DeDanaan

Filed by Aine MacDermot

By the late Bronze Age, the ancient farmers had learned something of fertilizers and good soil. Archaeologists have recently discovered the use of man-made soils dating back to the Bronze Age in the Shetland and Orkney Isles.

“Unusual evidence of Bronze Age ingenuity has been found on Shetland, with the discovery of Bronze Age fields constructed out of man-made soils resting on pure sand in the southern part of the main island. The fields surround an occupation mound at Old Scatness on the Sumburgh Peninsula, . . . The evidence suggests the site, like the similar settlement-mound at Jarlshof a mile away, has been inhabited for over 3,000 years. The Bronze Age fields, discovered in excavations directed by Steve Dockrill of Bradford University, consist of turf, seaweed and manure built up over time on what had originally been a machair landscape of grass-covered sand. The soils, known as `plaggen soils’, were intensively cultivated to grow beard barley. Similar plaggen soils have been found at Tofts Ness on Sanday in Orkney, and at a few sites elsewhere in Scotland, but are not yet known elsewhere in Europe.” (9)

In addition, there is evidence that the Celts were way ahead of their more ‘classical’ contemporaries on the continent not only in agriculture, but also in metalworking, without which agriculture would not have seen such advances. When the transalpine European Celts began an expansion around 900BC they were already possessed of great skill in metalworking, and especially in the use of iron (Old Irish = iarn) to make tools and weapons. They were able to cut through the impenetrable forests of Europe, opening roadways and new fields for agricultural and livestock uses. Of course, Celtic roads were built of wood, the Romans later built over the tops of these with stones. (10) A number of these ancient Celtic roads have been discovered recently, not only on the European continent, but on Ireland, as well.

In summary, it can be seen that agriculture was, indeed, a significant factor in the development of civilization, and that agriculture played a significant part in the emergence of the Celtic tribes. It can also be seen that agriculture in itself was not the sole motivation for changes in societal structures, but that it also motivated advances in other skill areas such as metalworking and transportation.

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Author’s Notes:

The original wave of Celtic immigrants to the British Isles are called the q-Celts and spoke Goidelic. It is not known exactly when this immigration occurred (this is a source of contention among scientists) but the archaeological studies I have seen place it sometime in the window of 3500 to 1200 BC, although I will readily admit that future archaeological discoveries could push this date even further back in time. The label “q-Celtic” stems from the differences between this early Celtic tongue and Italic. Some of the differences between Italic and Celtic include the lack of a ‘p’ in Celtic languages and an ‘a’ in place of the Italic ‘o’. At a later date, a second wave of immigrants took to the British Isles, a wave of Celts referred to as the p-Celts speaking Brythonic. Goidelic led to the formation of the three Gaelic languages spoken in Ireland, the Isle of Man and, later, Scotland. Brythonic gave rise to two British Isles languages, Welsh and Cornish, as well as surviving on the continent in the form of Breton, spoken in Brittany.

Footnoted Sources:

(1)- People of the Stone Age: The Illustrated History of Humankind, Vol. 2, edited by Göran Burenhult, foreword by Colin Renfrew, ©1993 Weldon Owen Pty Limited / Bra Böcker, AB; Harper Division, Harper-Collins, San Francisco. ISBN 0-06-250264-6.

(2)- British Archaeology, no 21, February 1997: Features: Peter Rowley-Conwy.

(3)- British Archaeology, no 19, November 1996: Features: Merryn Dineley.

(4)- British Archaeology, no 27, September 1997: Features: David Harris.

(5)- British Archaeology, no 26, July 1997: News: (author not cited there)

(6)- Celtic Way of Life edited by Agnes McMahon, ©1976 O’Brien Educational, E & T O’Brien Ltd., Dublin, Ireland. ISBN 0-905140-16-8.

(7)- Mac Dermot of Moylurg: The Story of a Connacht Family, by Dermot Mac Dermot, ©1996 MacDermot Clan Association, Drumlin Publications, Leitrim, Ireland. ISBN 1-873437-16-1.

(8)- The Celts by Nora Chadwick, ©1971 Nora Chadwick, Penguin Books, London. ISBN 0-14-013607-X.

(9)- British Archaeology, no 21, February 1997: News: (author not cited there)

(10)- A Dictionary of Irish Mythology by Peter Beresford Ellis, under the listing for “Celt”, p.58-59, ©1987 P. B. Ellis, Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN 0-19-282871-1.

Other Works Consulted:

The First Humans - Human Origins and History to 10,000 BC: The Illustrated History of Humankind, Vol.1, edited by Göran Burenhult, foreword by Donald C. Johanson, ©1993 Weldon Owen Pty Limited / Bra Böcker, AB; Harper Division, Harper-Collins, San Francisco. ISBN 0-06-250265-4.

Ascent to Civilization: The Archaeology of Early Man, by John J. Gowlett, ©1984 Roxby Archaeology Limited, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. ISBN 0-394-72266-3.

Origins, by Richard E. Leakey and Roger Lewin, ©1977 E. P. Dutton, New York. ISBN 0-525-17194-0.

Quest for the Past edited by Dorling Kindersley, Ltd., ©1984 The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., New York. ISBN 0-89577-170-5.

“The Neolithic Mosaic on the North European Plain” a paper by Peter Bogucki, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Princeton University; 02 February 1996. An earlier version of this paper was delivered at the Society for American Archaeology meetings in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1989. It has been revised to take into account recent research.

©1998, 2005 by Áine Mac Dermot
All Rights Reserved. This is an ongoing work and will be revised as time permits.

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