Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T13:18:37.395Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter Ten - Trade and the Hillfort Chiefdoms of Bronze Age Ireland

from Part III - The Role of Political Economy and Elite Control in Long-Distance Exchange

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 August 2022

By
William O’Brien
Edited by
Johan Ling ,
Richard J. Chacon  and
Kristian Kristiansen
Johan Ling
Affiliation:
University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Richard J. Chacon
Affiliation:
Winhrop University, South Carolina
Get access

Summary

A notable feature of the European Bronze Age is that many regions were able to establish successful metalworking traditions based partly or entirely on imported metal supplies. Geological controls on the distribution of metal resources, together with various technological constraints and limited sharing of mining and metallurgical expertise, meant that some areas emerged as strong producers of primary metal, while others relied on trade for their needs. The exchange of metal, through whatever agency, created economic dependency and was an important channel for the spread of other cultural influences. Control of metal circulation by individuals or groups for their own benefit had important implications in terms of economic power and the political control exercised by these emerging elites.

Type
Chapter
Information
Trade before Civilization
Long Distance Exchange and the Rise of Social Complexity
 , pp. 230 - 250
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Almagro-Gorbea, M. (1995). Ireland and Spain in the Bronze Age. In Waddell, J. and Shee Twohig, E., eds., Ireland in the Bronze Age. Dublin: Stationary Office, pp. 136–148.Google Scholar
Becker, K. (2010). Rathgall, Co. Wicklow. Archaeology Ireland Heritage Guide 51. Dublin: Wordwell.Google Scholar
Brandherm, D. (2014). Late Bronze Age Casting Debris and Other Base Metal Finds from Haughey’s Fort. Emania 22, pp. 59–68.Google Scholar
Burgess, C. (1968). The Later Bronze Age in the British Isles and North-Western France. Archaeological Journal 125, pp. 1–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgess, C., and Colquhoun, I. (1988). The Swords of Britain, Abteilung IX: Band 5. Munich: Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung.Google Scholar
Butler, J. J. (1963). Bronze Age Connections across the North Sea. Palaeohistoria 9, pp. 1–286.Google Scholar
Carneiro, R. (1981). The Chiefdom: Precursor of the State. In Jones, G., and Kautz, R., eds., The Transition to Statehood in the New World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 37–75.Google Scholar
Cotter, C. (2012). The Western Stone Forts Project: Excavations at Dún Aonghasa and Dún Eoghanachta. 2 vols. Dublin: Wordwell.Google Scholar
Earle, T. (1997). How Chiefs Come to Power. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Eogan, G. (1964). The Later Bronze Age in Ireland in the Light of Recent Research. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 30, pp. 268–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eogan, G. (1965). Catalogue of Irish Bronze Swords. Dublin: Stationary Office.Google Scholar
Eogan, G. (1983). The Hoards of the Irish Later Bronze Age. Dublin: University College Dublin.Google Scholar
Eogan, G. (1994). The Accomplished Art: Gold and Gold-Working in Britain and Ireland during the Bronze Age. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Eogan, G. (1995). Ideas, Peoples and Things: Ireland and the External World during the Later Bronze Age. In Waddell, J. and Shee-Twohig, E., eds., Ireland in the Bronze Age. Dublin: Stationary Office, pp. 128–135.Google Scholar
Eogan, G. (2000). The Socketed Bronze Axes in Ireland. Abteilung IX: Band 22. Stuttgart: Steiner.Google Scholar
Feeney-Johnson, C. (2012). Amber Beads. In Cotter, C., ed., The Western Stone Forts Project: Excavations at Dún Aonghasa and Dún Eoghanachta. Vol 2. Dublin: Wordwell, pp. 93–98.Google Scholar
Gilman, A. (1981). The Development of Social Stratification in Bronze Age Europe. Current Anthropology 22:1, pp. 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginn, V. (2016). Mapping Society: Settlement Structure in Later Bronze Age Ireland. Oxford: Archaeopress.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haas., J. (1999). The Origins of War and Ethnic Violence. In Carman, J. and Harding, A., eds., Ancient Warfare. Stroud: The History Press, pp. 11–24.Google Scholar
Harbison, P. (1969). The Axes of the Early Bronze Age in Ireland. Prähistorische Bronzefunde 9.1. Munich: C.H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung.Google Scholar
Harding, A. (2013). Trade and Exchange. In Fokkens, H. and Harding, A., eds., The Oxford Handbook of the European Bronze Age. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 370–381.Google Scholar
Harding, D. W. (2012). Iron Age Hillforts in Britain and Beyond. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Herity, M., and Eogan, G. (1977). Ireland in Prehistory. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Keeley, L. (1996). War before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kristiansen, K. (1994). The Emergence of the European World System in the Bronze Age: Divergence, Convergence and Social Evolution during the First and Second Millennia BC in Europe. In Kristiansen, K. and Jensen, J., eds., Europe in the First Millennium BC. Sheffield: J. R. Collis, pp. 7–30.Google Scholar
Kristiansen, K. (1999). The Emergence of Warrior Aristocracies in Later European Prehistory and Their Long-Term History. In Carman, J. and Harding, A., eds., Ancient Warfare. Stroud: The History Press, pp. 175–189.Google Scholar
Lewis, A. (1998). The Bronze Age Mines of the Great Orme and Other Sites in the British Isles and Ireland. In Mordant, C., Pernot, M. and Rychner, V., eds., L’Atelier du Bronzier en Europe du XX au VIII siècle avant notre ère. Actes du colloque international Bronze ’96. Vol. 2. Paris: Neuchâtel and Dijon, pp. 45–58.Google Scholar
Lynn, C. (1977). Trials Excavations at the King’s Stables, Tray townland, Co. Armagh. Ulster Journal of Archaeology 40, pp. 42–62.Google Scholar
Mallory, J. P., and Baban, G. (2014). Excavations in Haughey’s Fort East. Emania 22, pp. 13–32.Google Scholar
Muckelroy, K. (1981). Middle Bronze Age Trade between Britain and Europe: A Maritime Perspective. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 47, pp. 275–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Northover, J. P. (1982). The Exploration of the Long-Distance Movement of Bronze in Bronze and Early Iron Age Europe. Bulletin of the Institute of Archaeology, London 19, pp. 45–71.Google Scholar
O’Brien, W. (1994). Mount Gabriel: Bronze Age Mining in Ireland. Bronze Age Studies 3. Galway: Galway University Press.Google Scholar
O’Brien, W. (1999). Resource Availability and Metal Supply in the Insular Bronze Age. In Hauptmann, A. et al., eds., The Beginnings of Metallurgy. Der Anschnitt, Beihaft 9. Bochum: Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, pp. 227–235.Google Scholar
O’Brien, W. (2004). Ross Island: Mining, Metal and Society in Early Ireland. Bronze Age Studies 6. Galway: National University of Ireland Galway.Google Scholar
O’Brien, W. (2013). Copper Mining in Ireland during the Later Bronze Age. In Anreiter, P., Brandstätter, K, Goldenberg, G., Hanke, K., Krause, R., Leitner, W., Nicolussi, K., Oeggl, K., Pernicka, E., Schaffer, W., Stöllner, T., Tomedi, G. and Tropper, P., eds., Mining in European History and Its Impact on Environment and Human Societies. Proceedings for the 2nd Mining in European History Conference of the FZ HiMAT, 7.–10. November 2012, Innsbruck. Innsbruck: Innsbruck University Press, n.p.Google Scholar
O’Brien, W. (2015). Prehistoric Copper Mining in Europe, 5500–500 BC. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
O’Brien, W. (2022). Derrycarhoon: a Later Bronze Age Copper Mine in South-west Ireland. British Archaeological Reports (International Series) 3069, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Brien, W., and O’Driscoll, J. (2017). Hillforts, Warfare and Society in Bronze Age Ireland. Oxford: Archaeopress.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ó Faoláin, S. (2004). Bronze Artifact Production in Late Bronze Age Ireland: A Survey. British Archaeological Report (British series) 382. Oxford: Archaeopress.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osgood, R., and Monks, S. (2010). Introduction. In Osgood, R. and Monks, S., eds., Bronze Age Warfare. Stroud: The History Press, pp. 1–8.Google Scholar
Penhallurick, R. (1986). Tin in Antiquity, London: The Institute of Metals.Google Scholar
Plunkett, G. (2006). Hekla 3, Environmental Downturn and Irish Late Bronze Age Hillfort Connections Revisited. Emania 20, pp. 62–67.Google Scholar
Plunkett, G. (2009). Land-Use Patterns and Cultural Change in the Middle to Late Bronze Age in Ireland: Inferences from the Pollen Record. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 18, pp. 273–295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raftery, B. (1972). Irish Hill-Forts. In Thomas, C., ed., The Iron Age in the Irish Sea Province. Research Report 9. London: Council for British Archaeology, pp. 37–58.Google Scholar
Raftery, B. (1976). Rathgall and Irish Hillfort Problems. In Harding, D. W., ed., Hillforts: Later Prehistoric Earthworks in Britain and Ireland. London: Academic Press, pp. 339–357.Google Scholar
Ramsey, G. (1995). Middle Bronze Age Metalwork: Are Artefact Studies Dead and Duried? In Waddell, J. and Shee Twohig, E., eds., Ireland in the Bronze Age. Dublin: The Stationary Office, pp. 73–86.Google Scholar
Service, E. (1962). Primitive Social Organization. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Smith, M. A. (1959). Some Somerset Hoards and Their Place in the Bronze Age of Southern Britain. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 25, pp. 144–187.Google Scholar
Standish, C., Dhuime, B., Hawkesworth, C., and Pike, A. (2015). A Non-local Source of Irish Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Gold. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 81, pp. 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Timberlake, S. (2009). Copper Mining and Production at the Beginning of the British Bronze Age. In Clark, P., ed., Bronze Age Connections: Cultural Contact in Prehistoric Europe. Oxford: Oxbow, pp. 94–121.Google Scholar
Uckelmann, M. (2011). The Function of Bronze Age Shields. In Uckelmann, M. and Modlinger, M., eds., Bronze Age Warfare: Manufacture and Use of Weaponry. British Archaeological Report 2255. Oxford: Archaeopress, pp. 187–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waddell, J. (1992). The Irish Sea in Prehistory. The Journal of Irish Archaeology 6, pp. 29–40.Google Scholar
Waddell, J. (2010). The Prehistoric Archaeology of Ireland. Bray: Wordwell.Google Scholar
Warner, R. (2006). The Tamlaght Hoard and the Creeveroe Axe: Two New Finds of Late Bronze Age Date from Near Navan, Co. Armagh. Emania 20, pp. 20–28.Google Scholar
Warner, R. (2013). A Lost, Iberian-Style, Bronze Age Gold Neck-Ring from near Navan, Co. Armagh. Emania 21, pp. 36–39.Google Scholar
Warner, R. (2014a). The Gold Ornaments from Rathgall: The Analytical Evidence for Their Date and the Sources of Their Gold. The Journal of Irish Archaeology 23, pp. 143–155.Google Scholar
Warner, R. (2014b). The Gold Fragments from Haughey’s Fort, Co. Armagh: Description and XRF Analysis. Emania 22, pp. 69–76.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×