Burren

This is an amazing photo by Rob Shaw of the Poulnabrone (Irish: Poll na Brón) dolmen. Around 33 human remains were found buried underneath it which were dated to between 5800 BP (or is it calibrated BP?) and 5200 BP (or is it calibrated BP?)...

The dolmen is located in Burren, a barren limestone area in the north of the county Claire, West of Ireland...

Pollen analysis indicates that in the Mesolithic period the Burren looked completely different from today, with most of the uplands covered in a mixture of deciduous, pine and yew trees. No clear evidence of Mesolithic settlements or camp sites in the area has yet been discovered. 

However, by the Neolithic, c. 5100BP (5800 calibrated BP), settlers had clearly arrived and began changing the landscape through deforestation, likely by overgrazing and burning, and the building of stone walls. 

These people also constructed Megalithic sites like the Poulnabrone dolmen. In total 70 megalithic tombs were built in the Burren area...

Now the remains found in the Poulnabrone dolmen showed signs of arthritis, illness and malnutrition. In most cases the physical condition of the remains indicated lives spent in hard physical labour. Everyone died by the age of 30...So agriculture was not very successful, I would say...

Today I came across this interesting paper: "Farming and woodland dynamics in Ireland during the Neolithic"

In it we can read about "the Elm Decline", the decimation of the Irish elms which is thought to be a result of a disease which affected only elms. The event is dated to around 5100BP (5800 calibrated BP). 

Interestingly the earliest evidence of the Neolithic landnam (the clearance of forested land for (usually short-term) agricultural purposes) is from the period immediately after the Elm Decline. The effects of this land clearance can be seen in substantial reductions in arboreal pollen (frequently in all taxa) and correspondingly large increases in the non-arboreal pollen component. Basically trees were replace by grasses. 

Examples from Ce´ide Fields and Lough Sheeauns and the pollen record from Garrynagran, which lies immediately to the south of Ce´ide Fields show that landnam involved clearance and sustained farming activity over several centuries (c. 300 –500 years).

The farming was mainly animal herding. Grain was grown, but as a minor element in the farming economy. 

However, farming completely stops around 4500BP (5200 calibrated BP)...After this point we see evidence of woodland regeneration facilitated by low levels of farming and possibly more or less complete abandonment of farming in several parts of Ireland. By the end of this period 4000BP (4500 calibrated BP), blanket bog had already expanded or was about to undergo widespread expansion. At Ce´ide Fields, it already extended over the greater part of the fields that had been enclosed in the earlier Neolithic by stone walls.

So here is the question: Why did agriculture in Neolithic Burren last such a short period of time and why was it so unsuccessful that people literally starved and died young from diseases and malnutrition?

I don't know if what I will present here will answer this question or open even more questions, but here it goes:

This is the chart of the polar temperature variation in last 10,000 years

We can see that the temperature has been going up and down madly all the time and that for most of the time it was much higher than today. But I am not going to talk about climate change here. I want to talk about specific dramatic temperature rises and drops which occurred during the time of the Early Neolithic settlements in the Burren area. What I want to see is if the sudden changes in climate were responsible for the relatively short span and unsuccessfulness of the Neolithic agriculture in the Burren area.

Now in order to do this analysis we need to decide which archaeological dates should we match with  the above temperature chart dates. The archaeological dates are given in BP (before present) and calibrated BP...

Apparently, the BP dates retrieved using C14 carbon dating "are not identical to calendar dates". This "has to do with the fact that the level of atmospheric radiocarbon (carbon-14 or 14C) has not been strictly constant during the span of time that can be radiocarbon-dated". Uncalibrated radiocarbon ages can be converted to calendar dates by means of calibration curves "based on comparison of raw radiocarbon dates of samples independently dated by other methods, such as dendrochronology (dating on the basis of tree growth-rings) and stratigraphy (dating on the basis of sediment layers in mud or sedimentary rock)". 

The quotes are not here because I don't agree with calibration. There are here because calibration is not an exact science...And calibrated dates are not "the correct dates". They are just "better dates". I talked about the problems with C14 dates calibration in my article "Linkardstown cists". 

The problem with calibration is that calibration wildly changes the dates obtained by C14 carbon dating. As you can see from the above dates for the arrival of the first farmers to the Burren, calibration makes the dates 700 years earlier...700 years is a lot of time, especially when you want to correlate dates from one part of the world with dates from another, to determine the direction of population movement and cultural influence...But that's the best we have at the moment...

Let's plot the calibrated dates from the Burren onto the Polar temperature chart to see if we can spot anything interesting. 

And here is the important bit enlarged

You can see that our poor Neolithic Farmers arrived to the Burren right during the sudden cooling (green line) caused most likely by an eruption of the Hekla volcano on Iceland which happened around 5900BP. Volcano eruptions of Hekla type spew huge amount of ash into the atmosphere and cause basically nuclear winters...Not very good for agriculture...

They somehow get through this "bad patch" and are doing "ok" for a while (temperatures rising to the halfway point between the green and the purple line). When something else causes a temperature drop that makes the one caused by Hekla eruption look like a "minor bad weather spell". 

This time we can't blame Hekla for what's going on...We can blame the so Called "Piora Oscillation". The climate got progressively colder and damper and eventually made agriculture impossible. Which is why by the time this period is over, we see no traces of agriculture in the Burren any more. 

As the temperature starts to rise (after the purple line), the forests start to recover. 

But then around 5100BP we have another catastrophic climate change with huge temperature dip. We are talking about ice age conditions...

So what is this big dip? And, is it possible that this dip could be an indication that the calibration of the Irish C14 carbon dates is wrong? Have a look at what we get when we plot the actual C14 dates and not the calibrated ones on the above Ice Core Temperature chart.

Now our Neolithic Farmers arrive to Ireland right after the previous big dip which coincides with the Piora Oscillation, some time before 5200BP. They enjoy relative prosperity. They build Newgrange between 5200BP and 5100BP...

But then, just when they are getting comfortable, about 200 years after they arrived, they hit the beginning of the giant temperature dip. And then everything goest to hell...The temperature plummets. The climate becomes so cold and wet that it makes agriculture impossible. The bogs cover the fields...

Even the "modern", multi core Ice Core Temperature charts, specially "tuned" to correct the "simplistic" chart above show this dip which starts around 5100BP:

Now I know that one of the main criticisms of these charts is that "you can't equate temperature variation data obtained on Greenland to temperature variation of the whole Earth". Fair enough, but Greenland is fairly close to Ireland, and we could be pretty sure that the Irish temperature variation was very similar to the one shown on the Greenland Ice Core Temperature charts...

Soooo...

Oh yeah. The Irish annals tell us that the first people that came to Ireland were Fomorians (The ones who came from across the sea). Then the flood came and Ireland was left depopulated. Then Partholon came. Then another flood came and Ireland was again left depopulated. Then Nemed came...

I talked about this in my post "Partholon and the great flood"...

Now if we plot the calibrated dates on the Greenland Ice Core Temperature chart we get

And if we plot the calibrated dates on the Greenland Ice Core Temperature chart we get

Now the second one actually matches the date of the arrival of the R1b Metalworkers to Ireland sometime after 4500BP. And the Irish annals say that it was Partholon who brought metalwork...

I think this is quite interesting...

So as I said at the beginning of my discussion, not sure if what I just presented here gives us any answers, or opens a lot more questions...

Giant's Ring

This is the so called Giant's Ring, a late Neolithic henge monument at Ballynahatty, near Shaw's Bridge, Belfast, Northern Ireland...

Inside the enclosure, east of the centre, is a small passage tomb with an entrance passage facing west...

The genetic data obtained from the female remains found inside the tomb, and dated to (3343–3020 cal. BC) shows "predominant ancestry from early farmers" and "haplotypic affinity with modern southern Mediterranean populations such as Sardinians".

Also "she shares higher levels of genetic drift with Early and MN samples from Spain rather than those from Germany...and arguing for the possible passage of farming to Ireland via a southern coastal route rather than via the migrations through central Europe".

From "Neolithic and Bronze Age migration to Ireland and establishment of the insular Atlantic genome" 

Now this is pointing at the neolithic people (first farmers) migrating into Europe following two routes, both starting in the Balkans: 

1. Up along Morava river to Danube and then up along Danube river into centra Europe and onward to North and Baltic seas and then further into Britain. 

2. Along north mediterranean coast via Italy, France, Spain and further into Ireland. 

Now according to the archaeological data presented in "Farming and woodland dynamics in Ireland during the Neolithic" the first farmers arrived to Ireland some time after "the great elm decline" which is pinned to around 3800BC. 

Now at that time, in the 4th millennium BC, the tourists wanting to travel along the north Mediterranean coast had two options: to walk, or to use the Neolithic seafaring trading routes that we know existed between Balkans and Iberia (via Sicily and Sardinia). I talked about this trading route in my post "Neolithic seafarers". 

So our girl (or one of her ancestors) probably travelled from Sardinia to Iberia by boat (probably along the coast, with stops along the way). And then continued on to Ireland by boat too (along the coast to Brittany and then via Cornwall to Ireland?) as there is no other way to get from Iberia to Ireland...

Interestingly, the same maritime trading/migration route along the North Mediterranean coast and then along the Atlantic coast was described in the Irish Annals as the route taken by the many Invaders of Ireland...Like Partholon who allegedly brought metalwork and cattle to Ireland...

I talked about the legends about Partholon and how it fits the archaeological data in my posts "Parthlon and the great flood" and "Or - Ireland's gold" and the rest of the posts from my series about the "Montenegrian tumuluses" (or Montenegrin tumuli as I discovered you should say in "proper English" 🙂)

Sicilian amber

Well you learn something every day. Amber is fossilised tree resin, which has been appreciated for its colour and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Here is a Baltic amber pebble with three fossilised flies preserved inside 

For most people, including me until now, the word “amber“ meant Baltic amber. I should have payed more attention to the "science bits" from the Jurassic park 🙂 Amber is actually found all over the world. 

Not all amber is even "amber" in colour... 

Indonesian amber is blue 

Canadian amber is red 

One of the places where amber is found in Europe is Sicily. It is known as simetite, and is named for the locality where it is found, the mouth of the Simeto river in Catania city, Sicily 

Local amber appears in Sicily in the 4th millennium BC. And at the exactly the same time Sicilan amber also appears in Iberia. Like these beads from Los Millares, Llano de la Sabina, Valle de las Higueras... 

This means that during the 4th millennium BC there was a sea trading route connecting Sicily and Iberia. Is this how the amber beads used to make this dress made of amber and shell beads from the tholos of Montelirio? 

Basically all amber found in Iberia before the 2nd millennium BC comes from Sicily. It is only during the 2nd millennium BC that we find Baltic amber in Iberia. 

C = Cretaceous (Iberia) S = Simetite (Sicily) B = Succinite (Baltic)

Now here is the "interesting big": 

Irish oral histories, claim that the first metal workers came to Ireland around 2500 BC from Ghotia via Anatolia, Greece, Sicily, and Iberia. BY SEA. Following the same existing Neolithic, Chalcolithic sea trade route?

We actually have proof of the existence of this sea link between the Balkans and Ireland at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC...More in these articles about Montenegrian tumuluses 

By the way this is the same trade route later used by the Phoenicians...Who could have been the people in Horse head boats depicted on Bronze Age petroglyphs from the Baltic...Like these ones from Bohuslan, Sweden

The young one

In this article, I will give another proof for the incredible age of the Irish oral tradition, first written in medieval time.

This is Newgrange, a prehistoric monument in County Meath, Ireland, located about one kilometre north of the River Boyne. It was built about 3200 BC...

Once a year, at the winter solstice, the rising sun shines directly along the long passage, illuminating the inner chamber...Pic: Irish Archaeology.

The sun shines through a box like opening above the entrance...

In this post about Newgrange I postulated that this ancient structure was primarily built as a temple dedicated to the rebirth of the new young sun, new solar year...

Anyway, few years ago I came across an article, in which Michael Gibbons, a former State archaeologist, claimed that: "Newgrange may be Ireland’s match for Stonehenge, but it has gained international renown for all the wrong reasons..."

According to Gibbons, "The theory that our Stone Age ancestors designed the passage tomb to capture the rising sun during the winter solstice is a 50-year-old construct rather than accurate reconstruction of a 5,000 year-old practice..."

Gibbons, who was a student of Prof Michael O’Kelly, who excavated and reconstructed Newgrange, argues that O'Kelly's contention that the tomb was largely unaltered from the Neolithic period some 5,000 years ago is not true...

Mr Gibbons claims that late Prof O’Kelly lifted the Lightbox during reconstruction of the entrance "to make the sun shine through it on winter solstice"...

He also says that: "When Prof O’Kelly revealed his new Newgrange Solstice phenomenon at a lecture 40 years ago, it did not get support... Too polite to speak, we said nothing, but it must have dawned on everyone there afterwards that it constituted a monumental mistake..."

Soooo...What are we to make of this? Is Newgrange Winter Solstice phenomenon a modern forgery, or was this structure originally built as a solar temple? I believe that Professor O'Kelly was dead right. Newgrange was definitely built in such a way to let the Winter solstice sun in

And the Irish have preserved the proof of this in their oral tradition. In my post about the Flood of Partholon, I already gave one proof that these stories are in some cases over 5000 years old.

There is another story, directly linked with Newgrange, that is as old. This is the story of Aengus. In Irish mythology, Aengus, is one of the Tuatha Dé Danann. He was a son of Dagda (Giving god) and Boann (Goddess of the river Boyne). Pic: Victorian depiction of Aengus...

Officially 🙂 Aengus was "probably originally a god associated with youth, love"...In Old Irish his name is Óengus or Oíngus. The name is attested in Adomnán's Life of St Columba as Oinogus(s)ius. Officially: "This is believed to come from a Proto-Celtic name meaning true vigour"

Hmmm...The god of youth and love? Well this "probably" comes from the fact that Aengus was also known as "Óengus Óc/Aengus Óg" (Aengus the young), "Mac Óc/Mac Óg" (young son)...

I find it very interesting that the Gaels had to qualify Aengus  as "The young one"...When his name sounds sooooo much like "Jungaz" (The Proto-Germanic root meaning young one). But that is surely "just a coincidence"!!!

Remember Mr Gibbons, who slated Professor O'Kelly for his claim that Newgrange was built to capture winter solstice sun? He suggested that Newgrange may have been an Iron Age burial site dedicated to an “Irish elite” with links to Roman Britain...Based on archaeological evidence from the site. Any Germanic speakers among them?

That is very interesting indeed...

I will let this simmer 🙂

This, however controversial, is nothing compared to the legend related to "How Aengus stole Brú na Bóinne (an area of the Boyne River Valley that contains the passage tombs Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth) from Dagda"...

According to the 11th century Book of Lecan, the Dagda had built the Brú for himself and his three sons Aengus, Cermait, and Aed. But Aengus wanted it all for himself. The 12th century Book of Leinster describes how Oengus tricked Dagda into giving him the Brú for all eternity...

Aengus asked his father if he could live in Brú na Bóinne for "a day and a night", and Dagda agreed. Irish has no indefinite article, so "a day and a night" is the same as "day and night", which covers all time, and so Aengus took possession of Brú na Bóinne permanently...

Well, this is the story and its interpretation. But what if Aengus actually really meant "a day and a night" and the "cunning trick" part was added later because the original meaning of this story was forgotten?

Here is what I think. Aengus, Jungaz, Mac Og, The Young one, is the young sun, known in Slavic mythology as Jarilo. Just like Aengus, Jalio was the "Youngest son". According to Slavic beliefs, Jarilo is born on Winter Solstice. The same day when the first morning sun, new born sun, enters Newgrange through the entrance. The only day sun enters Newgrange...

The new sun is born in one day, the day of winter solstice. Interestingly, the story of the birth of Aengus tells us that Dagda, had an affair with the river goddess Boann, when Aengus was conceived. In order to hide Boann's pregnancy, Dagda made the sun stand still for nine months so that Aengus was conceived, gestated and born in one day...

Very interesting indeed.

I believe that Aengus was The young sun and that his name actually means "Young one", not "True vigour". Just like Jarilo, whose name also means "Young one". 

Their equivalent in Greek mythology was Apollo, the Young Sun, Who replaced Helios, the Old Sun. 

Now look at this:  

When Apollo was born, "swans circled Delos seven times".  From his father Zeus, Apollo had also received a golden chariot drawn by swans.

What is very interesting is that Swans of Apollo are not just any swans. They are Singing Swans. And the only swans that sing are "Whooper swans".

The whooper swans live and breed in far North of Eurasia (yellow). They winter in Southern and Western Europe (Blue, Green).

They arrived to Greece at the beginning of winter. To announce the immanent arrival of Winter Solstice and the birth of Apollo, the birth of new Sun, the birth of new Solar Year.

Interestingly, "It was said that four swans always hovered round Aengus's head..."

The arrival of Singing Swans to Ireland in the late autumn, signals the immanent arrival of Aengus, Young sun...

All this points to Aengus being the Young sun. 

Now this is an old photo of the Newgrange entrance before it was reconstructed. The Lightbox is covered by earth, the support stones are half collapsed. No light ever entered Newgrange...

By medieval time, the link between Newgrange and winter solstice was completely forgotten and the main date associated with the whole area was Samhain...

Two hills in the Boyne Valley were associated with Samhain: Tara, where the entrance passage to the Mound of the Hostages was aligned with the rising sun around Samhain, and Tlachtga which was the location of the Great Fire Festival which begun on the eve of Samhain...

The fact that Gaels associated Newgrange with Samhain, Aengus's request to reside in Newgrange for "a day and a night", coupled with the Winter Solstice phenomenon observed in Newgrange, can mean only one thing: This is a story describing the original function of Newgrange...

And it comes from the time before this tumulus fell into disuse and disrepair...From the time when Newgrange was the centre of the solar cult, where people celebrated rebirth of the new sun, new solar year, on the day of winter solstice...

When was the last time Newgrange was used for this before it was restored to its old glory 50 years ago? This is how old this story is...

PS:

As I finished my post I was pointed to the article which discusses the same issue entitled:

"Re-discovering the winter solstice alignment at Newgrange, Ireland. In C. Papadopoulos and H. Moyes (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Light in Archaeology" by Robert Hensey

In it I found that some Irish historians have come to the same conclusion before me. 

"Waddell (2014) contends that certain kinds of information were more likely to transfer through time, and notes that for a prehistoric person, the rebirth of the sun may have been equivalent to the resurrection for medieval Christians—thus significantly increasing the likelihood for the survival of knowledge of Newgrange’s solar associations. He further suggests that it is ‘quite conceivable that figures such as the Dagda, … Óengus and Bóand or their precursors—and events associated with them—were part of the beliefs of those who frequented Newgrange over such a long timespan’, even allowing that ‘Aspects of their myths may well be incorporated in constructional and morphological elements of the monument"


"John Carey (1990) has argued that the unique motifs in myths centred on Newgrange (and Dowth) in medieval Irish manuscripts (see below), viewed in light of the discovered solar orientation at Newgrange, suggest that elements from these stories may have Late Neolithic origins, or at least ‘cannot be dismissed as mere coincidence’ (p. 29). These literary tales, in several cases directly connected with Newgrange, contain an intriguing set of references to the manipulation of time, specifically to the manipulation of time over one day, and the control of, or temporary stopping of, the sun. Furthermore, as observed by O’Kelly (1982) and Ó hÓgáin (1999), these tales feature recognized solar deities, in particular the Dagda, keeper of the Brugh, and his son Oengus"

The article also states that the locals actually told archaeologists that "on certain dates" the sunlight enters the tumulus and illuminates the stone with the triple spiral...

The article then goes to postulate that it is possible that Newgrange was used as a sacred place where solstice was celebrated until Christianity arrived to Ireland. That would then explain the solar mythology related to Newgrange not as survival of the Neolithic mythology, but as survival of the Iron Age mythology. 

I don't know what is more fascinating. The fact that Neolithic solar temple was still used by the local inhabitants for solstice ceremonies during early medieval time, or that the memory of the Neolithic solar temple survived among the local inhabitants until early medieval time. 

What do you think?

Cross between hockey and murder

The most popular sport in Ireland is Hurling. I don't mean puking. Although that is also quite popular.

Hurling (in Irish Iomànàìocht) is one of the fastest field ball games in the world.

Every team has 15 players: 1 goalkeeper, 6 backs, 2 midfielders and 6 forwards.

They use wooden flat sticks called "hurlies" (in Irish Camàn) which they use to hit a leather ball (in Irish sliotar). 

The players can catch the ball with their hands, carry it for not more than four steps, strike it in the air or on the ground with the hurley.

The objective is to pass the ball through the other team's goal in order to score (a goal is worth 3 points).

The pitch is 130-140 metres long and 80-90 metres wide. The match lasts for 70 minutes.

This game was once described as a "cross between hockey and murder". This is why:

What these guys are trying to do is catch, with their bare hand, a hard leather ball, flying over 100km per hour, while the other guys around them are trying to hit it with a metal reinforced wooden battle axe like sticks. Broken fingers and hands are a common "minor" injury. Broken noses and split heads were also a regular occurrence before a metal helmets with wire face protector were introduced.

Originally players refused to wear the helmets and had to be forced to use them....

The history of hurling is very long, possibly stretching back over three millennia. Or longer. That is if we are to trust the dating in the Irish Annals.

The 13th/14th century tale Cath Mhaigh Tuireadh Chunga (The Second Battle of Moytura) describes a battle between the ancient tribes Tuatha De Danna and the Fir Bolg that took place at Moytura, County Mayo. At some point in the four day of the battle the Fir Bolgs took the time to challenge the Tuatha De Danann to a game of hurling, three times nine Fir Bolgs played against a similar number of Tuatha De Danann, many Tuatha were killed and a rock or cairn was erected on the spot where the hero had perished. The field where these rocks lay (only the foundation now remains) is called "The Field of the Hurlers".

This mythical match supposedly took place during the Bronze Age, in 1072 BC.

As I have shown in my article about the "Partholon and the great flood", and other articles about the early Bronze Age links between the Balkans and Ireland, the Irish Annals were pretty spot on when it came to dating events that happened in the 3rd millennium BC. This can be confirmed by archaeological evidence. So I have no doubts that their dating of the Second Battle of Moytura is also accurate.

Next we have the tale of the Táin Bó Cuailgne preserved in the 12th century manuscript but probably originating in the Irish Iron Age (500 BC – 400 AD). In it we find a description of the hero Cúchulainn playing hurling with his friends at Emain Macha.

Interestingly in the same epic we find a story about how Cúchulainn (whose original name was Setanta) got his nickname Cú Culann (the hound of Culann). Basically Setanta killed the hound belonging to the Culann the blacksmith by striking it with his sliotar (ball) which he hit with his Camàn (stick). To repay the debt to the blacksmith, Setanta offered to replace the hound and become himself Cú Culann (the hound of Culann).

This is not the only time when Cú Chulainn used his hurley to inflict violence on someone. It seems that hurley was used as a very effective weapon. In "Táin Bó Cúalnge Recension 1" we can read another story in which Cú Chulainn "...rose to his feet, and, striking off his opponent's head with his hurley, he began to drive the head like a ball before him across the plain..."

I believe that hurling was once a martial game, designed to develop fighting abilities in the Irish aristocratic youth: speed, precision, hand eye coordination, game sense and core and limb strength, all things necessary to play hurling well. But also all things necessary to survive close quarter combat armed with a sword.

The following sequence of images makes it easy to see how a good hurler could be a very good close combat fighter.

That hurling was indeed part of the martial arts training of the young Irish warriors during the Iron Age and Early medieval time, can be seen from tales which were told about Fionn Mac Cumhail and the Fianna, his legendary warrior band. Early references mention the "Fiancluichi" (Fianna games), a series of violent (stick and ball and other) games for aristocratic (and hence warrior) youths. More info can be found in "Shillelagh: The Irish Fighting Stick" by John W. Hurley.

Hurling, together with some 20 other stick and ball games is discussed in Brehon Law, the native Irish system of law, which developed from customs and which was passed on orally from one generation to the next until it was finally written down in the 7th century AD. The Brehon Law tract called "Meallbreatha" (Judgements related to games) lists rules and regulation related to stick and ball  games most of which resemble hurling.

In "Warriors, Legends and Heroes – the archaeology of hurling, in Archaeology Ireland" by Aidan O’ Sullivan, we read that:

Possible representations of hurling from early medieval time are found on two high crosses from Kells and Monsterboice, which date from 9th/10th centuries AD. On each of these crosses a biblical panel is depicted which illustrates David killing a lion with what appears to be a curved stick and ball. The killing instrument should in fact be a sling, but it appears that a hurley was chosen instead as it may have been more familiar to an Irish audience who used it as weapon.

Kells cross

Monsterboice cross

We also have records that hurling was still played in medieval Ireland.

13th century Statute of Kilkenny forbids hurling due to excessive violence, stating further that the English settlers of the Pale would be better served to practice archery and fencing in order to repel the attacks of the Gaelic Clans.

A 15th-century grave slab from Inishowen, County Donegal of a Scottish gallowglass (mercenary) warrior named Manas Mac Mhoiresdean of Iona, has carvings of a claymore sword, a camàn stick and a sliotar.

Now this slab is very interesting.

The camàn stick engraved on the above slab is much narrower than the modern hurling stick. This is why most people assume the stick is a shinty stick. But this is a photo of an actual hurling stick made of alder-wood, found in a bog at Derries, near Edenderry, Co. Offaly and radiocarbon dated to the 15th-17th century. It is currently held in the Folklife Collection of the National Museum of Ireland. It also is narrow.

The modern wide hurling stick only became standard in the late 19th century, when the rules of the modern game were first codified by the Gaelic Athletic Association.

This image from Folklife Collection book by Art O’Maolfabhail shows a range of hurleys from different parts of the country from the end of the 19th beginning of the 20th century.

In the 1973 book "Caman 2,000 Years of Hurling in Ireland an Attempt to Trace the History and Development of the Stick-and-ball Game in Ireland During the Past 2,000 Years" by Art O Maolfabhail, we can read that prior to this rules codification there were actually two hurling traditions on the island of Ireland. In the north of the country a winter game, very similar to modern Scottish shinty, was played mainly on the ground with a narrow stick and a hard ball. The second form of the game, or Leinster hurling, was played with a broader hurley and a softer ball and was much more like the modern game. Players could pick up the ball, catch and strike it as well as soloing down the field. Although the GAA used both forms as an inspiration for the game it organised in the late nineteenth century, Leinster hurling had more of an influence in the evolution of the game.

So considering that the above slab is from the north of Ireland, the stick was probably used for playing the northern hurling. 

In the post-medieval period hurling continued to prosper. Even the Anglo-Irish gentry were known to have organised big matches which drew large crowds.

In "A history of hurling" by S. J. King  we can read that in 1792, "a hurling match took place in the Phoenix Park’, Dublin in front of a vast 'concourse of spectators', with ‘much agility and athletic contention, until the spectators forced into the playing ground"

In "Flight from Famine: The Coming of the Irish to Canada" by Donald MacKay we can read that in 1827, a game at Callan, Co. Kilkenny was described like this: "It was a good game. The sticks were being brandished like swords. You could hear the sticks striking the ball from one end of the Green to the other"

Finally in 1881 the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) was formed, the game was standardised and the rest is, well a history.

In my next post I will talk about other stick and ball games and how they are related to hurling. Spoiler alert, I will try to explain why I believe that they all descend from Iron Age hurling.