Tara (Ireland)
Coordinates: 53 ° 34 ′ 39 ″ N , 6 ° 36 ′ 43 ″ W Tara ( Old Irish name Temair , pronunciation probably [ tʲeṽarʲ ], modern teamhair , [ tʲaʊrʲ ], German elevation, hill, possibly "place of beautiful views") is a hill in County Meath in Ireland that is home to numerous prehistoric and prehistoric monuments. The nearby town has 1,135 inhabitants (as of 2006).
Monuments
Tara Hill is one of the most revered spots in Ireland. From the time of the legendary King Cormac mac Airt (in the 3rd century AD) it came into the historical spotlight. It probably had religious significance long before that. The prehistoric clan seat developed into the regional royal seat, whose rulers (the southern Uí Néill , Anglicised O'Neill) at times claimed to be the high kings of Ireland.
The Irish high kings did not come from any hereditary line that resided in Tara, but according to tradition, several regional kings fought for this imaginary title. But apart from a few years of Brian Boru's reign in the 11th century, there was never a High King who really had power over Ireland. Kings of Tara were the local O'Neill. When St. Patrick came to Tara to meet King Laoghaire (King Lear), the pagan priests were at the height of their power. The royal seat was given up in 1022 by Mael Shechlainn. From the 12th century onwards, Tara gradually lost its pagan religious significance. There are no signs of the great royal palace here. Nothing but simple earth walls, the Raths of Tara, remained. The buildings mentioned in old literary sources must have been made of wood and have long disappeared.
The most prominent and oldest monument on the hill is the Mound of the Hostages . As the excavation revealed, it is a passage tomb . It was dated to around 2700 BC. Dated BC, but was also used secondary in the following centuries. The mound stands in the northern part of a large enclosure, which is surrounded by a wall with a ditch. This large oval Royal Enclosure is a rath , a type typical of the Iron Age , and arose much later than the Hostages Hill. In the middle of the enclosure are two smaller, almost round raths, known as the King's Seat (Forradh or Royal Seat) and Teach Cormaic (House of Cormac).
Cormac's house has two walls and two moats. The outer arches on the north side to enclose an older burial mound. In the center stands next to the statue of St. Patrick the Lia Fáil (the stone of fate), which originally stood near the hill of the hostages. It was restored here in honor of those who died in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 . Tradition says, among other things, that the kings were crowned on the stone and that it roared when the king was accepted.
To the north of the royal enclosure is the Council of the Synods, one of the rare councils with three concentric walls that was devastated by Anglo-Israeli supporters in the early years of the 20th century . They believed that this was where they would find the ark . The material, which was supplemented with material excavated later, shows that the Rath, built in the first three centuries AD, had houses surrounded by palisades.
To the north of the council of the synods lies a long, incomplete rectangle surrounded by a wall. That should be the banquet hall, where everyone sat according to their status. In the north-west of the hall there are other small round and oval earth walls, one of which is called Grainne 's Fort, after King Cormac' s daughter, who was the heroine of the tragic love of Diarmuid and Gráinne . The other facilities are known as the sloping trenches. To the south of the royal enclosure is Rath Laoghaire, a second oval mound named after King Lear. About 800 m south of the Tara Hill is another hill, which is crowned with a ring wall called Rath Maeve. It is an area of 225 meters in diameter, enclosed by a large wall and a moat that has partially disappeared.
A previously unknown formation called Lismullin Henge or Lissmullin Circle and a basement were discovered near Lismullin not far from Tara.
history
The place is associated with myths and legends and the true history of the place, which has been inhabited since the Stone Age , is difficult to grasp. The "Mound of the Hostages" dates from the Neolithic period around 5000 years ago.
Some historians believe that Tara was a political and spiritual center from the invasion of the Goidelic Celts to the Anglo-Norman invasion by Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke in 1169. In any case, Tara played a role as the seat of the southern Uí Néill (Irish regional kings) until the 12th century, if not in the more general sense.
According to a dindsenchas (place name poem) by Fintan, Tara was first a hazel forest called Fordrium. Liath, son of Laigne Lethan-glas, cleared the forest in Ollcan's time and grew grain here. After that the hill was called Druim Leith. Under Cain the Carefree, son of Fiachu Cendfindan, it was named Druim Cain. Among the Tuatha de Danann it was called Cathair Crofhind. Tea, daughter of Lugaid and wife of Erimon, built a house here that was fortified with a wall. She was buried on the hill on the other side of the wall and was named Temair. It became a royal seat under the Milesians .
meaning
According to mythology, the name is said to come from the Celtic goddess Tea. Tea Múr, Tea's wall, became Temair. The Tuatha de Danann had previously set up the Lia Fáil , their stone of destiny, here. The god Nuada (with the silver hand) was reinstated in his office here. The Pankeltic god Lugh appeared in Tara.
According to legend, this was the seat of the Hochkönige . From here over 140 kings of the southern Ui Néill (O'Neill) are said to have ruled. As a guarantor of socio-cultural unity of the provinces of Ireland, Tara was and is an important symbol of Irish national unity and identification. The traditions in Lebor Laignech (“The Book of Leinster”, approx. 1160) and in Leabhar Buidhe Lecain (“The Yellow Book of Lecan”, around 1400), which do not exist in other royal seats, contributed to this.
Tara is also known through a poem by the Irish poet Thomas Moore , "The harp that once through Tara's halls". The German band Suidakra released a song in 1998 called The Fall of Tara .
In the classic film about the southern states "Gone with the Wind", Tara is very important because the O'Hara family plantation is named after the mythical place. This is where the lead role, Scarlett O'Hara, grows up and returns to her place of birth at the end of the film. In the sequel to the 1994 film "Scarlett", Scarlett travels to Ireland. When she visits the real Tara, Scarlett takes a handful of dirt to scatter on the grave of her father, who was born in Ireland.
Todays situation
Only a few grass-overgrown floor plans can be seen of the facility on the Hill of Tara . The monument is currently threatened by the construction of the new M3 motorway, which is supposed to pass the hill at a distance of 1.5 kilometers. The Irish government has already decided to build the motorway. Its purpose is to improve the traffic situation for Dublin commuters from Counties Meath and Cavan .
Because of the planned highway construction, Tara was included in the list of the 100 most endangered cultural monuments by the World Monuments Fund in 2008 and in the list of the 15 most worth seeing endangered cultural monuments by the Smithsonian Institution .
See also
- Fal Stone (Lia Fáil)
- Stone of Scone as the coronation place of the Scots
- Stone of Mora as the coronation place of the Swedes
- Baile in Scáil
Individual evidence
- ↑ Niall Ó Dónaill, Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla, Dublin 1992, p. 1.217 and Deirdre & Laurence Flanagan, Irish Place Names, p. 254, Dublin 1994
- ↑ PW Joyce, Irish Names of Places, Vol. 1, pp. 294-295, Dublin 1869
- ↑ Edward Gwynn, The metrical Dindsechas, I., 2-5
- ↑ 2008 world monuments watch list of 100 most endangered sites ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Patrick Logue: Tara endangered, says Smithsonian , The Irish Times , February 28, 2009
