COMPARATIVE POWER CENTRES: FORTIFYING RULERSHIP IN EARLY MEDIEVAL NORTHWEST EUROPE
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2021-03-12

This talk will summarize the progress to date of the Comparative Kingship project at the University of Aberdeen. The project is undertaking detailed study of three major polities: Pictland, Scotland; Dál Riata, Northern Ireland; and Munster, Ireland, with new survey and excavation projects being undertaken at major power centres in each case study. There are two major landscape studies in Pictland: Burghead and Rhynie, both in northern Scotland. Although undocumented, Burghead is the largest first millennium AD fortified settlement known in Scotland. However, the chronology of this fort is poorly understood and there has been limited work undertaken in the interior and on the environs of the site. Similarly, the unrecorded enclosure complex at Rhynie has recently been identified as an important Pictish power centre, and continued work in the environs of this complex has began to contextualise the wider landscape of this 5th to 6th century power centre. In Northern Ireland, Dunserverick, a stunning promontory on the northern coast of Co. Antrim has been identified as one of the major royal seats of the Dál Riata dynasty. However, no modern excavation or survey work has been undertaken on the promontory. In Munster the Rock of Cashel was the centre of the Eóganachta. Recent survey at Cashel has revealed an extensive series of unrecorded archaeological features indicative of a vast complex in the immediate vicinity of the Rock of Cashel. The character of these new features suggests the location developed from a major fortified site during the 5th and 6th century AD, and was later transformed into a major ceremonial seat of kingship and of the early Church. The talk will outline our current understanding of each site and reflect on the ways in which we can begin to study these power centres on a comparative level.


Author(s): Noble, Gordon (University of Aberdeen)