an associated assemblage of ‘rich’ grave goods is considered to indicate the rise of a wealthy elite. This view is problematic as it fails to give due recognition to the fact that mortuary practice often involves the deliberate manipulation of material culture to create an ideal view of an individual or to communicate a certain worldview. Thus, the extent to which mortuary practice can be viewed as reflective of contemporary society is limited. As outlined above, a clear preference for riverine and coastal locations was found to be characteristic of the Beaker associated settlement pattern. This bias appears to be unique to Beakers and is not characteristic of the Middle or Late Neolithic. This aspect of Beaker settlement may be crucial to developing our understanding of the Beaker phenomenon. The fact that Beaker associated settlement was predominantly located along the coastline and beside rivers may suggest that a proximity to routeways was important to the Beaker users. It has been argued that in prehistoric times it would have been much easier for traffic to travel along the sea than over land and that greater interaction existed between coastal dwellers than between landlocked groups (Waddell 1991, 31). The high level of coastal traffic, implicated by the wide dispersal of Irish copper into Northern and Western Britain, indicates that the east coast of Ireland would have been an essential calling point. This may serve to explain the widespread dispersal of Beaker settlement in this region. It is possible that exchange may have been a fundamental aspect of the settlement pattern. This is supported by the dispersed nature of many of the settlements and by the evidence for both sedentism and mobility. It has been proposed that regular seasonal small-scale movements for the purposes of subsistence, exchange and social gatherings resulted in the development of a Beaker interaction network and the adoption of Beaker ‘culture’ (Case 2004; Brodie 1997, 307; Sheridan 1983). It has been argued that intermarriage could have resulted in the widespread uptake of Beakers, as such a strategy would have been an important method of acquiring new technological knowledge, such as that necessary for copper metallurgy (Brodie 1997; Case 1995, 26; 1998).
CONCLUSION This brief review of some of the findings from a study of Beaker settlement in Leinster has not set out to deal with all aspects of the Beaker phenomenon in Ireland. Important issues such as how and why Beaker pottery emerged in Ireland have been barely touched upon. It is hoped, however, to have communicated the fact that Beaker settlement is widespread in Ireland and that a synthesis of this information has much to add to our understanding of the Beaker complex. A complete review of all aspects of Beakers in Ireland is much needed and it is imperative that any future attempt to attain a greater understanding of the emergence of Beakers in Ireland must involve a complete review of both the funerary and settlement evidence.
NOTES * It should be noted that this is somewhat of an over simplification largely based upon the view that the Classic Beaker inhumation is the dominant funerary rite in the British Isles. Recent studies cast doubt upon this (see Gibson 2004) and there is an ever-increasing body of evidence for Beaker mortuary practice in Ireland.
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