The Archaeology of Conflict
IAI Spring Conference & AGM 2007
Date: 9-11 March 2007
Venue: Jurys Cork H otel
Location: Western Road, Cork
Admission: Members €30/£20
Non-members €45/£30
Students €15/£10
Sponsors
Conference Programme
Friday 9th March
- 7.30pm
- Wine Reception. Staff Common Room, North Wing of Quad,
University College Cork
Kindly hosted by the Department of Archaeology, University College Cork
Saturday 10th March
- 9.00-10.00
- Registration
- 10.00-10.30
- Elizabeth Fort
and the urban defences of Cork City, 1624-1690
Dr Colin Rynne - 10.30-11.00
- Archaeology and
Mass Murder: the Srebrenica Massacre, July 1995
Dr Barra Ó Donnabháin - 11.00-11.30
- Tea & Coffee
- 11.30-12.00
- Peace and Quiet
in the Bronze Age?
Dr Eoin Grogan - 12.00-12.30
- Digging for
Victory: Late 16th – Early 17th century Fortifications in
Ulster
Paul Logue - 12.30-1.00
- The Other Side of
the Hill: British testimony from Crossbarry
William Sheehan - 1.00-2.30
- Lunch
- 2.30-3.00
- Telling the story
of 'Soldiers and
Chiefs: The Irish at War at Home and Abroad, 1550-2001', at the
National Museum of Ireland
Siobhan Pierce and Damian Shiels - 3.00-3.30
- The UAU Dive
Project on the Spanish Armada wreck La Trinidad Valencera in Donegal
Connie Kelleher - 3.30-4.00
- Tea & Coffee
- 4.00-6.00
- IAI: Annual General Meeting
Sunday 11th March
- 10.00-10.30
- Cashel Hillfort
and Bronze Age Warfare in South-west Ireland
Prof. William O Brien - 10.30-11.00
- Beatings, Brawls
and Battles: Violence and warfare in the Irish osteoarchaeological
record
Linda Fibiger - 11.00-11.30
- Tea & Coffee
- 11.30-12.00
- Fields, Beaches and Landing
Grounds- WW2 Invasion Defences in Northern Ireland
James O Neill - 12.00-12.30
- The Siege and Battle of
Kinsale 1601AD: An Archaeological Survey
Paul O Keeffe - 12.30-1.00
- The Potential for Conflict
Archaeology in the Republic of Ireland
Damian Shiels - 1.00
- Discussion and Questions
Conference Close
Abstracts
Elizabeth Fort and the urban defences of Cork City, 1624-1690
Dr Colin Rynne
Dr Colin Rynne lectures in the Department of Archaeology, UCC. He has recently published Industrial Ireland, an archaeology 1750-1930.
Since 2000, Elizabeth Fort, the only surviving urban example of an Irish star-shaped fort, completed in the 1620s, has undergone extensive archaeological survey and conservation work. This paper examines its role in the early modern urban defences of Cork city, from its establishment to the siege of 1690.
Archaeology and Mass Murder: the Srebrenica Massacre, July 1995
Dr Barra Ó Donnabháin
Barra Ó Donnabháin graduated in Archaeology from University College, Cork and holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Chicago. His primary research interests are in bioarchaeology, death and commemoration, the Celts and the archaeology of identity. His current research is focussed on migrations in the North Atlantic in the Viking period.
In July 1995, in the aftermath of the fall of the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, over 8000 men and boys were murdered by Bosnian Serb forces. Archaeology has played a central role in telling the story of the massacre and identifying the missing. In Bosnia, resolving the fate of the missing is seen as crucial to post-conflict reconciliation. The efforts of the international community to discover the fate of the missing from Srebrenica raises issues about the political nature of forensic archaeology.
Peace and Quiet in the Bronze Age?
Dr Eoin Grogan
Dr. Eoin Grogan is a landscape archaeologist specialising in social and settlement patterns in the Neolithic and Bronze Age. He worked as a researcher and Assistant Director on the excavations at Knowth, Co. Meath (1974-1983), and was a researcher, tutor and lecturer in the Department of Archaeology, UCD, from 1980-1992. In The Discovery Programme he was Director of the North Munster Project (1992-2001), Director of the Lake Settlement Project (2001-2002), and a member of the Council (1997-2000). He has directed several excavations and has published widely on the Neolithic and Bronze Age: this includes several important excavations by Seán P. Ó Ríordáin at Lough Gur, Co. Limerick (with George Eogan), Irish Prehistory – a social perspective (with Gabriel Cooney) and two volumes on the results of the The North Munster Project.
It is probable that the seeds of conflict were as common in the Bronze Age as in more recent periods. There is extensive evidence to indicate a significant growth in population in the late Bronze Age in Ireland and this, together with increased competition for land, resources and status, may well have heightened tensions and led to a greater perception of threat and danger. Although rare there is occasional direct evidence for violence in the form of injury trauma to skeletal material. Nevertheless, there is a significant body of indirect evidence that indicates that there was widespread preparation for large-scale organised conflict. The production of weapons, as well as armour, certainly increased dramatically in the final stages of the Bronze Age. These attest to well armed warriors who probably trained as cadres – battle groups intended to engage the enemy in tight formations – rather than as single combatants. The construction of hillforts, which also dates principally to this period, also suggests that there was a widespread perception of military threat although it is also possible that these sites were intended to exert symbolic control over local landscapes and routeways.
Digging for Victory: Late 16th – Early 17th century Fortifications in Ulster
Paul Logue
Paul Logue currently works as a contract archaeologist advising EHS: Built Heritage in Northern Ireland on planning matters. Part of that role is to identify and protect sites of conflict interest ranging from the prehistoric period to the present day. He first became interested in and involved with Conflict Archaeology in 1999. He has aided in the setting up of the Conflict Database for Northern Ireland, directed excavations and research works on sites of sixteenth and seventeenth century conflict in Ulster, published variously on the subject and given many papers in Ireland, the UK and US. At present he is undertaking a PhD at Queen’s University Belfast on the Archaeology of the Nine Year’s War in Ulster.
The late sixteenth century, and the period of the Nine Year’s War (1594-1603) in particular, saw a rise in the number of fortifications built in Ulster. This period largely witnessed the introduction of the angle bastion tradition. During the struggle against the Elizabethan government, the written sources record the native lords as recognising the value of fortification building and encouraging the process. The English too recognised this value, although it can be argued that fort building was thrust upon them due to the existing infrastructure and tactics of the War in Ulster. Where the English build forts, the record shows that they adopted the angle tradition, largely due to their contemporary experiences on the continent. The available evidence suggests that the native lords maintained an earlier tradition of fort building but recent evidence may challenge this to a degree. We see a native adoption of contemporary military weaponry and tactics, so why not with fortification building? This paper will draw on recent research and examine the cartographic, written and field evidence for fortification in Ulster at this time. It will also present a case for the potential recognition of a new field monument type in Ireland, the Irish Sconce.
The Other Side of the Hill: British testimony from Crossbarry
William Sheehan
William Sheehan is from Kanturk in County Cork. He is a graduate of University College Cork, the University of Limerick, and the Open University. He is currently finishing a PhD in the British army’s experiences in Ireland during the War of Independence. In 2005, he published an edited collection of the accounts of British servicemen in Ireland from 1918 to 1922, called British Voices from the Irish War of Independence. A second edited book, Fighting for Dublin, the British Battle for Dublin, 1919 to 1921, is to be published in June 2007.
The ‘Battle’ of Crossbarry has become a key element of Irish Republican and Nationalist mythology of the War of Independence. Like the Spartans at Thermopylae, a brave and hopeless outnumbered I.R.A. flying column fought and defeated thousands of British soldiers. Such was the claim of the I.R.A. commander on the day, Tom Barry. However as with most of these events, it is a claim to far. Evidence from British archives and from the Bureau of Military History, the Irish Military Archives throws considerable doubt on these claims. This paper will detail the British account of Crossbarry, using maps, operational reports, military records and the written personal accounts of British personnel present at the action. It will present new evidence as to the number of troops present, and there mission in the area. With regard to newly emerging field of battlefield archaeology, it will show the invaluable role of archival records in preparing to examine any modern battlefield.
Telling the story of 'Soldiers and Chiefs: The Irish at War at Home and Abroad, 1550-2001', at the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks
Siobhan Pierce & Damian Shiels
Siobhan Pierce was one of the curatorial staff who developed this exhibition.
Damian Shiels is the Post Excavation Manager with Headland Archaeology Ltd. Between 2002 and 2006 he was an Assistant Keeper in the National Museum of Ireland, working on the military collections and the ‘Soldiers and Chiefs’ Exhibition. His principal research interest is conflict archaeology in Ireland, a topic on which he has published several papers. In 2001 he founded the Kinsale Battlefield Project to examine the archaeology of the 1601 siege and battle of Kinsale, Co. Cork. He has been eligible to hold an archaeological excavation licence in the Republic of Ireland since 2005.
This new eight gallery military history exhibition explores three main historical themes; Soldiering in Ireland, Soldiering abroad and Soldiering in the Twentieth Century. This talk will examine how the themes and ideas in the exhibition are communicated to the public via objects, text, images and audio visual inter-actives. The Warfare in Ireland gallery (1550- 1800) explores some of the main conflicts of the period, such as the Nine Years War, 1640s wars, the Williamite wars and the 1798 Rebellion. Unsurprisingly, there is little pristine material associated with these conflicts in existence. As a result, the gallery relies heavily on archaeological material to tell these stories.
The second element of this talk will discuss how these archaeological objects were selected and combined with other techniques to produce the completed gallery.
The UAU Dive Project on the Spanish Armada wreck La Trinidad Valencera in Donegal
Connie Kelleher
Connie Kelleher is an underwater archaeologist in the Underwater Archaeology Unit (UAU) in the Department of the Environment, Heritage and and Local Government. As part of her work with the UAU she has undertaken surveys of several intertidal and sub-tidal sites, with a particular focus on shipwrecks and has directed a number of archaeological excavations. These include surveying the English man-of-war wreck HMS Looe of 1697 in Baltimore in Co. Cork, the investigation of a mid-17th century wreck in Waterford Harbour and La Trinidad Valencera Spanish Armada wreck of 1588, which will be detailed in her talk.
La Trinidad Valencera was the fourth largest ship in the Spanish Armada campaign that attempted to invade England in 1588. Trinidad was 1,100 tons and was originally a Venetian merchantman that was requisitioned by Phillip II of Spain to form part of the Levant squadron for his Armada. Trinidad, in an attempt to avoid the raging storm that was destroying the fleet on their journey home, took refuge in Kinnagoe Bay off the north-eastern tip of the Inishowen Peninsula in Co. Donegal in September 1588. However, the ship grounded on a reef in shallow water and two days later broke her back and was wrecked. The wreck was discovered by Derry Sub Aqua Club in the 1970s and subsequently, under Dr. Colin Martin, 10 seasons of detailed survey and excavation were carried out at the wreck site. In 2004 local divers from Inishowen Sub Aqua Club reported to the UAU that new artefacts were exposed on the site. This was the impetus for the UAU to undertake its own archaeological diver survey, geophysical survey and discreet excavation on the site in 2005 and 2006.
The results from these surveys will be presented and discussed.
Cashel Hillfort and Bronze Age Warfare in South-west Ireland
Professor William O Brien, University College Cork
William O'Brien is Professor of Archaeology in University College Cork. His research interests centre on the prehistory of south-west Ireland, on the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age periods in Ireland and on early metallurgy in Atlantic Europe. He has recently conducted excavations at the Late Bronze Age hillfort of Cashel Fort, Clashanimud, Co. Cork and completed a project on early settlement landscapes in the Beara Peninsula.
This paper considers the results of recent excavation at Cashel hillfort, Clashanimud, Co. Cork. The investigation of this bivallate hill-top enclosure revealed clear evidence for the deliberate destruction of timber-palisaded defences. The significance of this discovery will be examined in terms of regional conflict and political relations during the Late Bronze Age.
Beatings, Brawls and Battles: Violence and Warfare in the Irish osteoarchaeological record
Linda Fibiger, University of Oxford
Linda Fibiger has been a freelance osteoarchaeologist since 2001. She has completed numerous specialist reports for commercial and research projects and been involved in CPD and 3rd level teaching. She is currently carrying out DPhil research into violence and conflict in Neolithic northwest Europe at the University of Oxford.
Although a considerable number of skirmishes and battles have been recorded throughout Irish history, only one battle-related mass grave has been excavated and scientifically analysed in Ireland so far. More frequently, the bodily evidence for violence and warfare within society is to be found in the community cemeteries, which regularly include individuals showing signs of non-accidental traumatic injuries. This paper will focus on osteoarchaeological evidence and its contribution to the investigation of conflict and warfare in Ireland, focusing primarily on the medieval and early post-medieval period. It will discuss the nature and context of some of the skeletal evidence for non-accidental injuries within the Irish burial record and raise questions about the nature of disposal of the casualties of conflict and battle.Fields, Beaches and Landing Grounds- WW2 Invasion Defences in Northern Ireland
James O’Neill
James O’Neill has been working for Environment & Heritage Service: DOENI for the last fourteen years and for over eight years has been working on conflict archaeology in Northern Ireland. He led the compilation of the Northern Ireland Battlefields Database, composed of 336 located sites (with another 200 unlocated ) and is currently undertaking an ongoing programme to record the remains of conflict from all periods of Northern Ireland’s past. He edits, updates the Defence Heritage Record NI, which hold information on 20th century military sites from WW1, WW2, the Cold War, and the modern ‘Troubles ‘period. James specialises particularly in conflict structures, weaponry and Elizabethan warfare in Ireland. In conjunction with Paul Logue, he has been directing a long term programme of field survey and controlled metal detecting at the Battle of the Yellow Ford (1598).
With the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 and the neutrality of the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland became an outpost of critical strategic importance to the British war effort. After the fall of France in June 1940 and the resulting re-routing of all Atlantic naval traffic through the northern approaches, Northern Ireland became crucial to the protection of the vital supply convoys from the Americas. During the dark days of 1940- 41, invasion was thought to be imminent. The Allied position in the North was threatened on several fronts. German landings in the neutral republic would present a threat from the south. A paratroop assault as part of an attack on the United Kingdom had been planned and coastal raiding from occupied Norway was a possibility. In response, a system of defence for the north was constructed using a series of fortified stop-lines and defended beaches supported by garrison towns. Airfields too were heavily defended after their vulnerability to direct attack was demonstrated during the German parachute and glider assault on Crete in May 1941. This paper will focus on these defences as they survive today. Though a large proportion of these fortifications were removed after the war, many still survive along the stop-lines, on the beaches and around the surviving airfields. Form, function and placement in the landscape will be demonstrated using remaining examples and a comparison will be made with similar structures built in the Irish Republic.
The Siege and Battle of Kinsale 1601AD: An Archaeological Survey
Paul O’Keeffe
Paul O’Keeffe is a graduate of University College Cork and is currently employed as Resident Archaeologist by RPS Consulting Engineers on the Limerick to Nenagh HQDC. He has a keen interest in the archaeology of conflict and is a member of the Kinsale Battlefield Project.
By the year 1600AD Ireland had suffered six years of bloody war, during which time the Irish alliance lead by Hugh O’Neill and Red Hugh O’Donnell had established its authority across almost the entire island. The arrival of Lord Deputy Mountjoy in February 1600 however was to be a turning point in the war and within a year and a half much of Ireland had been reduced to submission. And so, when the long awaited Spanish invasion force finally arrived in the autumn of 1601, the northern lords were on the defensive in Ulster and struggling to maintain control of their own territories. Nevertheless they resolved to march to the aid of their Spanish allies now besieged within the harbour town of Kinsale. Thus the scene was set for a battle that would effectively decide the outcome of the war, and have a profound influence on the course of Irish history.
The events of the following 3 months, culminating in an Irish rout at Kinsale, form a story familiar to us all. It is one of the great “what if’s” of Irish history. And yet, what do we really know about it? The locations of the numerous English siege encampments are unknown. The Spanish trenches designed to keep the English at bay are equally elusive. Where, indeed, was the final battle actually fought? These are the questions that the Kinsale Battlefield Project set out to investigate. Through our primary research of contemporary cartographic and documentary sources, combined with landscape analysis and metal detection survey, we believe we now have some answers.
