The landscape can help us to learn about how our ancestors lived.
Much remains unknown about the past but evidence exists in the Cork landscape that can help to build a picture of how people lived in ancient times.
The Department of Archaeology at University College Cork (UCC) are conducting a survey of the destruction rate of ring forts and other archaeological monuments.
Mairead McGuinness meets some of the members of the survey team, visits some of the monuments of importance and speaks to farmers about the preservation work going on.
The archaeological survey team take to the air to get a bird's eye view of the landscape but also carry out a great deal of work on the ground. The objective of the team is,
To get to and log as many archaeological monuments as possible before the arch enemy gets there first, the JCB.
According to one of the team, ringforts and fulacht fiadh are the two most common archaeological sites in the county of Cork. There are also single standing stones, pairs of standing stones, megalithic tombs, and stone circles.
Stones in the field of farmer Tim Crowley might mark the burial ground of an ancient giant or were they simply scratching posts for iron age cattle? Tim Crowley says that the significance of the monuments is unknown but he has been told that they may relate back to some pagan religion.
One archaeologist suggests that generations of the past may have marked time and season with these standing stones. The people of the time were also farmers and would have needed to know the seasons to harvest their crops. There is also evidence of cooking places consisting of a trough surrounded by a ring of stones.
Tim Crowley's farm is also home to a ringfort which is the subject of examination for the team of investigators from UCC. There is another ringfort on the neighbouring land owned by the Dineen family which contains a series of underground tunnels. These tunnels may have been used for storage or possibly for refuge in times of trouble or if the fort was being attacked. It is also possible that the tunnels connect with other tunnels in other ringforts. Riona Dineen recalls her brother finding a helmet on the land and painting it silver.
JCB diggers are the real enemy of these monuments.
In one swoop, a JCB can wipe out a fort that time has protected for centuries.
Many of the monuments are still standing as a result of superstitious farmers who are reluctant to interfere with them for fear of bad luck.
This episode of 'Ireland's Eye' was broadcast on 29 June 1983. The reporter is Mairead McGuinness.
