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TheDinnersGoneCold t1_itl1l5p wrote

I didnt read the post but I was under the impression that what we call Samhain today was one of 8 points in the year used by Irish Neolithic farmers thousands of years ago. There are cairns with passageways aligned with the rising sun on each of these. On the morning of Samhain when the sun shone through the passageway to the innermost part of the cairn the people knew it was that time of year to xyz. Beacon fires were apparently lit on at least some of these cairns so others could light their beacons and so on, spreading the news that it was time to harvest this or sow that. What they did is hard to determine exactly.

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Ferengi_Earwax t1_itlt56w wrote

I mean it's not just the Irish Neolithic, pretty much all of Europe had the same beliefs. We know farming came sooner to Ireland than Britain, but that's just what we've found yet. It's likely the Neolithic package was spread by sons looking for new farms for theirself and they taught people along the way. It doesn't take that many centuries to spread out from the middle east this way. You also have the beaker folk who the original ones seem to have been far distance traders who basically created trading posts by settling in to new populations bringing new techs. Then you have the massive depopulation of Britain soon after this time. Could have been from disease brought by the new people... still, once the Neolithic package came to an area, it was much the same, just with local variants.

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DontWakeTheInsomniac t1_itrkrip wrote

>We know farming came sooner to Ireland than Britain, but that's just what we've found yet.

Really? I'd have assumed the other way around..

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Ferengi_Earwax t1_itrlzop wrote

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9ide_Fields ... the currents in the Atlantic Ocean off of spain will bring you right to Ireland. There has already been significant study of how these currents took seeds and mediterranean plants to Ireland after the ice melted after the last ice age. In Britain the plants are the ones in northern France, Denmark and Scandinavian. I linked the field system because they're well known, however there are a myriad of long barrows, Neolithic tombs and standing stones that are older than those in Britain by centuries to a millenia. It's likely they spread from Ireland. You also have the Orkney island culture (stones of stennese, skara brae) which seems to have spread South at just a little later date. Arachaeologists are trying to figure out where these rituals started in the isles. Like most things, it was probably a combination of cultures that came together. One thing is for sure, they all are very similar to each other for thousands of years showing trade routes and a widespread belief system based on the seasonal equinoxes/solstices.

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Ferengi_Earwax t1_itrn7uf wrote

http://www.museumsofmayo.com/ceide-fields/img/neolithic-field-wall.jpg those are the rubble of the walls that have long been uncovered. Most of them are still intact under the peat up to a meter or more. I can't find a photo, but in one of neil Oliver's documentaries, the history of ancient Britain (age of farming I think ita called on youtube) he exposes an intact wall. They cover a truly expansive area, all under the peat now.

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