Hill of Tara - Topographic Survey
The Hill of Tara is a long, quite low limestone ridge (about 503m a.s.1.) orientated roughly north-south with its summit near the north end. Rising gently from the south, the hill drops away rather more steeply on the east, north and west sides, offering, despite its relatively low elevation, a surprisingly fine view over as many as thirteen counties on a good day. The remains of around thirty monuments are visible immediately around the summit and about as many again have been revealed through aerial photography and geophysical prospection (which covers only about one-fifth of the core area). By far the majority of these are barrows and ring ditches of one type or another, and with two exceptions, both of which are arguably late in the sequence, namely the sites of Tech Cormaic (Cormac’s House) and Ráith Lóegaire (Laoghaire’s Fort), the remainder are ritual monuments. A similarly high ratio in favour of ritual monuments obtains in the immediate hinterland; including the spectacular henge of Rath Meave some 1400m to the south of the summit of the Hill of Tara.
In addition to simply adding to the number of monuments on the Hill of Tara, one of the more positive outcomes of the survey has been the development of a fairly detailed model of the sequence of monument construction.
The most problematic aspect of the analysis of the monuments on Tara, however, concerns the comparative analysis of Irish barrows, in all their various forms. There is no corpus study of Irish barrows and although well over a hundred specimens have been excavated, only the most tenuous patterns can be teased out of the evidence. Examples at Tara have been sorted into five main types: ring ditches, embanked ring ditches, ring barrows, bowl barrows with outer bank and finally, bowl barrows.
In addition to indicating their relative chronology, the manner in which monuments respect, avoid, overlap or slight one another can reveal a lot about the motivations of their builders and give an insight into aspects of the evolution of a ritual landscape. At Tara there are at least seven cases where barrows have been incorporated into the fabric of later monuments. The earlier barrow, is always incorporated into the bank of the later monument so that it projects towards the outside and does not compromise the circularity of the later monument. The impression one gets is that rather than concealing it, the existence of the earlier monument is being actively proclaimed and no doubt contributes to the importance or sanctity of the later monument.
The construction of monuments on the Hill of Tara probably took place over a period of at least four thousand years, from around the middle Neolithic to the early Christian period. Eight general phases of monument construction can be distinguished, of which the following is, of necessity, but a summary.
- Phase 1: The earliest identifiable monument is a postulated enclosure of Neolithic date, part of which was uncovered in pre-tomb levels during excavation of Duma na nGiall and radiocarbon dated to between 3030-2190 B.C.. Comparison could be suggested with the palisaded enclosures at Knowth, Co. Meath and Lyles Hill, Co. Antrim. Dating evidence from these examples indicates that the majority were built during the fourth and third millenia B.C. and a similar date is thus proposed for the Tara specimen.
- Phase 2: The construction of the passage tomb known as Duma na nGiall (the mound of the Hostages), possibly during the first-half of the third millennium B.C., represents the onset of the second phase of development which occurred sometime after the enclosure had fallen into disuse or was burned down. Its construction was carried out in stages. Two burials, consisting of the cremated remains of some numbers of individuals, were placed in pots outside the passage before the stone cairn was constructed. The tomb, 4m in length and 1m wide, was subdivided by transverse sillstones into three compartments each containing the cremated remains of the dead accompanied by the now characteristic passage tomb grave good assemblage. The standing stone known as the Lia Fáil, though erected on the Forrad around 1824, was originally sufficiently close to Duma na nGiall that the two were traditionally considered to be an ensemble. This stone may once have stood in front of the entrance to the passage and that like the two pillar-shaped stones that stand in front of both the eastern and western tombs at Knowth, it too may be contemporary with the tomb and belong to a tradition of erecting standing stones around or in passage tombs.
- Phase 3: Conventional dating suggests that passage tombs and cursus monuments are largely coeval. The reason behind our suggestion that the Tech Midchúarta is later than Duma na nGiall is that we think that it may have been aligned on the passage tomb.
- Phase 4: The fourth phase of activity, commencing during the earlier Bronze Age, is represented by the construction of the embanked enclosure of Rath Meave to the south and the commandeering, possibly a little later, of Duma na nGiall as a cemetery mound. These burials are significant because they provide direct evidence of the re-use of monuments at Tara for ritual purposes at a relatively early stage in the history of the complex. Comparative analysis suggests that the three bowl barrows with outer bank and two embanked ring ditches at Tara, may also date from the earlier Bronze Age.
- Phase 5: Ring ditches and bowl barrows are provisionally assigned to the fifth phase in the building sequence. A significant proportion of excavated specimens remain undated because of the absence of associated burials or artefacts. Cooney and Grogan (Irish Prehistory: A social perspective, 1994, 133-138) have made the case that in some instances the absence of material remains may be indicative of middle Bronze Age burial.
- Phase 6: Ráith na Ríg is a large hengiform enclosure, defined by a bank and internal ditch almost 1000m in circumference, that encircles the crown of the Hill of Tara and was built during the sixth phase. The 1952/3 section revealed the ditch to be V-sectioned and originally up to 3.5m deep. A layer containing detritus from ironworking forms part of the original fabric of the bank. Therefore, the bank was, it seems, constructed sometime after the introduction of iron. Comparative analysis of ring barrows suggests the possibility that the five specimens identified at Tara may date from the Iron Age also and so may be broadly contemporary with Ráith na Ríg.
- Phase 7: Ráith na Senad was built sometime after the construction of Ráith na Ríg during the seventh phase . Associated Roman material of second to fourth century date indicates that it is pre-Christian.
- Phase 8: The final structural phase saw the conversion of Ráith na Ríg from a ritual into a defensive enclosure with the erection of a palisade around the internal perimeter, 2m inside the fosse. Three new entrances may have been constructed at around this time, possibly the most important one opening to the east. It may also have been around this time that Tech Cormaic, the only ringfort at Tara was built, its outer rampart extended figure-of-eight style to surround and enclose the Forrad.