Archaeology Postgraduate Seminar – Chelsea Ryan

Chelsea Ryan
1st Year Doctoral Candidate in Archaeology

Conveying Identity Through Place: Understanding Bronze Age People and Society via Nucleated Settlements

Irish Bronze Age (2200-600BC) settlement studies are dominated by research on roundhouse farmsteads and hillforts. This seminar demonstrates that an in-depth study of a third settlement type, nucleated settlements (domestic villages), will enhance our understanding of Bronze Age society. A focus on the concepts of landscape and place as tools for understanding a site’s role will provide a more nuanced comprehension of settlement relationships and further context for individual and community identity as explicitly expressed in the Irish Bronze Age.