The Irish Iron Age - Beyond Celts and Romans

尽管爱尔兰在学术上和公众中都被认为是典型的凯尔特国家，但考古记录实际上从未为此提供过明确的证据。直到最近，这一时期(约公元前800年-公元400年)的文化认同问题还不能得到令人满意的解决，因为该国大部分地区和那个时期实际上没有任何人类活动的证据。虽然塔拉或纳万等标志性的皇家遗址和一些最好的欧洲凯尔特风格金属制品表明了一个人口稠密和复杂的社会的存在，但没有发现这些人日常生活的证据。此外，公元前800年至公元前400年之间几乎没有任何人类活动的证据，这使得关于文化和种族认同的辩论不可能取得进展。关于这些问题的想法要么是由等级森严的大陆凯尔特文化的概念塑造的，要么是对高度有问题的爱尔兰中世纪早期文字记录的过度字面解读，这些文字记录通常被认为包含史前社会结构的回声。一场关于罗马或罗马-不列颠材料的类似辩论也引发了截然不同的共鸣。就像“凯尔特人”的发现一样，这要么被认为是入侵的证据，要么是某种其他形式的接触的结果，对该国的种族或政治结构几乎没有影响。具有讽刺意味的是，尽管这种“凯尔特人”的材料在公众中被认为是该国种族“凯尔特化”的证据，但罗马-英国版的材料却被拒绝，认为它暗示了任何这样的过程。与关于这些问题的学术辩论脱节的是，一个从未受到罗马世界任何重大影响的凯尔特国家的想法深深植根于爱尔兰的公共意识中，在苏格兰、威尔士或布列塔尼等其他现代凯尔特国家也是如此。在凯尔特虎的建筑热潮时期，挖掘的数量和规模大幅增加，科学测年技术的大规模应用，现在终于产生了以前遗失的铁器时代生命和生活的证据。这些数据已经在申请人直接参与的前两个项目中进行了核对和审查。在一个由申请人指导、爱尔兰遗产理事会资助的试点项目中，对初步数据进行了核对和审查(2008年)。随后，“流动性、气候和文化：重新塑造爱尔兰铁器时代”项目得到了由伊恩·阿米特教授(当前提案的导师)领导的英国科学院研究发展奖(BARDA)的资助。本申请人是BARDA项目的博士后研究员，也是所有产出的合著者。这些项目总共汇编了来自大约700个地点的2000多个放射性碳测年数据，改变了我们了解铁器时代爱尔兰的潜力。然而，到目前为止，新的数据集仅在与气候、人口统计学和大范围周期变化问题有关的情况下进行了定量审查。拟议的研究将对这一时期进行定性的解释性研究，深入探讨爱尔兰铁器时代人民的生活方式、经济和社会结构，并解决爱尔兰史前末期这一形成时期的文化认同问题。关于文化认同和变化的讨论一直是铁器时代研究的核心。在欧洲大部分地区抛弃凯尔特范式之后，这些主题最近再次成为国际学术辩论的焦点。来自爱尔兰的新收集的记录将使我们能够以一种全新的方式解决这些问题，并为这一时期文化变革的新模式的发展做出贡献，例如来自爱尔兰的‘凯尔特人’La Tène风格材料以及来自‘凯尔特人’和罗马世界边缘的罗马材料。

Although Ireland is commonly perceived both academically as well as by the public as the archetypical 'Celtic' country, the archaeological record has actually never provided unambiguous evidence for this. Until recently, questions of cultural identity in this period (c. 800BC-AD400) could not be addressed satisfactorily as evidence for any human activity was effectively absent for large parts of the country and the period. While the iconic Royal sites such as Tara or Navan and some of the finest examples of European Celtic style metalwork suggested the presence of a populous and sophisticated society, no evidence for the everyday lives of these people had been found. In addition, a lack of virtually any evidence for any human activity between c.800-400BC made it impossible to progress the debate about cultural and ethnic identities. Ideas about these issues were shaped either by concepts of a hierarchical Continental Celtic culture, or by over-literal readings of the highly problematic early Irish medieval written records often thought to contain echoes of prehistoric social structures. A similar debate with strikingly different resonance has been led about the Roman or Romano-British material. This has, like the 'Celtic' finds, been discussed as either evidence for an invasion or the results of some other form of contact with little impact on the ethnic or political structure of the country. Ironically, while the 'Celtic' material is in the public accepted as evidence for an ethnic 'Celticisation' of the country, the Romano-British equivalent is rejected as implying any such process. Disjointed from the academic debate about these issues, the idea of a Celtic country that was never subjected to any significant influence from the Roman world is deeply embedded in Irish public consciousness, and similarly so in other modern 'Celtic' countries such as Scotland, Wales or Brittany. An enormous increase in the number and scale of excavations during the building boom years of the 'Celtic Tiger' and the large-scale application of scientific dating techniques have now finally produced the previously missing evidence for life and living in the Iron Age. This data has been collated and examined in two previous projects in which the applicant has been directly involved. Initial data was collated and reviewed in a Pilot Project directed by the applicant and funded by the Heritage Council of Ireland (2008). Subsequently the project 'Mobility, Climate and Culture: Re-modelling the Irish Iron Age' was funded through a British Academy Research Development Award (BARDA) directed by Professor Ian Armit (mentor for the current proposal). The present applicant was the post-doctoral fellow on the BARDA project and is co-author of all outputs. Together these projects have compiled more than 2000 radiocarbon dates from some 700 sites, transforming our potential for understanding of Iron Age Ireland. So far, however, the new dataset has been examined only quantitatively, in relation to issues of climate, demography and broad-scale period changes. The proposed study will provide a qualitative, interpretative study of the period that will explore in depth the life styles, economic and social structures of the Iron Age people of Ireland and tackle the issue of cultural identity during this formative period at the end of Irish prehistory. The discussion of cultural identity and change has always been central to the study of the Iron Age. After the abandonment of the Celtic paradigm in wide parts of Europe, these themes have recently moved into the focus of international academic debate once more. The newly assembled record from Ireland will allow us to address these problematic issues in a completely new manner and to contribute to the development of new models for cultural change in this period as exemplified in the 'Celtic' La Tène style material as well as the Roman material from Ireland at the periphery of both the 'Celtic' and the Roman worlds.