They came in search of the Ark of the Covenant. Instead, it seems they had to make do with "a stone circle, a stone with an indecipherable inscription, sepulchral slabs, collections of bones, a subterranean passage, 15 Roman coins of the Emperor Constantine, gold coins, spearheads and a brooch".
If the British Israelites were disappointed in Tara, the delegates at the conference, "Tara: New Perspectives" held in Dublin Castle at the end of last month came away enchanted by Tara, real and mystical. Gods, priests, kings, excavations new and old, jostled for attention.
Ms Mairead Carew, an archaeologist with the Discovery programme, a research organisation funded by the Heritage Council, spoke of the British Israelites who through their own mythological, historical and biblical studies decided that the Ark - the physical expression of God's covenant with his chosen people - was buried on the hill. They believed they were one of the lost tribes of Israel and descended from the ancient Hebrews.
Campaign to end digging
They chose 1899 to begin their exploration - some would say desecration - of what is essentially a pagan site. Maud Gonne, W.B. Yeats and Arthur Griffith were among the "decolonizing intellectuals" who campaigned for an end to the digging. On one occasion, Maude Gonne brought 300 school children to visit Tara. It happened to be the day when the local landowner was preparing to light a bonfire to celebrate the English coronation. Maude snatched the matches from his grasp and lit the fire in honour of independent Ireland. She and the children sang "A Nation Once Again" as the flames crackled. Apparently the constabulary danced in rage and greatly added to the enjoyment of the occasion.
From late Victorian times, we moved far back into the past, to about 3,000 BC, when the first builders began to construct an enclosure on the site of what is now the mound of the hostages. Tara as we know it had begun. The construction of monuments was to continue over the next 4,000 years, from around the middle Neolithic to the early Christian period. And it was not just the hill but also the surrounding area which was important in ritual as well as economic terms.
As someone who grew up in Tara's shadow, I found Mr Conor Newman's categorisation of Tara's surrounding landscape as flat and uninteresting hurtful but predictable. However, the title and substance of his talk, "Tara, a landscape with attitude", belied his initial denigration. "An intense concentration of over 60 monuments in one place distinguishes an otherwise unexceptional hill (he just can't seem to help himself) in south central Meath as Tara, premier cult site in late prehistoric Ireland and promoted to the leading royal site of the early medieval period." The density and scale of the monuments on the hill and its environs tell of a steadily growing, stable, and, in time, highly successful community whose wealth was rooted, then as now, in the land, he said. "One of the most significant contributions of the recent archaeological survey are the preliminary efforts that have been made towards recontextualising Tara back into its central Meath landscape, back into the fields and rivers, soils and monuments that surround it; without them we are seeing only half the picture", said Mr Newman, who carried out an intensive non-invasive archaeological survey of Tara under the auspices of the Discovery programme.
Rath of the Synods
From Mr Newman's recent non-invasive study, which used topographical, geophysical, aerial, geochemical and paper surveys, we move onwards (or, should I say backwards) to the late Professor Sean P O Riord ain, an archaeologist who did put a trowel to Tara some decades ago. His work on the Rath of the Synods, in the early 1950s, was unpublished due to his untimely illness and death. Only a portion of his archive survives but Mr Eoin Grogan, of the Discovery programme, has revisited his work and will shortly publish a monograph on the subject.
"The Rath of the Synods was chosen as it was believed that very considerable damage had been caused by the British Israelite digging carried out at the turn of the century. O Riordain hoped that excavation might enable some overall assessment of the site as well as providing an opportunity to formulate an understanding of the soil conditions and archaeological preservation of the hill,["] explained Mr Grogan.
The excavation revealed four main phases of activity as well as identifying the extent of the British Israelite damage. The primary enclosure was built some time earlier than the middle-late Iron age while the palisade and post enclosures of the second phase date probably to between 430-100 BC. Phase three, from 100 to 400 AD, consisted of a barrow, containing five cremation burials, and a central mound containing four cremations and a crouched inhumation. The unprotected cemetery in the central portion of the site contained further burials. Grave goods including a bronze hilt guard and an iron earring were found.
Roman-British pottery
The last phase, the ringfort, contained evidence of at least three structures. The large assemblage of domestic debris included Romano-British pottery and blown glass, iron tools and nails. Of the plausible explanations in interpreting the cultural context of the site and its occupants, Mr Grogan favours the idea of a high-status Irish family with very strong contacts with Romano-British communities on the fringe of the Roman empire in Britain.
Last year, Ms Helen Roche, also of the Discovery programme, re-opened and extended the cuttings made by Professor O Riordain on Raith na Rig. She identified a bowl furnace, with quantities of iron slag, tuyere and crucible fragments along with some bronze residue, bronze stems and droplets and small iron objects. The evidence of industrial workings and domestic settlement may surprise those who lean to the view that the hill itself was primarily a ritual centre.
"Tara: New Perspectives" was organised by the Discovery programme. Taraphiles can look forward to the publication, this year, of Ms Helen Roche's account of her excavation and Mr Eoin Grogan's monograph. Next year, Ms Mairead Carew's book on the British Israelites' visit to Tara should be published to mark the centenary of their coming