In Ireland the earliest known human burial (7530-7320 BC) was discovered on a bend in the River Shannon, Ireland’s largest watercourse, at Hermitage, County Limerick, Munster, where a cremated adult had been placed in a pit together with a polished stone adze-head and two burnt microliths.
People of this period lived by gathering, fishing and hunting, erected shelters made of animal skins stretched over wooden frames and built hearths for cooking their food. Ireland’s population at this time was probably less than a thousand.
Evidence their presence consists mostly of lithic tools and debitage (offcuts). Sites are located mostly in low-lying locations, i.e. close to water, the choice of which is explained by the food supply – mainly fish and to a lesser extent plants (e.g. hazelnuts), birds, shellfish and animals such as wild pigs.
The Early Mesolithic (9700-6500 BC) is defined by the industries, and the Later Mesolithic (6500-4000 BC) is described by a large flake production. Most of the sites appear to be either specialised or transitory.
The only known Early Mesolithic base camp is at Mount Sandel (7000 BC) near Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, Ulster, and east of the Bann. Excavation uncovered six groups of potholes set in circles about six metres (20 ft) in diameter. At each circle, saplings or branches were pushed into the ground and their tops gathered together to provide the framework for a hut and the whole then probably covered with skins.
The food of these foragers included birds (ducks, goshawks, grouse, mallards, woodpigeons), fish (seabass, eels, salmon, trout), wild plants (crab apples, hazelnuts, wild lily seeds, wild pears) and wild pig, Stone tools included arrow tips and drills, along with microliths and flint waste. Axes and scraping tools were discarded along the edges of the hut. The substantial nature of the camp and the various foods being available at different seasons of the year would have allowed its residents to occupy the site through much of that time.
Lough Boora (6800-6000 BC), County Offaly, Leinster, has similarities with Mount Sandel but no structures were found so it seems that it was probably a seasonal hunting camp. Axe heads, arrowheads, scrapers and blades were discovered around a series of hearths; the bones of wild pig, hare and various birds were found; and hazelnuts and wild seeds were also present. Its lithic industry was based on chert because of the absence of flint in the region.
Activity at Newferry (6000-4000 BC), County Londonderry, Ulster, actually took place within a braided river channel on the west bank of the Bann, just north of Lough Beg in County Antrim, Ulster. The finds include over forty thousand polished stone axes and several hundred flakes with trimmed butts, the Bann flakes, multipurpose tools which make possible the construction of weirs and fish-traps and suggest the site to have been a summer camp for fishermen.
There are three important Mesolithic shell midden sites on raised beaches along the central eastern coast of Ireland. At Rockmarshall, County Louth, Leinster, excavation revealed broken beach pebbles of flint, roughly struck flakes, shellfish (oysters and periwinkles), crab claws, and the bones of fish and seals. Burnt stone and charcoal found at various points throughout the midden suggested temporary habitation.
The site at Sutton, County Dublin, Leinster, included the bones of birds, dogs, fish and pigs; polished stone axes; and Bann flakes, butt-trimmed, leaf-shaped lithic blades of flint or chert. Charcoal found on the site was dated to 5250 BC.
Further south Dalkey Island (4000 BC), County Dublin, Leinster, contained shellfish (limpets and periwinkles), and the bones of birds, fish, dolphins and other wild animals. Sherds of Neolithic pottery were found in an upper level and there were also some bones of domesticated animals.
Killuragh Cave (7000-6546 BC), County Limerick, Munster, overlooks the River Mulkear, a left (SE) tributary of the Shannon. The cave was occupied from the Mesolithic through the Neolithic and into the Bronze Age. Artefacts found included human bones among animal bones (giant deer), shards of pottery, microliths, flakes, scrapers and blades.
Ferriter’s Cove on the Dingle peninsula, County Kerry, Munster, contained hearths, pieces of human bones and teeth, fish bones (bream, whiting, wrasse), shellfish (limpets, periwinkle, dog whelk), burnt hazelnut shells, stake holes (interpreted as drying racks for fish), concentrations of burnt stone and scatters of lithic debris. Amongst the faunal remains were the remains of cattle and sheep, dated 4350 BC.
Sramore Cave in County Antrim, Ulster, has produced three human bodies (fragments from a femur, mandible and humerus) dated to the Late Mesolithic.
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