Drumanagh Promontory Fort (Copyright © 2003 John M. Byrne)
Posted on 07/18/2004 8:54:58 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Juvenal's claim was dismissed as poetic exaggeration until archaeological discoveries suggested that the Romans may, after all, have extended their power across the Irish Sea. In 1927 a unique group of burials was unearthed on Lambay, a small island off the coast of County Dublin... Irish archaeologist Barry Raftery plausibly suggests that the burials may represent Britons fleeing reprisals after the Romans crushed a revolt by the Brigantes in the year 74... At Drumanagh in County Dublin, trial explorations have revealed traces of a Roman coastal fort on a promontory jutting into the Irish Sea. The 40-acre site is defended on three sides by steep cliffs and on the remaining side by a system of three earthen ramparts separated by ditches. Coins found at Drumanagh date to the Flavians and early second century, precisely the period in which Tacitus and Juvenal hint at a possible Roman invasion.
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Romans in Ireland?The story alleged that the coastal site of Drumanagh, 15 miles north of Dublin, held "clear evidence...of a Roman coastal fort of up to 40 acres...a significant Roman beachhead, built to support military campaigns in the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D." The claim was based on the discovery a number of years ago of Roman coins dating to the reigns of Titus (A.D. 79-81), Trajan (98-117), and Hadrian (117-138), as well as Roman brooches and copper ingots. Over the years other Roman artifacts have been found in Ireland. Most archaeologists regard these as evidence not of conquest but of trade with Roman Britain, raiding of coastal settlements in Britain, or the presence of Romanized Britons in Ireland. According to Barry Raftery of University College Dublin, Drumanagh "may well have been (and probably was) a major trading station linking Ireland and Roman Britain. It was probably populated with a mixture of Irish, Romano-British, Gallo-Roman, and others, doubtless including a few genuine Romans as well."
by Andrew L. Slayman
Archaeology
Volume 49 Number 3
May/June 1996
Drumanagh Promontory Fort (Copyright © 2003 John M. Byrne)
In Search of Ancient Ireland: Culture and Commerce (PBS)
Hibernia
http://www.unrv.com/provinces/hibernia.php
"According to the Roman historian Tacitus, his father-in-law, Gnaeus Julius Agricola thought Ireland could be conquered with a single legion. Whether Agricola, governor of Britain between 78 and 84 AD, ever made an attempt on Ireland is unknown, but it certainly isn’t mentioned by Tacitus, who left us a detailed biography. There is some evidence that the Romans did at least maintain a minor presence though. A fort at Drumanagh, on a promintory near Dublin, appears to be of Roman design and occupation. The presence of Roman artifacts at other locations, found alone and not in the presence of Celtic equivelants, would tend to suggest that the Romans were on the island at some point, if even for a short lived expedition."
In Search of Ancient Ireland:
The Origins of the Irish
from Neolithic Times
to the Coming of the English
by Carmel McCaffrey and Leo Eaton
New Dating For Wat's Dyke
History Today | August 1999 | Keith Nurse
Posted on 07/30/2004 7:13:00 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1181689/posts
The Romans in Ireland?The claim, carried prominently in yesterday's Sunday Times, is shrouded in mystery because the Roman artefacts discovered on the site were gathered illegally in contravention of the National Monuments Acts... Drumanagh, near Rush, Co Dublin, has long been known as the most important Iron Age site on the east coast... The newspaper report claimed, on the basis of imperial coins found on the site, that the Romans had established a fort there in the 1st century AD, from which they may have launched military operations against the Celts. It quoted Dr Barry Cunliffe, professor of European archaeology at Oxford University, as describing the find as "staggering". He even suggested that Drumanagh could be one of the most important Roman sites in Europe. It also quoted Mr Richard Warner, keeper of antiquities at the Ulster Museum, as saying that the excavation of Drumanagh would be the most significant ever and could "totally change our interpretation of the Iron Age in Ireland".
Frank McDonald, Environment Correspondent
The Irish Times
22-Jan-96
Experts divided on Roman 'invasion' claim (quoted)Romans In Ireland: AD 79Using coins found at the site which are stamped with the names of emperors Titus, Trajan and Hadrian as evidence, experts have dated the fort to the 1st and 2nd centuries AD... Apparently, the site has been known to a small group of archaeologists for more than a decade but there have been legal difficulties involving the privately owned land where the fort was found. It has not been bought by the Irish government, so no full scale excavation has, as yet, been done. Perhaps, one day soon, that excavation will be done and the mystery of how much, if any, of Ireland was conquered and held by the Romans will be answered once and for all.
GAR Media 1997
UNRV Roman Empire: HiberniaWhile trade between the Roman and Gaels certainly occurred, as evidenced by the scattered existence of Roman artifacts on Ireland, little is known of real Roman contact and influence directly with the island. According to the Roman historian Tacitus, his father-in-law, Gnaeus Julius Agricola thought Ireland could be conquered with a single legion. Whether Agricola, governor of Britain between 78 and 84 AD, ever made an attempt on Ireland is unknown, but it certainly isn’t mentioned by Tacitus, who left us a detailed biography. There is some evidence that the Romans did at least maintain a minor presence though. A fort at Drumanagh, on a promintory near Dublin, appears to be of Roman design and occupation. The presence of Roman artifacts at other locations, found alone and not in the presence of Celtic equivelants, would tend to suggest that the Romans were on the island at some point, if even for a short lived expedition. Consider that the short expeditions to Britain of Julius Caesar may never have been known to modern history, save for the fact that Caesar himself recorded the events. Regardless, the debate on Roman presence and influence in Ireland rages on to this day.
The Roman Issue in Ireland website
Niall Julian
http://www.nialljulian.co.uk/sites/romanwebsite/index.html
Roman Britain
http://www.unrv.com/provinces/britannia.php
Caledonia
http://www.unrv.com/provinces/caledonia.php
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Cunedda as VortigernSignificantly, Lusk or Lusca is a very short distance from the huge promontory fort at Drumanagh, the Bruidhne Forgall Manach of the ancient Irish tales. Drumanagh is the hill of the Manapii and, as such, represents the Manapia in Manapii territory found on the map of Ptolemy. Manapii or Manapia could easily have been mistaken or substituted for Manavia/Manaw, the Isle of Man, or for the Manau in Gododdin.
by August Hunt
Doesn't know what he's talking about ping. :')Welsh reader dismissesMark Dobson, from Lon-y-Plas, Flint Mountain in Wales, states that although he does not live in Ireland, he has visited North Dublin in the past and wonders what we are implying about the importance of Drumanagh... He adds that no evidence of Roman occupation here has even been found – no Roman forts, camps, villas, temples or whatever. He feels Drumanagh has all the signs of an Iron Age promontory fort. 'It does not sound Roman at all.'
the Roman connection
to Drumanagh and Ireland
by Hubert Murphy
Fri, Oct 14 05
Tuathal TeachtmharThe scholar T. F. O'Rahilly suggested that, as in many such "returned exile" stories, Tuathal represented an entirely foreign invasion which established a dynasty in Ireland, whose dynastic propagandists fabricated an Irish origin for him to give him some spurious legitimacy. In fact, he proposed that Tuathal's story, pushed back to the 1st or 2nd century BC, represented the invasion of the Goidels, who established themselves over the earlier populations and introduced the Q-Celtic language that would become Irish, and that their genealogists incorporated all Irish dynasties, Goidelic or otherwise, and their ancestor deities into a pedigree stretching back over a thousand years to the fictitious Míl Espáine. This compares to the invention of a Trojan origin for the ancient Britons, giving them an equal nobility to their former rulers, the Romans.
Answers/Wikipedia
Nah. Kelts have been around for thousands of years as have tartans. Kilts were invented in 1726 by an Englishman. In the movie "Braveheart", the kilts were not true to the history of the movie.
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