more about
Concealed beneath a five thousand year old bog near Ballycastle in County
Mayo is a remarkable pattern of walled fields and corrals which indicate the
existence of an ancient, ordered tribe who farmed thisarea before the bog
was formed.
It's one of the most amazing examples of Neolithic farming
when people moved from a hunter gatherer society to a settled farming system of
food production. It was perfectly preserved under bog land which formed over it
over thousands of years. The field system that is so walls were built to mark
out field boundaries. All that means that this was probably the first time that
land was divided up into fields, signifying the development of property
ownership/relations, the development of class society and the various
economic and other relationships therein.
Today, field boundaries can be
barbed wire fences, dry stone walls, hedgerows with or without ditches or old
field or townland boundaries reused in multiple ways.
Get a book from you
local bookshop on early Irish archaeology, Michael Ryan has a nice blue book bit
dated now but still very relevant for the Céide Fields. There are more academic
tomes such as Landscapes of the Neolithic etc. If you are in Dublin go to the
National Museum of Ireland and pick up a book. They are no compensation for
emails!
http://www.museumsofmayo.com/ceide.htm
http://www.mayo-ireland.ie/virtualtours/ceidefields.htm
http://www.museumsofmayo.com/ceide1.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9ide_Fields
http://www.dochara.com/tips/ceide-fields.php
http://www.inver.org/ceantar/Ceide.html
Hope
it helps
Regards
Paula
