Climate change and the adoption of agriculture in Ireland
Principal Investigators
Dr Graeme Warren
Dr Steve Davis
Dr Naomi Holmes
Collaborators:
Dr Gill Plunkett (Queen’s University Belfast)
Dr Jon Turner (UCD)
Dr Mat Wooller (University of Alaska, Fairbanks)
Funding
IRCHSS - Research Stimulator Grant (December 2008 – June 2010)
Preliminary funding
Frederick Soddy Trust - Expeditions and Fieldwork Award (2008)
Quaternary Research Association - Quaternary Research Fund (2008)
Royal Irish Academy - funded the excavations at Belderrig
Abstract
This project aims to complement existing UCD School of Archaeology research in County Mayo (funded by the Royal Irish Academy) by using palaeoenvironmental techniques to try to answer a number of questions relating to the important issue of climate change and the adoption of agriculture in this part of Ireland.
The primary research question asks:
How did past human societies in north Mayo respond to changes in the climate and environment?
In order to answer this question we will take core samples from two lakes in north Mayo and produce palaeoenvironmental reconstructions that will focus on the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition. The main technique to be used is subfossil chironomid analysis. This will hopefully provide a palaeoclimatic record from an upland lake away from the archaeology, along with a record of human influence from a lowland lake located near to the archaeological sites.
