Driscoll, K. 2009. The early prehistory in the west of Ireland: investigations into the social archaeology of the Mesolithic,
west of the Shannon, Ireland. In S. McCarton, R. Schulting, G. M. Warren and P. C. Woodman (eds), Mesolithic horizons: papers presented
at the seventh international conference on the Mesolithic in Europe, Belfast 2005. Oxford, Oxbow, pp. 880-81.

Abstract

This Masters thesis sought to review the evidence we have for the Mesolithic communities who inhabited the six counties – Clare, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, and Sligo – in the west of Ireland for approximately 4000 years, from c. 8000–c. 4000 cal BC (Driscoll 2006). The aims of this thesis were to understand the character of the early prehistoric period in the six counties west of the Shannon; to understand how people inhabited and utilised the landscape; to establish any degree of variability between the coast and the interior; and to establish any degree of regionality in the material culture. The overall intention was to interpret the evidence in terms of a social archaeology of the period.

 

Lithics Ireland Consultancy	Killian Driscoll
lithicsireland@gmail.com	Galway, Ireland