Film: Exploring the Celtic Lands
Home in the Celtic Lands
The Art of Ireland; Prof. T. Waldeier Bizzarro
-Early Stone Age people survived by fishing, fowling, hunting, gathering wild plants;
not much trace of their seasonal campsites survives;
-Neolithic: farming, permanent dwelling of wood;
-There was also a tradition of building in stone
-Vernacular homes along Atlantic fringes show us what probably once was
traditional home in Ireland.
Climate and landscape changed during Neolithic:
-sea level lower
-climate drier and warmer
-no harsh winds such as today
Orkney Islands off coast of Scotland: Skara Brae settlement
-single large room with/
-flagstones used as furniture
-hearth at center
-stonelined tanks
-cupboards of stone
-stone-paneled bedsteads
-village was a cluster of 6 or 8 houses along narrow street
History:
-a violent storm overwhelmed the village;
-1850 storm stripped away sand and lay Skara Brae bare.
-2,000 years later, ca. 1200 BC, Celts arrived on Orkney Islands and found highly
civilized people and landscape
England was the most prosperous and fertile of Celtic realms: Yorkshire Village: landscape
of change
Settlements of Celtic farmers in Celtic Cornwall
-inhabited during centuries of Roman occupation
-characteristic village settlement of ca. 20 courtyard villages
-at height during 2nd C - 4th C
e.g. at Choicester: ca. 100 BC
on site of Bronze Age settlement
-9 houses remain of a once larger "town"
-surrounded by ancient farm landscape
-entrance to house faces away from wind
-entrance leads through thick enclosing wall to wide open courtyard
-several rooms open off courtyard
-round room with stone at center (for timber for pyramidal roof)
-stone-lined water channels run across courtyard
-underground chamber -- feature characteristic of Celtic settlements; probably used for
storage; ritual space ??
- Arthur (of the Round Table) was a Celt from Cornwall
Iron Age settlements of W. Ireland
-Iron Age ring forts
-Some composed of three concentric walls, each coming to cliff's edge
-people who lived there farmed
-oxbones and weaving tools turned up by excavators.
No. Scotland:
-long navigable lochs
-Picts lived here
-Silver work of Picts was famous
-Picts were part Celtic; their language was non Indo-European
-brachs - fortified houses of wealthy in Celtic times;
Vernacular houses:
-rectangular in plan
-single story building
-divided into rooms widthwise
-windows on long sides, not at ends
-at center of self-sufficient rural economy of no. Europe; at center of farming community.
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