Ireland is a country rich in archaeological sites. Ireland: An Oxford Archaeological Guide provides the ultimate handbook to this fascinating heritage. Covering the entire island of Ireland, from Antrim to Wexford, Dublin to Sligo, the book contains over 250 plans and illustrations of Ireland's major archaeological treasures and covers sites dating from the time of the first settlers in prehistoric times right up to the seventeenth century. The book opens with a useful introduction to the history of Ireland, setting the archaeological material in its wider historical context, and then takes the reader on an unparalleled journey through the major sites and places of interest. Each chapter focuses on a particular geographical region and is introduced by a useful survey of the history and geography of the region in question. This is followed by detailed descriptions of the major archaeological sites within each region, arranged alphabetically and including travel directions, historical overview of the site, and details of the site's major features and the latest available archaeological evidence. As the most comprehensive and detailed compact guide to the archaeological sites of Ireland, this new volume will prove invaluable to archaeologists, students of Irish history, and tourists alike.

Engagingly written and packed with illustrations, Early Ireland offers an authoritative introduction to the riches of Irish prehistory.

More wide ranging, both geographically and chronologically, than any previous study, this well-illustrated book offers a new definition of Celtic art. Tempering the much-adopted art-historical approach, D.W. Harding argues for a broader definition of Celtic art and views it within a much wider archaeological context. He re-asserts ancient Celtic identity after a decade of deconstruction in English-language archaeology. Harding argues that there were communities in Iron Age Europe that were identified historically as Celts, regarded themselves as Celtic, or who spoke Celtic languages, and that the art of these communities may reasonably be regarded as Celtic art. This study will be indispensable for those people wanting to take a fresh and innovative perspective on Celtic Art.

In this first volume of the Royal Irish Academy's multi-volume A New History of Ireland a wide range of national and international scholars, in every field of study, have produced studies of the archaeology, art, culture, geography, geology, history, language, law, literature, music, and related topics that include surveys of all previous scholarship combined with the latest research findings, to offer readers the first truly comprehensive and authoritative account of Irish history from the dawn of time down to the coming of the Normans in 1169. Included in the volume is a comprehensive bibliography of all the themes discussed in the narrative, together with copious illustrations and maps, and a thorough index.

This book, first published in 2006, surveys the archaeology of the Celtic-speaking areas of Britain and Ireland, AD 400 to 1200.

Despite an ever-expanding literature on Irish castles, the relationships between the castle building tradition in Ireland and those of contemporary Europe have attracted very little attention among Irish scholars. This book seeks to remedy this by approaching the corpus of Irish castles as a non-Irish scholar might do. Is there a case for dating the first castles in Ireland to the tenth century in line with the revised chronology of castle-building on the Continent? Are castles in Ireland typical of their periods by contemporary standards in England and France in particular? Are any castles in Ireland genuinely innovative or radical by those contemporary standards? What inferences about Ireland's place in medieval Europe can be drawn from the evidence of its castles and their forms?