Lithic Technology at the Transition to Farming: Analyses of the later Mesolithic and Early Neolithic stone tool technology in eastern lowland Ireland
Sonja Laus
Supervisor: Dr. Graeme Warren
Funded by: UCD College of Arts and Celtic Studies Graduate School (Ad Astra Research Scholarship)
Abstract
The principal objective of this research is to analyse the nature and change in chipped stone tool technology within a defined region at a critical period of Irish prehistory - the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition. Understanding trajectories of lithic technology at this time will make a substantial contribution to a central archaeological problem; the nature of the adoption of agriculture in Ireland.
The study area is the eastern Irish lowlands. In the east, north-east and north-west of the region the Irish Sea, the Cooley mountains in Co. Louth and the Drumlin belt form natural boundaries, while in the west and south the political borders of Co. Meath, and Dublin City will define the edges of the area of investigation. Historically, this area has been one of the primary foci for settlement in Ireland and includes high quality Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic assemblages. All lithic artefacts from Late Mesolithic (ca. 6500 to 4000 BC) (Costa et al. 2005, 19) and Early Neolithic (ca. 4000 to 3200 BC) (Woodman et al. 2006, 61) sites for which radiocarbon dates and/or clear stratigraphic sequences are available will be reviewed (e.g. Mitchell 1947; Mitchell 1949; Liversage 1967; Mitchell 1972; Bradley 1999).
The project in context
The transition from hunting and gathering to farming is arguably the most important change in human prehistory, and yet the nature of this transition in Ireland remains somewhat obscure, not least because of the difficulty in finding appropriate datasets to assess continuity and change. Lithics provide one of the few datasets linking across this transition. As stone tools and their industrial waste directly reflect the skills and intent of the craftsperson, the investigation of lithic artefacts enhances our knowledge not only about the methods of production but also about the social organization of the procurement, availability and influence of raw materials, varying degrees of energy investments as well as the influx of foreign techniques and the use-life of implements. It will also be possible to assess how technological patterns relate to the adoption of Neolithic life-ways and how quickly any changes in manufacture within this critical period in prehistory took place. The investigation of raw materials will facilitate the examination of issues relating to trade and exchange, the extent of seasonal nomadism as well as the preference of local or exotic rock sources.
Methodology
The manufacture and use-life of lithic implements is connected to a variety of factors, including raw material availability, exploitation, trade and exchange, technical skills, tool function, artefact longevity, modes of discarding etc. In order to fully investigate these complex mechanisms within the chosen study area of lowland eastern Ireland, all relevant lithic assemblages will be subject to a well structured programme of research, focusing on macroscopic attribute analysis as a sound basis for reconstructions of the chaînes opératoires. The investigation of these operational sequences will ground the analysis and interpretation of technical choices made at certain stages of tool manufacture.
Classifications based on internally coherent subsets of attributes will allow for the subdivision of each assemblage into types and varieties. Metric approaches, combined with the ordering of all artefacts into a cluster of attributes defined by morphological, technological and functional sets of parameters will enlighten not only the technology applied during the transformation of nodules into blanks as potentially modifiable pieces but also the operational sequence through to the disposal of each individual artefact.
References
- Bradley, J. 1999. Excavations at Moynagh Lough, Co. Meath, 1997-98. Ríocht na Midhe. Records of Meath Archaeological and Historical Society 10, 1-17.
- Costa, L.J., Sternke, F. & Woodman, P.C. 2005. Microlith to macrolith: the reasons behind the transformation of production in the Irish Mesolithic. Antiquity 79, 19-33.
- Liversage, G.D. 1967. Excavations at Dalkey Island, Co. Dublin, 1956-1959. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 66C, 53-233.
- Mitchell, G.F. 1947. An early kitchen-midden in County Louth. County Louth Archaeological Journal 11, 169-174.
- Mitchell, G.F. 1949. Further early kitchen middens in County Louth. County Louth Archaeological Journal 12, 14-20.
- Mitchell, G.F. 1972. Further excavation of the early kitchen-midden at Sutton, Co. Dublin. The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 102, 151-159.
- Woodman, P., Finlay, N. & Anderson, E. 2006. The archaeology of a collection: The Keiller-Knowles Collection of the National Museum of Ireland. National Museum of Ireland Monograph Series 2. Bray: Wordwell.