December 14: Lecture by John Soderberg

Gathering Animals and Making Sacred Space in Early Medieval Ireland

Clonmacnoise was one of the biggest and most economically complex settlements in early medieval Ireland. It was also one of Ireland’s most intensely sacred places. Both medieval commentators and modern archaeologists struggle to understand such places as simultaneously thriving settlements and sacred space. Inhabiting sacred space seems a paradox. This talk presents key discoveries from several decades of excavation at Clonmacnoise and explores how new ideas about the intersection of religion and economics can help explain phenomena like Clonmacnoise. The core argument is that gathering animals into the settlement created the sacred space.

December 14 at 6:00 pm
✎ Webinar Registration Required (click here)

▶︎ Watch a recording of this lecture on Youtube