Compelling evidence of a massive ancient structure has surfaced in Ireland, where archaeologists working in the country’s Baltinglass hillfort landscape have discovered one of the largest settlements ever identified in the region.
The discovery of a massive enclosure at Brusselstown Ring may represent the most extensive prehistoric nucleated settlement ever identified in Ireland or Britain, according to new research that appeared in the journal Antiquity.
Drawing on data from several recent surveys and test excavations, archaeologists report the discovery of hundreds of roundhouse platforms clustered within the remains of a monumental hillfort. The findings, they say, point to an unprecedented level of population density and social organization among the site’s builders during the late Bronze Age.
A Prehistoric Settlement of an Unprecedented Scale
Located in County Wicklow, Brusselstown Ring comprises a large area spanning more than 40 hectares, with portions that extend outward toward a larger contour fort that extends to nearly three times this size.
“The Baltinglass hillfort cluster in County Wicklow stands out as one of the most complex prehistoric landscapes in Ireland, sometimes referred to as ‘Ireland’s Hillfort Capital’ due to its exceptional concentration and diversity of monuments,” the study’s authors write.
Spread out across more than a dozen hilltop enclosures along the southwestern Wicklow Mountains, archaeologists have already discovered seven major fortifications and other features in the area, which reveal ongoing use and construction efforts that ran from the early Neolithic up until the Bronze Age.
In the past, surveys conducted in the area had already identified as many as 300 possible sites that would have served as temporary shelters. Now, drawing on recent analysis of aerial imagery of the landscape, more than 600 minute topographical anomalies were revealed, which the archaeological team says is consistent with prehistoric roundhouse platform construction of the period.
Of these features, just under 100 appear within the inner enclosure, while the remaining 500 or so exist between the inner and outer ramparts.
Hillforts of this size—particularly those extending across multiple summits—are exceptionally rare not only in Ireland and Britain, but even among the great oppida of continental Europe. If the discovery is confirmed to be what archaeologists now believe it represents, it will mark the largest known prehistoric settlement ever found in the Atlantic Archipelago, vastly outsizing past roundhouse concentrations at sites that include Turlough Hill in County Clare, as well as the Mullaghfarna site in County Sligo, each of which contains as many as 150 dwellings but lacks enclosure features.
Hellbound and Down 