NOT a sod was turned. Not a trowel employed. But for the past four years, Tara and its environs in Co Meath have been the site of intense, though practically invisible, archaeological activity.
Where the visible remains of 25 monuments were previously noted, the remains of 37 are now documented. And, invisible to the eye, a further 75 to 80 lurk beneath the lush green fields of Tara and the surrounding countryside. This is a conservative estimate, according to Mr Conor Newman, director of the Discovery Programme's survey of Tara, as geophysics, the technique employed, reveals a minimum number.
The use of geophysics on such a large scale in Ireland is interesting in itself and marks something of a watershed in Irish archaeology, according to Mr Newman. As would be expected, the greatest number of monuments are concentrated on the summit of the hill, but the surrounding countryside also contains earthworks and putative Neolithic burial mounds extending for several miles. There would appear to be no distinction between the sacred and the secular, reflecting the confluence of one with the other.
Ritual significance
However Mr Newman was quick to reassure those assembled on Tara recently for a public lecture, courtesy of the Rathfeigh Historical Society, that the main emphasis of the work was on comprehension rather than the notching up of new monuments. For thousands of years, generation after generation visited Tara for burial purposes and seasonal gatherings. Unknown rituals were enacted re-enacted and altered as the needs of society changed.
As stone was discarded in favour of bronze and bronze succeeded by iron, earthworks of varying shapes and sizes were built, with many new monuments incorporating features of the old. In this manner, the old potent magic may have been transferred to, the new compounding the ritual significance of Tara.
Mr Newman talked us through the passage of the years beginning with the first, possibly palisaded, hilltop enclosure, part of which was found underneath the Mound of the Hostages. It may date back to about 3,500 BC. Radiocarbon dates put the mound at between 3,000 and 2,700 BC. Mr Newman suggested that Tara at this stage may have been an outlier to the Boyne Valley, tombs, serving the burial requirements of the population in the immediate vicinity of Tara.
Based on comparisons with British cursus monuments, it is believed that the banqueting hall was, constructed at the end of the Neolithic and the beginning of the Bronze Age. But, disappointment was to follow this promising announcement by Mr Newman. It appears that the banqueting hall never resounded to haunting harp melodies, just as it never, heard.
The orations of chieftains as they quaffed ale and gnawed venison bones. Mr Newman doesn't. even believe that it was a building at all.
A bow shaped construction
He said that far from being parallel and roofed it was a sightly, bow shaped construction with apparently random gaps in the banks, possibly ending in boggy ground. It may have served some sacred ritual purpose, perhaps signifying the passage from the real to the other world.
Tara's fortunes appear to have changed during the early Bronze Age and the largest embanked enclosure in Ireland, Rath Maeve, was built. Through the middle to late Bronze Age, barrows and ring ditches were built. Tara was becoming a significant site in its own right.
As Tara continued to be used though the Bronze and iron Age into early Christianity, it acquired a status equivalent to the Holy Grail. Eventually, the Kingship of Tara became something of a talisman for the Kingship of Ireland.
However, legend has it that becoming high king of Tara was not without its minor obstacles. The king had to drive a chariot, drawn by two previously unharnessed horses, through two stones, Bloc and Bluigne, which would not open before one who was not destined to wear the sovereignty, of Tara. Furthermore, a third standing stone, the Lia Fail, would screech against the chariot axle for all to hear if this was the true king. This symbolic, magical mating of the king with the Goddess of Tara allowed the king to commune with the Otherworld. A useful asset in a world where magic abounded.
For those wondering about the fate of Bloc and Bluigne, Mr Newman does not subscribe to the local theory that they are the two standing stones in the church graveyard. The Lia Fail was moved from its original position, close to the Mound of the Hostages, to the centre of the Forrad to mark the grave of those who fell in the 1798 Rebellion. It now bears a small cross and the letters "RIP" carved on to it.
Moving monuments
And, speaking of moving monuments, its companions of recent decades, the much vandalised statue of St Patrick, "has been removed from its plinth and its fate hangs in the balance as a committee with representatives from the national monuments and historic properties, the Arts Council and the local historical group debate its restoration or replacement.
Whereas Patrick is the person most often associated, with Tara, his putative visit was really the beginning of the closing chapter in Tara's long history of continuous ritual use. In their book Tara, Ms Edel Bhreatnach and Mr Newman tell us of the confrontation between Patrick and Loaghaire, the King of Tara, and his druids, as described in a biography of Patrick written in the 7th century by Muirchu moccu Machtheni. "It so happened in that year that a feast of pagan worship was being held which the pagans used to celebrate with many incantations and magic, rites and other superstitious acts of idolatry..." There is, how ever, no contemporary historic evidence to support the contention that Patrick ever visited Tara.
Christianity did leave its mark on Tara. As the grass grew over the pagan monuments, a church was built in the 11th century. It functioned as a parish church until the 16th century, when it fell into disrepair. The medieval church was demolished in the early 1800s to be replaced by the present one, which was recently deconsecrated, and now serves to "interpret Tara to the curious visitor.
Mr Newman is completing a monograph, on the Discovery Programmes survey of Tara, which will be published shortly. Discovery Programme reports are available from the Royal Irish Academy.