From family cemeteries to community cemeteries in Viking Age Ireland?

Recent excavations - some of which are reported on in this volume - are going to transform our understanding of burial practice in early medieval Ireland. They are illuminating, better than any documentary source, the diversity of responses to Christianity in the pre-Viking period, and significant changes in the character and location of burials over the course of the early medieval period are also becoming increasingly apparent. The purpose of this short contribution is to present an outline sketch of the evidence and to consider some of the implications of the patters that are emerging. In particular, I will discuss the relationship between non-ecclesiastical cemeteries and minor ecclesiastical sites, and will consider why both site types become less common during the Viking Age (AD 800-1100).