History of Ireland (400–795)

Overview[edit]

Early Christian Ireland began after the country emerged from a mysterious decline in population and standards of living that archaeological evidence suggests lasted from c. 100 to 300 AD. During this period, called the Irish Dark Age by Thomas Charles-Edwards, the population was entirely rural and dispersed, with small ringforts the largest centres of human occupation. Some 40,000 of these are known, although there may have been as many as 50,000,^[2] and "archaeologists are agreed that the vast bulk of them are the farm enclosures of the well-to-do of early medieval Ireland". These commonly featured souterrains: underground passages and chambers for hiding in or escaping through.^[3] It is likely that raiding Great Britain for slaves and other loot gave an important boost to an otherwise almost entirely agricultural economy. The lakeside enclosures called crannógs continued to be used and seem especially associated with crafts.^[4]


The older view that early medieval Irish farming concentrated on livestock has been overturned by pollen studies and other evidence, and it is now clear that cereal farming was increasingly important from about AD 200 onwards, with barley and oats more important crops than rye, wheat and others.^[5] Cattle were greatly prized, and cattle-raiding constituted a large part of warfare, so cattle needed the constant presence of a herdsman in daylight hours and were put in an enclosure at night. By the end of the period, the largest herds were probably those of monasteries. Generally, mild Irish winters seem to have meant they were never put in roofed shelters in winter, although young calves might spend a period in the house.^[6] There was a very considerable clearance of forests in the early part of the period, such that by the 9th century, large tracts of forest appear to have been rare, and the native Scots pine cleared almost to extinction; the large areas of bogland were harder for the medieval Irish to affect.^[7]


By 800, small towns had started to form around some of the larger monasteries, such as Trim and Lismore, and some kings were based in them, but the foundation of larger towns by the Vikings had yet to occur. Otherwise, kings lived in ringforts larger than the norm, but generally similar; however the possession of luxury objects such as elaborate Celtic brooches was much greater among royalty.^[8] The latter part of the period was the peak of the Irish contribution to Insular art, whose surviving products include illuminated manuscripts, most famously the Book of Kells, brooches, which were worn by clergy as well as nobles, carved stone high crosses, and other isolated survivals of metalwork, such as the Derrynaflan and Ardagh Hoards.