ABSTRACT
This chapter considers archaeological evidence for warfare and conflict in Bronze Age Ireland, with specific reference to traumatic events that occurred at hillforts during the later 2nd millennium BC. The indications are of a society obsessed with power and status, with competitive tendencies that on occasion led to open warfare. While conflict has been a reality of human existence since earliest times, the Bronze Age is often associated with the first evidence of organised warfare on a large scale. The significance of hillfort burning is considered in relation to longer-term processes that shaped the political relations of the later Bronze Age. The burning of Neolithic houses and enclosures in Europe is regarded by many as deliberate acts of ritualised destruction. The geophysical and excavation findings combined indicate that many, though certainly not all, Bronze Age hillforts in Ireland were deliberately burnt down. Radiocarbon dating indicates Clashanimud hillfort was built c. 1250–1050 BC, during the Middle/Late Bronze Age transition in Ireland.
