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Abstract
Chiefdoms are forms of political and social organization intermediate in complexity between big-man/segmentary systems and primitive states. Outside of Polynesia, the formal organization of chiefdoms is poorly known. The chiefdom concept has only been recently introduced into the field of European archaeology, despite the wealth of evidence for the former existence of polities of this type. In this study, the chiefdoms that existed during the middle ages in Co. Clare in western Ireland are examined with the intention of reconstructing their social constitution and territorial organization.
The chiefdoms of Thomond (Co. Clare) were reconstructed through the analysis of historical texts and place-names. More complex chiefdoms were shown to have had a composite structure, being composed of a cluster of simple chiefdoms. Polities of the largest scale were confederacies of chiefdoms.
Simple chiefdoms were revealed to have been internally divided into territories owned by aristocratic multi-lineage social units (ramages) which I have termed sections, and the territory controlled by the chiefly ramage. Each section possessed a capital site. The chiefdom capital consisted of the chief residence of the chieftain, the church patronized by the chiefly ramage, and a mound which was the inauguration site of chieftains. These three elements of the capital of an Irish chiefdom I have collectively termed the capital set.
The principles underlying the spatial organization of medieval Irish chiefdoms discovered through the examination of historical texts were applied to reconstruct a chiefdom of the Late Iron Age in the Burren region of northern Co. Clare., represented by a large central settlement called Cahercommaun. The examination of historical sources was extended to discover the boundary configurations and capitals of Thomond's earliest historical polities.