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Caves

其他書名	Sacred Places on the Irish Landscape
出版	NUI, 2004
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=b9N1MwEACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api

註釋Caves are commonly perceived - by the general public and archaeologists alike - as places of prehistoric habitation. However, there is virtually no archaeological evidence to indicate that caves in Ireland were ever occupied in pre-Christian times. Rather, caves were considered sacred places on the landscape and outside the domain of profane life. From the Early Mesolithic through to the end of the Bronze Age, caves were used for excarnation, for burial and for the deposition of disarticulated human bones. In tandem with these practices, the ritual deposition of hoards and artifacts at caves began in the Neolithic and continued into the Iron Age. The arrival of Christianity brought about a general demystification of the cave and for the first time the archaeological record indicates that people began to live in caves. However, caves were not entirely secularized; they continued to be used for burial albeit to a limited extent. Many caves were incorporated into popular Christian religious practises and were associated with saints, holy wells and pilgrimage. Both the early literary sources and the folktales of more recent centuries agree that caves are places of the Otherworld which are inhabited by supernatural beings.