Exploring past people's interactions with wetland environments in Ireland

Abstract:People have engaged with Ireland's wetland environments since the earliest times, leaving a unique, fragile and valuable archaeological and environmental legacy. A long history of antiquarian and archaeological investigation of Ireland's wet environments has established a good understanding of this archaeological resource, but ongoing industrial development, land reclamation and climate change continues to threaten its integrity. Multidisciplinary approaches, ongoing survey and excavation and a theoretically engaged study of this wetland archaeology will continue to enable us to explore aspects of settlement, travel and ideologies in Ireland's past, fulfilling this archaeology's significant potential for reconstructing the details of past lives and societies, the perceptions and uses of landscapes and the social, economic and ideological roles of material culture across time.