The Celtic World (Routledge Worlds)

• Chapter Thirty-Three -

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Figure 33.7 Sheet-bronze trumpet, Loughnashade, Co. Armagh.

of battle. They, above all, embody the pomp and ceremony and the barbaric
splendour of pagan Celtic society in Ireland.
The Loughnashade trumpet was found with three other similar examples, along
with human skulls, in a small lake in Co. Armagh. A ritual context for the find
is scarcely in doubt. The location is thus significant, for overlooking this stretch
of water is the hilltop site of Navan Fort (Emain Macha), the ceremonial centre of
ancient Celtic Ulster.

ROYAL SITES

N avan is one of a number of sites reliably identified as tribal centres which were
pre-eminent in the early Irish literature. The others are Dun Ailinne, Co. Kildare,
Tara, Co. Meath, and Cruachain, Co. Roscommon. The last, the ancient centre of
Connacht, is now an extensive complex of varied earthworks, spread over many acres
of countryside. Each of the other three sites consists of a hilltop enclosure formed
by a substantial earthen rampart with internal ditch. This defensively illogical feature
reinforces the view that such sites were primarily ceremonial. Two -Navan and Dun
Ailinne - have been excavated and the results of these investigations have been of
great importance for Irish Iron Age studies.
At Navan, near the summit of the hill, two areas of excavation (Sites A and B)
uncovered in each instance a complex sequence of overlapping, originally wooden,
circular structures (Lynn 1986). Of these the most revealing was that discovered at
Site B. Here an earth-covered cairn sealed evidence of activity covering most of the
last pre-Christian millennium. Frequently replaced circular huts with attached