The small town of Baltinglass, in County Wicklow (Ireland), is known as the hillfort capital. Located south of Dublin, the area has up to 108 of these towns with walls (whose name comes from the Latin castrum, military fortification), generally built in pre-Roman times.
Baltinglass, however, is also famous for its monuments from around 6,000 years ago, from the Early Neolithic and Late Bronze Age, a time in Irish history when evidence of occupation and activity in this geographical area was virtually non-existent.
Surprised by this paucity of ancient human traces, archaeologists from the University of Aberdeen explored the region with Lidar laser technology and have discovered hundreds of previously unrecorded monuments, including five rare cursus (long structures that played a ceremonial and ritual role during the Neolithic ).
These monuments, as the researchers explain in an article published in the journal Antiquity, show “clear connections” between large solar events, seasonal agricultural cycles and the dead. In addition, they confirm that the area was not abandoned for 2,000 years as was believed until now.
"We knew that this was an incredibly important and, in many ways, unique landscape in Early Neolithic Ireland, but there was very little evidence to suggest that this area continued to be important until the Late Bronze Age," says Dr James O' Driscoll, lead author of the study.
Hence it was thought that the site may have been abandoned for around two millennia, despite having one of the densest concentrations of Neolithic monuments in Ireland. “Did the early farming communities of Baltinglass abandon this landscape after a few hundred years of use?” the experts asked.
To answer this question, O'Driscoll created highly detailed three-dimensional models of the County Wicklow landscape using lidar technology attached to an aircraft. The main problem was that most of the monoliths had been destroyed by thousands of years of plowing.
The laser beam was still able to detect tiny topographical traces of hundreds of monuments. Among these, five cursus stood out, long and narrow earthworks that could range from 100 meters to 10 kilometers. These structures are well known in Britain, although they have been less studied in Ireland.
The find marks one of the largest cursus groups in the British Isles and suggests that Baltinglass continued to be heavily settled between the Early Neolithic and Late Bronze Age. These structures are clearly aligned with funerary monuments, as well as with the rising and setting sun during major solar events, such as the solstice.
"This connection may have symbolized the ascension of the dead to the heavens and their perceived rebirth, with the cursus physically establishing the final route of the dead to leave the land of the living and join their ancestors beyond the visible horizon," he notes. Dr. O'Driscoll.
The discoveries also shed light, archaeologists say, on what life was like in prehistoric Ireland and will help the conservation of the monuments in the future.
"This discovery brings us closer to the lives of the first agricultural communities in Baltinglass 6,000 years ago and allows us to better understand their religious and ceremonial practices and how the dead were venerated and celebrated," he adds.
“This study greatly improves understanding of the incredibly rich archaeological heritage of this part of west Wicklow, reinforcing the importance of the prehistoric landscape of the Baltinglass Hills area and shedding new light on rare and poorly understood monuments such as ceremonial cursus,” concludes Deirdre Burns. , Heritage Officer at Wicklow County Council.
