Schlagwort-Archive: Poulnabrone

Burren

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Monday, 26 October 2020

This is an amazing photo by Rob Shaw of the Poulnabrone (Irish: Poll na Brón) dolmen. Around 33 human remains were found buried underneath it which were dated to between 5800 BP (or is it calibrated BP?) and 5200 BP (or is it calibrated BP?)…


The dolmen is located in Burren, a barren limestone area in the north of the county Claire, West of Ireland…


Pollen analysis indicates that in the Mesolithic period the Burren looked completely different from today, with most of the uplands covered in a mixture of deciduous, pine and yew trees. No clear evidence of Mesolithic settlements or camp sites in the area has yet been discovered. 
However, by the Neolithic, c. 5100BP (5800 calibrated BP), settlers had clearly arrived and began changing the landscape through deforestation, likely by overgrazing and burning, and the building of stone walls. 
These people also constructed Megalithic sites like the Poulnabrone dolmen. In total 70 megalithic tombs were built in the Burren area…
Now the remains found in the Poulnabrone dolmen showed signs of arthritis, illness and malnutrition. In most cases the physical condition of the remains indicated lives spent in hard physical labour. Everyone died by the age of 30…So agriculture was not very successful, I would say…
Today I came across this interesting paper: „Farming and woodland dynamics in Ireland during the Neolithic„
In it we can read about „the Elm Decline“, the decimation of the Irish elms which is thought to be a result of a disease which affected only elms. The event is dated to around 5100BP (5800 calibrated BP). 

read more: http://oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2020/10/burren.html