Early Mesolithic Site Discovered in Donegal
By Brian McNaught
During a visit to a beach in Greencastle, near the northern tip
of the Inis Eoghan Peninsula, I by chance found a small flint core
axe near the water's edge; within a short period of time I had quite
easily collected a large amount of flint tools and debitage, such
as small blades, several single and dual platform cores, and a number
of narrow microlithic blades.
Since then from this beach site, five complex flint axes, one broken
axe, over 50 cores, a number of small pointed bone artifacts and
many hundreds of mainly small narrow and broad blades, have been
collected, the majority having fine secondary working along their
cutting edges. The material appeared to be of an early Mesolithic
date, and this was later confirmed by the Ulster Museum's Department
of Archaeology.
The beach is generally composed of a mixture of sand and gravel
at its southern extremity, and as the beach extends north towards
Stroove it gradually becomes composed largely of sand. The geological
composition of the beach is important as the vast majority of the
artefacts recovered tend to be found among the washed gravel surface
at the southerly extremity of the beach. This leads me to speculate
that it is likely that the sand at the northern end of the beach
is covering a similar gravel surface which is reducing the number
of finds in that area.
To prevent further sea erosion modern banks have been constructed
behind the beach at high water mark. This has prevented a firm conclusion
as to the possible location of the site. There are a number of possibilities,
one is that the original site was located above the present beach
and has since been eroded away by the actions of the sea. This may
account for the artefacts being generally found in the gravel surface
at the water's edge. The other possibility is that the original
site has been submerged by rising sea level and the tide has been
eroding the old land surface, now below the surface, resulting in
the artefacts being washed onto the modern beach surface.
Whenever the original site was situated, one thing we can be sure
of is that the flint and the bone artefacts have been exposed to
the actions of the sea for a considerable amount of time, as they
are heavily platinated.
UNIQUE DISCOVERY FOR DONEGAL
The finding of Early Mesolithic occupation sites in Donegal
is still quite rare. To date only a small scattering of flint flakes,
and isolated tools have been recorded. This is in contrast to the
Latter Mesolithic, where in recent years a number of new sites have
been discovered, one in particular, located on Inch Island in Donegal,
has produced quite an amount of typical Latter Mesolithic tool kits.
While over 30 years ago, a latter Mesolithic site excavated on
a raised beach at Urrismenagh, Dunaff Head, Inish Eoghan, (Addyman
& Vemon, 1966) recovered unbraided flints, a few leave shaped
flakes, and a number of cores. Since then due to turf cutting and
weather erosion at the Urrismenagh site, a large amount of similar
material, including two stone axes, have been collected from this
site.
AN IDEAL LOCATION FOR A CAMP
The location of this beach site in one of the many small bays, which
are common to this stretch of coast line, may be a firm indicator
as to the whereabouts of further evidence of early settlement in
North Donegal.
The location was probably chosen for its hunting and gathering
resources, as their food economy was likely based on a diet of sea
food such as fishing, and shell collecting, supplemented by hunting
any other available animals in the area. Although this theory will
remain speculation until such times as a archaeological excavation
can be undertaken.
One thing we can be sure of is that the tool assemblages recovered
to date indicate that this site was a substantial and important
base for early peoples, given the amount and the quality of workmanship
of the flint assemblages that have been recovered so far from this
important Early Mesolithic beach site.
Back
|
