Review of the evidence for bathing. Bathing seems to have been an important act in ancient Ireland. We know this because in old Irish there was a fairly specialised terminology associated with it. Let me explain:- the word for washing the whole body is fothrucud. The word folcud refers to washing the head. Indmat or more commonly indlat is the term used for washing the hands or feet. The first of these three terms still survive in Irish today, but the term for washing oneself has become rather more generalised and is know as nigh (Lucas, 1965).
What this all goes to tell us is that bathing was a normal part of the routine of personal hygiene in ancient Ireland and if this is so then fulachta fiadh with their hot water may also have been used as centres for ritual or recreational bathing as they were in other countries from prehistoric times onwards. I found there to be a wide range of ethnographic evidence of sweat baths and saunas. Evidence from all over Europe points to the fact that communal bathing was the rule rather than the exception and was quite an important act in some societies. The Sythians were described by Herodutus 2,500 years ago as having small tents which served as vapour baths or saunas. Herodutus also describes how as well as water they also burnt marijuana on the hot stones so they got high along with the steam. The ancient Romans were very fond of baths, yet they had little to do with personal hygiene. The ancient Roman baths could best be described as large recreational centres where hundreds of people could gather to soak, lounge and engage in conversation with friends relatives and neighbours. "The Roman baths thermae served as vast community recreation and social centres not only in Rome itself but in every municipality of the empire" (Lewis & Reinhold 1966, 117). In fact the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Turkish, Japanese and Nordic cultures have partaken in forms of communal bathing from ancient times.
There is evidence to support the bathing/sauna theory in the form of early Irish literature. References to fulachta fiadh appear in such early texts as Geoffrey Keating's "History of Ireland" written in the 17th century. He describes how people dug two pits and kindled raging fires. One of the pits was used for cooking but, at the other pit "the heroes assembled around the fire. Each of them stripped off and tied his shirt to his waist; and they ranged themselves round the second pit, bathing their hair and washing their limbs, and removing their sweat, and then exercising their joints and muscles, thus ridding themselves of fatigue" (O’Drisceoil 1990).
The theory that fulachta fiadh were in fact baths or saunas is one supported by L.H. Barfield who believes that there is more evidence to support that they were baths rather than cooking places. He draws up a hypothesis supported by the following main points of evidence. (a) The absence of animal bones and settlement debris-suggesting that they were not used for cooking or any domestic activity. (b) Their close proximity to water. (c) The ubiquity of ethnographic examples of sweat bathing. (d) Uncertainties about the Irish literary evidence. (Barfield, 1991). Although this hypothesis was mainly based on Fulachta Fiadh in Britain and Scotland (called burntmounds there) I decided to apply it to Irish examples.
Returning to the first point, is there an absence of animal bones and settlement debris at Irish sites? I examined four sites. At Catstown, Co. Kilkenny no animal or domestic remains were found (Ryan 1990). None of the fulachta fiadh on Valencia Island produced any evidence either (Sheehan 1990). Either did the fulachta fiadh at Kilcor (Hurley 1990) or Castleredmond Co. Cork (Doody 1987). In general this does seem to be the case. When examining the second point of them being close to water I found this definitely to be the case. In the central part of the Imlagh basin on Valencia Island a fulachta fian was discovered in a peat bog. "A short distance across the basin to the east there was in pre-peat times a low lying area with springs"(Mitchell 1990, 25). The fulachta fian at Catstown Co. Kilkenny was situated at the east end of a ridge forming a watershed between streams flowing northwards to the river Nore and southwards to the river Sur (Ryan 1990). The Fulachta Fiadh at Ballyvourney Co. Cork stood on the dry alluvium of the flood plain of the river Sullane 46m back from the rivers edge (O’Kelly 1954). The fulachta fian at Castleredmond was also situated close to a river.
On the surface this theory seems very straightforward but there are some problems. The validity of early Irish literature must be examined. Uncertainties about Irish literary evidence have been considered by Diarmuid O’Drisceoil (1990). He points out that references to fulachta fiadh are very varied and range from dates in the 9th century and the 18th. He also points out that many of the tales are amalgams of earlier tales and probably had a very long life of oral transmission before they were written down. A number of written transmissions would have followed this, add this to the fact that old Gaelic would have been very hard to translate and you will find that indeed early Irish literature cannot be described as reliable. One other thing that O’Drisceoil points out is that the descriptions of any activities that went on in the fulachta fiadh are very fanciful and may not describe contemporary conditions or activities of the real world, therefore it is hard to take early Irish literature as a reliable source.
There is another problem with the bathing theory. If fulachta fiadh are to be interpreted as saunas or sweat houses they all should have coverings over them to keep the stream in and provide protection against the elements. Only seven fulachta fiadh in Ireland have associated structures e.g. Ballyvorney 1; so could the wooden hut that was interpreted as a meat store by M.J. O’Kelly be better interpreted as a sauna covering? The fact that it is near a stream may be due to the fact that after a spell in the sauna people generally plunged themselves into cold water, this being a practise undertaken today by sauna users. The stream would have served for this purpose. The other 6 structures are hard to interpret as sauna coverings though as they do not enclose a trough or pit. The presence of burnt stones discarded around the trough in a horse shoe shape also reinforces that Irish fulachta fiadh did not have structures around them.
There is one last aspect in the bathing debate. The period when fulachta fiadh were most popular i.e. the Bronze and Iron ages, is a time when we have evidence for a water based religion in the British Isles and Europe. Take the King’s Stables at Navan for an example. There is a ritual pool here into which people deposited offerings. ( Mallory & McNeill 1990) "The ritual function of the sauna for purification might thus have been closely related to this religious development" (Barfield & Hodder, p378, 1987).
What are fulachta fiadh? |
Arguments for cooking |
Arguments for bathing/saunas |
Arguments for textile centres/laundries |
A compendium of excavted fulachta fiadh |
The study of textiles in archaeology |
Bibliography |
The washing experiment | The dyeing experiment | The fulling experiment | Results and concluding thoughts |
