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Last night I went to see one of my favorite bands playing at a bar about an hour or so up the road in Missouri. I don't like to go to Missouri very often (Missouri and missery sound too much alike to be any good in my opinion), but for Cutthroat Shamrock I'm very willing to make the trip. They're a band from Knoxville, Tennessee that are a cross between Irish folk and punk music. They are really awesome! (you can check them out yourselves at http://www.myspace.c...tthroatshamrock) I know the band because one of my best friends is friends with them. When they come through on tour they always stop at her & her boyfriend's house for a shower, a meal and sometimes even a place to crash for the night. I had sent them an email the other day and requested they play a song for me at their show last night. Since I'm a historian I found a connection to the coal miners of Appalacia in their song "Deep Black Hole". My friends and I had a blast listening to them play while we danced (and of course, I was throwing my belly dance moves in there ![dance[1].gif](http://www.turkeycentral.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/dance[1].gif)
). And since most of their music is great to drink to, well we all had a great time. ![cheers1[1].gif](http://www.turkeycentral.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/cheers1[1].gif)
Of course I do have a reason to be writing about my fun with my friends and our favorite Irish folk-rock band. Believe it or not, Medieval Ireland has a strange connection, or at least an unique similarity, with Medieval Cappadocia.
The Celts (aka Keltoi, Gauls, Galli, and Galatians) settled throughout Europe from modern day Turkey to Ireland. The Celtic style of architecture was to build round, womb-like structures. This can still be seen today if one looks at airial photos of the old Celtic hillforts.
This was in direct opposition to the Roman way of building rectangular shaped buildings, which seem very phallic in nature when compared to the the Celts' round structures. Here's a floorplan of St. Peter's Basilica from the 4th century (before they ruined it with all that gaudy Rennaisance crap). 
While many of the continental tribes of Celts were systematically Romanized over the centuries, some vestiges of Celtic culture were preserved for a while on the edges of the empire. This is most easily seen in the similarities between the Eastern styles of Christianity and Irish Chrisitanity. In the 7th & 8th century (as I'm sure most of my readers know), Cappadocia became a war zone between Muslim armies and the Byzantines. The Christian community built cities and churches out of the strange rock formations in the area. They hollowed out these massive rocks to hide from the Muslim armies, essentially underground.
Thousands of miles away on the other edge of Christendom, the Irish monks of Skellig Michael built their monastery clinging to the far edge of a mountain, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The monks lived, worked and worshiped in small hive-shaped cells. When the Irish converted, their brand of monasticism becomes very similar to Egyptian asceticism.
The Irish were also really into circular, womb-like forms. Remember the ring forts and the circular cells of Skellig Michael? They also built their monasteries very similar to the way they built their ring forts.
Last night when I was drinking and dancing to Cutthroat Shamrock I honestly wasn't thinking of the similarities between medieval Irish & Cappadocian architectural or religious traditions. The only scholarly thing I was thinking about was that if I were to teach a class on American history I'd play CS's "Deep Black Hole" for my class... then the beer took over my brain and the rest of the night was a bit of a blur.![drunk[1].gif](http://www.turkeycentral.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/drunk[1].gif)
LOL!
). And since most of their music is great to drink to, well we all had a great time. Of course I do have a reason to be writing about my fun with my friends and our favorite Irish folk-rock band. Believe it or not, Medieval Ireland has a strange connection, or at least an unique similarity, with Medieval Cappadocia. The Celts (aka Keltoi, Gauls, Galli, and Galatians) settled throughout Europe from modern day Turkey to Ireland. The Celtic style of architecture was to build round, womb-like structures. This can still be seen today if one looks at airial photos of the old Celtic hillforts.
This was in direct opposition to the Roman way of building rectangular shaped buildings, which seem very phallic in nature when compared to the the Celts' round structures. Here's a floorplan of St. Peter's Basilica from the 4th century (before they ruined it with all that gaudy Rennaisance crap). While many of the continental tribes of Celts were systematically Romanized over the centuries, some vestiges of Celtic culture were preserved for a while on the edges of the empire. This is most easily seen in the similarities between the Eastern styles of Christianity and Irish Chrisitanity. In the 7th & 8th century (as I'm sure most of my readers know), Cappadocia became a war zone between Muslim armies and the Byzantines. The Christian community built cities and churches out of the strange rock formations in the area. They hollowed out these massive rocks to hide from the Muslim armies, essentially underground.
Thousands of miles away on the other edge of Christendom, the Irish monks of Skellig Michael built their monastery clinging to the far edge of a mountain, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The monks lived, worked and worshiped in small hive-shaped cells. When the Irish converted, their brand of monasticism becomes very similar to Egyptian asceticism.
The Irish were also really into circular, womb-like forms. Remember the ring forts and the circular cells of Skellig Michael? They also built their monasteries very similar to the way they built their ring forts.
Last night when I was drinking and dancing to Cutthroat Shamrock I honestly wasn't thinking of the similarities between medieval Irish & Cappadocian architectural or religious traditions. The only scholarly thing I was thinking about was that if I were to teach a class on American history I'd play CS's "Deep Black Hole" for my class... then the beer took over my brain and the rest of the night was a bit of a blur.
LOL!
