1For my presentation today, I'm going to talk about the Ceide Fields in the northwest of Ireland,
2one of the largest Neolithic sites in the world.
3I recently visited this site
4and observed the work that is currently being done by a team of archaeologists there.
5The site was first discovered in the 1930s
6by a local teacher, Patrick Caulfield.
7He noticed that when local people were digging in the bog,
8they were constantly hitting against what seemed to be rows of stones.
9He realised that these must be walls
10and that they must be thousands of years old for them to predate the bog which subsequently grew over them.
11He wrote to the National Museum in Dublin to ask them to investigate,
12but no one took him seriously.
13It wasn't until 40 years later,
14when Patrick Caulfield's son Seamus, who had become an archaeologist by then, began to explore further.
15He inserted iron probes into the bog to map the formation of the stones,
16a traditional method which local people had always used for finding fuel buried in the bog for thousands of years.
17Carbon dating later proved that the site was over 5,000 years old
18and was the largest Neolithic site in Ireland.
19Thanks to the bog which covers the area,
20the remains of the settlement at Ceide Fields, which is over 5,000 years old,
21are extremely well-preserved.
22A bog is 90% water;
23its soil is so saturated that when the grasses and heathers that grow on its surface die,
24they don't fully decay but accumulate in layers.
25Objects remain so well preserved in these conditions
26because of the acidity of the peat and the deficiency of oxygen.
27At least 175 days of rain a year are required for this to happen;
28this part of Ireland gets an average of 225 days.
29The Neolithic farmers at Ceide would have enjoyed several centuries of relative peace and stability.
30Neolithic farmers generally lived in larger communities than their predecessors,
31with a number of houses built around a community building.
32As they lived in permanent settlements,
33Neolithic farmers were able to build bigger houses.
34These weren't round as people often assume,
35but rectangular with a small hole in the roof that allowed smoke to escape.
36This is one of many innovations
37and indicates that the Neolithic farmers were the first people to cook indoors.
38Another new technology that Neolithic settlers brought to Ireland was pottery.
39Fragments of Neolithic pots have been found in Ceide and elsewhere in Ireland.
40The pots were used for many things;
41as well as for storing food,
42pots were filled with a small amount of fat
43and when this was set alight, they served as lamps.
44It's thought that the Ceide Fields were mainly used as paddocks for animals to graze in.
45Evidence from the Ceide Fields suggests that each plot of land was of a suitable size to sustain an extended family.
46They may have used a system of rotational grazing
47in order to prevent over-grazing
48and to allow for plant recovery and regrowth.
49This must've been a year-round activity
50as no structures have been found which would have been used to shelter animals in the winter.
51However, archaeologists believe that this way of life at Ceide ceased abruptly.
52Why was this?
53Well, several factors may have contributed to the changing circumstances.
54The soil would have become less productive and led to the abandonment of farming.
55The crop rotation system was partly responsible for this
56as it would have been very intensive and was not sustainable.
57But there were also climatic pressures too.
58The farmers at Ceide would have enjoyed a relatively dry period,
59but this began to change
60and the conditions became wetter as there was a lot more rain.
61It was these conditions that encouraged the bog to form over the area which survives today.
62So now I'd like to show you...