The Prehistoric Archaeology of Ireland by John Waddell Galway UP, £25
The Irish Stone Age Project by Gabriel Cooney and Stephen Mandal Wordwell, £15
Like the economy, archaeology in this country continues to boom; excavations proliferate and flourish - and so do publications on early Ireland. The future of the study of our past would seem assured, to judge by the interest evidenced by publishers in sizeable tomes on the prehistory of Ireland. John Waddell's newest offering, The Prehistoric Archaeology of Ireland, is the latest addition to the swelling ranks of works devoted exclusively to the subject within the last decade, and the first half of Mallory and McNeill's Archaeology of Ulster should also be included if we see its single province as pars pro toto for the whole island.
Waddell's is the most extensive of them all, with over four hundred pages of compact double columns. It differs from the others in having almost all the illustrations in the form of line drawings - perhaps a wise decision in view of the overexposed aerial shot of Tara on page 329, but also considering the good quality reproduction of the drawings, many of which have been culled or adapted with acknowledgment from other publications.
In his introduction, Waddell states that his book is "first and foremost a book of evidence" - and that is a fair summary of its contents. After an initial review of earlier work up to and including "post-processualist archaeology" (a phrase which I may not be alone in abhorring), he covers the whole gamut of prehistoric material discovered in Ireland from the Old Stone Age flake found deep in quarry deposits near Drogheda up as far as the much-discussed but little seen Roman-style finds from Dromanagh near Loughshinny in north Dublin.
The style is descriptive, summing up usefully the results of excavation, survey and research over the last century and a half. The author is careful not to overstep the mark in squeezing more out of the material than is permissible and, as the newly-announced Professor of Celtic Archaeology in University College, Galway, he is certainly fairly circumspect in his discussion of the Celts, often putting forward the views of other scholars on this and other subjects without coming down too heavily in favour of one or other interpretation, or interjecting his own too frequently. It is as if he is providing his students with a handbook to get them thinking and make up their own minds. Though the thicket be dense, I hope that the book will help them to see the wood for the trees.
For anyone working actively in the field, one of the book's great advantages - other than its useful precis of current opinion about the objects and monuments it concentrates on - is the inclusion of the radiocarbon dates tucked in among the notes at the end of each chapter. Another benefit is the extensive bibliography, about half of which (as Waddell himself emphasises) consists of works published within the last decade, giving proof, if such were needed, of the vitality of Irish archaeological research today.
Galway University Press deserves our thanks for having published such a useful volume, its second last, according to rumour, unless more funding is forthcoming. In contrast, Wordwell in Bray looks set to continue adding to its growing list of books. One of these is the first monograph of The Irish Stone Age Project, the fruit of inter-disciplinary co-operation between an archaeologist and a geologist. The Flintstones may have made us aware of the advantages of axes for bashing and chopping, but these implements doubtless had more exalted purposes as well, such as gifts and sacrifices. They are, in fact, the most numerous type of object to survive from prehistoric Ireland, and the authors note, almost with pride, that the tally has now risen to above 20,000. Most of these have already been examined by the team, the majority macroscopically, and others by having a core-section analysed. What emerges is a more complex picture than had been thought.
A much greater number of stone varieties has been identified among the axes, and the search is now on for quarries other than the well-known examples at Tievenabulliagh, Co Antrim, and Brockley on Rathlin Island, Gabriel Cooney having already opened the account by discovering and excavating one on Lambay Island. Collaboration with fellow-researchers in Britain is also helping to emphasise the greater than anticipated trade in axes between Ireland and Britain, where the contracts range from Cumbria to Wales and Cornwall. This thoroughly researched and documented volume makes one look forward to others in the series.
Also from Wordwell, Medieval Ring Brooches in Ireland (£29.95), is on a very different subject, and one which is all the more to be welcomed because so little work has been done hitherto on the ring brooches of medieval Ireland. They come in various shapes and sizes - many beautifully illustrated here in colour - and were introduced by the Normans, whose men and women wore them to keep both ends of a cloak together. When they come from datable, excavated, contexts, most are found to belong to the late 12th and 13th centuries, in contrast to their representation (rather than the author's "depiction") on Medieval sculptures, which date mostly from the 15th and 16th centuries. This book is a timely reminder that the early Christian period did not have monopoly in brooches (such as "Tara"), but that the later Medieval period was also capable of producing fine, if little-known, examples. For anyone interested in the history of Irish jewellery-making, this book will introduce a new and eye-opening chapter.