Feeding community: Urbanization, religion, and zooarchaeology at Clonmacnoise, an early medieval Irish monastery

This dissertation asks what drives the emergence of social complexity in pre-state societies that lack highly centralized hierarchies. The primary approach taken is a zooarchaeological exploration of the religious and economic context in which cities acquire food and other resources. Researchers often argue that such provisioning depends on elites using urban institutions to coerce producers into releasing goods, thus providing the freedom to further extend their own control. This theory, however, cannot explain the emergence of cities in societies that are decentralized and relatively egalitarian. This dissertation argues that urbanism does not develop only through the replacement of an egalitarian society. Urbanism can develop through its elaboration.;Early medieval Ireland is an ideal setting for testing this theory. Little archaeological evidence exists for a highly centralized hierarchy between AD 500 and 900, and new excavations at Clonmacnoise monastery provide an unparalleled opportunity to determine if a crucial piece of social complexity—urbanism—appears in such circumstances. Traditional explanations credit Norse invaders with importing urbanism to Ireland circa 900. Though an examination of the large faunal assemblage from excavations at Clonmacnoise between 1989 and 1998, this dissertation argues, first, that this monastery developed into an urban center circa AD 700, centuries prior to the accepted date for the urbanization of Ireland. Second, this dissertation argues that Clonmacnoise between AD 700 and 1200 is better characterized as an elaboration of a community-based, decentralized society, than as a replacement of such an organization by an elite-directed hierarchy. Finally, the dissertation uses Clonmacnoise as a case study for redefining how new ‘dualistic’ theories view fundamental variability in social complexity.