Andy Kellogg: The Early Medieval Royal Assembly Sites at Gamla Uppsala and Magh Adhair.

Andy Kellogg

The Early Medieval Royal Assembly Sites at Gamla Uppsala and Magh Adhair: A Comparative Study of their Settlement and Landscape Contexts.

The Yngling dynasty in Svealand, Sweden and the Dál Cais dynasty in what is now Co. Clare may have shared a common approach in the way they legitimized their right to be kings. The valorization of a pedigree is a common phenomenon among the royal families of the medieval period and it may have been done by those two dynasties with a common purpose. The re-use of prehistoric monuments as places of royal assembly is a witness of their importance to kings during the early medieval period. This prehistoric archaeology had an importance in the choice of the location for early medieval assembly sites. By looking at the assembly landscape contexts, we can gain a better understanding of the early medieval conception of kingship.  Comparing the two dynasties and their assembly sites at Gamla Uppsala and Magh Adhair may lead to the identification of common approaches in the establishment of the two sites and how their landscapes were used.

Royal Inauguration assembly site of Magh Adhair and the royal burial mounds of Gamla Uppsala: