Archeologists find one of Europe's first large settlements near Armagh, dating back to Bronze Age
Archeologists have found what may have been one of Europe’s first large urban settlements – 200 homes and large communal buildings dating back 3000 years just outside Armagh.
The find was at Haughey’s Fort, next to to Navan Fort, which is best known as the Iron Age capital of ancient Ulster as well as the backdrop for fabled tales of kings and heroes in the Ulster Cycle legend.
The site is linked to Irish kingship and religion in medieval literature, but new research now shows a major settlement existed there during the Late Bronze Age (1200–700 BC).
The latest research, published in the Antiquity journal, reveals that the site was a vast and carefully planned landscape from around 1200 BC, with signs of settlement, craft production and ritual.
A newly discovered monument at the location is the largest hillfort known from Northern Ireland, and one of the three largest known from Ireland or Britain.
Dr James O’Driscoll, Lecturer in Geospatial Archaeology at Glasgow University and Dr Patrick Gleeson, Senior Lecturer in Early Medieval Archaeology, at Queen’s University Belfast, used advanced remote sensing, geophysical survey, targeted excavation and historical research to piece together the story
Dr O’Driscoll said: “Our research demonstrates a level of scale, organisation and connectivity in Bronze Age Ireland that has not been fully recognised until now. The evidence from Haughey’s Fort points to a large, densely occupied settlement where craft production, exchange and communal activity were all closely integrated.
“In a wider Western European context, this places Haughey’s Fort among the clearest examples of a proto-urban centre, showing that large, organised settlements were beginning to take shape around 3,000 years ago. This fundamentally changes how we understand the site and highlights the extent to which communities in Ireland were connected to broader developments across Bronze Age Europe.”
Dr Gleeson, added: “This research offers a very unique and important insight into what life was like 3,000 years ago. Haughey’s Fort represents one of the most extensive and coherent Late Bronze Age landscapes in Western Europe, and shows how communities actively organised movement, belief and authority across a monumental setting.
He added: “Our work shows that Haughey’s Fort, the King’s Stables, and the Creeveroe Earthworks were all part of an interconnected system, carefully structured to bring together settlement, production and ritual.”
The site was a highly organised landscape with Haughey’s Fort, the King’s Stables, and the Creeveroe Earthworks all part of an interconnected system, carefully structured to bring together settlement, production and ritual.
There is evidence for more than 200 possible wooden domestic structures at Haughey’s Fort, making it a dense and structured settlement, exceeding what would be expected of a typical hillfort.
Also present were large circular buildings some 30 metres in diameter which are highly likely to have been institutional or communal spaces, which the academics said reinforce the idea that this was an “urban” centre.
Evidence was also found of specialist bronze and gold-working, large-scale feasting and the presence of high-status artefacts.
The research highlights that the site was a thriving and well-connected Bronze Age community, with signs of both economic activity and social organisation.
Imported objects also indicate long-distance connections to regions as far away as the Iberian Peninsula and Central Europe.