People in History – A farmer in Ancient Ireland
Write an account of a farmer from either the Stone Age, the Bronze Age or the Iron Age (Celtic Ireland).
Write your account in the first person – Imagine that you are the farmer.
Do not mix up the different historical periods.
This is not an English essay. You will get marks for historical facts and for mentioning historical terms in a
correct way.
Write about the following topics





Farming
Food
Clothes
Housing
Burial practices
Example - A Neolithic Farmer
My name is Sean and I live with my family in on the shores of Lough Gur. I am a Neolithic farmer. I grow wheat
and barley outside my home which I use to make bread and barley. I also keep animals such as cattle, pigs,
sheep and goats. We use the cattle for meat, milk, butter and also the skin of the cattle is used to make our
clothes.
Even though I farm, I still hunt for wild animals like wild boar and deer in the nearby woods. I also fish in the
lake and my wife and daughters gather nuts and berries…
Use key terms from the historical period in your account.
Neolithic Ireland
New Stone Age
Porcellanite
Axe-heads
Lough Gur/Ceide Fields
Wattle and Daub houses
Thatched houses
Permanent settlements
Weaving clothes
Pottery – uses?
Quern stone
Megalithic tombs
Cremation
Court cairns
Passage graves- Newgrange
Corbelled roof – roof box
Dolmens
Bronze Age
Copper mining + smelting
Beaker People.
Bronze = Copper + Tin
Casting – moulds
Metal tools and weapons.
Mount Gabriel Cork
Jewellery – lunula, torcs.
Arrival of horses to Ireland.
Fulacht Fiadh – explain.
Wattle and daub houses.
Thatched roofs – fires outside.
Cist graves
Wedge tombs
Stone Circles
Celtic Ireland (Iron Age)
Iron making
Tuatha
R/derbhfine/tanaiste
Celtic Warriors – head hunters
Body paint
Aos Dána
Brehons-Druids-Fili
Slaves captured in battle
Importance of cattle-explain.
Quern stone
Women in celtic society.
Dyed clothes - jewellery
Raths or ringforts
Souterrains
Crannogs
Promontory forts
Hillforts
Druids and religious
ceremonies.
Celtic religious festivals
Ogham stones