Course Curriculum
Paleolithic Period in Ireland (35,000 – 7,000 B.C.)
Mesolithic Period in Ireland (7,000 – 3,700 B.C.)
Neolithic Period in Ireland (3,700 – 2,000 B.C.)
-megalithic monuments:
Discuss: tomb decoration, decorative motifs, burial rites
Comparanda: Egyptian culture, pyramids, burial rites, cave paintings
Theme for discussion: difference between prehistoric and historic societies?
--passage from Mesolithic or nomadic fishing and hunting type cultural stage to Neolithic culture, characterized by agriculture, animal husbandry, etc.
Bronze Age 2,000 to 500 B.C.
-new burial practices: cist graves -Bronze Age Settlements -domestic structures -stone circles (cf. Stonghenge, England) -gold jewelry production: torcs, gorgets, lunulae, lockrings -Bronze Age pottery
Iron Age 500 B.C. to 432 A.D.
-new migrations
-Architecture:
ring forts
raths
hill forts
crannogs
-Stone Sculpture:
deity digures; idols
La Tene style of decoration
-Jewelry production
Heroic Age of Ireland
-Social and Cultural background:
societal organization
sources examined (Roman sources, Irish sagas, Brehon Law, Tain Bo Coulaigne, Bede)
tuaths, kingship system, election of kinds, ecomonim system (barter), absence of
documentation, preliterate condition of populace, Celtic migrations.
--MIDTERM--
The Fifth and Sixth Centuries in Ireland
-Christianization of Ireland
-Arrival of St. Patrick
-Monasticism, beginnings: monasticism modelled on Egyptian fathers.
-Architecture:
-oratories, monastic settlements (rural)
-e.g. Gallarus Oratory, Skellig Michael
-monastic arrangement
-clochans, corbelling techniques
-trip to Philadelphia Museum of Art to compare Irish monastic layout (as discussed in
class) to typical western European monastic layout as exemplified by clister of St.
Genis-des-Fontaines at PMA. Amplified with discussion of St. Gall plan handout at museum.
-Discussion of reliquaries, relics
Isolated stone and wood churches of Ireland
Use of mortar
Importation of mortar
Techniques
Introduction to Manuscripts: The Golden Age of Ireland 700-900
Codex Ussherianus
Cathach of St. Columba
Durham Fragment
Book of Durrow
Book of Lindisfarne
Echternack Gospels or Gospels of St. Willibrord
Book of Kells
Break-Viking Raids; slow recovery
Romanesque Manuscript production: 1020-1170
Psalter of Cormac
Harley Manuscripts 1082, 1083
Corpus Gospels
Introduction to Metalwork: The Golden Age Production
| Ardagh Chalice | Romanesque Churches |
| Tara Brooch | -Dysert O'Dea |
| Moylaugh Belt Shrine | -Clonfert Cathedral |
| Many other examples | -Cormac's Chapel |
| -Kilmalkedar |
Irish High Crosses
Early: So. Cross, Ahenny, Co. Tipperary, No. Cross, Ahenny, Co Tipperary
Later: Moone Cross, Cross of St. Patrick and Columba, Kells, No. Cross, Castle Dermont,
Col Kildare, Cross of Muirdach, Monasterboice, Co. Louth
Romanesque: Dysert O'Dea Cross, Cashel Cross, Roscrea Cross.
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