Early Medieval and Viking

University College Cork has a distinguished tradition of Early Medieval Studies and the Archaeology Department plays an important part in sustaining and developing that tradition. Early medieval archaeology is a rich and fascinating subject. It provides crucial insights into the diverse and shifting identities and ideologies that characterised this formative period (c. AD 400-1200).

Researchers within the Early Medieval and Viking Research Group carry out work on various parts of Atlantic Europe, including Britain and Scandinavia. We have particular expertise in the archaeology of early medieval Ireland. Inter-regional comparison is an important theme of our research and we collaborate with scholars from across Europe and further afield. We also promote interdisciplinary research and collaboration.

Particular strengths of the group include:

• the archaeology of the Vikings
• the archaeology of Christianisation
• sculpture and artefact studies
• landscape archaeology
• buildings and settlement archaeology
• the bioarchaeology of early medieval populations

• Mr. John Sheehan (Director)
  Viking age hoards and hoarding in Ireland and the Viking World; ecclesiastical archaeology of early medieval Ireland, including sculpture; Irish settlement in the North Atlantic region

• Dr. Tomás Ó Carragáin 
  Early medieval archaeology especially of Ireland and other regions of Atlantic Europe; landscape and settlement archaeology; early medieval sculpture; early medieval architecture; the archaeology of Christianisation; the archaeology of ritual and religion; monastic and church archaeology

• Dr. Colin Rynne
  Water-power and technological change in early medieval Europe, the archaeology of Plantation period Ireland, industrial landscapes of 18th and 19th century Ireland

• Dr. Barra Ó Donnabháin 
  Bioarchaeology of early medieval Ireland; archaeology and bioarchaeology of institutional confinement; ‘Celts’ and Celticism

• Tracy Collins (PhD)
  'An archaeology of female monasticism in Medieval Ireland'
• Michelle Higgins (MPhil)
  'Place-names and archaeology of early ecclesiastical settlement in Cork and "The Decies"'
• Susan Lyons (PhD)
  'Wood use and woodland management in Medieval Ireland: An environmental and landscape study'
• Cliona O' Leary (PhD)
  'Interpreting Early Medieval Irish sculpture: A comparative study of Iniscealtra, its Clare/Limerick Hinterland and Glendalough'
• Thomas Talbot (PhD)
  ‘The Earliest Church Sites in Ireland AD 400 – 550: Landscape archaeology and the process of conversion’

The Making Christian Landscapes Project
Landscapes across Atlantic Europe were transformed, both physically and conceptually, as a result of the conversion to Christianity and the development of ecclesiastical structures during the early medieval period. This project seeks to illuminate this process through interdisciplinary case studies of particular landscapes. Directed by Tomás Ó Carragáin and John Sheehan, with funding from the Heritage Council through the INSTAR programme.
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The Corpus of Early Medieval Architecture of Ireland
This detailed survey builds on the synthesis provided in Churches in Early Medieval Ireland: Architecture, Ritual and Memory (Yale University Press 2010) and forms part of a Europe-wide project on early medieval architecture: Corpus architecturae religiosae europeae (IV-X saec.). Tomás Ó Carragáin.
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Insular Monasticism at Toureen Peakaun, Glen of Aherlow, Co. Tipperary
Survey and excavation of an important seventh-/eighth-century monastery with links to sites in Ireland and Britain. While a significant number of early ecclesiastical sites have been excavated in Ireland, only a few are known to have been primarily monastic in character. This project is therefore making a significant contribution to our understanding of early monastic archaeology. Directed by Tomás Ó Carragáin with funding from the Royal Irish Academy.

Early Christianity at Caherlehillan, Co. Kerry
Survey and excavation of an important fifth-/eighth-century ecclesiastical site. While a significant number of early ecclesiastical sites have been excavated in Co. Kerry, this has proven to be a very early one. This project is therefore making a significant contribution to our understanding of the initial Christianisation of the Corca Duibne landscape. Directed by John Sheehan as a research/training excavation.
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Hoards: Viking Age Gold and Silver from Ireland
Catalogue and study of the Viking-age gold and silver hoards containing non-numismatic material of Scandinavian character from Ireland, c. AD 800-c.1000, with links to Scandinavia and Britain. Undertaken in conjunction with the National Museum of Ireland, this project details the hoards and their components and examines the social and economic impacts of the Vikings in early medieval Ireland. John Sheehan.
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Ireland’s Early Medieval Mills
A major synthesis of the most important group of early medieval mills in Europe. Colin Rynne.

Insular Crosiers
The first detailed study of the largest corpus of early medieval crosiers in Europe. Griffin Murray, IRCHSS Postdoctoral Scholar.
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Books

• Ó Carragáin, T (2010), Churches in Early Medieval Ireland: Architecture, Ritual and Memory, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
• Sheehan, J. and Ó Córrain, D. (eds). (2010) The Viking Age: Ireland and the West. Proceedings of the Fifteenth Viking Congress, Cork, 18-27 August 2005, Dublin: Four Courts Press.
• Crowley, J. and Sheehan, J. (eds.). (2009) The Iveragh Peninsula: A Cultural Atlas of the Ring of Kerry, Cork: Cork University Press.

 Papers

• Sheehan, J. (2014) ‘Caherlehillan: art and architecture’, in R. Moss (ed), The Art and Architecture of Ireland, vol. 1. The Medieval Period c.400-1600, Yale University Press, pp.  132-133.
• Sheehan, J. (2014) ‘The Woodstown silver, in context’, in M. Hurley and I. Russell (eds), Woodstown: A Scandinavian Settlement in Co. Waterford, Dublin, pp. 194-222.
• Sheehan, J. (2014) ‘Caherlehillan: ritual, domestic and economic aspects of a Corcu Duibne ecclesiastical site’, in C. Corlett and M. Potterton (eds), The Church in Early Ireland, Dublin, pp. 247-258.
• Sheehan, J. (2014). ‘Personal ornaments in silver: Day’s collection of Viking-age silver’, Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 119, 138-161.
• Ó Carragáin, T. (2014) ‘The archaeology of ecclesiastical estates in early medieval Ireland’, Peritia 24-25 (2013-2014), pp. 266-312.
• Ó Carragáin, T. (2014). ‘Is there an archaeology of lay people at early Irish monasteries?’ Bulletin du centre d’études médiévales d’Auxerre. [BUCEMA URL: http://cem.revues.org] Hors-série No. 8, Au seuil du cloître: la présence des laïcs (hôtelleries, bâtiment d’accueil, activités artisanales et de services) entre le Ve et le XIIe siècle, Actes des journées d’études monastique, Vézelay, juin 2013.
• Ó Carragáin, T. (2014) ‘Church Architecture, c.400-1200’ in R. Moss ed. Art and Architecture of Ireland. Vol. 1 Medieval Art and Architecture, c.400-1600 (Yale University Press), 137-9.
• Ó Carragáin, T. (2014) ‘Ecclesiastical sites, 400-1200’ in R. Moss ed. Art and Architecture of Ireland. Vol. 1 Medieval Art and Architecture, c.400-1600 (Yale University Press), 121-4.
• Ó Carragáin, T. (2014) ‘Shrine chapels’ in R. Moss ed. Art and Architecture of Ireland. Vol. 1 Medieval Art and Architecture, c.400-1600 (Yale University Press), 141.
• Ó Carragáin, T. (2013) ‘The view from the shore: perceiving island monasteries in early medieval Ireland’ in Hortus Artium Medievalium. Journal of the International Research Center for Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Zagreb-Motovun Vol. 19, pp. 209-220.
• Sheehan, J. (2013) ‘Deposition, discovery and dispersal: a Viking-age hoard from Castlelohort Demesne, Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 118, 39-59.
• Sheehan, J. & E. Purcell (2013) ‘Viking Dublin: enmities, alliances and the cold gleam of silver’,  in Hadley, D. and Ten Harkle, L. (eds), Social Approaches to Viking Age Towns in Ireland and England c. 850-1100, Oxbow, Oxford, pp. 35-60.
• Sheehan, J. (2013) ‘Viking raiding, gift-exchange and insular metalwork in Norway’, in A. Reynolds & L. Webster (eds), Early Medieval Art and Archaeology in the Northern World: studies in honour of James Graham-Campbell, Brill, Leiden, pp. 809-823.
• Sheehan, J. (2013) ‘Fragmente von steinplatted mit kreuzen, Keramikscherben spatromische amphore, in C. Stiegemann, M. Kroker and W. Waler (eds), Credo: Christianisierung Europas im Mittelalter, Petersberg, pp. 218-220.
• Ó Carragáin, T. (2012) 'Relics and recluses revisited: some thoughts on Cormac's Chapel, Cashel', in E. Purcell, P. MacCotter, J. Nyhan and J. Sheehan (eds), Clerics, Kings and Vikings: essays on medieval Ireland, Dublin, Four Courts.
• Sheehan, J. (2012) ‘A Great Famine discovery of Viking gold: Vesnoy, Strokestown, County Roscommon’, pp. 630-631 in J. Crowley et al (eds), Atlas of the Great Irish Famine, Cork, Cork University Press.
• Sheehan, J. (2012) ‘The crux of the matter: pillars, slabs and boulders’, pp. 78-125 in M. Connolly (ed), The Unquiet Grave, Tralee.
• Ó Carragáin, T. (2011) 'Cross-inscribed stones from Tateetra, Co. Louth', pp 69-72 in C. Corlett and M. Potterton (eds), Settlement in Early Medieval Ireland, Bray, Wordwell.
• Ó Carragáin, T. (2011) 'Patterns of patronage: churches, round towers and the Dál Cais kings of Munster', pp. 23-41 in R. Stalley (ed), Medieval Art and Architecture in Limerick and South-West Ireland. British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions Series,  34, Leeds, Maney.
• Ó Carragáin, T.  and E. Ó Carragáin (2011) 'Singing in the rain on Hinba? Archaeology and liturgical fictions, ancient and modern: Adomnán, Vita Columbae III.17', pp. 204-18 in E. Mullins and D. Scully (eds), Listen, O Isles, unto me: Studies in Medieval Word and Image in Honour of Jennifer O'Reilly, Cork, Cork University Press.
• Ó Carragáin, T. (2011) 'Recluses, relics and corpses: interpreting St Kevin's House', pp. 64-80 in: C. Doherty, L. Doran and M. Kelly (eds),  Glendalough: City of God,  Dublin, Four Courts.
• Ó Carragáin, T. (2011) 'St Mullin's, Co. Carlow and the archaeology of early medieval baptism', Peritia, 21. 285-302.
• Sheehan, J. (2011) ‘Bullion rings in Viking-age Britain and Ireland’, pp 393-406 in S. Sigmundsson (ed), Viking Settlements and Viking Society: papers from the proceedings of the Sixteenth Viking Congress, Iceland, 2009, Reykjavik: University of Iceland Press.
• Sheehan, J. (2011) ‘Hiberno-Scandinavian broad-band arm-rings’, pp 94-100 in J. Graham-Campbell, The Cuerdale hoard and related Viking-age silver and gold, from Britain and Ireland, in the British Museum, British Museum, London.
• Sheehan, J. (2011) ‘Bullion rings’, pp 87-88 in J. Graham-Campbell, The Cuerdale hoard and related Viking-age silver and gold, from Britain and Ireland, in the British Museum, British Museum, London.
• Sheehan, J. and Hogan, N. (2011) ‘A snout in the trough: the medieval basin from Redtrench North, Co. Kerry’, pp. 33-37 in Kilgarvan: Moments and Memories, Tralee.
• Ó Carragáin, T. (2010) 'Rebuilding the 'City of Angels':  Muirchertach Ua Briain and Glendalough, c.1096-1111', pp. 258-70 in J. Sheehan and D. Ó Corráin (eds), The Viking Age: Ireland and the West. Papers from the Proceedings of the Fifteenth Viking Congress, Cork, 18-27 August 2005, Dublin, Four Courts Press.
• O'Carragain, T. (2010) 'From family cemeteries to community cemeteries in Viking Age Ireland?', pp. in C. Corlett and M. Potterton (eds). Life and death in early medieval Ireland in light of recent excavations, Bray, Wordwell.
• Sheehan, J. (2010) 'Colonel Sempronious Stretton and the reprovenancing of a Viking-age hoard',  pp. 380-99 in Sheehan, J. and D. Ó Corráin, (eds), The Viking Age: Ireland and the West. Proceedings of the Fifteenth Viking Congress, Cork, 18-27 August 2005, Dublin, Four Courts Press.
• Sheehan, J. (2010) ‘Kerry’s Viking-age silver: a legacy of antiquarians, collectors and dealers’, pp 19-31 in G. Murray (ed), Medieval Treasures of Kerry, Tralee.
• Sheehan, J. (2010) ‘The character and cultural context of the Inis Cáthaig/Scattery Island hoard’, The Other Clare 34, 23-28.
• Ó Carragáin, T. (2009) 'The saint and the Sacred Centre: interpreting the ecclesiastical landscape of Inishmurray, Co. Sligo', pp. 207-26 in N. Edwards (ed), The Archaeology of the Celtic Churches. The Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph No. 21, Leeds, Maney.
• Ó Carragáin, T. (2009) 'Iveragh's mountain pilgrimages' pp.65-68 in  J. Crowley and J. Sheehan (eds), The Iveragh Peninsula: A Cultural Atlas of the Ring of Kerry, Cork, Cork University Press.
• O'Carragain, T. (2009) 'Cemetery settlements and local churches in pre-Viking Ireland in light of comparisons with England and Wales', Proceedings of the British Academy, 157, 239-261.
• Ó Carragáin, Tomas; (2009) 'The architectural setting of the mass in early medieval Ireland,  Medieval Archaeology, 53 , 119-154.
• Ó Carragáin, T. (2009) 'New light on early Insular Monasteries', Antiquity 83. 322, 1182-1186.
• Sheehan, J. (2009) 'The Huxley hoard and Hiberno-Scandinavian arm-rings' In: Graham-Campbell, J. and Philpott, R (eds). The Huxley Viking Hoard: Scandinavian settlement in the north-west . Liverpool: National Museums Liverpool.
• Sheehan, J. and Graham-Campbell, J. (2009) 'Catalogue of the Huxley hoard' In: Graham-Campbell, J and Philpott, R (eds). The Huxley Viking Hoard: Scandinavian settlement in the north-west . Liverpool: National Museums Liverpool.
• Sheehan, J. and Crowley, J. (2009) 'The physical landscape of the Iveragh peninsula' In: Crowley, J. and Sheehan, J (eds). The Iveragh Peninsula: A Cultural Atlas of the Ring of Kerry . Cork: Cork University Press. 
• Sheehan, J. and MacCotter, P. (2009) 'Medieval Iveragh: kingdoms and dynasties' In: Crowley, J. and Sheehan, J (eds). The Iveragh Peninsula: A Cultural Atlas of the Ring of Kerry. Cork: Cork University Press. 
• Sheehan, J. (2009) 'Kenmare: origins and development' In: Crowley, J. and Sheehan, J (eds). The Iveragh Peninsula: A Cultural Atlas of the Ring of Kerry . Cork: Cork University Press. Sheehan, J. and O'Shea, M. (2009) 'Miss Butler's Iveragh watercolours' In: Crowley, J. and Sheehan, J (eds). The Iveragh Peninsula: A Cultural Atlas of the Ring of Kerry . Cork: Cork University Press.
• Sheehan, J. (2009) 'Early Medieval Iveragh, AD 400-1200' In: Crowley, J. and Sheehan, J (eds). The Iveragh Peninsula: A Cultural Atlas of the Ring of Kerry . Cork: Cork University Press. 
• Sheehan, J. (2009) ‘The peacock’s tale: excavations at Caherlehillan, Kerry, Ireland’,pp 191-206 in N. Edwards (ed), The Archaeology of the Celtic Churches: Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph 21, Maney, Leeds.
• Sheehan, J. (2009) ‘The Viking-age silver hoard from Kilmacomma, Co. Waterford: a Woodstown connection?’,  Peritia: Journal of the Medieval Academy of Ireland 20, 276-296.
• Sheehan, J. and Graham-Campbell, J. (2009) ‘Viking-age gold and silver from Irish crannogs and other watery places’, The Journal of Irish Archaeology, 17, 28-41.

Edited Journals and Published Reports

• Ó Carragáin, T. 2010. The Journal of Irish Archaeology. Vol. 18 (2009) 143pp.
• Ó Carragáin, T.  and Sheehan, J. 2009. Making Christian Landscapes: Settlement, Society and Regionality in early medieval Ireland. Report for the Heritage Council on Phase 2: 01 June - 04 December 2009. Online report publication at: http://www.heritagecouncil.ie/fileadmin/user_upload/INSTAR_Database/Making_Christian_Landscapes_Progress_Report_09.pdf
• Ó Carragáin, T.  and Sheehan, J. 2010. Making Christian Landscapes: Settlement, Society and Regionality in Early Medieval Ireland. Report for the Heritage Council on Phase 3: 01 June-04 December 2010. Online report publication at: http://www.heritagecouncil.ie/fileadmin/user_upload/INSTAR_Database/AR01049_Christian_Landscapes_Final_Report_1_10.pdf and http://www.heritagecouncil.ie/fileadmin/user_upload/INSTAR_Database/AR01049_Christian_Landscapes_Final_Report_2_10.pdf

• Gill Boazman (PhD): Theme and Variations: Christianity and regional landscapes in early medieval Ireland (2014)
• Francesca Callaghan (PhD): Bodies Beneath, Betwixt and Between. A Theoretical Reassessment of the site of Cloghermore Cave, (2014)
• Patrick Gleeson (PhD): Landscapes of Kingship in Early Medieval Ireland, AD400-1150 (2014)
• Daniel O'Mahony (MPhil): The Christianization of the Hiberno-Scandinavians: A comparative analysis (2013)
• Bernadette McCarthy (PhD): Monasticism and its limits: Rematerialising monastic space in Early Medieval Ireland (2013)
• Johanna O'Sullivan (PhD): The Viking Age glass beads of Ireland in their North Atlantic context (2011)
• Orla P. Power (MPhil): Early Medieval Corn-Drying Kilns and their Archaeobotanical Context (2011)
• Marie-Therese Barrett (MPhil): The Early Ecclesiastical Sites of Limerick (2010)
• Suzanne Smith (MPhil): Palynological and Archaeological Evidence for human activity during the Iron Age in Ireland (2010)

Making Christian Landscapes: Conversion and Consolidation in Early Medieval Europe
Society for Church Archaeology Annual Conference, Department of Archaeology, University College Cork, 21^st-23^rd September, 2012.

The Óenach Project
Department of Archaeology, University College Cork, 24-25^th March, 2012. Funded by IRCHSS New Ideas.

Brendan: the cult and the landscape
Tralee, May 17-18^th 2013. A joint initiative by the Department of Archaeology, UCC, and the Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society.

Please visit our Seminar/Lecutre Series page for details on upcoming talks being delivered by staff, student researchers and visiting speakers.

Late Medieval and Early Modern Ireland

The plantation of English settlers during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Ireland initiated a process during which both the natives and newcomers became profoundly engaged with greater cultural, economic and social processes that operated outside the immediate concerns of consolidating English governmental authority in Ireland. Through its work on the creation of early modern colonial landscapes and, in particular, on the development of plantation-period landscapes in Munster, from the Elizabethan period to the Restoration, this research group is directly engaged in some of the key archaeological debates of the post-medieval period in Ireland.

Other key areas of research include the development of Atlantic economy in the period c. 1650-1800, the industrial development of Irish towns (with special emphasis on utility and food-processing industries), and industrial energy and technological change in eighteenth and nineteenth century.

• Dr. Colin Rynne
  Water-power and technological change in early medieval Europe, the archaeology of Plantation period Ireland, industrial landscapes of 18th and 19th century Ireland.

• Caen Harris (PhD)

The colonial landscapes of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, c. 1602-1643
An interdisciplinary (history/archaeology) study of the colonial landscapes created by Richard Boyle (1566-1643) in 17th century Munster. Viewed by his contemporaries and by subsequent scholars as an exemplary English planter, who best realised the aims of the Munster Plantation by forging a model English Protestant ‘commonwealth’ on his estates, this project will examine - and question - the extent of his achievement. Utilising surviving collections of his estate papers, and employing modern archaeological survey techniques, his estate’s development and the plantation landscapes he created will be comprehensively mapped and its tenant population reconstructed and profiled.
IRCHSS Collobarative Research Project 2012 Principal investigators, Dr Colin Rynne and Dr David Edwards (School of History, UCC).

Books

C. Rynne 2009 (with James Lyttleton eds) Plantation Ireland, settlement and material culture, c.1550 – c.1700. Four Courts Press, Dublin.

J. Lyttleton 2011 Blarney Castle. An Irish tower house. Four Courts Press, Dublin.

Forthcoming 2013:

C. Rynne (with Neil Jackman, Caitríona Moore) The Mill at Kilbegly An archaeological investigation on the route of the M6 Ballinasloe to Athlone national road scheme, and NRA Scheme Monographs 12. Dublin.

C. Rynne The archaeology of  water-power in early medieval Ireland c. AD 600-1100. Brill, Leiden.

Articles

C. Rynne 2009 ‘Haulbowline Island, Cork Harbour, Ireland, c. 1816-1832: a new archaeological perspective on Ireland’s “coloniality”’ in Audrey Horning and Marilyn Palmer (eds) Crossing paths or sharing tracks? Future directions in the archaeological study of post-1550 Britain and Ireland, Boydell and Brewer, Woodbridge 2009, pp. 167-77.

C. Rynne 2009 ‘Connecting south Kerry’ in John Crowley and John Sheehan (eds) The Iveragh peninsula. A cultural atlas of south Kerry. Cork University Press, Cork, 2009, pp. 247-53.

C. Rynne 2009 ‘The social archaeology of plantation period ironworks in Ireland: immigrant industrial communities and technology transfer, c. 1560-1640’ in C. Rynne and James Lyttleton (eds) Plantation Ireland, settlement and material culture, c.1550 – c.1700. Four Courts Press, Dublin, pp. 248-64.

C. Rynne 2009 ‘Water-power as a factor of industrial location in early medieval Ireland: the environment of the early Irish water-mill’, Industrial Archaeology Review, XXX1:2, 2009, 85-95.

C. Rynne 2010 "Cork city Glassworks, 1782-1841' in J.M. Hearne (ed.) Glassmaking in Ireland. From the medieval to the contemporary. Irish Academic Press, Dublin/Portland, Oregon, 135-144.

C. Rynne 2011 'Technological continuity, technological survival: the use of horizontal mills in western Ireland, c . 1632-1940', Industrial Archaeology Review, XXXIII:2, 2011, 94-103.

Recently completed postgraduate research

• Derek O' Brien (MPhil): The archaeology of Cork's international trade in the medieval period
• Máire Geany (PhD): Carpentry in medieval Ireland
• Paul Rondelez (PhD): The archaeology of ironworking in late medieval Ireland (c. 1200-1600)
• Elena Turk (PhD): Social Control and Capitalism: The Social Archaeology of Industrial dissenter community’s villages in Ireland (2012)
• Niamh Doyle (PhD): The consumption and production of pottery in later-medieval Ireland (2012)
• Joe Nunan (MPhil): The archaeology of the Munster plantation (2012)

Recently completed postdoctoral research

Dr James Lyttleton (IRCHSS fellow) 2011-12: Native and newcomer in early modern Offaly, shifting cultural identities: an archaeological perspective.

Please visit our Seminar/Lecutre Series page for details on upcoming talks being delivered by staff, student researchers and visiting speakers.