October 24, 2006
Seaweed Point
What was happening during the seventh century BC ? The Assyrians were busy fighting insurgents in Mesopotamia, the Greeks recorded their first ever naval battle and the book of Deuteronomy had turned up in the temple of Jerusalem. In northern Europe, the weather had become colder and wetter, driving Scandinavian tribes further south into Europe.
I doubt if the inhabitants of the west of Ireland knew much about these events, though the last event may have led to the emergence of the Celts. At Seaweed Point [above], a small gravely peninsula beyond Gentian Hill in Salthill, the first Galwegians lived their lives by the sea, two millennia* before Galway was 'born' as a city. Archaeological excavations on the hill establish that the Galway fondness for Oyster Festivals has a long history - oyster shells predominate the middens there. They would have had a great view of Galway Bay from Seaweed Point. Of course, today, pinpricks of light blink in every direction - ships arriving into port, houses, pubs and hotels in Salthill, and cars driving along the Burren coast road to Ballyvaughan across the bay. Back then, another point of light would have been more significant - another Iron Age barbecue by the sea.
* Carbon 14 dating place the midden [I.e. pile of left-overs] at about 650BC, give or take a century.
Camera = Canon 5D , lens = Canon 24-105mm@67mm, ISO=200, aperture=f11, speed=1/15 sec.
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Posted by Monasette at October 24, 2006 11:43 PM