The Archaeology of Partitions.

Proceedings of the 8th National Monuments Service annual archaeology conference. 

Almost all archaeological sites and monuments include a partition, be it a ditch, a wall, a fence or a bank, something that divides space physically or even symbolically. 

The eighth National Monuments Service annual archaeology conference mined a rich seam of archaeological research into partitions, even examining how the tools of archaeology could be used to navigate, even transform, longstanding divisions. 

Boundaries may serve to protect, or exclude or divide people. Such boundaries, and the spaces on either side, can have significance or meaning. Town walls at different times may have reflected a spirit of optimism, or fear of attack. Iron Age earthworks may have worked not to exclude but to channel people along strategic routeways towards trade hubs. River fords were a means of transit through a landscape yet could be controlled, and often were associated with significant or fabled events that occurred beside them. 

Boundaries within and between spaces can reflect the structure or divisions of a society. The contrast in décor between the public, outer space of a great house and the servants’ quarters in the background can be telling. The location of living space for slaves and slave owners in colonial era north America reveal how slavery was experienced differently by each group. 

Contributors: 

Dr Alexandra Chan, Paul Gosling, Dr Melanie Hayes, Professor Audrey Horning, Dr Margaret Murphy, Cóilín Ó Drisceoil, Professor Aidan O’Sullivan and Professor Howard Williams. 

Peigín Doyle is a writer and editor with a lifelong curiosity about history and heritage of place and how the world might have looked through our ancestors’ eyes. She has written on many aspects of archaeology and heritage.