Death in the Neolithic: Fourknocks & the Ancestors

Name: Death in the Neolithic: Fourknocks & the Ancestors
Start: 2025-10-24T20:00:00+01:00
Location: Seamus Ennis Arts Centre, Naul, Ireland Co. Dublin

Schedule

Fri, 24 Oct, 2025 at 08:00 pm

UTC+01:00

Location

Seamus Ennis Arts Centre, Naul, Ireland Co. Dublin | Dublin, DN

As the season of Samhain draws near and the veil between worlds grows thin, join Dr. Jessica Smyth (UCD) for an exploration of death, memory and the ancestors in Neolithic Ireland. This immersive talk invites you to journey into the ancient world of Fourknocks, a Neolithic passage tomb where communities once gathered to make sense of death, creating a spectacular megalithic monument in the process.
Modern analysis of human remains recovered from sites like Fourknocks makes it increasingly clear that the Neolithic approach to death involved multi-stage mortuary practices like dismemberment, disarticulation and cremation. Unlike today, remembering specific individuals after they passed does not seem to have been socially valued. Creating ancestors was more important.
Join us at the Séamus Ennis Arts Centre for an evening that promises to stir the soul, reflecting on strange but poignant traditions of mourning from 5000 years ago.