Provided by the author(s) and University College Dublin Library in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite the published version when available. Title The Beaker Phenomenon? Understanding the character and context of social practices in Ireland 2500-2000 BC Authors(s) Carlin, Neil Publication date 2018-10-22 Publisher Sidestone Press Link to online version https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-beaker-phenomenon Item record/more information http://hdl.handle.net/10197/10157 Downloaded 2021-10-04T00:15:53Z The UCD community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters! (@ucd_oa) © Some rights reserved. For more information, please see the item record link above. CARLIN CARLIN THE BEAKER PHENOMENON? PHENOMENON? BEAKER THE During the mid-third millennium BC, people across Europe started using an international suite of novel material culture including early metalwork and distinctive ceramics known as Beakers. The nature and social significance of this phenomenon, as well as the reasons for its rapid and widespread transmission have been much debated. The adoption of these new ideas and objects in Ireland, Europe’s westernmost island, provides a highly suitable case study in which to investigate these issues. While many Beaker-related stone and metal artefacts were previously known from Ireland, a decade of intensive developer- led excavations (1997-2007) resulted in an exponential increase in discoveries of Beaker pottery within apparent settlement contexts across the island. This scenario is radically different from Europe where these objects are found with Beakers in funerary settings, stereotypically with single burials. Using an innovative approach, this book interlinks the study of the pottery and various object types (that have traditionally been studied in isolation) with their context of discovery and depositional treatment to characterise social practices within settlements, funerary monuments, ceremonial settings and natural places. These characterisations deliver rich new understandings of this period which reveal a much more nuanced narrative for this international phenomenon. Significantly, this integrated regional study reveals that the various Beaker- related objects found in Ireland were all deposited during a series of highly structured and rule-bound activities which were strongly influenced by pre- existing Irish traditions. This is a departure from previous interpretations which incorrectly attributed the adoption of Beakers to large-scale immigration or a prestige goods economy. Instead, these new international ideas, objects and practices played an important role in enabling people in Ireland to perform and THE BEAKER negotiate their personal and group identities by using this new suite of object to frame and maintain their social relations with other groups across Europe. PHENOMENON? Understanding the character and context of social practices in Ireland 2500-2000 BC ISBNSidestone 978-90-8890-449-3 Press Sidestone ISBN: 978-90-8890-463-9 NEIL CARLIN 9 789088 904493 10cm THE BEAKER PHENOMENON? Sidestone Press THE BEAKER PHENOMENON? Understanding the character and context of social practices in Ireland 2500-2000 BC NEIL CARLIN © 2018 Neil Carlin Published by Sidestone Press, Leiden www.sidestone.com Imprint: Sidestone Press Dissertations Lay-out & cover design: Sidestone Press Photograph cover: Old Head of Kinsale, foto: Robert Fudali via Adobe Stock. Pottery drawings by Eoin Grogan. ISBN 978-90-8890-463-9 (softcover) ISBN 978-90-8890-464-6 (hardcover) ISBN 978-90-8890-465-3 (PDF e-book) This publication was financially supported by the University College Dublin School of Archaeology. Contents Acknowledgements 9 Preface 11 1. Introduction: querying the Beaker Phenomenon? 13 1.1 Understanding the Beaker complex? 13 1.2 ‘Similar but different’? 15 1.3 Local worlds: people, places and things 16 1.4 Structure, scope and methodology: a road map 17 2. New versions of old stories 21 2.1 Introduction 21 2.2 Beaker ‘culture’ and cultural-historical approaches 22 2.3 Early 1900s: Beaker-free Ireland says No to Romans 23 2.4 The 1930s: the first Irish Beaker boom 24 2.5 The 1940s and 50s: the arrival of Beaker invaders 25 2.6 The 1960s and 70s: new beginnings 27 2.7 The 1980s and 1990s: Irish Beaker elites – the ‘Lunula lords’ 28 2.8 The 2000s: Beaker excavation boom – data vs knowledge 29 2.9 Shifting chronologies: the legacy of Lough Gur and 31 Newgrange 2.10 Fragmentary pasts: non-integrated typologies 33 2.11 Problematising prestige and recent developments 34 2.12 Post-colonial Beaker-rich Ireland 36 3. A settled past 39 3.1 Beaker pottery in Ireland 39 3.1.1 The distribution of Beaker pottery 40 3.1.2 A context for Beakers 45 3.2 Infamous Beaker ‘settlements’ 47 3.2.1 Lough Gur 47 3.2.2 Newgrange 49 3.2.3 Knowth 51 3.2.4 Monknewtown 53 3.3 Settling some issues? 55 3.4 Dwelling on the evidence? 60 4. Remembering everyday life 65 4.1 Introduction 65 4.2 Beaker-associated pits 65 4.3 Spreads and middens 80 4.4 Fulachtaí fia 87 4.5 Connecting spreads and pits 89 4.6 Ideologically significant depositions 91 4.7 Beaker settlement in Ireland in its wider context 92 5. Fragments of the Dead? 95 5.1 Introduction 95 5.2 Beaker deposition in wedge tombs 96 5.3 Beaker deposition in court tombs 107 5.4 Beaker deposition in passage tombs 110 5.5 Beaker deposition in portal tombs 112 5.6 Beaker deposition in cists 113 5.7 Beaker deposition in ring-ditches and ring-barrows 120 5.8 Beaker deposition in pit graves 120 5.9 Understanding deposition in mortuary and megalithic 122 contexts 5.10 Wedge tombs and cists as Beaker burials? 124 5.11 A wider European context? 129 6. Commemorations of Ceremonies Past? 135 6.1 Introduction 135 6.2 Beaker deposition in timber circles 137 6.3 Beaker deposition at timber circles 147 6.4 Beaker deposition in earthen enclosures 148 6.5 Understanding Beaker ceremonial deposition 150 7. Transformational acts in transitional spaces 153 7.1 Introduction 153 7.2 Beaker-related objects in bogs, rivers and lakes 154 7.3 Beaker-related objects in dryland ‘natural places’ 156 7.4 Identifying depositional patterns and practices 157 7.5 Beaker-related objects in ‘natural places’ in Europe? 158 7.6 Understanding deposition in boglands in Ireland 159 8. A time for Beakers? 161 8.1 Introduction 161 8.2 Methodology and date selection criteria 161 8.3 The dating of the Irish Beaker phenomenon 164 8.4 Dating depositional practices 169 8.5 Comparing Ireland to Britain? 170 9. Everything in its right place? 173 9.1 Introduction 173 9.2 Beaker Pottery 173 9.3 Polypod bowls 177 9.4 V-perforated buttons 179 9.5 Wrist-bracers 181 9.6 Copper Daggers 185 9.7 Sun-discs 186 9.8 Lunulae 189 9.9 Gold bands and basket-ornaments 191 9.10 Battle Axes 192 9.11 Identifying depositional patterns and practices 193 10. The Beaker phenomenon in Ireland and Beyond? 197 10.1 The genomic transformation of north-west Europe? 198 10.2 External influences? 200 10.3 Continuity and change? 202 10.4 Beaker pots: commemorating the domestic 206 10.5 The meanings of Beaker-related objects? 207 10.6 Personhood and ‘personal possessions’ 208 10.7 Transformation rituals 208 10.8 Supra-regional cosmologies? 209 10.9 Rites of passage in sacred places? 212 10.10 The Beaker transformation? 213 10.11 The Beaker Phenomenon? 215 Bibliography 217 Acknowledgements This book would not exist in its current form without the support, encouragement and input of Karen Dempsey, my partner in life and of course, archaeology. Much of what is expressed here comes from our discussions and shared passions, as well as her con- structive feedback on ever-changing draft chapters. Thanks to Kerri Cleary who read, commented on and copy edited the manuscript. Her observations have greatly clarified and enhanced the text, though the faults it still has are entirely mine. Alex Guglielmi assisted greatly with the bibliography. Thanks also to Karsten Wentink and Corné van Woerdekom of Sidestone Press for all their patience and help. The research for this book was originally undertaken as a doctoral study in the University College Dublin, School of Archaeology and the Humanities Institute of Ireland, with the support of a UCD Ad Astra scholarship under the supervision of Jo Brück. I am grateful to Jo and the examiners of my PhD thesis, Harry Fokkens and Gabriel Cooney, whose astute critique and probing questions provided the basis for this book. I am pleased to acknowledge the support of my friends and colleagues in the School of Archaeology at University College Dublin, particularly Gabriel Cooney and Graeme Warren for their interest, encouragement and support and Conor McDermott for his help with creating and editing many of the illustrations in this book. I would also like to formally acknowledge my gratitude to the School of Archaeology for their financial con- tribution. During a break from teaching in UCD, this book was completed in Reading, where Karen is currently a Research Fellow. Thanks to all those in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Reading who made me feel so welcome while I was there, particularly Duncan Garrow. I wish to thank Jim Mallory for originally encouraging my interest in the Beaker phenomenon. I am also grateful to all my colleagues whom have shared and discussed their work with me, particularly Mary Cahill, Neil Wilkin, Alison Sheridan, and Stuart Needham. Thanks to Tom Booth for so generously sharing his time and knowledge with me. Our discussions have considerably improved my understanding of aDNA. My sincerest thanks to the community of archaeologists, consultancies, directors, and other heritage professionals who kindly contributed their time and shared the results of their investigations with me over the 15 years.