SOCIETY AND SETTLEMENT IN GLENDALOUGH ... - Ian Cantwell

CHAPTER 2LATE IRON AGE AND EARLY MEDIEVALTransition and SettlementThe late Iron age was a period o~ intense political change which led to a militarised andhierarchical society50. This had major implications for settlement patterns which,according to Early Irish Law tracts, were based on the Tuath. These were petty'kingdoms' and were subdivided into levels of power, status and land holdingcontrolled by the Rj51. This developed into a dispersed type of settlement which isepitomised by the Rath whose size and morphology ret1ected the position of theresident in his local tuath. The vast majority ofraths, so far dated by excavation, werebuilt between 40o-! OOOAD52. None ofthese dates comefrom CountyWicklow so it isunclear whether rath builders in mountain areas followed the same pattern of landexploitationand settlement.In the transitionalperiod before the arrivalofChristianity, 200BC-400AD, there was aslight increase of treepollen and a declining amount of charcoal which indicates thatsettlement was probably slackening. Price argues that there were placenames from thisperiod, for instance, Lough Dan may come from the name of a river goddess D.vonaS 3 . It is alsopossible that GleandDe is Pre-Christian 54 andit maybe that the river. was named after a pre-Cbristian Goddess. Also worth noting is the port Inber Dewhich is believed to be the old name for Arldow. 55 Another example may be Vartry(Fertir) which may correspondto the Old Welshgwerthyr, a fortress56 which be thinks500'CroininI>a.ibhL Early Medieval Ireland; London, 1995:0 pp.41-751Stout M TheIrish Ringfort:o Dublin 1997, pp.l1o-152ibid p. 2953Price,op. cit p. 30~ William Hemy~ M~dievalGlendalough, Ph.D. T.e.D., 1996, p.165 ,.S~tchingham, Evidence of 8c:aJadinavian Settlement in Widdow, Wicldow, p. 114 bas the mostrecentdiscussion.56pnce, op. eit., pp. 50 115221