© Hermann Geissel 2008 - Bumps in the Fields and Crumbling Walls - http://www.crsbooks.net

Table of Contents

Introduction
8
Who will use this book?
10
Questions, not answers
10
Where do we start?
11
Organisation and layout of the book
12
Section One
13
Discovery: finding something new
13
Walkabout (ground reconnaissance)
13
Treasures under shifting sand
14
Searching for Artefacts
14
A bird’s-eye view
15
Under the turf
16
Accidental discovery
17
The importance of context
17
Reporting your find
18
Safety and right-of-way
19
Section Two
20
Investigating manmade features
20
Section Three
27
Landscape features
27
Dry lakes
27
Hot springs
29
Section Four
30
Using maps in road research
30
Eskers and esker roads
31
Other ancient roadways
32
Toghers and bog roads
34
River crossings
35
Bohers and bohereens
36
Famous historic roads
37
Modern roads
38
Lesser and greater kingdoms
40
Section Five
41
Ancient field systems
41
Ditches & hedgerows
43
Field shapes and sizes
45
House platforms
46
Cultivation ridges
47
Section Six
49
The Stone Age
49
Megalithic monuments of the Stone Age
50
Tumuli and cairns
51
Court tombs
53
Portal tombs or dolmens
54
Passage tombs
56
Wedge tombs
58
Cist Burials
60
Barrows
60
Pit burials
61
Henge monuments
62
Section Seven
64
Bronze Age monuments
64
Standing stones
64
Stone alignments
65
Stone circles
66
Boulder burials
68
Fulachta fia
69
Ogham stones
70
Section Eight
72
Forts
72
Ringforts
73
Stone-forts (stone ringforts)
76
Promontory forts and cliff forts
77
Hill-top enclosures
78
Section Nine
81
Linear earthworks
81
Cursus monuments
82
Crannogs
82
Souterrains
84
Section Ten
86
Graveyards: early monastic sites?
86
High Crosses
89
Round Towers
91
Beehive huts
92
Other graveyards
93
Cillíns
94
Medieval churches
95
Section Eleven
99
Abbeys, friaries and priories
99
Cistercian abbeys
99
Other medieval monasteries
101
Section Twelve
102
Earth and timber: motte-and-bailey castles
102
Ringworks
104
Anglo-Norman stone-castles
104
Moated sites
107
Anglo-Norman towns
108
Towns and Villages
110
Section Thirteen
112
Early Modern military fortifications
112
Section Fourteen
115
Vernacular houses
115
The one-room cottage
118
The two/three-room house
118
Mudwall houses
119
Stone houses
120
Suggestions for project work on nineteenth/twentieth century cottages
121
Appendix I — Glossary of Archaeological Terms
123
Appendix II — Glossary of Irish Words in Placenames
138
Appendix III — TimeLine
150
Appendix IV
156
Appendix V — Distribution Diagrams
160
Appendix VI — Key
171
Further Reading
172
Index
174