Celtic Connections and Crannogs: A new Study of Lake Settlements Across the Irish Sea

Around 3000 years ago communities in Scotland & Ireland started building islands called 'crannogs' in lakes & mires, a practise that in places continued into the Medieval Period. Why & how did these sites fit into the emerging Celtic landscapes we still see today? Crannogs show a distinctly westerly distribution being absent in England, with one in Wales, but common in Scotland (400) & Ireland (1500). Being under water these sites can have remarkable preservation of perishable artifacts, but because they are rarely in the path of development few have been excavated, however, many are under threat from erosion, pollution & natural decay. The recent discovery of a crannog with near-perfect preservation of artefacts due to road construction at Enniskillen (Drumclay) & another superbly preserved wetland village in Dumfreis & Galloway (Black Loch of Murton) offer rare glimpses of their archaeological potential & provides a unique opportunity for this project. Although crannogs can be found from the Scottish Islands to the SW of Ireland the central point in the distribution is the North Channel of the Irish Sea, separating Dumfreis & Galloway from Antrim & Down. There are many cultural links between these regions particularly in the Iron Age & early Medieval Periods. Was Medieval Christian and/or noble connection founded upon earlier Iron Age cultural links & is this reflected in vernacular traditions including crannog construction? In order to answer these questions & explore the common lake-settlement heritage we need to know more about the chronology, longevity, intensity of use & environmental context of these enigmatic sites. The fact that in both areas their construction spanned over two millennia suggests there is no single stimuli for construction, however, indications of parallel chronologies may have implications for cultural, political, symbolic & environmental stimuli.
This project takes to a new level previous research by the applicants which developed a new methodology for 'remote sensing' crannog construction & inhabitation through the analysis of lake sediment cores. This involved a multi-proxy approach utilising pollen, diatoms & insects which relied on the inevitable disturbance to the biology of small lakes caused by crannog construction/use. This project will go far further by applying these techniques alongside a new generation of bioarchaeological methods, particularly geochemistry, lipid biomarkers & DNA metabarcoding in conjunction with archaeological excavation, landscape survey & community involvement. A major limitation of previous work was that none of the crannogs remote sensed were excavated. One of the most variable aspects of crannog archaeology is longevity of use. Recent excavation at Cults Loch (SW Scotland) suggests it may have been in use for no more than half a century with construction in pulses. Whereas indications from Drumclay suggests it may have been occupied for several centuries. An allied question is the intensity of use - were they dwellings & if so used seasonally, episodically or permanently? It is clear that longevity & intensity are key variables but since only a few crannogs will ever be excavated we need additional estimates from unexcavated crannogs. Site ages will be established using 14C AMS dating from lake cores, volcanic ash & tree-ring counts. Improvements in crannog dating each side of the Irish Sea will have important implications for understanding the stimuli for crannog construction since correlation may relate to common environmental conditions, especially under the unstable climatic conditions of the later prehistory & the sixth century AD. Although primarily a survey & environmental project, material culture will be compared as part of the survey element & partnership with excavations. Material culture from structures to portable artefacts are invaluable for understanding the cultural context of crannog use from agricultural implements to religious items.

This project's impacts fit the recent Connected Communities cross-council theme and two AHRCs research themes (Care for the Future: thinking forward through the past and Science in Culture). At the international level it feeds into growing Scottish-Irish heritage collaboration (pers com. R. Jones - Historic Scotland (HS), J. O'Keefe - Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA).

Stakeholder-Partner Impacts. At project will form part of the Wetland Archaeological Research Programme adopted by HS in 2006 following the Wetland Archaeology Research Conference. The Scottish Government, in the person of Patricia Ferguson MSP encouraged this initiative by "Seeing Scotland's world-class archaeological resource recognised and set into its international context emphasises just how much we hold in trust: for future generations of Scots and for humankind as a whole.". This programme has promoted the study of wetland sites in Scotland, and this research is a priority area under the Scottish Archaeological Research Framework (ScARF). In Northern Ireland the Drumclay site has energised the NIEA as exemplified by the visit of the Environment Minister, Alex Attwood, to the site in 2013. Deliverable: publications and project report (also display as described below)

National Public Involvement & Community Archaeology. This project will be part of the public-professional partnership being formed around the Black Loch of Myrton. The PI and CI Crone sit on the steering group of this partnership which is committed to public involvement from primary school children to U3A at a variety of levels from excavation to cultural tourism. Other key partners include Dumfries and Galloway Museum and the Whithorn Trust. The key outputs for this impact include skills development in the training of participants, training packs for schools and youth groups and virtual resources for dissemination including a project (Black Loch) website. Deliverable: local training and public participation described above.

Monument Protection. Infrastructural threats (such as roads) can be dealt with under planning law, however, most crannogs are threatened by invisible processes (drying out, erosion, mooring damage, and natural processes of decomposition). The condition assessment component of WP1-WP2 will provide valuable data particularly for NIEA. The survey will be lodged with HS and NIEA as the basis for protection. The key outputs for this impact will be the academic papers and the involvement of members of the team on key decision making bodies. Deliverable: a simple database of all the crannog sites known and added as part of this project for NIEA.

The Travelling & Irish Ferries Exhibition & websites. We hope to involve the public in understanding cultural links they have across the Irish Sea. To this end we will hold open days at both the Black Loch of Myrton and the most suitable Irish site and develop an exhibition which will be mounted at the ferry terminals and possibly on-board. Outline agreement has been reached with Stena Line through the Diana Poole OBE (Head of PR & Communications for the Irish Sea). Copies of the exhibition display will be made for local areas (Dumfreis and Galloway & Co Down), HS and NIEA and the Scottish Crannogs Centre, Loch Tay. Popular interest will also be stimulated through the popular articles and also by the pages on the individual websites. We have opted to produce standardised pages for these websites rather than produce a dedicated project website. This is for the following reasons; (a) it will reach a greater number of members of the public, students, parents etc., (b) it is more sustainable as pages will be updated by the individual CIs. Deliverable: 3 identical portable displays and film, web-pages & popular articles

Training a new generation of archaeologists: The project will provide high-level training for 4 ECRs (in combining science & archaeology) & by broadening the research experience of the PI and the CIs.