A BOOK covering almost the entirety of human existence in Kildare was launched in Athy recently.<\/p>\n
\u2018Landscapes With Lineage\u2019 is the latest title published in the Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) Heritage series and was launched in Athy Library by Dr Sharon Greene, an archaeologist from South Kildare, former editor of Archaeology Ireland magazine, and member of the County Kildare Monuments Advisory Committee.<\/p>\n
The 302-page book, co-written by Colm Moloney, Patricia Long and Ros \u00d3 Maold\u00fain, presents the results of archaeological investigations along a 27.5 km long slice of land that formed the M9 Kilcullen to Carlow motorway and Athy Link Road.<\/p>\n
This was the most extensive archaeological investigation undertaken in this landscape. The motorway excavations revealed evidence of human activity spanning almost 9,000 years. Significant discoveries included stone tools used by the earliest hunter-gatherer communities who inhabited the area. Prehistoric ritual monuments, and a number of very significant Bronze Age, Iron Age and early medieval cemeteries. As well as the remains of rural farming settlements from all eras.<\/p>\n
Scientific examination of charred seeds, charcoal and animal bones provided evidence that revealed changes in subsistence strategies and people’s interactions with the environment over time. Analysis of the skeletal remains found at the burial sites shed light on the lives the people who lived in this area led, the diseases and illnesses they suffered from, and the rituals they followed when burying departed members of their communities.<\/p>\n
The authors of Landscapes With Lineage marshal the evidence from the excavations and scientific analyses to examine how successive communities inhabited, modified and understood this landscape.<\/p>\n
In collaboration with the National Museum of Ireland, guests at the launch were treated to a display of a selection of archaeological objects, including prehistoric stone tools and medieval pottery, uncovered during the excavations by archaeologists from Rubicon Archaeology.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was delighted to be asked to launch it, the invite came as quite a surprise,\u201d said Dr Greene who is from Kilkea, and \u201cvery involved with the Castledermot Local History Group\u201d.<\/p>\n
Dr Greene said: \u201cBut of all the motorways, this is the one I would\u2019ve loved to have been involved with.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great that TII have gone back and done this, because back then they were probably still the NRA!<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have been really good producing these accessible books for everybody in the area who is interested in history. We\u2019re very lucky to get this.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, 302 pages is an awful lot of stuff, from the Mesolithic Era, the Middle Stone Age, the time of the first recorded humans, all the way up to the Normans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s from 6,000 BCE to the 1500s,\u201d she explained. (For contest that is a millennium older than Stonehenge and the earliest Pyramids.) Dr Green did her PhD in UCD on the settlement patterns on the north Mayo islands, \u201cbut I\u2019ve been living back here for 20 years\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a great interest in High Crosses, medieval walled towns, and I\u2019ve published a couple of things on Castledermot\u2026and my research into local history continues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe picture on the front cover of \u2018Landscapes with Lineage\u2019 is an artist\u2019s interpretation of the late Neolithic period on the banks of the River Lirr \u201cjust coming up to where the Castledermot exit is off the motorway, in modern day Prumplestown\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople\u2019s appreciation for history, and their awareness has grown, and that\u2019s why books like this are so important.<\/p>\n
Colm Moloney, Director, Rubicon Archaeology and one of the book\u2019s authors, said: \u201cThe publication of this book is the culmination of nearly 20 years of work for Rubicon Archaeology Ltd. We are delighted to have delivered it in partnership with Kildare County Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland and are immensely proud of the high-quality result. This project is a significant milestone in the company\u2019s development and I would like to thank the hundreds of employees, past and present, who contributed to its success \u2013 both in the field during the excavations and in the many years of post-excavation analysis and reporting since the fieldwork ended.\u201d The book is richly illustrated with many specially commissioned maps, photographs, drawings and reconstructions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A BOOK covering almost the entirety of human existence in Kildare was launched in Athy recently. \u2018Landscapes With…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[18,19,17,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-253793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-science"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115790838865379688","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}