Landscapes of Kingship in Early Medieval Ireland, AD 400-1150

REVIEW BY FINBAR McCORMICK This book is the first interdisciplinary analysis of early Irish kingship based on both historical and archaeological sources; it was formerly the preserve of just historians. This new approach is a fresh contribution to our understanding of kingship, ritual, and power. There is an abundance of archaeological and documentary evidence available from the period to draw on. For instance, more than 45,000 ringforts and 30,000 personal names have been identified. This wealth of evidence, as author Patrick Gleeson rightly observes, can lead to ‘bewildering complexity’. In recent decades, the study of assembly places and practices has become one of the central a