlementas a whole.2" orderto speakto the Lord,whose presencewas indicated A canon from the Hibernensis lists tabernaculum and to the watchingIsraelites by a cloud of white smoke in the templumin parallel;in both cases, these are said to be ostio tabernaculi.t"Finally, the phrase 'the place which structureswhich go througha ceremonyof dedication." the Lord God will have chosen' derives from Its vernacularderivation, the Old Irishword tabernacul, DeuteronomyZ"rather than the New Testamentand there is specified in the Milan glosses as a place in which the is no mentionof any such specificationin the accountof faithfulwould gatherand furtherthat it was a consecrated Jesus consultingwith the elders in the temple. building, comparable with a tempul." Even more The canon in the Hibernensisthus representsa specifically, the late tenth-century Saltair na RRann digest of biblical material which is not an accurate identifies a tabernaculas a tegdais De or house of God reflectionof the Vulgatetext but insteadan interpretation and as a place whereevery hour,cries shouldbe raisedto of that source.The compilersof this collection of biblical God in morningand evening offerings.' Such references citations appearto be reflectinga specific social custom, would seem to imply that many Irishscholars interpreted apparently unknown in Old Testament times, that of the word tabernaculumas referringto an actual church makingjudgements in the entrancewaysof tabernacula. building. Since the authors of the Hibernensis claim that they Other references in the canons may indicate a themselvesproduced the summariesof biblical citations3" definition of tabernaculumas the universalChurch or to it seems likely thatthis custom is an Irishone andindeed, an ecclesiastical settlement as a whole. Like the seventh-centuryhagiography as well as the Hibernensis priesthood,the tabernaculumnwas said to be one and itself indicatesthat, for the Irish, two places which 'the indivisible, it should never be despoiled of its property Lord will have chosen' were Armagh and Rome."'In and goods could be placed in the tabernaculumfor safe- short, the canonistsappear to be demandingthat church keeping."Elsewhere, deacons are said to be ordainedand court cases should be brought to judgement at the to serve in a tabernaculum."'In the Penitentialof Finnian entrancewaysof the largerecclesiastical settlements, such in which a penitentis told of his fate: 'punishmentwill as Armagh. not depart from his tabernaculum'."'Such rules seem more likely to relate to a settlementthan to a specific THE BROAD DIVISIONS IN THE LAYOUT OF churchbuilding. IRISH ECCLESIASTICAL SETTLEMENTS Thus, in Hiberno-Latin texts, tabernaculumr One further reference to tabernaculum in the Hibernensis appearsto have both a general meaning of community provides some evidence as to the exact layoutof an early and a more specific one, referringto a buildingdesigned Irish ecclesiastical settlement.In the section entitledDe for Christian worship, something akin to the current oblationibus[On offerings],it is statedthat four types of connotationsof the English word, 'church'.Armed with food were to be given to ecclesiasticalsettlements: this knowledge, we can interpret a number of the statementsin the Hibernensisin a more precise fashion In the law, therewere four types of food for the than has hithertobeen the case. An extractdealing with priests;firstly those thatAaron and his sons used ecclesiasticalcourts of appeal,for example,specifies that to consumein the tabernaculum;secondly, those such appeals took place at the porta (gate) or the ostium thatthe sons of Aaronused to consume in the (door, entranceway) of a tabernaculum or temp/urm: ostium of the tabernaculum; thirdly, those that eithersex used to eat in the atriumand fourthly, Moses used to give judgementin the porta of those thatthe whole householdused to eat in the the tabernaculumin orderthat he mightcall ostiumwith the servantsand the purchased togethera crowdof people and the older men of people.2 Israel to the ostium of the tabernaculum. Solomonused to give judgementin the ostiumof As with previous examples, this canon the tabernaculum.The boy Jesus was foundin representsan interpretationof the biblical sources rather the temp/um,arguing within a circle of old men, thana simple paraphraseof informnnationin the Bible. The as we have said above: 'Rise and go up to the Old Testamentprovides us with two descriptionsof the

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions offerings which Aaron and his offspring were to eat are Yet again, this informationdoes not exist in the found in Leviticus: Vulgate.These hierarchicaldivisions were not drawn at MountSinai by the compilerof the Book of Exoduswho Moses spoke to Aaronand to Eleazarand merely states that both priests and people were kept Ithamar, his sons who were left ... And you shall outside the boundarieswhich the Lord laid around the eat (the sacrifice) in the holy place because it is mountain.3"The final sentence implies the explanation given to you and to your sons from the offerings this description of the holy mountain paralleled the of the Lordjust as I have also commanded... normal layout of an Irish ecclesiastical site of the You shall eat (it) in the cleanest place, you and daybeyondthe tabernaculumin whichever meaning this your sons and your daughterswith you for they is used, lay some form of barrier,dividing it from the are given from the sacrificialanimals to you and Levites. Archaeologically,this would seem to indicate to your childrenfor the well-being of the either some form of enclosure arounda church-building childrenof Israel."3 or, alternatively,an enclosurearound the settlementas a whole. Hamlin has drawn attention to an incident in The remainingshare of the flour,Aaron will eat Cogitosus'Life of Brigit where it is stated explicitly that it withoutyeast, togetherwith his sons and he the church at Kildare (ecclesia) was surroundedby an shall eat it in the atrium of a tabernaculum ... So enclosure (castellum) with a millstone functioning as a will the males of the seed of Aaroneat that relic being placed in the entranceway(portis) of this lawful offeringand it is an eternaloffering (laid) enclosure." The settlement as a whole is termed a on your generationsfrom the sacrificesto the monasteriumor civitas and, as indicatedin the quotation Lord.... at the beginningof this paper,Cogitosus stresses that, in this case, there were no walls or enclosure surrounding Both biblical accounts provide for the eating of the entire area. The example of Kildare, then, would offerings by Aaron and his sons but in the first,this takes imply that the barrierbetween the tabernaculumand the place in the holy place or the cleanest place and in the Levites is a barrier around the church building or second, the ceremony takes place in the atrium of a buildingsrather than arounda settlement. tabernaculum.There seems to be no biblicalprototype for In 1964 Kottje pointed out that Jerome, in his a four-fold division into tahernaculum, ostio tabernaculi commentaryon Malachi,had drawnanalogies between (gateway of a tabernaculum) atrium and ostio (atrii ? - contemporarychurchmen and Levites, particularlywith gateway of an atrium?) as indicatedin the Hibernensis referenceto the levying of churchtithes." In more recent canon. This is despite the fact that the canonist years, Kottje's point has been extendedto Irishmaterial. specifically cites Lex or the Bible as his source."'One According to the Old Testament,Aaron and his sons possible way of resolving this discrepancyis to suggest formeda sub-groupof the Levites and more specifically that the canonist is using biblical imagery to refer to a they acted as priests for the entirepopulation of Israel.4' layout which is specifically Irish,in much the same way Other Levites were identified by the Old Testament as he implies a biblical ancestryfor what appearsto have writers as servants of those that 'shall stand before the been the Irishpractice of holding churchlaw courtsat the tabernaculumof the testimony'; in other words, people entrance-waysof ecclesiastical settlements." who would fetch and carryon behalfof the priests.' This Thatthis medieval re-castingdoes indeedreflect identificationof priests as but one group amongst the a specific settlement pattern is indicated in yet another Levites is mirroredby the carefuldistinction in Old Irish canon from Hibernensis which describes the events vernacular law between three different types of purportedto have takenplace when the Lordgave Moses ecclesiastic, each with its own hierarchy.These include the Ten Commandmentsand God is said have placed the professional clerics (grdidaecalsa) from bishop to boundariesbetween the various groups of people who door-keeper;the scholars of the church (grcida ecnai) were present: from masterto pupil;and finally,the gradesof those who served the church in an administrativecapacity (grdda In the Law it states: at Mount Sinai, where the uird ecalsa), from the temporal administratorof the law was given, it was ordered(by God) thatall settlement's lands (airchinnech) down to men such as the populationand the animalsshould not touch cooks, millersor gardeners.43 it and He put a boundarybetween him and In addition to these three broad categories of Moses and between Moses and Joshuaand clerics, scholars and administrators,twentieth-century betweenJoshua and the elders and betweenthe investigators have used hagiographicaland annalistic elders and the general population.In the same sources to identify other groups of inhabitantswho are place it states:between the tabhernaculumand thought to have lived on or close by seventh-andearly the people of the Levites there was a gap and in eighth-century ecclesiastical settlements. Hughes, for the acria there was the householdof priestsand example,pointed to the referenceto marriedcouples and also between the tabernaculumand the Holy of penitentsin the seventh-centurytext LiberAngeli and she Holies.37 suggested that ecclesiastical sites were also the sites of

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions schools to whiclh local boys \would be sent for their inhabitantsof the settlement, with the church building education before retuming home to settle down on the itself as a focal point. family farm and raise children of their own." In a detailed The specificationsof the arrangementsat Mount analysis of one of the earliest texts in Old Irish, the Sinai corroboratethis explanation. Godly termini or Cambrai Homily, Stancliffe has pointed to the evidence boundariesdifferentiated between the most sacredplace for a large population of lay penitents who underwent where God himself was situated and the least sacred, 'blue martyrdom' by becoming residents for a period in which was the place of the vulgus populi (general an ecclesiastical settlement."4 Using archaeological population);in betweenthere were Moses, Joshuaand the material, Ryan has outlined the evidence for craftsmen in elders. In the sentence following this, the tabernaculum fine metalwork on such sites.'" Glosses to the law-tract is divided from all members of the settlement by an Gibretha Caramtiacdrefer to sons xwho were placed in intervallum and in the atria (plural), there was the bondage to the church implying that at least a proportion householdof priests.(I cannotmake up my mind whether of the population attached to ecclesiastical communities the final phrasein this extractmeans that there are further were in some sense servile. Doherty has draxwnattention priests'houses betweenthe tabernaculumand the Holy of to hagiographical references to the same phenomenon."' Holies or whether there is anotherintervallum between There is also the vexed question of the these two areas; the text is ambiguous.) Doherty has identification of the rmanaig: a group who were drawn attentionto other canons which identify areas of subordinate to the leaders of the ecclesiastical settlement ecclesiastical settlement as sanctus, sanctior or but whose exact status remains a question for debate.4"In sanctissimus (holy, holier, holiest) which again appears to the most recent discussion of the term, Etchinghamrn divide the settlement into three. Priests are allowed into identifies these individuals as having contractual the most holy area, crowds of common people into the relationships to the church similar to the legal obligations middle section and even murderers, adulturers and of rent-paying retainers to their secular lords. The church prostitutes are allowed into the outer perimeter.-" (This to which mnanaign were attached were considered the last may providefurther indication that church law courts, ultimate oxvner and supplier of land and livestock with who passed judgement on these categories of sinners, which they farmed. Some of these manaig had wives and were locatedon the outer perimeterof the ecclesiastical their sons could inherit property." Etchingham has also settlement.) drawn attention to the extent to xwhichthe Irish manuCnch Sources apparently contemporary with this mirrorsthe use of Hiberno-Latinmona/chus. Both words canon suggest that the boundariesbetween the various can be used to describe either a regular monk or a legal locations were visible on the ground.The word terminus socio/economicand pastoraldependant of the church.He is identifiedin the Hibernensisas a structurewhich could suggests that this dual-meaning bespeaks more than be demarcatedby crosses or other signa and which was terminologicalimprecision and folloxwsCharles-Edwvards markedout by a king, a bishop andthe populus acting in in inferringthat the distinctionbetwxeen monk and abbot unison." Alternatively, Adomnrin refers in the Vita on the one hand,and monastictenant and airchinnechon Columbaeto a monumentknown as a vallum which he the other,wxas often a subjectiveone. indicates divided a monasteriumfrom its surrounding It would appear,therefore, that the population agriculturalbuildings and fields and this has generally attachedto an ecclesiasticalsettlement, whom some Irish been interpretedas a boundaryditch or wall."' commentatorsreferred to as Levites,belonged to a variety From the texts, it would seem that the of social classes in the seventhand early eighth centuries. monumentsdelimiting the areaof church-buildingsfrom The debate on monastictowns is not over whetherthese the atriumor atria and the people of the Levitescould be people existed but the exact nature of the physical of a varietyof differentforms. There is little or no reason, relationshipbetween their dxxwellings and the centralfocus therefore, to assume that such boundaries are represented by the church buildings and associated automatically the standing enclosures visible around monuments. many churchsites today." On the otherhand, the canons Throughan identificationof Aaron and his sons concur in locating the priests in the intermediatearea as priests and the other Levites as the non-clerical between the most prestigiousand the least prestigious administrative personnel of a church site, the two canons zones of the settlement."It is thus worth consideringin discussed in this section can also provide pertinent greaterdetail the natureof the atriumor atria in which the information on this problem. Canon XVII:4 states that ]fmilia (household/community) of the priests were there were four types of tfood, the first consumed by the located. priest and his sons in the tabernaculurm,the second by the sons of the priests in the entrance-xay of the same ATRIUM AS DESCRIBED IN THE BIBLE AND IN structure,the thirdeaten by both sexes in the atriumand SOURCES FROM OUTSIDE IRELAND the fourth which was sharedout by all membersof the In the Book ofExodus, the atrium around a tabernaculum extendedhousehold including the slaves. The implication is given specific measurements:100 cubits by 50. At later behind the canon is that there is a hierarchyof location, stages, therecould be more thanone atrium;in Ezechiel, composedof churchbuilding, atrium and areaopen to all the outer atrium has treasuries (gazofilacia) and

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions pavements and kitchens for those who minister in the accordance w\ith the general European trend. Further tabernaculum."In Chronicles, the outer atrium holds specificationof such an atritm comes from examininga storehouses(thesauri) and in Revelationsit was reserved word which is used by a numberof Irish authorsas its for Gentiles while the inner atriumwas the place of the synonym. Lord."Atria are also associatedwith offerings made to the Lord and in I Kings, a ceremonyof dedicationof a SYNONYMS FOR ATRIU' IN IRISH SOURCES: templum takes place in an atrium."' The biblical PLATEA AND FA1THCHE referencesto atria thus visualise this locationas a public In his accountof the holy places of Jerusalem,Adomnan areawhere the ancillarytasks associatedwith the running uses the wordplatea to describew\hat other sources term of the tabernaculumtook place. It was also an area in the atrium of Golgotha. Many of the contexts in which which outhouses of various kinds were located. These platea is used in Hiberno-Latindocuments appear to be referenceswere widely interpretedby churcharchitects in directly comparableto the use of atrium in other texts. the late Roman and early medieval worlds. The great One such example is Adomnin's descriptionof offerings churchesof the Near East in the fourthto sixth centuries madeto Columbaby the bishopand people of Cul Rathin: had large atria, surroundingthe main church-buildings and divided from the streetby rows of ornatecolumns.5" At the same time. Conall,bishop of Cil Rathin Somethingsimilar was built at Lyonsin the fifth collected from the people of the plain of Eilne centuryand is describedby SidoniusApolinaris as a stone almost innumerablegifts and prepareda lodging forest, rising proudlyon columnsof Aquitanianmarble."' for the blessed man when, with a largecrowd In the churchof Aphrodisiasin Asia Minor,at aroundthe accompanyinghim, he was returningafter the same date, the atriumwas a medievaladdition, part of the conferenceof the above-namedkings. So when reconstructionswhich helped to convert a temple to the holy man arrived,the many gifts of the Aphroditeinto a Christianbasilica." In this early period people were presentedto him for benediction, (and in the Easternrites at a laterdate), the atriumappears laid out in the platea of the tnonasteritun." to have had an integralrole in the liturgyand was used, for example, as an assembly areafor catechumenswhere Reeves, analysingAdomndn's Vita Columbae in they remained apart during the celebration of the 1857, identified the platea of lona as being within the Eucharistinside the main churchbuilding."' In Jerusalem, monastic vallumand suggested that it either surrounded in a partof the complex at Golgothavariously termed an or lay beside the lodgings of the communityas well as atrium, a platea, a paradisus or a hortuts, corpses were being in the vicinity of the kitchen,the diningarea and the laid out before the final rites in the church." The biblical church."Herity, quoting the same passageas above, has descriptions of the Hebraic atrium served as an arguedfor its definitionas a courtyardand suggestedthat inspirationfor all andeach society interpretedthe Vulgate the word strata used here implies that it was paved. evidence in the light of its own culturalmilieu. MacDonaldhas arguedfor a similardefinition." In western Europe, there appears to be more Given the usage of platea in other Hiberno-Latintexts emphasison the atriumas a place which was open to the (and in particular,the lack of any other referenceto the public at large. Atria could be used to shelter long-term possibility of paving), I would prefer to follow the guests such as pilgrims; in fifth-centuryRome, Pope primarytranslation of the Andersonsand that of Richard Symmachus built them complete with fountains and Sharpeand see strata as qualifyingxenia. In otherwords, toilets at both St Peter's and St Paul's for preciselythis this text simply refersto the fact that the gifts were laid reason." In MerovingianGaul, the main purposeof the out and providesno evidence for paving."' atrium was as a place of sanctuary."'At the Synod of The notion of gifts laid out for the man of God Macon, in 585, a canon forbidsclerics to be presentin the in a platea would appear to have resonances of the atriumsauciolum [atrium of wounding?] whencriminals description of offerings made to the tabernaculum are being killed and at Chalon-sur-Seinein the mid authorities in the Hibernensis as well as of the seventh century,the atrium is said to be a place where descriptionin Leviticus of the offerings made to Aaron people mightassemble on the days of churchtfestivals and and his sons in the atrium tahernaui'li discussedabove. In where rowdy songs were wont to be sung."' his study, MacDonald'"has also drawn attentionto its in short,the biblicalevidence is for the atriumas usage in a variantcanon, belonging to one recension of a place where the ancillaryactivities and particularlythe the Hihernensis,which divides the sacred place into two economic activities of the tabernaculumtook place. The or three separate areas with plateae occupying the late Romanand immediatepost-Roman sources indicate intermediatezone: that an atrium was a place associated with certain liturgicalrituals of the church,while texts from western There should be two or threeboundaries around Europeindicate its role as a domicile fotbrpassing visitors the sacredplace, the first, into which we allow to an ecclesiastical settlement. The usage in the no one to enterat all unlessof the saints,because Hibernensis, which identifies an atrium as a place of laymen do not approachit, nor women, only habitation,surrounding the tabernaculumis, therefore,in clerics;the second, into theplateae of which, we

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions let entercrowds of countrypeople not much could be located and it was also an area of open access given to villainy:the third,into which we do not which formeda focus for communalactivities. Certainly, forbidlay murderers(and) adulturersto enterby the evidence of the Irish vernacularterm for platea, permissionand custom. Fromthis they are translatedin Cormac'sglossary asfaithche, would tend called, the first most holy, the second, moreholy to corroboratesuch an hypothesis."This is a wordwhich and the thirdholy.-' is translated'green' or 'lawn' in the Dictionary,drawing on the Englishtranslation provided in the AncientLaws,"0 The specificationthat murderersand adulterers though this translationappears to owe more to English were allowed to enter the outermnnostarea remindsus of village layoutthan to an earlyIrish context. The editorsof the specifications for the Gaulish a'tium as a place of Bechbrethapoint out that the jithche was owned more sanctuaryas well as the Irish evidence that church law exclusively than areas which were sechtar faithchi courts were held at the entrance-waysto ecclesiastical [beyondthe They drawattention to the fact that settlement.The tripartitedivision of occupationparallels it apparently.fithche].included areas for both grazingand tillage: the descriptionof ecclesiasticalsettlement in the canon for example, a commentary to Bretha Comaithchesa referringto Mount Sinai and indicates an intermediate suggests thatif pigs or hens got into the cultivatedarea of area between the holiest part of the settlementand that afiaithchethey could cause damage."'In addition,Fergus open to publicaccess. In the MountSinai canon, this area Kelly has pointed to evidence that thefaithche could be is termed an arriumnin \whichpriests live; here it is a the locationof a poundin which animalscould be kept in numberof plateae into which ruralfolk are allowedenter. distraint if there was a dispute as to their ownership."2In Yet another canon in the Hibernensis refers to the right of an eleventh-centuryaccount of the sons of Eochaid a cleric to wander freely among the plateae and the Muigmedon, the water-supply for the community was aMdronae, the latter a \\ord deriving from the Greek and located on thefaithhche."The vernacular texts thus supply meaning 'the houses of the men'. This indicates that for us with good evidence for assuming that the faithche the Irish canonist, platea, like cari/ni, could be an area in probably contained the ancillary out-houses and which people lived.-? economic units of productionwhich would allow it to be Althoughthe Hiberno-Latinauthors would seem confusedwith the termatriurm by Irishcanonists. to use platea/and atrimnas synonyms,Jerome appears to Another reference indicates that the faithche make a distinctionbetween the two wordsin the Vulgate. could act as a habitation area for inhabitantsof the Whereas a biblical arriuanis a yard attachedto a holy settlement. In the late Old Irish text, Longes Mac sanctuary,a biblicalp/artea is a place wvithinan area of nUislenn, the sons of Uisliu were said to have joined the habitation"\here the populacein generalcould assemble household following of the king of Scotland and as a in public fora. consequence,they 'assumedmercenary service with him In the Bible, plateae are frequentlyassociated and placed their houses on the jfaithche' [coro-gabsat with civitiates.- Public assemblies meeting in plateae amsaini acca ocus ro-suidigsitar a tige issindfaithchi]." could be addressedby figures in authoritysuch as the In the second canto of Saltair na Rann, there are allusions king Hezekiah or the scribe Ezra and in times of war, to the multitudesof the seeds of Adam who live in the chariots could rush throughthe area."-'It appearsthat it faithche."8These references parallel the canon in the was an area of open ground,which was not paved, for Hibernensis which refers to the atrium or atria as the there is frequentmention of the mudof the platea, while place of habitationfor the priestsof the settlement. in the 'Heavenly City' of Revelations,the platea was Finally,faithche is also used of an open space miraculouslyclean, "likeclear glass'.'"The plunderfrom which could be used for communalactivities as in the a defeatedcity could be piled up andburnt in herplateae, word platea. In the sagas, thejaithche is depictedas an the bones of deadenemies could be hungthere and public area on which visitors would congregate before being mourningcould takeplace there.'"Inmore peaceful times, admittedto the innerbuildings of a settlement."Warriors travellersarriving in a strangetown would join the old or visiting dignitariesmight leave their chariots there, men and women sitting in the platea in the hopes that troops might camp there and battles might take place, someone would offer them hospitality;children could youths might play their games there and the ruler of a play there, a man honouredby the king might parade settlementmight leave his dog to defend it while he was there,a righteousman might praythere and a young man entertainingguests inside." In a late Middle Irishtale, a mightbe accostedby the local prostitute.-It couldalso be youth is said to have drunkmead froma green goblet in a the scene of public jurisprudence:Ezra, for example, buildingon thefaithche." In additionto the buildings,the gatheredmen, andchildren into theplatea before fields and the animal pens, one might also find features w\omen the Gate of Watersand read to them from the law of such as open grass-land,trees, pillar-stones,stone crosses of Moses.'" and pools waterwhile thereare legal referencesto the It is possible that these two words - atrium and possibility of finding deer within its confines." It was platea - became synonymous in Hiberno-Latinbecause also an area in which some form of legal activity took the land surroundingan Irishchurch settlement fulfilled place: in his comments on Cain sderraith, Thurneysen both functions; it was both a site where outbuildings cites an earlyeleventh-century description of legal fasting

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions againstan opponentwhich took place on the opponent's implicationsthat this area could be relatively large. In it faithche." was found the place of occupation of what might be The faithche thus fulfills the criteria of being called the professionalclasses attachedto the settlement: both a place of ancillarybuildings attachedto the main clerics in the case of ecclesiasticalsettlements, warriors in settlement as established for the Hiberno-Latinatritun the case of royal sites. This area was open to the public and a place of communalactivity as inplatea. If this is so, with the exceptionthat, in the case of churchsettlements, one should perhapsenvisage this feature as a relatively the criminalswho had sought sanctuaryat the site were large areaand possibly one which did not always possess excluded. Legal cases were also heardin this generalarea clear man-made boundaries.A reference in the text of and offeringswere made to rulershere. Bechbretha states that: CIVITAS AS A TERM FOR EARLY IRISH the extent of a lawfulfaithche in Irishlaw is as ECCLESIASTICAL SITES far as the soundof a bell or the crowingof a cock These conclusions are strongly supportedif we examine reaches." one final Hiberno-Latinterm, ciritas. This is a word which occurs relatively infrequentlyin the Hibernensis An alternativeis a gloss which occurs at least but which MacDonaldhas identified as a term that was twice and which states:fjdithche .i. na ceithri guirt is nesa fashionableamong the compilersof the Annals of Ulster don baili [faithche, that is the four fields nearest the betweenthe eighthand tenthcenturies, as a termmeaning settlement]."'References in Adomnhin'slate seventh- the ecclesiastical settlementas a whole." Civitas is one century VitaColumbae indicate that thoughthe focus of of the most common words for a settlementunit in both Columba's early community was located on Iona, the classical and vulgarLatin and as such, the connotationsof place of the penitentsattached to this communitywas at this word vary widely. In its pre-Christianmeaning, it is MuirboleMar, on the island of Hinba."9Since we have identifiedin dictionariesof classical Latinas an assembly alreadyseen thatpenitents represented a distinctivegroup of citizens, governedby theirown laws and includingthe among the population of an ecclesiastical centre, the surroundingarea under their control. As the Roman implication of these references would appearto be that empirespread into new areas,the territorialboundaries of the buildings located in a settlement'sfaithche could be such civitates, the types of settlementfound within them quite widely dispersed. and the degree of independencewhich they enjoyedwere The contexts in which faithche is used raise all subject to diverse interpretations:Jones has pointed another question in regard to early Irish church out, for example, that a Swiss mountain valley with settlements. The vast majority of the references to scattered dwellings could qualify as a Roman civitas Jithche associate this feature with secular fortresses, providedthat people met periodicallyto elect magistrates while the law-tract Di Cetharslicht Athgab6la makes it and vote laws." clear that afaithche was found aroundall settlementsof In the Vulgate, Jerome appears to have prestige,be they secularor ecclesiastical: distinguisheda numberof differenttypes of civitates. At the lower end of scale, there was the simple civitas such He who has taken distraintfrom thefaithche of as Bethlehemas describedin the Book of Ruth. Kihler a privilegeddignitary - if he did not know it was has defined this as a Bauerndorf or farming village, thefaithche of a privilegeddignitary and did not limited in size by the need of every inhabitantto have find a competentperson from whom he could access to the fields." Then there were the civitates ask - it is not recoverablefrom him."? regales, such as Gabaonwhich McClurehas identifiedas a royal centre, 'which had an undefinedauthority over a Privilegeddignitaries or nemed personsaround substantialarea.'"9 A thirdcategory were the civitates of whose houses aJfrithchecould be found includedkings, the Levites cum suburbanis suis and the apparently lords, clerics and poets.9" The importantimplication of associated civitates refugii. 6 Corriin has argued that this for our purposes is that an ecclesiastical settlement ecclesiastical writers in Ireland identified many of the was organisedon the same basis as a secularone. It has major church sites with the levitical cities of the Old alreadybeen noted that the descriptionof the houses of Testament but treated them as civitates refiugii.'"' royal mercenarieslocated on the faithche of a king in The usage of civitas in the Hibernensis in Longes mac nUislenn appearsto parallelthe description generalmakes it relativelycertain that, in an Irishcontext, of priests' households in an atriumntabernaculi in the the word was thought to refer to the same type of canons. If this inference is correct, it implies that we settlementas those alreadydepicted. The commentaryto should be thinking of both ecclesiastical and secular B3retha Comaithchesa about hens escaping into the settlements as being made up of a central focus, faitihche is paralleled in the Hibernensis by a canon surroundedby an ill-definedarea in which one might find explaining that if hens escaped from a civitas into the agriculturalbuildings, domestic animals and fields of surroundingfora, paymentwas due to the owners of the cereal crops, as well as trees, grassor pools of water.Not land.'"" In the Hibernensis, plateae are also fotbund surprisingly, given what it contained, there are also associated with civitates as well as with tabernaculum,

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions templum, atrium and suburbana: swineherds,the hostlersfasten iron hobblesto the horses' legs. Countless numbersof peasants Every civitas of refuge is laid out with its cast off the accustomedbond of labourfrom suburbana.(b) In like manner,every civitaswas their limbs and rest in their comfortablehouses given to the priests with its suburbana 15,000 of of dry covering;therefore let us approachthe length and 10,000 of width, for feedingthe protectivewalls of the civitas to requestsuitable flocks of the priests.(c) In like manner,Ezechiel, hospitalityfrom its kind inhabitants.'" measuringthe civitas at a certaintime, measures 1000 paces but at anothertime, 1000 pacesto the Finally, one should also note a canon in the east, (or so it says) and so forth.(d) In like Hibernensis which identifies a civitas with the type of manner,the templeof Solomonhad an enclosure legal assembly which was held outside the ecclesiastical aroundit in which he who would do wrong settlements elsewhere known as tabernacula : 'every would perish.(e) in like manner,the accused man shall be broughtto the door of the civitas tabernaculum of Moses had an atrium around it. and he shall be punishedin the presenceof witnesses.'1" (t) In like manner,Ezechiel: I see an angel in other words, legal activitiestook place at the ianumof havinga reed in [his] handin orderthat he might the civitas, just as they did at the porta or the ostiumof measurethe civitas in its circumferenceand its the tabernaculum. plateae outside. (g) In like mannerin To summarize, a civitas and its suburbana can, Revelations,The angel came in orderto measure in some Hibemo-Latinsources, providean exact parallel the civitas and its plateae. (h) In like mannerin for the type of settlement identified by the words Zacharia:When they had returnedfrom tabernaculum and atriurnm/plateaas outlined above. When Babylon, they built a temp/ulrnand its enclosure Cogitosus described Kildare as a civitas, he was around[it] and so forth."'" describing a location in which the church building was surroundedby dwellings of the residentclergy and, at a In this extract, it is implied not only that the furtherremove, by the other,subordinate, members of the tabernaculum corresponds to a templum, a link which has settlement. These houses were, however, all located been noted above (in the section on churchlaw-courts), within an area of agriculturalbuildings, fields, trees, but that it also parallels the civitas which is here ponds and pasturesand there is no evidence of a more associatedwith plateae and with suburbanabelonging to clusteredenvironment of the type envisaged for the tenth the priests. The reference to a thousandpaces can be and eleventh-century'monastic towns'. linked to a statement in the Old Irish 'Monastery of Tallaght' in which a cleric 'made much of going the SECULAR CIVITATESIN EARLY IRELAND thousandpaces or more to visit the tenantry'and to the Just as the words platea and atrium appearto represent suggestion in the later tract on maigen digona (area the area of open groundand dwelling areas surrounding arounda house under a householder'sprotection) that a all high-statussettlements, both ecclesiastical and secular, thousandpaces was the normalprecinct of a bishop or a the use of the word civitas in non-legal sources also hermit.'"'Whatever about a bishop's residence, it is indicatesthat this word was not confinedto churchsites. difficult to believe that MiddleIrish lawyers envisaged a In seventh-centuryPatrician hagiography, the wordcould hermitresiding at the centreof a nucleatedsettlement of refer to such diverse settlementsas Tara,Armagh, Slane at least a kilometre'sdiameter. Elsewhere, indeed, when and Sletty.'"9In the VitaPrima of Saint Brigit, the saint discussing secular dwellings, the authors of this text went to plead for her father at the gateway (porta) of the specifies that the maigen digona can be measuredwith civitas in which the king of the Laigin lived."' In what spear-casts:from one spear-castfor an ordinaryb6aire appearsto be an early genealogicaltract describingthe (strong farmer) to sixty-four spear-casts for an over- kings of Leinster,it is statedthat the royal Leinstersite of this seems a useful method of Ailinne was a civitas king."' Again, hardly Don regalis: measurementin a built-upenvironment. A flowery descriptionof what appearsto be a Art Mess Talmann,his family without issue - it civitas is found in the Hisperica Famina, dated to the mid is by him the rampartof Ailenn was constructed seventh century by Herren.Here again, the civitas is which afterwardswas a royal civitas."~ surroundedby pastures, enclosures and the houses of peasantsrather than the streets,fortified defences and the In the Annals of Ulster, civitas is used to semi-industrialisedcraftsmen favoured by proponentsof describe a number of ecclesiastical sites such as Ard the early 'monastictown': Breccan, Slane, FinndubrachAbe, Cell Delca and Cell DumaiGlinn, but it is also used to describethe site of the Innumerableflocks of cattlewander along royal assembly at Tailtiu or Teltown.'"'A particularly sandy paths and the kine press into their interesting reference to civitas in both royal and enclosures.Throngs of sheep ascendthe square ecclesiastical contexts is also to be found in the Vita folds, the hairyswine go to their familiar Tertia,a Latin life of Patrickwritten by an Irishmanat

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions some point priorto 1135: with the briuguor hosteller."'Like faithche, therefore,a les is a settlement form which might be inhabitedby a Then Patrickcame to Conall son of Niall and variety of social classes. Conall receivedhim with greatjoy and he Other references to the les indicate that while baptisedhim. And he offeredhim his home only a few might be residentwithin it, it was normallya (domus)and the whole dwelling-place place in which one mightmeet a wide varietyof people,'" (habitaculum)and he said to him: 'Make for it was the focus of many military attacks'l', it had an yourself a civitas from this habitaculum and I entrancewhich could be shut,'2 its entrance-waywas a will make for myself anotherhabitaculum in place in which one might meet guests"' and trees might front of the gates of your civitas".And [thus] grow by its entrance.'"4 Patrickmade there the civitas which is today These last three referencesindicate that the area called DomnachPdtraic and Patricksketched surroundinga les was comparable in both form and with his staff the habitaculumfor Conall;this is functionwith a faithche. UnfortunatelyI have not, as yet, RdcthAirthir.'" managed to trace examples where bothfaithche and les are used in conjunctionbut there are at least two cases It is clear that the author of this text sees civitas where a faithche is said in one text to surrounda site not only as a suitabledescription for the ecclesiasticalsite which is identified as a les in another.'"'In the Irish of Domnach Paitraicbut also for the dwelling associated translation of Nennius' Historia Brittonum, Lebor with a royal ancestor, Conall mac Neill. This dwelling Bretnach, the Irish author translated the phrase in could also be known as a rath. Interestingly,if the most pavimento... civitatis by faithche osin chathraig.'2' For commonly acceptedidentifications for DomnachP6traic what it is worth, there is also a reference in the Irish and Rath Airthir are accepted"' these two separate Gospel of Thomas where do-chenel or subordinatefolk civitates lie barely one field apart with little room are said to live around a rdth in which lived a king's between them for even one urbanconurbation, let alone family; raithis often taken to be a synonym of les and is two. used in the Vita Tertia extract quoted above as a It is also worth pointing out that in his vernacularequivalent to civilas.'" It may be that this Collectanea, the seventh-centuryhagiographer Tirechin referenceto the surroundingdo-chenel should be seen as makes a direct translationof civitas as a placename a parallel to the houses of priests in the atrium of an element, in which he equates it with a les."' Once again, ecclesiastical settlement and those of warriors in the this is a word which can be used in relation to both faithche of a royal site. ecclesiastical and secular sites. An early eighth-century If a les with its surroundingarea is a vernacular Patriciantext lists a les as one element in an estate given equivalent of civitas, as Tirechain'sseventh-century text to Patrick,together with a wood, a plain, meadowand a suggests, the implicationis thatthe core of a civitas at this herb-gardenand a bishop is said to have lived and time could be viewed as being essentially the home of a receivedofferings in a les in the late Old Irishtext, Bethui single household. The exact numbers dwelling within Brigte."4In what may be the vernacularequivalent of the such a homesteadare unclear;as yet we know little of the dictum by Columbanus that no-one should pass the living arrangementsfor such social categoriesas slaves, vallumof the monastery,the late Old Irishrule of Ailbe of cottiers,fosterlings and so forth.It does appear,however, Emly states that a monk is not allowed go beyondthe les that we should be thinkingof a populationof a civitas in without the permission of his abbot."' The Annals of terms of multiples of ten rather than multiples of a Ulster in an entry for 916 refers to the les of the abbot hundred. Subordinatesof the settlement'sowner might which was burntalong with other partsof the settlement live in the vicinity of his les/rdith/civitasbut there is no at Armagh."' evidence that they live in a densely clusteredor 'urban' Most commonly,however, the word les is used environment.Since the Latin word civitas is one of the to describe secular sites. Many of the most diagnostic key elements in the developmentof the theoryof the early references have recently been collected together by Irish 'monastic town' it is useful to see the non-urban Mallory."'From the saga materialadduced in his article, associationsof at least one of its vernacularequivalents. a les is an enclosed area surroundingthe most important house and its immediatedomestic appurtenances;one of THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD the most specific citationsfrom Mallory's catalogue is the This paper has been limited to examining the textual accountin Fled Bricrendwhich tells how Bricriuand his evidence and in particular the semantic ranges of words wife fell from theirhouse into the domesticrefuse-heap in which can be shown to exist in seventh and early eighth- the middle of the les."" Bricriu'shouse is a rigiech (royal century documentation. Some of the conclusions, house) and his wife is a rigan or queen but althougha les however, are comparablewith observationswhich have also surroundsa royalhouse in ThinB6 Dartrada, in the already been made by scholars in other fields and, in eighth-centurylegal text, CrithGablach a les is one of the particular,by archaeologists.For example, Hamlin and possessions of the b6aire,(a strongfarmer without noble Lynn have argued strongly for viewing secular and status) and in ScJla Mucce Meic Dathd, it is associated ecclesiastical settlements as being essentially similar in

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions overall appearance during the seventh and eighth lona has been identified as of probable seventh-century centuries.'" Mallory and McNeill believe that ring-forts date (see discussion below) but while some material from could only have provided homes for a minority of the within the enclosure is of a similar period, the Royal population and that we must see them rather as nuclei of Commission authors summarised their conclusions with a greater number of buildings, both for agricultural and the sentence 'the general arrangement appears to have domestic use. Pollen evidence from lona suggests that been a random one with working areas and hearths corn was grown on the island which is in agreement both interspersed among the buildings'.1' with Reeve's analysis of the topographical evidence of The pages of Thomas' work cited by Doherty are Adomnin's Vita Columbae, and with the suggestion made entitled 'Cemeteries and chapels' and distinguish here that the settlement was surrounded by an open-plan enclosed cemeteries, sometimes including pre-Christian area containing domestic outbuildings, animal pens and burials, from what Thomas terms 'developed cemeteries' fields under tillage.''" with oratories, internal divisions and associated huts. In his article on the 'monastic town' Doherty Thomas was writing in an era prior to the wide-spread states clearly that his aim is to identify the structure of application of absolute dating techniques based on Irish ecclesiastical sites from documentary evidence but physical data and his dating categories are consequently he does make occasional reference to archaeological extremely broad. In his discussion of cemeteries and material. Since at least some of this material has been chapels, for example, special graves are accorded dated to the seventh and eighth centuries, it is worth potential dates from the Iron Age to the seventh century. outlining this matter in detail. He begins by suggesting He argues for the existence of early wooden churches in that some early churches took over pagan cult centres or Ireland largely from literary sources of varying date, lands possessed by such cult centres whilst others were together with the evidence from Church Island and an established on virgin territory and still others in secular unpublished excavation which identified a potential settlements. The evidence for this is almost entirely non- wooden precursor beneath the stone church at Ardagh in archaeological, being based on hagiographical references Co. Longford though neither provided clear dating and cluain-placenames, but he refers to Hughes' evidence. His third piece of evidence was another wooden statements about the existence of some early church sites structure beneath the south church at Derry in Co. Down within two miles or more of large hill-top enclosures which may or may not have been ecclesiastical. The which she interprets as pagan sanctuaries. He also makes limited nature of the excavations at both Ardagh and the point that the evidence of archaeological survey has Derry could not be expected to have provided evidence not produced any observable difference between what for the layout of an Irish ecclesiastical site in its entirety might be presumed to be diocesan churches and and Thomas makes no such claim. Furthermore, Hamlin monasteries. '31 suggested in 1976 that the evidence for timber-bonding in He then goes on to state that on the basis of the ruins of the south church at Derry might suggest, on archaeological and literary evidence the seventh and parallels with England, a late eleventh-century date for eighth centuries were a period of reorganisation within that building. This would have obvious implications for Irish churches when a standard plan was imposed on such the date of the earlier material.'34Thomas did conclude sites. These changes consisted of the development of sites that the Irish material, together with that from other parts where wooden churches and domestic buildings might be of the British Isles, indicated the replacement of wooden replaced by stone, special graves might be elaborated, churches by stone ones in the late seventh and eighth enclosure walls would be either built or elaborated and centuries and that small dwellings for the isolated substantial areas of paving would be laid down to provide brethern who manned them were probably added at the working surfaces or streets or courtyards. As evidence of same time but such conclusions represent a theoretical this, he cites O'Kelly's excavation of Church Island, model rather than a factual assessment of the evidence.'35 Fanning's excavation of Reask, the investigations of the The archaeological evidence cited by Doherty does not, RCAHMS at lona and Thomas' overview of therefore, substantiate his identification of a standard plan developments within the early church in Britain and which was imposed on all Irish ecclesiastical sites in the Ireland.' ' course of the seventh or eighth centuries. At Reask, the excavator admitted frankly that the The existence of 'streets' on these sites might oratory, enclosure wall and paving (the items relevant to imply a degree of urbanisation but examining the the standard plan) could not be closely dated to any references in detail, such a description would appear to be period between the seventh century and the twelfth. At exaggerated. At Reask, only fragments of a path linking Church Island, the only clear-cut dating evidence cited by the inner enclosure wall to the oratory door were found. O'Kelly for either the initial or later phase was the Similarly, the cobbling at lona, cited by Doherty, which is existence of a slab (without context) inscribed with ogam. associated with a sherd of E-ware, was apparently a O'Kelly suggested this slab might be as late as the eighth working area rather than a 'street' or 'courtyard' for three century but subsequent analysis of the language of the clay-moulds were found upon it. At Church Island, some inscription suggests a late sixth or early seventh-century paving was identified leading from the northern date.m' A section of one of the outer enclosure walls at entranceway to the enclosure through to the doorway of

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions the oratoryalong the innerside of the enclosurewall. This by King's excavation which produced evidence for an enclosurewall was apparentlya laterdevelopment on the earlier wooden structure,possibly a cross, at the same site, built of water-rolled stones of all sizes and locationas the laterCross of the Scriptures.Six medieval dimensions- 'whatevercame to hand' in the excavator's burialswere found in the immediatevicinity and above words. It seems reasonable to infer that the flagged these, an occupation layer with hearths, stake-holes, pathway was of similar standard.'36It does not appear, charcoaland animal bones.'"'In any event, even without therefore,that one can reasonablyinterpret the evidence taking King's excavation into account, the postulated from these three sites as implying the existence of layout of a single site seems a fragile basis on which to 'streets'or 'courtyards'in Irishecclesiastical settlements assertthat a qualitativechange took place on all Irishsites of the seventh or eighth centuries. aroundthe beginningof the tenthcentury. Dohertythen goes on to discuss the evidence of Thoughthe existence of 'defined market-places' the Hibernensisand arguesthat one can detect in it : are seen here as partof the tenth-centurydevelopment of ecclesiastical sites, elsewhere Doherty refers to the the creationof an idealizedfonnrm, a schema, existence of market-placesat monasteriesfrom the late which allowed a monasticsite to have a holy of eighth centuryonwards. This conclusionderives fromthe holies at the core, aroundwhich were areasof entryin the Annals of Ulsterin AD 800 which recordsthe sanctuarythat decreasedin importancethe deathof a local king in circio.ferieof Mac Cuilinnat Lusk furtherthey were from the centre...This schema in Co. Dublin.'" This reference appears to be to an allowed for a priestly&lite at the centrewith the oenach (and is understoodas such by Doherty)but it is laity on the periphery.It also imposeda pattern clear that an oenach is not, of itself, evidence for up on churchsites in Irelandthat is evident,at urbanism.A detailed analysis of the best-documented least superficially,in the survivingremains.'37 early 6enach, that of Tailtiu or Teltown in Co. Meath, makes it quite clear that the site used for the 6enach was The nature of these surviving remains is not open ground, probably demarcated by prehistoric specified. Dohertysubsequently suggests that by c.900, a monuments. The legal and hagiographicalreferences qualitative change had been introduced into the indicatethat the Teltown6enach was celebratedon royal elaboration of the ceremonial complex. Purely sacred land and on the outerreaches of an area surroundingthe areas had been clearly defined before this but the twin foci of the royal site of RatrhAirthir and the beginningof the tenthcentury marks the point at which: ecclesiastical site of Donaghpatrick."' Thus, the existence of a 'defined market-place'in the tenth-century public buildingsand monuments- stone 'urban' phase in Doherty's interpretation of the churches,round towers, high crosses, public developmentof 'monastictowns' derives primarilyfrom open spaces and the abbot'sresidence - literary rather than archaeological evidence while dominatethe rest of the settlement.It is notjust analysis of textual materialfrom other sites indicate that a matterof scale - there had been a very large even where an 6enach may have been held under wooden churchat Kildarein the seventhcentury ecclesiasticalpatronage in the seventhor eighthcenturies, and no doubtsuch churchesexisted elsewhereat there is no reason to suppose that this implies a heavily all periods- it is the appearanceof the complete built-upenvironment. repertoireof public monumentsand buildings. Apart from Doherty's own references to On the outskirtsof the complex lay the defined archaeological material, the most influential market-place,testimony of the commercial archaeologicalcontribution to the model of the 'monastic growthof the settlement.It is fromthis pointthat town' has been that of Swan. From an analysis of early one might, with confidence, begin to use the Ordnance Survey maps, supplemented by aerial word 'urban. photographyand field-work,Swan has identifiedover six hundred enclosures surrounding ecclesiastical sites. This description opens with a reference to These frequentlyconsist of a double enclosure: a large Herity's article on the physical development of Irish outer enclosure and a smaller inner enclosure. The monasticsites priorto the year 1000 and would seem to identifiablyecclesiastical features,such as roundtowers, refer in particularto Herity's analysis of the site of high crosses, burial grounds and church ruins, are Clonmacnoise.(In that article,Clonmacnoise is the only normallyfound within the innerenclosure. In dimensions, site where a firm chronologicaldate for the layout of a the vast majorityof innerenclosures fall between 100 and particularsettlement is given.) Herity suggests that the 200m in diameter while in the majority of cases, the erection of the Cross of the Scripturesin 908 introduced diameter of the outer enclosures are between 300 and a new canon of siting in that the cross was sited at the 500m. Where the boundariesto these enclosures have centreof a new open space to the west of the cathedral.To been examinedon the ground,Swan has describedthem the southwest of this open space, the round tower was as massive in both width and heightand in the size of the later built and this was '...probablyclose to the monks' stones which form the lower courses of the enclosure cells'...3" These suggestions have now been superseded walls. Withinor just outside the outer enclosures,to the

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions east, at the sites of Annagh. Downpatrick,Glendalough enclosure,a numberof rectangularhouse platformswere and Kells can be foundcrosses which are associatedwith found, one of which was interpretedas bronze-worker's marketactivity. The earliestof these crosses appearto be workshop.A rectangularbuilding in the same area was ninth century in date but the identificationof the area interpreted as a school-house on the basis of aroundthe cross as a market in each case is based on approximatelythirty stone tabletswith inscribeddesigns. considerablylater sources.'" Threeof these stoneshave tracesof letteringand four iron The dating of these enclosures has not been styluses were also found. Otherartefacts from the same clearly establishedthough some may date to the seventh area included discs of slate interpreted as gaming or eighth centuries. Swan refers to the fact that the countersand bone beads. In and aroundthese platforms majorityare associatedwith saints thoughtto have been and the so-called 'school-house', large amounts of active in the fifth and earlysixth centuries.He also makes midden material were found but much of this was the point that %\-herea cross has been identified on a interpretedas building materialbrought in to level the boundary,one can assume that the boundarymust have terrace. Piled up against the outer wall of the middle been present xxhenthe cross was erected. (This terrace was a large heap of refuse made up of animal ,would presumablymean that an inner enclosureat Armaghand bone, shells, slag and otherdebris." an outerenclosure at Kells were both in existenceat some Interpretingthis materialaccording to the model point in the ninthcentury.) Elsewhere he pointsto the fact derived from the documentarysources, the possibilityis that the most common place-nameelements associated raised that the middleterrace represents part or all of the with these structuresare pre-Norminanin date."' atrium which has been identified as including the area Excavation, much of it published after both where the priests and other ecclesiastics lived.'""If so, Doherty and Swan had w\ritten,provides some evidence Nendrumwould add a new dimensionto thatmodel in the for the layout of some of the larger Irish ecclesiastical indications that metal-workingand stone-workingboth settlements in the seventh and eighth centuries. At took place in this same area.The evidence for datingthis Armagh, txvigs and branchesat the base of a massive materialis extremelyexiguous but the existence of what ditch encirclingthe hill gave a calibratedradiocarbon date appearsto be a botched attemptat ring-chainornament, (at two standarddeviations) of AD 130-600 but there is together with other features of the stones from the evidence thatthis ditchhad been filled in by the end of the 'school-house', tends to suggest that much of this eighth centuryat the latest and, once filled, had had two occupationmay have post-datedthe seventh to eighth- non-Christian burials inserted w\ithin it. Lynn and centuryhorizon which is of interesthere. The widespread McDowell have suggested that it is likely the hill was occurrence of souterrainware, a stone-fragmentwith enclosed by a series of earthworksof varying ages and Norse runes, and a coin dated to c.AD 930 from other that it xxouldbe wxrongto assume that this enclosure partsof the site would also lead one to infer a relatively necessarilyrepresents that surrounding the earlymedieval late date for much of this occupation."'One shouldnote, ecclesiastical centre. At Tullylish,Co. Down, a massive however,that subsequent work has also identifieda single ditch of and 3.6m depth was dated to the sherdof E-warefrom the settlement."" 5m \width seventhcentury through radiocarbon dating vwhileanother Thereis excavatedmaterial indicating habitation was dug in the ninthcentury to replacethe firstafter it had as well as early burials outside the presumed inner silted up. Eitheror both of these ditches may represent enclosureat Annagh in Scotch Street.This occupational part of the boundaryof an early ecclesiasticalenclosure. phase is representedby hundredsof chipsof amber,waste On lona, a complex series of earthworksenclosing the from the manufactureof glass beads, crucible fragments ecclesiastical site has been identifiedthrough field and for bronze-meltingand hundredsof pieces of cut lignite geophysical survey. These have been interpretedas two as well as many post-holes,gullies, stake-holesand pits. successive enclosures with overlappingperiods of use. This evidence has been subdividedinto two phases:ninth One section of the earlier enclosurewas excavated and century for the amber, glass and metal-workingand a produceda V-shapedditch in wvhichpeat and brushwood tenth to eleventh-centuryphase for the lignite and jet- providedradiocarbon dates focusingon the late sixth and working.The amounto-f material might suggest a heavily early seventh centuries.'4On the basis of this excavated industrialisedsite in some partofArmagh but otherareas evidence, it would seem reasonableto infer that larger close to the presumedinner enclosure, imply that open outer enclosures were an identifiable feature of Irish ground continued to exist until the end of the Middle ecclesiastical sites in the seventh and eighth century Ages."' At Kilpatrick,Co. Meath, limited excavation though as yet we have only one clear-cutexample and within the area of an outer enclosure measuringsome that is from the Scottish site of lona. The contemporary 88m x 100m,produced evidence for the foundationtrench existence of inner enclosures also appears probable of at least one circularhut, as well as grain seeds, rotary thoughthis has not yet been demonstratedconclusively. querns,animal bone, charcoaland, in the generalarea of The early excavationof the ecclesiasticalsite at the hut, a fragment of a penannularbrooch. Other Nendrum appears to show a tripartitedivision of an structureswithin the largerenclosure includedevidence ecclesiastical site sub-dixided by substantialenclosure for grain-dryingkilns and iron-workingand some sherds walls. On a terrace on the west side of the middle of E-warewere also found.On Ionaat least one building

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions within the larger enclosure was identified as standing dwellings. To this one shouldadd thatarchaeology would within its own fenced enclosure but there was also also indicate that the outer perimeterof this open-plan scatteredevidence for post-holes and other occupational area was probablydemarcated on many sites by a large debris.'" While little of this excavated materialhas a enclosure wall and that craft-workingin various media clear seventh to eighth-centurydate, the suggestionthat probably took place between the (postulated) inner scattered habitation, interspersed with outhouses and ecclesiastical core of the settlement and the outer areas of open ground,occurred in the area between the enclosureboundaries.'-' postulatedinner core and an outer enclosurewall would appearto accordwith the limitedevidence outlinedhere. CONCLUSIONS At Clonmacnoise, the excavations in the new In a review of Doherty's work on the 'monastic town', graveyardhave producedevidence for an eighthto tenth- Grahamonce wrote that only the referenceto civitas in century layer with remains of a round-house, a the documentation has allowed people to speak of rectangularstructure surrounded by a gravelledyard with bustlingtowns in Irelandprior to the tenthcentury.'" a wooden and a hearth to the north of the Belief in the existence of ill-definedpre-tenth gate large somevwhat structure. Below this were found stake-holes, burnt centurytowns, however,has been a featureof muchof the spreads and pits containing habitational refuse.'5' discussion of seventh and eighth-centuryecclesiastical Evidence for craft activities, includingbronze-working, settlement since Doherty's work was published.This is iron-working,leather-working and the manufactureof jet despite the fact, as mentioned above, that Doherty's ornaments,is cited by Bradleyand E-warehas been found model explicitly refers to the development of 'urban' amongst the excavatedfinds. There is no clear evidence settlementonly fromthe tenthcentury. This confusionhas of an inner enclosure but Bradley suggests that this arisen from Doherty'suse of seventh and eighth-century waterfrontmaterial must lie outside the ecclesiastical texts which are laced with what appears to be 'urban' core, possibly in an eastern trian correspondingto the terminologyat variouskey points in his work. AFM reference of 1082.152 It may be that at The currentstudy, based on seventh and eighth- Clonmacnoise,the physicalconfines of the site produced centuryHiberno-Latin sources, concludes that a number a greater degree of nucleation than has so far been of Latinwords which had distinctand separatemeanings identifiedon other sites but this is, as yet, impossibleto in other cultures were used as synonyms by the Irish state categorically.Clearly, when the evidence from the writers.One such wordwas civitas which in both its Latin new graveyardis publishedin detail, it will add crucial form and in its vernacularequivalent, les, can be used to informationto the debateon the existence anddate of the describeboth secularand ecclesiasticalsites. Civitasalso 'monastictown'. parallelsthe word rabernactldumon those occasions when A major problem in identifying the reality or tabernaculuhmis used in its wider sense of church otherwiseof seventhor eighth century'monastic towns' settlementrather than simply church-building. is the lack of large-scalemodern excavation covering a These settlements appear to have been substantialpercentage of the area encapsulatedby the organised,at least on a conceptuallevel, with the most outerenclosures. To date, however,and withoutdetailing prestigious sector at the centre. On ecclesiastical sites, the manysmall-scale excavations which have occurredon this centralfocus includedthe church-building:on secular ecclesiastical sites in the last ten years, there does not sites, it was the locationfor the domesticdwelling of the appear to be good evidence for postulating a densely most importantinhabitant. The divisions between the built-up environmentwithin large, outer ecclesiastical various areas were generally marked by physical enclosures in the seventh and eighth centuries. The monuments but these boundaries were not inevitably existence of such large outer enclosure boundarieshas enclosingwalls: Cogitosusrefers to the open natureof the been identified almost entirely through survey and we site at Kildare and there are references to crosses and have little firm archaeologicalevidence for the internal other signs which could mark the different zones of layout of Irish ecclesiastical settlementsin the seventh settlement. Those scholars who seek to clarify the and eighthcenturies or even for the ninthand tenth. Pace physical reality of a 'monastic town' have tended to Doherty,there seems no good reason to describe such interpretthese facts as implying nucleated settlements paving as exists, particularlythat found on the small based arounda centralcore, with evidence for domestic westernsites, as either'streets' or 'courtyards'.Trade and houses, workshops,defensive enclosuresand substantial craftactivity are bothobservable but thereis no evidence, tradingactivity. apart, perhaps, from Clonmacnoise,that such material I would agree that outside the central focus of dominatesthe archaeologicalrecord of large sections of both ecclesiasticaland secularsites was an area in which the area demarcatedby the outerenclosure walls. On the were locatedthe dwellingsof the subordinatemembers of whole, the limitedevidence of the archaeologicalrecord the settlement: priests' dwellings on ecclesiastical sites would appear to correspondreasonably well with the and the houses of professionalwarriors on secular sites. documentaryevidence for individualcentral foci in the This area was termed an atriumn,a platea or subturbanain seventh and eighth centuries, each surroundedby an Hiberno-Latinsources and a fJaithchein Old Irish. I open-plan area of mixed agriculture and scattered suggest that, in the case of church sites, other social

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions classes associated with churches as well as their settlement, appear to have been the houses of lowest respective families, also lived in this area. I am here status. In religious communities these people on the referring to groups such as the gra'da ecnai (scholars of outskirts were claimed to be part of the wider grouping the church), the penitents, the grada ird eecalsa (the known as Levites or churchmen despite the fact that they administrators of the church's lands and those concerned included slaves and other such subordinate members of with the provisioning of the settlement) and the manaig society. In this paper, I have concentrated on evidence for (monks and/or legal dependants). such people on the ecclesiastical sites but the reference to In addition to the houses of such subordinates, the king's bonded servants in the civitas of the Laigin the area around the central focus could also include king in the Vita Prima S. Brigidae and the do-chenPl of agricultural oubuildings, pens for animals, fields for both the Irish Gospel of St Thomas, both imply that cereal crops and pasture, grass, pools and trees. It was subordinate social groups also lived on the perimeter of also the arena for a number of public ceremonies, royal sites. One of the major conclusions of this paper is including the holding of judicial assemblies, 'whichcould thus that an approach which sees ecclesiastical sites as involve both the inhabitants of the settlement and visitors being organised in a fundamentally different way from to the site. Despite the use on occasion of cords such as secular sites of equal prestige appears flawed. The other suburbana to describe this area, there seems to be no would be that the use of the word civitas does not appear evidence for nucleated settlement within it and the to have urban connotations in Hiberno-Latin documents buildings appear to be relatively %videlyscattered. In a of the seventh and eighth centuries and that instead of penumbra, beyond the dxwellings of the priests and at a 'monastic towns', we should be talking of the forts and further remove fromn the prestigious core of the fields of the early Irish church.

NOTES 'Urbangenesis in early medievalIreland', Journal of Historical draftsof this were at the Ninth Irish xiii (1) (1987), 3-16, 13-14; Medieval Preliminary paper given Geograplv' 'Early Conference of Medievalists (Dublin June 1995). the Ireland: settlement as an indicator of economic and social Postgraduate History Seminar. Trinity College (March 1996) transformation c.500-1000' in An historical geography of andthe Medieval Seminar.UCD 1996).To all Ireland,ed. B.J. Graham& L.J. Proudfoot 1993), 19- Histor, (February (London those who commented on those occasions. I would like to 57; 23, 26-36. express nmythanks. In particular,I %\ouldalso like to thankDr ' M. Valante, 'Reassessing the Irish "monastictown", Irish Ma\nooth and the editorfor their historical studies xxxi (1998), 1-18, 5, 18. ColmrnnEtchinghanm ofN.r.Il. 1 kindnessin readingand commentingon pre\ ious drafts. J. Bradley, 'The monastic town of Clonmacnoise' in - D. 0 Corriin. Ireland belbre the N.orImns (Dublin 1972), 87; Clonmacnoise Studies Vol I: seminar papers 1994 ed. H. King 'Nationalityand kingshipin pre-NormanIreland' in Nationalitrn (Dublin (1998), 42-56, 45. For a study of ecclesiastical and the pursuit of national imndependenceed. T.W. Moody' settlementin this periodwithout reference to 'monastictowns', (Historical Studies xi, Belfast 1978), 1-36, 22 fn.e. Kathleen see also A. Hamlin,'The archaeologyof the Irishchurch in the Hughes had earlier used the term 'monastic city' to describe eighth century', Peritia iv (1985), 279-99 and, for a rather large ecclesiastical settlements of eighth-centurydate: The different view, M. Herity 'The High Island hermitage',Irhish church in ear/ Irhishsociety (London 1966), 148-9. University,Review vii (1977), 52-69, reprintedin M. Herity, C. Doherty,'Exchange and trade in early medieval Ireland', Studies in the layout, buildings and art in stone of early Irish Journal of the Roeal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, cx monasteries(London 1995), 1-18. (1980), 67-89, 71, 81-4; 'Sonie aspects of hagiographyas a " Doherty, 'Monastic town', 54-7. source for Irish economic history', Peritia i (1982), 300-328, " Et quis sermone explicare potest maximum decorem huius 303; 'The monastic town in early medieval Ireland'in The aeclesiae et innumera illius monasterii civitatis quam dicimus comparative historI' of urban origins in non-Roman Europe, miracula si fes est dclicicivitas durmnullo murorum ambitu eds. H.B. Clarke& A. Simms,2 vols (BAR Internationalseries, circumdatur? Convenientibus tamen in ea populis 255, Oxford 1985). i 45-75, 54, 60. 68. innumerabilibus, dum civitas de conventu in se multorum nomen J. 'Recent researchon the Irish maxima civitas et est: in SSee Bradley, archaeological accipit. haec metropolitana cuius town' in Stadtkernfinrsching, ed. H. Jiger (K6ln 1987), 321- suburbanis quae sancto certo limite designavit Brigida nullus 370, 323, 325-6; N. Edwards, The archaeology of earl/v carnalis adversarius nec concursus timetur hostium sed civitas medievalireland (London 1990), 100, 106-114;M. Ryan,'Fine est refutgiitutissima de foris suburbanis in tota Scottorum terra metalworkingand early Irish monasteries:the archaeological ctm suis omnibus fugitivis. This paragraph has been edited by evidence' in Settlement and society in medieval Ir'eland, ed. J. Jean-MichelPicard from the pre eleventh-centurymanuscripts Bradley (Kilkenny 1988), 33-48; F. Mitchell & M. Ryan, of Cogitosus'Life, togetherwith the translationabove, and it is Reading the Irish landscape (Dublin 1997), 288-296; M.Ryan, this which is printedin Doherty,'Monastic town', 55-56. 'Early medieval Ireland: some archaeological issues' in ' Doherty,'Monastic town', 57. Progress in medieval Ihish studies ed. K. McCone & K. Simms " I/dem, 59. (Maynooth 1996), 162. " Icem 55-6. J. P. Mallory & T.E. McNeill. The of Ulster D. Corrhin,'The historicaland culturalbackground of the archaeolog'y from ,3 0 colonisation to plantation (Belfast 1991), 205; B.J. Graham, Book of KellIs', The Book of Kells: proceedings of a conference

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions at Trinity College Dublin, 6-9th September 1992 ed. F. ecclesiastical settlementfrom the mid-eleventhcentury and a O'Mahony(Dublin 1994), 1-32, 31-2; H. Mytum,The origins of sizeable numberof placenamesincorporating this word appear early Christian Ireland (London & New York 1992), 80-83; L. to denote the principalchurch of Anglo-Normanparishes; see D. Bitel, Isle of the Saints (Ithaca 1990), 58-9, 74, 80; M. Stout, Flanagan,'The Christianimpact on early Ireland:place-names The Irish ringfort(Dublin 1997), 128-9; J. Bradley,'Monastic evidence' in Irland uCndEuropa: Die Kirche im FriChmnittelalter town of Clonmacnoise',50. (Ireland and Europe: The eari' Church) eds. P Ni Chathiin & "4Edited by H. Wasserschleben, Die irische Kanonensammlung M. Richter(Dublin 1984), 25-51, 40. One should also note that (Leipzig 1885), hereafterHibernensis. the word tabernaculumis used on at least two occasions by "; 'Sacred and hieratic languages' in C. Mohrmann, Liturgical Adomnin to describe the body of Columbaof lona, see M.O. Latin: its origins and character (London 1959), 1-26. Anderson, Adomnuins Life ofColumba (Oxford 1991), 226, 232 ~' For discussions of the history of biblical Latin and the (11123). methodologies used by early translators,see C. Mohrmann, " Hibernensis 136 (XXXVII:21), 168 (XLIl:21), 102 (XXX:1). 'L'atudede la latinitAchrttienne: 6tat de la question,methodes, Canon XXX:1 is discussed in D. 6 Corrain,L. Breatnach& A. resultats' in Latin Vulgaire. Latin des Chr&tiens.Latin mn;dichal, Breen, 'The laws of the Irish',Peritia iii (1984), 382-420, 415- ed. id. (Paris 1955), 17-35; G. Bardy, 'Saint Jer6me et ses 6. There is a saying quoted in the Hibernensis157 (XL:14) and maitres hebreux' Revue benedictinexlvi (1934), 145-164; G. attributedto Isidoreto the effect thatjust as the churchis made Bardy, 'Traducteurs et adapteurs au quatrieme siecle', up of both saints and sinners, so variis speciehus constituitur Recherches de science religeuse xxx (1940), 237-306, esp. 281- tabernacuunm. This is excluded from the following discussion 87; G.Q.A. Meershoek, Le Latin biblique d'apres Saint Jer6me.: as it cannot be show\nto belong either to the Vulgate or to aspects linguistiques de la rencontre entre le Bible et le monde specifically Irishsources. classique (Utrecht 1966), esp. 4-46. For a discussion of the HibernensisI" 20 (111:2) Vulgate in Ireland,see M. McNamara,'The text of the Latin 2' L. Bieler, The Irish penitentials (ScriptoresLatini Hiberniae v, Bible in the early Irish church: some data and desiderata'in Dublin 1963);80-81, (§22). Bielersuggests, id. 3-4, thatthe text Irtland und die Christenheit, ed. P. Ni Chathiin & M. Richter must have been compiled priorto AD 591 on the groundsthat (Stuttgart1987), 7-55, 7-15, 39. the Penitential of Columbanus was strongly influenced by " See L. Breatnach, 'Law' in Progress in Medieval Irish Studies Finnian'swork althoughColumbanus does not acknowledgeit. ed. K. McCone & K. Simms (Maynooth 1996), 107-121, esp. Bieler's interpretationpresupposes that the provisions in the 120-21. two texts were not widespreadin early Ireland. "SJ.P. Mallory, 'The fortof the UlsterTales', Emaniaxii (1994), 27 MoYses judicabat in porta tabernaculi., t convocaret 28-38, 30. mtultitudinempopuli et seniores Israel ad ostium tabernaculi. The word developed other meaningsin later medieval Latin, Salomon in ostio tabernaculi judicahat: Puer Jesus in templo includingthat part of the altarin which the Eucharistwas stored inter chorum senum disputans inventuesest tit supra scripsimus: in its pyx, a place where relics were kept or the seat of an abbot Surge et ascende ad locum quem elegerit Dominus: Hibernensis in the choir; see Du Cange, Glossarium mediae et infimae 63 (XXI:4). Latinitatis,10 vols (Graz 1954), viii 3. 28 Ex 33:8-10. Moses is identifiedas someone who judged the 2' For examplesof referencesin the Hibernensisto the word in Israelitesin Ex 18:13-26;see also 6 Corrainet al., 'Laws of the its biblical meaningssee: Hibernensis38 (XII:16), quoting ler Irish', 392. 35:6-10; Hibernensis 100 (XXIX:5), quoting los.7:24-25; 29 Dt. 17:8-9 in R. Weber (ed.), Biblia sacra iuxta vulgatam Hibernensis 194 (XLVI:37), based on Nm 5:17; Hibernensis 42 versionem,2 vols (Stuttgart1969). (XIV:6) based on Ex 27:21, 40:32, Nm 17:7, Apc 15:5; 3"...brevemplenamque ac consonam de ingenti silva scriptorum Hibernensis 174 (XLIV:I), based on Hbr 9:6-8; Hibernensis in unius voluminis textum expossitionem degessi [out of an 174 (XLIV:2)based on Ex 27:12-18; Hibernensis175 (XLIV:4) enormousmass of scripturaeI have broughtinto the compassof based on Ex 27:12-18, Ez 41:13; Hibernensis 176 (XLIV:6) a single volume, an expositionof them which is brief, clear and basedon Nm 1:50-53. harmonious]in Hibernensis 1 (Praef.);trans. from M. Sheehy, 2' Hibernensis230 (LXIII:2)for Biblical parallelssee Ex 40:9- 'The Bible and the Collectio Canonum Hibernensis' in hlaond 10, i Ezr 6:16-17 (domusDei), 11lRg 8:62-64. nlddie Christenheit,ed. P. Ni ChathAin& M. Richter(Stuttgart 22 Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus: a collection ofold-Irish glosses. 1987), 277-283, 277 scholia, prose and verse, 2 vols, ed. W. Stokes & J. Strachan ~' L. Bieler, The Patrician texts in the Book of ArmaghI (Cambridge1901, repr.Dublin 1987), I 89 (MI 36a 19), 109 (MI (ScriptoresLatini Hiberniaex, Dublin 1979), 188-80 (828-9); 40c15), 120 (MI 43b12-14), 277 (MI 82dl)& 147 (MI 48bl11). Hibernensis61 (XX:5). See R. Sharpe,'Armagh and Rome in The datingof the Milanglosses to c.mid ninth-centuryis given the seventh century' in Irlandc und Europa: Die Kirche im in ibid. I xiv-xxi. Friihmittelaltered. P. Ni Chathain& M. Richter (Stuttgart 23 The Saltair na Rann: a collection of early Middle Irish Poems, 1984), 58-72 esp. 66-69. ed. W. Stokes (Oxbford1883), 61 (1.4206), 64 (1. 4402-3). A 32 In lege quatuor cibi sacerdotum erant: primum Aaron tantum reference to Noah in his tabernacul in Sex aetates mundi is a et filii ejlus comedebant in tabernaculo. secundum filii Aaron mere translationof the Old Testamenttext: Lebor na hUidre: tantum manducabant in ostio tabernaculi, rtertiumuterque sexus Book of the Dun Cow, ed. R.I. Best & O. Bergin(Dublin 1929), manducabat in atrio, quartum enim in ostio familia tota 4:114. Tempuldenotes specific churchbuildings within a named manducabat ctm vernaculis et empticiis. In Hibernensis 51

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ' (XVII:4). Ryan, 'Fine metalworking' passim. 47 .3 Loctlusque est Moses ad Aaron et ad Eleazar atque Ithmciar R. Thurneysen,'Aus dem IrischenRecht Ill: 4. Die falschen filios eius qui residui erant ... comnedetisauitem in locoCsancto Urteilssprtiche Caratnia's', Zeitschriftfilir Celtische Philologie quod dcktumest tibi et filiis tuis de oblationibus Domini sicut xv (1925), 302-376, 339-40 (§30); Doherty, 'Some aspects', praeceptum est rmihi...edetis in loco mundissimo tatet filii tui tic 3 13-5. filiae tuae tecaumtibi enim ac liheris tutisreposita strntd/e hostiis , See K. Hughes, The church in early Irish society (London salutaribus.filiorum Israhel in Lv 10: 12-14. 1966), 136-42 esp. 138-40; Doherty,'Hagiography as a source', 3' Reliquam auttempartem similae comedet Aaron cum filiis suis 313-321; T.M. Charles-Edwards,'The church and settlement' absque fermento et comedet in loco sancto atrii tabernaculii ... Irland und Europa: Die Kirche im Friihmittelalter, ed. P. Ni mares tantum stirpis Aaron comedent illud legitunmum ac Chathain& M. Richter (Stuttgart 1984), 167-175, 171-5; F. semnpiternumest in geneirationihiiusvestris de sacrificiis Domini Kelly, ,4 guide to early Irish law (Early Irish law series iii, .... in Lv 6:14-16, 18. Dublin 1988), 39, 170; T.M. Charles-Edwards,'The pastoral ' Sheehy, 'Bible and Collectio', 278 identifies the normal role of the churchin the early Irishlaws' in Pastoralcare before meaningof Lex in the canonsas 'mostly the Old Testamentand the parish, ed. J. Blair& R. Sharpe(Leicester 1992), 63-80, 67, more particularlythe Pentateuchbut also the New Testamentat R. Sharpe, 'Churches and communities in early medieval times'. Ireland'in ibid, 81-109, 102; C. Etchingham,'The early Irish ' An alternativepossibility lies in the suggestion,made by D. 60 church:some observationson pastoralcare and dues', Eriu 42 Corriin , that discrepanciesbetween the Vulgateand the Irish (1991), 99-118, 115-6. " canons are due to the use, by the latter,of lost talmudic or C. Etchingham, 'The idea of monastic austerity in early exegetical texts; D. 0 Corrain,'Irish vernacular law andthe Old Ireland', in Luxurycand austerit, ed. J. Hill and C. Lennon Testament' in rland aunddie Christenheit, ed. P. Ni Chathain & (HistoricalStudies xxi, Dublin 1999), 14-29. M. Richter(Stuttgart 1987), 284-307, 301. '" Doherty, 'Monastic town', 58-9. See also Hughes, Early 37 Lex: Mons Sina. in quo lex dabatwu: ne tangere ilium church, 148-9. .jubetw: " omlnispopulis et pecora, et posuit terminum inter se et Moysen Hibernensis, 175 (XLIV:3). 12 et inter Moysen et Jesum et inter Jesum et seniores et inter Anderson,Adomn6n:s lift, 136 (11 29), 220 (11123); A.D.S. seniores et vulgus populi. item: Inter tabernaculum et populunm Macdonald, 'Aspects of the monasteryand monastic life in tribus Levi intervallum fuit et in atriis sacerdotum et AdomnAn'slife of Columba',Peritia iii (1984), 271-302, 280. inter tabernaculum et sancta sanctornmn..familia In Hibernensis 176 In addition,Adomnan also refers to certain places within the (XLIV:6). septum monasterii (enclosure of the monastery) which are " Ex 19:23-24. I would like to thankThomas Charles-Edwards frequentedby angels (I 3), which is interpretedby MacDonald who pointedout this discrepancyto me. as a reference to sanctuary,ibid., 281. The importanceof a 39Hamlin, 'Archaeologyof the Irishchurch', 297; S. Connolly vallum in dividing holy places from agriculturalland has been and J-M Picard(eds.), 'Cogitosus:Life of Saint Brigit',Journal mooted by a numberof recentauthorities, using the evidence of of the Royal Society of Antiquairies of heland cxvii (1987), 11- archaeological field work: L. Swan, 'Enclosed ecclesiastical 27, 25 §31.12; Acta ScmnctorinmBollandiani: VitcaII S. Brigictie sites and their relevance to settlement patterns of the first Virginae,Feb. 1, 129-41, 140 B34. millennium', in T. Reeves-Smyth and F. Hammond (eds.), '" R. Kottje, Studien zum Einluh/3 /desAlten Testamentes cauf Landscape archaeology in Ireland (Britain Archaeological Recht und Liturgie des Friihen Mittelalters (6.-8. Jahrhundert) Reports, British series, (cxvi, 1983), 264-94; L. Swan, (Bonn HistorischeForschungen xxiii, 1964),60-61. 'Monastic proto-townsin early medieval Ireland:the evidence "'For evidence of the priestlyrole of Aaronand his sons see Nm of aerial photographyand plan analysis' in The comparative 3:3, 3:7-25, 8:19, 22, 10:8, 18:6-7 and in the Hibernensis,3-4 historl' qf urban origins in non-RomcanEurope, ed. H.B. Clarke (1:3), 12-13 (112), 14 (11:6),15 (11:11),16(11:14), 17-18 (11:18); & A. Simms, 2 vols (BAR Internationalseries, 255, Oxford see also discussionin 6 Corrainet al., 'Laws of the Irish',394- 1985), i 77-102; Edwards, Archaeology of early medieval 397. Ireland, 106-110;Graham, 'Early medieval settlement', 33. "2See Nm 18:3, Ps 135:1-2. " C. Swift, 'Celtic monasticism - a discipline's search for , See L. Breatnach, Uraicecht na RiSr: the poetic grades in romance?', Trowel v (1994), 21-26 and see discussion in early Irish law (Early IrishLaw series ii, Dublin 1987), 85-6. penultimatesection of this paper. 4 K. Hughes, 'The church and the world in early Christian "' Bitel, of saints, 74-8, 81 refers to the 'huts of lay Isle Ireland'Irish Historical Sttudiesxiii (1962), 99-113, 109-111. dependantsclustering outside the vallum of the ecclesiastical Hughesdoes not cite evidencefor herviews aboutthe role of the enclosure' but cites no evidence for this view. Doherty,'Some school but on this, see 6 Corrain,'Early Irishchurches', 334. aspects', 302 refersto the outlying areasknown as suburbanain The dating of the Liber Angeli to the seventh century is which the subordinatemembers of the settlementlived. dependenton the workof R. Sharpe,'Armagh and Rome', 58- " Ez 40:17, Ez 46:20-21. For translationof gazophylaciumas 72. treasury, see Cabrol & Leclercq, Dictionaire d'archbologie C. Stancliffe, 'Red, white and blue in in Vli 721-2. - martyrdom' Iheland chretienne, (1924), medieval studies in memory of Hughes, I Par28:12, 11:2, Ez 43:5. earl/v Europe: Kcthleen - Ape 10:3, R. McKitterick& ed. D. Whitelock, D. Dumville (Cambridge 5' Ps 95:8, 99:4, 115:19, 134:2;Is 1:2, Il! Rg 8:63-4. 1982), 21-46, 34-44. '" See descriptions in Cabrol & Leclercq, Dictionaire

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions d'archeologie chrhtienne, Ili (1910), 588-590 (under heading 67 W. Reeves, The of St Columba. fiunder Hr (Dublin li/e of Basilique); R. Krautheimer, Early Christian and Byzantine 1957), 357, 360. Architecture(Harmondsworth 1965), 19, 359 and individual 6" M. Herity,'The layoutof Irishearly Christianmonasteries', in descriptions of churches, passim. For an over-view of the Irtland und Europa: Die Kirche im Friihmittelalter (Stuttgart theological and classical architecturalbackground to these 1984), 105-116, 108-9; A.D.S. MacDonald, 'Aspects of the developments,see F.W.Deichmann, 'Vom Tempelzur Kirche', monasteryand monastic life in Adomnan'slife of Columba',in and 'Entstehungder christlichen Basilika und Entstehungdes Peritia iii (1984), 271-302, 293-7.

Kirchengebiudes:zum Verhbiltnisvon Zweck und Form in der 69 Anderson, Adomnan Life, 9 1; R. Sharpe, Adomncn of lona: s frtihchristlichen Architektur' in id.. Rom, Ravenna. life of St Columba (Harmondsworth 1995), 152. "" Konstantinopel. Naher Osten: Gesammelte Studien zur For attemptsto identifyecclesiastical plateae throughsurvey splitantiken Architektur, Kunst und Geschichte (Wiesbaden of visible monuments,see Herity,'High Island', 14-17;id., 'The 1982), 27-46. layout of Irish monasteries', 108-9; id., 'The buildings and " Huic est porticus applicta triplex / fulmentis Aquitancicis layout of early Irish monasteries before the year 1000', superba ad cuius specimen remotiora / claudunt atria porticus Monastic Studies xiv (1983), 247-279, 260-270. Bitel, Isle of the secundae et campum procul locatus / vestit saxea silva per saints, 76 defines platea as 'a transitionalarea between the columnas in Epistolae II, x 4, ed W.B. Anderson in Sidonius. most sacredspace of churchand the restof the enclosure'which Poems and Letters, 2 vols (Loeb Classical Library,ccxcvi, was similar to a squareor courtyardin appearancebut cites no cccxx, 1963, 1965), i 466-7. evidence for this view. " 60 R. Cormack, 'The temple as cathedral' in Aphrodisias Papers: Duo vel tres termini circa locum sanctum debent fieri. primus, recent work on architecture and sculpture, ed. C. Rouche & K.T. in quemtpraeter sanctorum nullum introire permittimus omnino. Erim (Journalof RomanArchaeology Supplementary Series i, quia in eum laici non accedunt. nec mulieres, nisi clerici: Ann Arbor 1990), 75-88, 80. secunhdus, in cu/us plateas plebiuma rusticorum catervas non d 61 See Cabrol & Leclerq, Dictionaire 'archologie chretienne, multum nequitiae deditas intrare sinimus: tertius, in quenm I1i 589; L. Duchesne, Origines du culte chretien: Etude sur la laicos homicidas. adulteros permissione et consuetudine intra liturgie latine avant Charlemagne (Paris 1908), 205-6; R. Taft, ire non vetamus. Inde vocatur primus sanctissimus. secundus 'The liturgyof the greatchurch: an initial synthesisof structure sanctior tertius sanctus. In Hibernensis 175 (XLIV:5, fn.e); and interpretationon the eve of Iconoclasm',Dumbarton Oaks trans. from MacDonald, 'Aspects of the monastery',296. An Papers xxxiv-xxxv (1980-81), 45-75; 49-50. alternative version of this same canon merely draws the "' See H. Vincent & F.M. Abel, Jerusalem: recherches de distinctionbetween those areas into which laymenand women topographie d archdologie et d histoire, 2 vols in 4 (Paris 1914), can enter versus those which are limitedto the priests:Quatuor Ili (Jirusalem Nouvelle), 224-6, 238. The referenceto corpses terminos circa locum sanctum posuit, primum in quem laici et stems from Adomnan's De locis sanctis, ed. D. Meehan mulieres intrant, alterum. in quem clerici tantum veniunt. (ScriptoresLatini Hiberniae iii, Dublin 1958),48 (V 2) although Primus vocatur sanctus, secundus sanctior, tertius sanctissimus, Adomnhinhimself calls the area a platea. See discussionbelow. see id. 63Le liber pontificalis:text, introduction et conunentaire, tome I, 72 Hibernensis 28 (X:c). ed. L. Duchesne (Paris 1955), 262:4-7.English translationis 3 11Esr 8:16; Dn 9:25; ler 5:1, 7:17,34, 44:6, Mc 6:56 available in The Book ed. R. of Pontifis (Liber pontificalis), 7 II Par29:4, 32:6; 1 Ezr 10:9;11 Esr 8:1-3; Na 2:4 Latin series Davis (Translatedtexts for historians, v, Liverpool 7 1ISm 22:43; Is 10:6; Mi 7: 10; Za 9:3; Apc 21:21 1989), 45 (53). 76 Dt 13:16; 11 Sm 21:12; Is 15:3; Am 5:16. For referencesto " Concilia Galliae A. 511 - A. 695, ed. C. de Clercq (Corpus corpses (which may or may not have been rituallyexposed) in Christianorum,Series Latinacxlviiia, Turnholt1963), 4:18-19 the plateae, see also Is 5:25; Apc 11:8. (Concilium Aurelianense AD 511 §1); 137:134 (Concilium lIdc 19:15;Za 8:4; Est 6:9; Mt 6:5; Pry 7:8 AurelianenseAD 541 §21); 243:184 (Concilium Matisconense 'n11 Ezr 8:1-3 AD 585 §9). Doherty,'Some aspects', 302, has argued that " Sanas Cormaic ed. K. Meyer in Anecdota from Irish valla dividedan Irishsite into areasof sanctuaryand it is worth manuscriptsed. O. Bergin, R.I. Best, K. Meyer & J. O'Keeffe, notingthat the Hibernensisquotes a version of the first of these iv (Dublin 1912), 628. See also J. Carey,'The heavenlycity in Gaulish canons under the heading Sinodus Aurelianensis: Saltair na Rann', Celtica 18 (1986), 87-104 fn.7 where he Hibernensis 97 (XXVIII:I).1). instancesa numberof translationsof ijithche by platea in the 65" De Clercq, Concilia Galliae, 247:304 (Concilium hagiographical texts. See also Dictionary of the Irish Language, MatisconenseAD 585 §19); 307:119 (Concilium Cabilonense F 33:65-34:34 and Bitel, Isle of the Saints, 76. 0 Corrain AD 647-53 §19). suggests thatfaithche is a possible translationof suburbana, " Eodem in tempore Conallus episcopus Cule Rathin collectis a 'Vernacularlaw', 305. populo campi Eilni pene innumerabilibus xeniis, beato uirot " F. Kelly,Earl' IrishFarming (Early Irish law series iv, Dublin hospitium praeparauit post condictum supra memoratorum 1997), 369-70 and Dictionaryas in above reference. regum turba prosequente multa reuertenti. Proinde sancto "'T.E. Charles-Edwards& F. Kelly, BechbrethA(Early Irish law aduenienti uiro xenia populi multa in platea monasterii strata series i, Dublin 1983), 154-5, drawingon evidence from Crith benedicenda adsignantur. In Anderson, Adomndn s Life, 90-91 Gablach,ed. D.A. Binchy(Medieval and ModernIrish series xi, (I 50). Dublin 1941, repr. 1979), 8:198 and from CItI 72:18. See also

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions N. Patterson, Cattle lords and clansmen: the social structure of Etchinghamfor correctingmy translationof this passage. earl, hieland(Notre Dame & London 1994), 109-111. ' See F. Kelly,A guide, 9-10, and referenceson 318. 82 F. Kelly, A guide to eari lruishlaw (Early Irish laws series iii, " A.D.S. MacDonald,'Notes on terminologyin the Annals of Dublin 1988), 178 quoting Di Chetharslicht Athgabcila, CIH Ulster', Peritia i (1982), 329-33. 422:15-35; 185, quoting CIH 1727:34-5. " See A.H.M.Jones, "Thecities of the Romanempire: political 83 'The deathof Crimthannson of Fidachand the adventuresof administrativeand judicial functions' in The Roman economy the sons of EochaidMuigmedon', ed. W.Stokes, Revue Celtique ed. P.Brunt(Oxford 1974), 1-34, esp. p.4. xxiv (1903), 172-207, 190 (§2). The text is dated throughthe "' L. Kthler, 'Die Hebraiische Rechtsgemeinde' in Der reference to Brian B6rumain §16 and to Mielsechlainn mac Hebriiische Mensch: eine Skizze (TUibingen 1953, rep. Domnaill in §19, see ibid., 173. Darmstadt1980), 143-71. "*Longes mac n7Uisenn: the exile of the sons of Uisliu, ed. & "~J. McClure,'Bede's Old Testamentkings' in Ideal and reality trans.V. Hull (New York 1949), 46:139-42 (§11), trans.64. in Frankish and Anglo-Saxon society: studies presented to J.M. 85 Carey, 'The heavenly city', 88 quoting W.Stokes(ed.), The Wallace-Hadrill,ed. P. Wormald,D. Bullough & R. Collins Saltair na Rann: a collection of earli' middle Irish ploems (Oxford 1983), 76-98, 84. 7 11.429-40. D. Corrain,'Vernacular law', 296-7. (Oxford 1883), ' 0 " Mesca Ulad, ed. J. CarmichaelWatson (Medieval & Modern ""1Hibernensis 215 (L11l:9) Irish series xiii, Dublin 1967), 3:53-56; 11-12:254-6, 37:831-2; 01'Omnis civitas refugii cumosuburbanis suis posita est. b. Item: Togail Bruidne LdaDerga, ed. E. Knott, (Medieval and Modern Omnis civitas sacerdotibus data cum suburbanis suis XV milia Irish series viii, Dublin 1936, rep. 1975), 15:507-8 (§56), longitudinis et latitudinis X milia alendis pecoribus sacerdotum Tochmarc Ferbe, ed. E. Windisch in Irische texte mit fuit. c. Item: Ezechial metiens civitatem aliquando metitur mille iibersetzrungen und Worterbuch, ed. E. Windisch & W. Stokes, passus, aliquando milia passoum in orientem sic. et reliq. d. 3ii (Leipzig 1897), 462-529, 508:627-8;Aided Con Culainn,ed. Item: Temphun Salomonis habuit septum circa se in quo qui A.G. Van Hamel in Compert Con Culainn and other stories malum ftceret periret. e. Item Tabernaculum lMoysicirca se (Medievaland ModernIrish series iii, Dublin 1933), 69-133, 78 atrium habuit. f Item E:echiel: Vidi angelum habentem (§9). arundinemin manu, ut metiretcivitatem in circuitu et plateas 87Bethu Brigte, ed. D. 0 hAodha (Dublin 1978), 4:115-7; Mesca ejus foras. g. Item in apocalipsin: Venit angelus tt metiret Ulad, 22:506-7, 35:784-5; Longes mac nUislenn, 47-8:180-8 civitatem et plateas j/us. h. Item in Zacharia: Quando reversi (1315); The Annals of Ulster (to AD 1131) ed. S. MacAirt & G. sunt a Babilone, aedificaverunt templum et circumseptum ejus MacNiocaill(Dublin 1983) 102 (sub annis 604, 777); Tochmare et reliqua. Hibernensis 175 (XLI V:2) Treblainne, ed. K. Meyer, in 'Mitteilungen aus irischen "' Gwynn & Purton,'The monasteryof Tallaght', 156-7 (§71), Handschriften' in Zeitschrift fiir celtische Philologie xiii (192 1), CIH 1432:3-10, 6 Corrhiin,'Vernacular law', 296-9, 304-5; 166-75; Cocad Fergusa,ed. M. Dobbs, 'La guerreentre Fergus Kelly, Early Irish Farming.569. et Conchobar',Revue Celtique xl (1923), 404-23, 408 (§3); Tiin "4 Kelly, Early Irish Farming,568. Bo Cucilngefiom the Book of Leinster, ed. C. O'Rahilly (Dublin "" M. Herren, The Hisperica Famina I: the A text (Toronto 1967), 21-2:768-9, 24:875-7. 1974), 86:310 - 88:322 (trans. 87-89): Incalcare precodum " E. Knott,'Why Monganwas deprivedof noble issue' Erio viii turmae castreas meant a[r]geas septaque irrunt bouella (1916), 155-9, 157:10-12. quadiganas < oi> idium concilia scandunt atlas ad hirti lustrant "` Mesca Ulaid, 11:246-7, 36:813-6, Togail Bruiidne dk Derga suistas porciferreos sonipedum fidcris nectunt aurigae sigillos. 26:861 (§89); Tain Bo Cu6ilnge fiom Book of Leinster, Innumerae agrestium turmae solitum laborandi eruunt de 29:1068-74 43:1581-2; Chronicon Scottorum ed. W.M. c< r> uribus nexum ac solitis aprici tegminis quiescunt in aulis. Hennessy (London 1866), sub anno 859; Kelly, Early Irish/ Ob hoc alcma civilis globi adeamus moenia aptam benignus Farming, 274. filoxinia colonis. The date of the text is discussed in ibid., ' R. Thurneysen,'Aus dem irischen Recht 11: 2. Das Frei- "32-39. Leben;3. Das Fastenbeim Ptlindungsverfahren',Zeitschriftflir "k' Omnis reus ad ianum civitatis adducetur et coram testibus celtische Philologie xv (1925), 238-76, 265. The relevant punietur in Hibernensis 85 (XXVII:2). quotation is Trialsat troscud trtn in smacht / fer fai'dche ",0 Bieler, Patrician texts, 66:16, 86:16, 88:17, 110:22. Pace CruachnaConnacht, drawn from a poem by CaibreMac Liac Valante, 'Reassessing the monastic town', 8 where she states detailing the expulsion of Picts by CaibreNia Fer in The Book that civitas is used only of a monasterywith residentbishop. of Leinster:formerlv Lebor na Niachongbcila 111, ed. R.I. Best 'osActa Sanctorum Bollandiani: Vita I S. Brigildae Virginae, Feb. & M.A. O'Brien (Dublin 1957), 648:19763-4. 1, 118-129 131 (§88); S. Connolly,'Vita PrimaSanctae Brigitae: " Is si ind/jhaithche thchtaet la ni ro-saig guth cluicc no background and historical value' Journal of Royal Society of Feniu gairm cailig cerec. In Charles-Edwards & Kelly, Bechbretha, Antiquaries of lreland cxix (1989), 5-49, 40 (§88). 82-3 (§46). '" Art Mess Talmann dibad a chlann is lais con-rdtacht M6r "'CIH55:22-3, 57:15. nAi/inne* licet antea* civitas regalis fhit. * = quae postea flit. " See Anderson,Adomncin lift, I 21 & Ili 23. See Corpus Genealogiarumn Hiberniae, ed. M.A. O'Brien " In doineruc in athgabail a ftichi nemid. munafiter curfaiichi (Dublin 1961), 20 (quotingRawl. B 502 118a29ff and between nemid ocus ni fbair codnach dian fiarfaigh is slan do. CIII stars (*..*), a variant in the Book of Leinster:311 b 27tt). I 1439:36-7; 1673:17-19. I would like to thank Colmain would like to thank Colmin Etchinghamfor giving me this

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions reference. ascribed to Nennius ed. A.G. Van Hanmel(Dublin 1932), 33, ,1oAnnals of Ulster sub annis 782, 784, 825, 835, 838, 887. See quotedby Carey,'The heavenlycity', 89. also Annals of Tigernach sub anno 716 where Iona is described "7J. Carney, The poems of Blathmac son ofCti Brettan (Dublin as a civitas. 1964), 92-4 ( 10, 13). The Irish Gospel qf Thomasis dated by "' L. Bieler, Four Latin lives of St. Patrick (ScriptoresLatini Carneyto the seventh or eighth centuries,ibid., xviii. Hiberniaeviii, Dublin 1971), 149-50. Deinde uenit Patriciusad L'zA. Hamlin & C. Lynn, 'Zur Archdiologiefriiher kirchlicher Conallum filium Neil et suscepit eum Conal curmgaudio magno und profaner Siedlungen in Irland' in Kilian - Monch aus Irland et baptizauit eum: et obtulit Patricio domum suam et omne - aller Franken Patron. ed. J. Erichsen & E. Brockhoff habitaculum et dixit ei: 'Fac tibi ciuitatem de hoc habitaculo et (MiUnchen1989), 57-73, esp. 60-62. ego faciam michi aliud habitaculum prae foribus ciuitatis tuae'. 12' J. Barber, 'Excavations on lona 1979', Proceedings of the Et ita fecit ibi Patricius ciuitatem quae nunc dicitur Domnach Society of Antiquaries of'Scotland cxi (1981), 282-38 1, 346-8; Patraic. Et depinxit Patricius habitaculum Conallo de baculo Reeves, Columba. founder of ffv, 361-3. suo. hic est Rath Airthir. Dating of the text is discussed on pages 30Doherty, 'Monastic town', 59, 47, 52-3; see also K. Hughes, 25-6. Earl/v Christian Ireland: introduction to the sources (London, "' C. Swift, 'The local context of Oenach Tailten', Riocht na 74-5). "' Midhe x.2 (2000), 1-27, 23-4, fn.9. Doherty,'Monastic town', 54 quotingM.J. O'Kelly, 'Church "3 Bieler, Patrician texts, 134:2 (13.3) 1 use here the spelling island near Valencia, Co. Kerry', Proceedings of the Royal Irish of the head-wordin the Dictionary but in later Middle Irish it Academy lixC (1958), 57-136, 127-8; T. Fanning,'Excavation can also be spelt lios, lis and leas. of an early Christiancemetery and settlementat Reask,County "~ Bieler, Patrician texts 174:6-7 (11.2); 0 hAodha, Bethur Kerry', Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy IxxxiC (1981), Brigte, 7:210-215 (22). 3-172, 150; Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical "' J. O'Neill, 'The rule of Ailbe of Emly', Eriu iii (1907), 92- Monuments of Scotland, Argyll Volume4: lona (Edinburgh 115, 104 (33) 1982), 12-13, 36-41; A.C. Thomas, The early Christian "' MacAirt& MacNiocaill,364: Ard Macha do loscadh di air i archaeology of north Britain (L1ondon,Glasgow and New York quint kl. Mai. .i. a leith deiscertach cosin Toi 7 cosint Saball 7 1971), 48-90. cusin chucin 7 cosind lius abad huile [Ard Macha was burned '" Fanning,'Reask', 150; O'Kelly, 'ChurchIsland', 77-87, 127- by lightningon the fifth of the Kalendsof May (27 April), i.e. 8; C. Swift, Ogam stones and the earliest Irish Christians the southern part of it with the Toi (?) and the barn and the (Maynooth 1997), 76-8. kitchenand the whole of the abbot'sles]. '3 Royal Commission, lona, 13. "7Mallory, 'The fort', 28-38, 31, 34-7. '" Thomas, North Britain, 62, 68-9, 74; A. Hiamlin, The ", Best & Bergin, Lebor na hUidre, 255:8370-8380. archaeology of? early Christianitv in the north7 of i'eland, "' D.A. Binchy, Crith Gablach, (Medieval and Modern Irish unpublishedPh.D thesis, (Queen's UniversityBelfast), 134. series xi, Dublin 1941, rep. 1979), 8:209-210 (16), 77-8; E. '" Thomas, North Britain, 68; for furthercriticism of Thomas' Windisch, T6in Bo Dartrada in Irische Texte, 11.2 (Leipzig model see Swift, 'Celtic monasticism',2 1-2. 1887), 185-205, 192:75-6 (5); R. Thurneysen,Scela Mucce 3 Fanning, 'Reask', 76-9; Royal Commission, lona, 41; meic Dath6 (Medievaland ModernIrish series vi, Dublin 1935), O'Kelly, 'ChurchIsland', 76. to 6:6-7 (5). See also references b6aire, mruigferand briugu 137 Doherty,'Monastic town', 57. cited in Kelly, A guide, 304, 305, 317. '~ Doherty, 'Monastic town', 60, referring to Herity 'The 20' Hull, Longes mac nUislenn, 45:86-9, O'Rahilly, T6in:First buildings and lay-out of early Irish monasteries'. The page Recension, 17:530-1, 19:588-9, 72:2372-5, Best & Bergin,Tciin dealing with Clonmacnoiseis Herity,'The buildings',278. B6 Flidais, 55:1569-71 '" H. King, 'Clonmacnoise:high crosses', Excavations1994 ed. "' Best & Bergin, Mesca Ulad, 51:1478-80, Meid, ThtinBo6 I. Bennett(Bray 1995), 74. "" Fraich, 15:372, Thurneysen, Scela Mucce, 17:10 - 18:4 (18) Doherty,'Monastic town', 67; C. Doherty, 'Exchange and '22 0 hAodha, Bethu Brigte, 4:141-2, O'Rahilly, Thin: First trade in early medieval Ireland',Journal of the RoyalSociety of Recension, 18:573-4, Best & Bergin, Mesca Ulad, 51:1478-80, Antiquaries of Ireland cx ( 1980), 67-89. 8 1. Meid, ThinB6 Fraich, 15:372,Thurneysen, Scela Mucce, 17:10 "' Swift, 'OenachTailten', 5-12. -18:4 (18) 42 Swan, 'Enclosed ecclesiastical site', 270; Swan, 'Monastic '3 O'Rahilly, Tiin: First Recension, 16:487-8; Knott, Togail proto-town', 77-8, 97-9. Note, however, that on the plans of Bruidne da Derga, 45:1513-4 ( 165); Thin B6 Flidois in Lehor Armagh and Downpatrickprovided on page 98 in this last na hUidre, 56:1606-8; Fled Bricrend in Lebor na hUidre, article, the marketcross appears at the gateway of the inner 264:8713-20 enclosure. 'Z4M. Dillon, Serglige Con Culainn (Medieval & Modern Irish 3 Swan, 'Monastic proto-town', 100; 'Enclosed ecclesiastical series xiv, Dublin 1953), 17:498 (33). sites', 274-7. -s See O'Rahilly, Tiin: Book of Leinster, 21:768 - 22:709 & 'UC. Gaskell Brownand A. Harper,'Excavations on Cathedral O'Rahilly, Thin:First Recension 17:530-1 (on Emain Macha); Hill, Armagh 1968', Ulster Journal of Archaeology, xivii Tochmarc Treblainne, ed. K. Meyer, Zeitschrift fiir celtische (1984), 109-61, 112-17, 158; C. Lynn and J. A. McDowell, Philologie xiii (1921), 168:7-9& Meid, ThinB6 Fraich, 3:63-4. 'Armagh:the oldest city in Ireland',in Pieces of the past ed. A. '26 Lebor Bretnach:the Irish version of the Historia Brittonum Hamlin and C. Lynn (Belfast 1988), 57-61, 58; R. Ivens,

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This content downloaded on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 'Tullvlish: around an earlk church' in ibid. 55-6; Royal vi.2 (1976), 89-96; L. Swan, 'Excavations at Kilpatrick, Commission,lohu. 12. 36-9. Killucan, Co. Westmeath:evidence for bone, antler and iron ", H.C. Lax lor, The momtsteri of SSaint.alchaoi of Nendrtum working', Riocht na Mid/he ix.1 (1994/5), 1-21; Royal (Belfast 1925), 106-9. 141-148. Commission, lona, 13. See and 206 Who this '"' H. King, 'New Clonmacnoise: Christian '" Mallory MlacNeill. sutggest graveyard, early independently. settlement',Excavations 1996, ed. I. Bennett,92-3. , La\\lor, Nendrmin.70-1. 160-2. PI. 11.XII. "52 Bradley, 'Clonmacnoise', 46-7. '1"Edxards. Archaeology. 107. '' The reconstructiondrawings by Hamlinof an eighth-century " Lynnand McDowxell.'Armagh'. 60; C. Lynn.'Excavations at Irish ecclesiasticalsettlement and by Malloryand MacNeill of 46-48 Scotch Street. Armagh, 1979-80', Ulster Journal qof Nendrumindicate that some archaeologistsalready interpret the A.rchaeoloegili (1988). 69-84: C. Lynn.'Recent archaeological larger ecclesiastical enclosures as areas of agricultural excavations in an interim Hamlin, 'The of the Irish church', Armaighcity: summary', Seanchus.'4rd exploitation; archaeology Mhaclha viii.2 (1977). 275-80. 278. 298; Malloryand MacNeill, 206. To my knowledge,however, '" L. Sx\an. 'Exca\ations at Kilpatrickchurchyard, Killucan, the case has not yet been arguedin print. Co. Westmeath. August 1973 and 1975'. Riocht n . fidhe '" Graham, 'Urban genesis', 7-8. Jul,,

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