“Meitheal Adhmadóireachta” Exploring and Communicating Prehistoric Irish Woodcraft Through Remaking and Shared Experience

2.1 The Pallasboy Project

The PP took place over three phases, with each phase focusing on a key aspect of woodcraft as revealed by a specific artefact; all but one of which had previously been excavated (Table 1). Whilst we can describe the PP as “experimental archaeology” our theoretical armature was slightly vague, especially as it concerned our expressed aim/method to investigate: “the experience or process of crafting [replicas of archaeological artefacts]. Using a detailed and thorough recording strategy, this project will reveal and document a contemporary experience of craft and in doing so provide a new perspective on an ancient creative process […]” We will return to discuss these aims in the context of the outcomes of the PP to date below.

In Phase 1 of the project, a website was launched to act as a repository of information relating to each phase (although at the start we planned only one phase). Initially, the website mapped the technical crafting process of the Pallasboy Vessel, from an initial survey in the National Museum of Ireland (NMI), through to the carving of the replica. As the project extended and evolved in Phase 2, so too did the role of the website which moved from a repository of descriptive and technical information, to one that included participant perceptions, observations, and reflections on the practical exploration of woodcraft in various contexts, the personal exploration of artistic imaginings and social engagement with material culture and further themes besides. These responses were collected and published as blog posts on the website.

2.2 Approach

The events are described using the written thoughts of attendees and our own observations, some of which are drawn from the project blog. The reflections came from various people who engaged in the physical, practical act of experimentation, and others who attended as “audience” participants, observing the recrafting and/or experimental explorations. The description of these events is largely narrative and selective and is followed by a discussion of aspects of the project as an open process of exploration and engagement.

3.1 The Museum: Pallasboy Vessel, Heritage Week and The Sounding, Cork City, Ireland

The first phase of the project focussed on the Iron Age wooden artefact discovered during peat cutting in 2000 in Toar Bog, Co. Westmeath, which gave its name to the project: “The Pallasboy Vessel,” named for the Townland in which it was found. The original function or purpose of the vessel is unknown but had been the subject of some speculation (Van de Noort & O’Sullivan, 2006). Following a viewing of the conserved artefact at the NMI, Mark Griffiths (MG) crafted a replica (Figure 1) while Brian MacDomhnaill (BMD) recorded the process using photography with additional video and sound recording. The crafting took place at Meitheal Mara, a community boatyard in Cork City.

Figure 1

Mark Griffiths hard at work on the Pallasboy Vessel (Credit: Brian Mac Domhnaill, PP).

As mentioned above, we had little clear plan as to what we might do with the new artefact, although it became apparent during the crafting that MG’s work was attracting something of an audience; ranging from other woodworkers, casual visitors, archaeologists with a particular interest in prehistoric woodworking, and students from University College Cork’s archaeology department, following discussion of the work by BG in a lecture. The opportunity to display the newly completed vessel at Cork Public Museum subsequently arose, and this was followed by a public event during Heritage Week. This event took the form of an exhibition where members of the public were invited to touch and engage with the replica, and the new vessel was contextualised using video footage (including audio) of the carving process captured by BMD. We also asked for the help of visiting children to express their thoughts concerning the original Pallasboy Vessel using a blank sheet of paper with a simple outline of the vessel, and a selection of colouring pencils (Figure 2). The outcomes included a wonderful range of colourings and imaginings of the Pallasboy vessel in the past. We did not collect audience numbers for this event, but an estimated 200 people attended.

Figure 2

Creative responses to the question: how do you think the Pallasboy vessel might have been used? (Credit: Brian Mac Domhnaill, PP).

During the original carving of the Pallasboy Vessel, BMD became interested in the acoustics of the process, in particular, the changing resonance of the wood as the carving progressed. This led to a subsequent invitation to three Cork City-based sound artists (Mirco Gargioni, Katie O’Looney, and artist Angelika Höger) to “play” the completed vessel at an open event held in Cork Public Museum (Figure 3). BMD recorded the reactions of the artists and the audience as follows:

Invited sound artists were pensive and attentive. One chose to look at the museum exhibits and she later remarked that the unusual soundscape enhanced the experience. Another chose to cover his eyes to focus on the sounds rather than be distracted by the sight of our artists at work. Archaeologists were baffled but engaged. One audience member sketched the vessel. Two more took notes. Museum visitors didn’t know what they had stumbled upon and I even saw some retreat to reception to make urgent enquiries rather than approach the strange folk involved.

Figure 3

Sound artists Mirco Gargioni, Katie O’Looney, and Angelika Höger playing the Pallasboy vessel in Cork Public Museum (Credit: Brian Mac Domhnaill, PP).

The sounding therefore provided another, slightly random and unusual audience engagement; although as was the case with other such events, the project team ended up as the audience to the artists’ own approach to the replica. Increasingly, it appeared the interaction of different communities of practice with the replica artefacts was taking the project in unexpected and unplanned directions.

3.2 The Figurine Workshops

The second phase of the PP focussed on prehistoric wooden anthropomorphic figurines, and in particular the “Red Man of Kilbeg,” a Bronze Age alderwood figure exposed by industrial peat extraction in 2003 in Kilbeg townland, Ballykean Bog, Co. Offaly. It was excavated by the Irish Archaeological Wetland Unit and recovered for conservation by the NMI. Following a viewing of the artefact at the NMI stores, a full-scale replica of the “Red Man of Kilbeg” was carved by MG, again using a set of replica Bronze Age tools, crafted by Billy Mag Fhloinn (BMF). This initial carving is not our focus here; instead, we consider two workshops held later: the first at the Meitheal Mara community boatyard and attended by invited artists from Cork City and the United Kingdom. The second workshop took place at the Centre for Experimental Archaeology, University College Dublin, and was attended by both students and staff from the Archaeology Department.

The attendees at both were invited to craft their own anthropomorphic figurines, inspired or influenced by ‘the ‘Red Man of Kilbeg’, and other archaeological examples discussed on the day (e.g. Coles, 1990). There were six participants including two project team members (BG and OPP). The invited artists were asked to reflect on their experiences and impressions, both informally during carving and later in writing (although there was no obligation to do so). The only direction given to participants was a health and safety briefing concerning the use of sharp-edged tools, and an introduction to a pile of different pieces of wood. A short “toolbox” description of anthropomorphic figurines found in peatlands ensued, followed by a brief discussion of the theories around their meaning and cultural significance.

The Cork City workshop was attended by Mike Groves (Skapa Woodcrafts, also a woodworker), ceramicist Cat Gambel, writer Fergal Gaynor, artist and curator Padraig Spillane, and Pallasboy project team members. Before work commenced MG shared his own experience of crafting his version of the “Red Man of Kilbeg,” taking inspiration from the close relationship he had with his late grandfather:

I was surprised at the strength of emotion and memory raised by focusing on one individual as I was absorbed in the sculpting process. It left me with an appreciation of the power these carvings could evoke, carrying as they may have done a physical representation of a personal memory.

Following his experience of working wood, Fergal Gaynor suggested:

I reckon the original wood figures were the work of woodworkers, rather than artisans – it was part of the whole job of building a wood trackway, or a boundary, or the like, and not a passed-down, gradually refined art of making particular objects…

Ceramicist Cat Gambel offered the following insight on the process from a practical creative perspective (Figure 4):

I became very aware of the grain of the wood and the time needed to create a smooth curve, a process which in my studio working with clay would take only moments. The crude shape emerging from hours of work bore almost no resemblance to the sketches in my head when I left home that morning, and I began to understand the recurrence of basic elements in representative art. Slashes for mouths, slits for eyes, big blocky triangle noses all made much more sense to me, driven by skill level rather than aesthetic choice.

Figure 4

Ceramic artist Cat Gambel with her completed figurine (Credit: Brian Mac Domhnaill, PP).

Although somewhat of a subjective judgement, the figurines produced by those of a more artistic persuasion tended also to be more aesthetically pleasing!

Some of the participants at the UCD workshop were experienced woodworkers, so needed little input, encouragement, or guidance. Professor Aidan O’Sullivan pioneered the analysis of archaeological wood in Ireland and previously assisted on a major historical boat-building project in the United Kingdom; kindly facilitated the UCD workshop. Also taking part were archaeologists Conor Mc Dermott, Michael Stanley (excavator of the original “Red Man of Kilbeg”; Stanley, 2006, 2012), Dr Brendan O’Neill, and three postgraduate students. The wood available included curved and forked pieces, contrasting with the straighter timber that had been used for the Cork City workshop. The participants were asked to select one piece that “spoke” to them and carving commenced using the replica Bronze Age tools (BMF). Michael Stanley decided:

My figure must be a replica of the Kilbeg Man, or some approximation thereof. As one of the small team of archaeologists who had discovered the figure thirteen years previously, I had been researching this and other anthropomorphic artefacts from Offaly and elsewhere ever since. The workshop was a chance to learn more about such objects and how they might have been made.

Michael’s final version of the “Red Man of Kilbeg” took its place alongside the other five completed figurines (Figure 5) close to the entrance to the Centre for Experimental Archaeology, with the following conclusion from Michael Stanley:

As the day closed and the figures were set in the ground, nearby lamplight filtered through the trees and played on the alderwood surfaces. A vision of malign entities writhing as they emerged from the soil was the unnerving result. We can only ponder as to the benevolence or otherwise of similar prehistoric figures, but I left with the distinct impression that they were not necessarily friendly.

Figure 5

Conor McDermott (UCD) and the completed figurines take root in the soil at UCD’s Experimental Archaeology Centre (Credit: Brian Mac Domhnaill, PP).

As of the time of writing, the figurines remain standing in their original positions: they have been viewed numerous times by visitors to the centre and were the focus of an academic presentation given by Professor O’ Sullivan at the Experimental Archaeology Conference, held on 30 March 2021.

3.3 The “Guerilla Installation”; Somewhere in the Woods, West Cork, Ireland

The wooden figurines carved by the participants at the Cork City workshop (see above, Figure 4) ended up with their own particular “audience” and one we could not control or direct in any way, via an act of “guerrilla deposition.” Following some discussion as to the optimal location for “releasing” wooden carvings into the wild, and the legality of leaving figurines lying around the place, we settled on a location in publicly accessible woodland in West Cork. Originally, we had thought of placing them deep in these woods, but following discussion on location, they were left where they would hopefully catch the eye of anyone half alert heading up a nearby track. We had no idea how long they might survive on their own, but as of 2021, they were largely still in place (however one of the smaller figurines had gone). It is impossible to know how many people have viewed these figurines, or what discussions and conversations presumably ensued as a result of their discovery. However, a “desire path” (Figure 6) has been trampled through the briars, signalling quite a significant fall of the foot to view them closer up.

Figure 6

Somewhere in a woodland in West Cork, Ireland: a desire line showing footfall to the figurines (Credit: Ben Gearey, PP).

3.4 The Lee’s Island Launching, Lough Corrib, Ireland

The third phase of the project focused on the Lees Island 5 Iron Age logboat: this artefact has the distinction of being entirely out of sight of anyone who is not a trained diver, as it lies on the bottom of Lough Corrib, Co. Galway. It has been documented, and radiocarbon dated, thanks to the work of Karl Brady and Ireland’s Underwater Archaeology Unit. Lees Island 5 was built from single oak timber and is some 7.5 m long, 0.61 m wide, and 0.4 m deep. MG carved a replica of the vessel based on plans provided by Dr Karl Brady, using a combination of replica Bronze Age (BMF) and modern tools, which was again completed at Meitheal Mara, Cork City. It seemed appropriate to us afterwards, that the replica vessel should take to the waters of Lough Corrib itself, as a test of its waterworthiness and if possible, for it to be navigated above the resting place of the original on the lough bed.

Transporting the boat from Cork City to Knockferry Pier on Lough Corrib was a problem all of its own: the main concern ended up dispersing like an autumn mist over the Lough, and this was largely due to the remarkable efforts of Dr Paul Naessens (NUIG) and his colleagues in Oughterard and Moycullen Heritage groups. Their enthusiasm and persistence in the face of recurring obstacles and difficulties were truly inspiring and genuinely touching, especially because other than a series of phone calls, none of us had ever met Paul or anyone from either of the heritage groups.

Every launch needs a VIP: in this case, Teachta Dála (Member of the Irish Parliament) Sean Kyne had kindly agreed to do the honours. A few short speeches later a JCB hoisted the vessel up in the air and down into the water. There were some nerves, especially because visions of Youtube immortality for all the wrong reasons sprung up as many of the crowd of 200 or so people, raised their camera phones to capture the moment the boat was released into the water. But float she did (Figure 7) perhaps not the most elegant or lithe vessel across the Lough, but a remarkably moving sight after so much effort by MG and from Moycullen and Oughterard Heritage Groups. Musician Ciara Finan played the appropriate “Launching the boat” and other reels on her fiddle, as musical accompaniment to the maiden voyage. A presentation by MG, BG, and Karl Brady at the appropriately named Boat Inn, Oughterard, on the evening of the launch, drew around 100 people. Later media interest included a report of the launching in the Irish press and Oughterard Heritage and Moycullen Heritage reported the project on their websites with the short film of the launch available on the former.

Figure 7

Lees Island 5 replica log boat’s maiden voyage on Lough Corrib (Credit: Benjamin Gearey, PP).

3.5 The Ballachulish Carving, Touring and Burying, Glencoe, Scotland

The success of the work around the “Red Man of Kilbeg” (described above) led us directly to another later prehistoric wooden figurine: the iconic “Ballachulish Goddess,” discovered in the late 19th century during drain excavations at the edge of a peatland at North Ballachulish, Glencoe, Scotland. This Iron Age figurine of a young girl/woman was carved from a single piece of alder wood and has two quartzite pebbles for eyes. The original artefact had been transported shortly after discovery, to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, drying out and distorting in the process. Only a black-and-white photograph and a rough sketch of the figurine provide evidence of its original form.

The PP team travelled to Ballachulish and MG carved a replica from birch wood, as alder could not be sourced by the local contact. There are some differences in terms of the properties of these woods, with the behaviour of alder, in particular, a subject of discussion in an earlier phase of the project. An unveiling event was subsequently held at the local community centre, followed by a visit by the ‘new goddess’ to the peatland where the original had been found (Figure 8). The unveiling attracted around 30 people, largely from the local community. The “new” goddess was left with the people of Ballachulish, with the suggestion they might want to display it for a while, then perhaps think of interring it in a peaty grave. Rob Malpas, chair of the Ballachulish Community Group, picks up the story of the tour that took their goddess to a younger audience in particular:

Two weeks later [following the carving] as the schools went back, the goddess went on a wee tour before she was buried in peat to preserve her. First stop was Glencoe Primary, where Morag Watt, a trustee at Glencoe Museum, and I introduced the goddess to the pupils. The children listened intently as we presented a slideshow giving some background both to the work of the experimental archaeologists and the goddess, asking some pertinent questions when given the opportunity.

After about 10 minutes, the goddess was revealed to stifled gasps, and even a little scream from one of the younger children! Although initially slightly awestruck by the figure, when prompted, they all came forward to touch her and even cuddle her. Photos were taken, and there were many more questions, some of which were easy to answer, others a little more difficult – as so many questions from young children can be when you are unprepared!

With a tight schedule to get round all of the schools, after just 25 minutes we had to say goodbye, and head across the loch to St Brides School. The school here has a closer connection than most to the goddess, as it is sited less than quarter of a mile from the original find site. The staff, therefore, had already briefed their pupils more thoroughly on the goddess, and so combined with experience gained at Glencoe, there were fewer questions from the children, although the staff had a few of their own! We also took the goddess through to the school hall to get a photo of all of the pupils with their new colleague!

Figure 8

A new goddess for Ballachulish, on Ballachulish Moss close to the find spot of the Iron Age original (credit: Brian Mac Domhnaill, PP).

The “new goddess” was subsequently re-buried by Rob and volunteers in peaty soil, up the side of a mountain close to Ballachulish. It remained undisturbed until it was re-excavated by the local Scout Group for filming as part of the BBC Scotland TV series “Grand Tours of Scotland's Lochs,” in which it subsequently made a brief appearance. As of the time of writing, the replica resides back in the peat, although we have no idea of its current condition.

4.1 Meitheal Adhmadóireachta: The Community of Builders?

It is difficult therefore to generalise about audiences and probably not hugely useful. We were surprised at times by the generosity of responses and engagements, and have previously mused that “flattening out” our approach acted in a positive way to “involve and engage people within the process of knowledge production and exchange, rather than sustaining a producer/consumer approach and casting a hierarchy of expert versus non-expert, valid versus invalid interpretations.” (Gearey et al., 2019, p. 10). In retrospect, this is highly speculative (see also Bell, 2014, p. 45). We did not at the time, nor have we since, sought direct opinions or comments from those who attended and contributed, as to whether such factors were at all relevant or even apparent. It is easy to exaggerate the value or worth of the PP in this sense although anecdotally, most people just seemed to engage without much explanation as to why we were bothering crafting replicas of prehistoric artefacts.

Another way to frame the process we have incompletely described in this article is via the concept of the Meitheal: “meitheal, -thle, pl. id. and -thleacha, f., a band of reapers; a concourse; a number of men employed at any special work, as haymaking, turf-cutting, etc.” (Dineen, 1904, p. 447). Within the Irish folk and cultural tradition, this word referred to a working party or group that participated in cooperative labour exchanges, fundamentally for communal benefit. It encapsulates a reciprocal process of labour between neighbours and communities that originally related particularly to farming, the harvesting season, and turf (peat) cutting.

In contemporary contexts, the concept has expanded to refer to rural support networks and labour exchanges, and speaks to the broader Irish tradition of coming together for the mutual benefit of a community. While the meitheal practice has anecdotally diminished somewhat in rural communities in recent years, the concept still lives and recently found a new place in many participatory, co-production practices and initiatives. During the COVID pandemic, it emerged as a guiding principle in the development of digital communities of practice (Stone et al., 2017) and in related forms in the cultural and heritage sectors (i.e. CINE Project, Digital Counties Initiative – Dempsey & Power, 2020, Dúchas - Bailiúchán na Scol). We might situate the open ethos that emerged and helped carry the PP along within this contemporary, collaborative framing.