Coastal communities in earlier prehistoric Ireland - Lithics Ireland

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Coastal communities in earlier prehistoric Ireland: ploughzone survey and the Tawin/Maree stone axes, Galway Bay KILLIAN DRISCOLL* Departament de Prehisto`ria, Histo`ria Antiga i Arqueologia, University of Barcelona [Accepted 25 January 2012. Published 6 January 2013.]

Abstract

The first systematic ploughzone survey undertaken in County Galway was instigated in order to place in context a high density of stone axes found in the Tawin/Maree area in the parish of Ballynacourty, Inner Galway Bay. In the early twentieth century the first finds of axes from this area were reported to the National Museum, eventually resulting in 139 axes being recorded from a small area with a complementary concentration of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments*this area formed part of Mahr’s (1937) thesis on the Riverford Culture. However, while numerous stone axes were noted, no other prehistoric material culture was apparent. This paper presents the systematic ploughzone survey which resulted in the collection of a chert-dominated assemblage of 800 lithics. This assemblage, dating primarily to the Neolithic and Bronze Age but with evidence for Later Mesolithic activity as well, contributes to our understandings of the prehistoric coastal communities in the mid-west of Ireland, highlighting the importance of chert and the bipolar technique in the Irish lithic technological traditions, and reaffirming the pivotal role the coast and its environs played in prehistory.

Introduction

The Tawin/Maree area in the parish of Ballynacourty lies on the eastern edge of Inner Galway Bay, and its rolling hills form the western extent of the Irish central lowlands. From the 1930s a large number of stone axes were recovered from the parish, primarily from tillage which at the time was widespread in the area. The density of stone axes, a third of those found in County Galway’s axe finds, attracted archaeological interest and inspection, but no other prehistoric finds were noted. These axes formed part of Mahr’s (1937) positing of a Riverford Culture in Ireland and subsequent debates on whether the axes could indeed be attributed to the Mesolithic or Neolithic periods (Woodman et al. 1999). However, beyond the axes, and a distribution of prehistoric monuments (including some shell middens) around Galway Bay, little was known of prehistoric activity in the area. In Galway Bay itself, and further north along * Author’s e-mail: [email protected] doi: 10.3318/PRIAC.2013.113.04

Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Vol. 113C, 2965 # 2012 Royal Irish Academy

Killian Driscoll the coast, Neolithic farming activity had been identified through palynological evidence on Inis Oı´rr and at Lough Sheeauns, Co. Galway (O’Connell and Molloy 2001) and through palynological and archaeological evidence on the north coast of County Mayo (Caulfield et al. 1998). Closer to Galway Bay itself but inland, the large concentration of monuments in the Burren testify to an intensity of prehistoric inhabitation, with evidence for prehistoric field systems and farmsteads interspersed with megalithic monuments (Jones et al. 2011) reminiscent of the evidence from County Mayo (Caulfield et al. 1998). The large concentration of stone axes collected from a coastal setting with a variety of prehistoric monuments, but with little further evidence to contextualise them, appeared anomalous and thus presented the question: why were only stone axes found in this locality and what further artefactual evidence could be garnered? To answer this, a programme of fieldwalking was instigated in 2005, initially aimed at the coastal cliff faces, but it then expanded to the ploughzone. This systematic ploughzone survey at Ballynacourty represents the first undertaken in the west of Ireland, and was at the time of collection the largest lithic assemblage from both excavated and non-excavated contexts in County Galway. The collection of 800 almost exclusively chert artefacts highlights two main points*first, the considerable biases in the archaeological record as it has been built over the years in terms of identifying and collecting non-flint flaked stone tools, and the lack in many areas of systematic ploughzone surveys; and second, it demonstrates the utility of ploughzone surveys.

Landscape setting

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The parish of Ballynacourty lies on the eastern end of Galway Bay on a headland between Oranmore and Clarinbridge, and the parish covers just over 2,500 hectares (Figure 1 and Plate I). The western end of the parish consists of a collection of islands, the largest being Tawin Island which is separated from the mainland by a 70m stretch of sea at high tide. The southern edge of the parish is defined by Dunbulcaun Bay (Plate I) into which the Clarinbridge and Kilcolgan Rivers flow, while the northern shore continues on to Oranmore Village to the east. The parish is a continuation of the Irish central lowlands, which move eastwards to the Irish Sea; the land is low-lying*with highest peaks of approximately 25m ordnance datum (OD)*and the topography is formed by glacial movement into drumlinised ribbed moraines. From most vantage points the Burren hills to the south-west dominate the horizon (Plate I); looking east from the highest points the horizon is the expanse of the Irish central lowlands. There are no substantial rivers running through the parish, with only a few small rivers and streams, and two turloughs in the adjacent parish to the east; as mentioned, the Clarinbridge and Kilcolgan Rivers flow into Dunbulcan Bay to the south. The present landscape is dominated by pasture interspersed with tillage. Submerged prehistoric woodlands found in the inter-tidal zone a few kilometres away at Barna show that oak, pine and birch grew on the bay (Mercer 2008). The underlying bedrock is limestone and in many places the karstic bedrock crops out. The limestone is Visean, with chert-bearing limestone (Tubber formation and Hawkhill member) a few kilometres to the south across Dunbulcaun Bay (Pracht and McConnell 2004).

Coastal communities in earlier prehistoric Ireland

FIG. 1*Top: axes from Connacht and County Clare by findspot/townland total. Bottom: axes from Ballynacourty parish by townland total.

The parish has a concentration of megaliths (Fig. 2 and Table 1)*a portal tomb close to the present-day shoreline (a bone from the interior surface was dated to 37003525 cal BC (Kytmannow 2008)), a court tomb and adjacent destroyed megalith to the north-east, a megalith to the south-east, and two cairns on the south side of Dunbulcaun Bay. There are three aligned standing stones 31

Killian Driscoll

PL. I*Ballynacourty parish looking south-west over Dunbulcaun Bay towards the Burren hills.

FIG. 2*Neolithic/Bronze Age monuments and fields walked. For field names see Table 2; for list of monuments see Table 1.

crossing the parish and a stone circle on Tawin Island, a mound barrow close to the portal tomb, and two ring barrows across Dunbulcaun Bay. There are also ten fulacht fias (burnt mounds), the majority on the southern edge of the parish. Figure 3 presents a conjectured coastline for inner Galway Bay from c. 8000 cal BC. This coastline change is based on the INFOMAR (2011) 10m bathymetry of Galway Bay and Brooks et al.’s (2008) glacial isostatic adjustment sea-level curve. The bathymetry data are based on the lowest astronomical tide (LAT), while the 20m-to-150m contours are based on ordnance datum (OD). This conjectured coastline change, however, does not account for local shoreline change caused by sedimentation from the river outflows, therefore this diagram represents a simplified schematic of the shoreline over time rather than a fine-grained model. Brooks et al.’s curve models a relatively rapid increase in the post-glacial sea level to about 5000 cal BC, with a subsequent more gradual increase. At c. 8000 cal BC*the current earliest-known date for post-glacial occupation of Ireland (Woodman 32

Coastal communities in earlier prehistoric Ireland TABLE 1*List of prehistoric monuments by townland. Data from SMR (anon. 2008). Townland

Site type

SMR No

Ahapouleen Ardfry Ballynacloghy

Fulacht fia Standing stone Mound barrow Portal tomb Fulacht fia Megalithic structure Standing stone Fulacht fia Fulacht fia Cairn Standing stone Court tomb Megalithic structure Ring barrow Ring barrow Stone circle Cairn

GA103-006 GA094-074 GA102-011 GA094-012 GA103-035, 036, 037002, 037001 GA103-032 GA103-027 GA095-165, 166, 167 GA103-043, 043001 GA103-118011 GA103-004 GA095-119 GA095-119001 GA103-166 GA103-174 GA102-041 GA103-193

Ballynacourty

Ballynamanagh East Ballynamanagh West Drumacoo Knockawuddy Prospecthill Rahaneena Stradbally North Tawin West Tryone

2003)*almost the entirety of the inner bay was land, with the shoreline close to Blackhead (at the south-west corner of the maps). At c. 4500 cal BC, the islands of Ballynacourty parish were part of the mainland; the present Dunbulcaun Bay would have been the river channel of the Clarinbridge and Kilcolgan Rivers; and to the north, the River Corrib (where there is Mesolithic artefactual evidence, see Driscoll 2006) would have been directly accessible. During the Neolithic period Tawin Island became separated from the mainland and Dunbulcaun Bay would have begun to form. This model highlights the extent to which the Early and Later Mesolithic landscapes are drowned, and at the time of the construction of the portal tomb at Ballynacloghy during the Neolithic period (Fig. 2), the portal tomb would have been a couple of kilometres from the shoreline. Dating of submerged woodlands in the upper inter-tidal zone across the bay near Barna (6km to the north-west), provided dates of 5516 to 5379 cal BC for pine, 4335 to 4180 cal BC for oak, and 161 to 3 cal AD for birch (Woods, pers. comm.); a Neolithic oak dugout canoe was also found in the inter-tidal zone near these dated trees, with Mercer (2008) citing an unpublished date of c. ‘5000BP’, i.e. c. 3800 cal BC. Close to the dated trees at Barna, a midden, comprised mainly of oyster shells, returned a date of 1052415 cal BC (Gosling 1993).

Research background biases in the Tawin/Maree assemblage

*

Starting from the 1930s, 139 predominantly shale axes were reported to the National Museum from Ballynacourty, which accounts for about 33 per cent of the axes for County Galway from an area that is only a tiny fraction of the county’s land mass (Table 2 and Fig. 1). However, no other lithics were recorded from the area. What follows is an extended discussion of the history of the reporting of the axes, as this highlights perspicuously how parts of the 33

Killian Driscoll

FIG. 3*Conjectured coastline change for inner Galway Bay. Model based on Brooks et al.’s (2008) glacial isostatic adjustment sea level curve and the INFOMAR (2011) 10m bathymetry of Galway Bay. Coastline presented is the lowest astronomical tide (LAT) with 20m150m contours based on ordnance datum (OD). The white is the modelled shoreline at 0m LAT for each time period.

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Coastal communities in earlier prehistoric Ireland TABLE 2*Previous axe finds from Ballynacourty parish; numbers in brackets  subtotals. While the majority of the axes appear to have come from tillage, the majority of the finds’ context is not explicitly stated in the museum archives. Townland Ahapouleen Ardfry Ballynacloghy Ballynacourty

Ballynamanagh E or W Ballynamanagh West Carrowmore Garraun Lower

Total material 6 Shale 7 Shale 7 Shale (5); Dolerite (1); N/A (1) 31 Shale (26); Sandstone (1); Mudstone(1); N/A (1) 1 N/A 1 N/A 18 Shale (17); Pelite (1) 23 Shale (18); IPC Group VI Tuff (1); N/A (1)

Garraun Upper

4 Shale

Garraun Upper or Lower Mweeloon Neenish Island, Ballynacourty Prospecthill Tawin East

3 Shale (2); N/A (1)

Tawin East or West Treanlaur Total

14 Shale (13); N/A (1) 1 Shale 10 N/A (7); Shale (3) 9 Shale (7); Pelite (1); Clay ironstone (1) 3 Shale (2); N/A (1) 1 Shale 139 Shale (112); N/A (15); Other (12)

Find context Tillage (3); N/A (3) Tillage (6); Seashore (1) N/A (5); Tillage (1); In field (1) N/A

N/A Tillage Tillage (13); N/A (5) N/A (9); Tillage (8); Near seashore (3); Digging road (1); Digging (1); Bottom of wall (1) N/A (2); Tillage (1); Digging (1) N/A (2); Tillage (1) N/A (13); Near seashore (1) N/A Tillage (7); N/A (3) N/A (1); Tillage (1) N/A Tillage N/A (79); Tillage (43); Other (17)

collection in the National Museum have been built over the years, revealing how biases in the collecting and reporting of finds can considerably alter our perceptions of the prehistoric inhabitation of the landscape. The first axe from this area was reported to the National Museum in 1931. The local school-teacher, Ua Rı´oghardaı´n, was involved in reporting the find. This seems to have started when the Ordnance Survey was in the area, and O’Shea of the Ordnance Survey was shown the axes and presumably encouraged locals to report them to the National Museum. The axes were recovered during tillage, mostly from potato plots (MNI File 1933:1275). This first axe piqued the interest of Adolf Mahr at the National Museum (where Mahr was keeper of antiquities from 1927 and director from 1934, see Waddell 2005), as it was apparent that it was a ‘Riverford Culture’ type axe. Mahr was in the midst of formulating ideas on these types of artefacts, and eventually outlined these thoughts in his presidential address to the Prehistoric Society (1937). Over the next few years there was a 35

Killian Driscoll flurry of collecting activity, with dozens of axes found and sent to the museum from the area (Plate II). The initial price given for an axe was 15 shillings. So many axes were discovered that the antiquarian S.P. O’Riordain was sent by Mahr to investigate the area in 1933. In a letter concerning the impending visit, Ua Rı´oghardaı´n, the school-teacher, outlined his views: There is no doubt that there were primitive colonists in large numbers here and they did not go far inland as they confined themselves to the head of Galway Bay where this parish is situated . . . I have had at least a dozen of those small broken stone axes from time to time. Of course they are of very little importance and I give them away to any interested antiquarians, only keeping three or four to show the children. Personally I am of the opinion that we will get very little in the way of ‘finds’ and at the same time I must confess that the area has not been scientifically studied . . . Of course I shall be only too happy to show your assistant (Mr. O’Riordain) anything that he thinks will yield a ‘find’. I wish that all credit for the local stone-axes be given to Mr. John Brady of Mweeloon who gave J. O’Shea [of the Ordnance Survey] a splendid stone axe three years ago . . . Mr. Brady tells me that he has a splendid specimen buried in the ground in front of his house ‘lest he be tempted to give it away’ but he would not be opposed to getting it dug up again if we approach him properly (MNI File 1933:1275). It was suggested by one of the collectors (MNI File 1933:583) at the time that there may have been an axe factory there, akin to Fisherstreet, Co. Clare, which had been discussed by Knowles (1904). O’Riordain visited the area, and in a map hand-drawn by him, he showed where axes had been thrown into the sea before it was realised what they were*and that people in the Dublin museum would pay good money for them. Soon after the visit another

Pl. II*Selection of axes from Ballynacourty Parish.

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Coastal communities in earlier prehistoric Ireland letter arrived to Mahr from Ua Rı´oghardaı´n on behalf of a finder. Here he commented that the finder ‘would have dumped it into the sea with the other stones but had heard that the school-master was sending them away and getting money for them’ (MNI File 1933:1275). After a few years, however, the axes had begun to lose their initial appeal and the price dropped to 5 shillings. Mahr received the following letter from a collector, clearly outraged by this decline in value and in interest: Dear Dr. Mahr, I was shocked to receive the stone axe back and according to your letter you abuse it very badly. There can be no doubt it is not [sic] an axe as I have the decision of experts on the matter. I am afraid my interest is beginning to fade away (MNI File 1936:1972). By 1939 the museum had grown weary of the Tawin axes and a local collector received the following reply from Mahr: Dear Mr. Holland, As you are probably aware, I have practically given up collecting these stone axes from your district which repeat themselves with such monotony and have long ago ceased to be of any scientific or archaeological interest except that, naturally, they continue to be of some purely local interest’ (MNI File 1939:158). In another correspondence Mahr chides the diggers for sending mere stones, and tells them to stop wasting their money and his time sending stones unless they are absolutely sure they are axes; he mentions that there is a big pile of stones somewhere in Dublin onto which all the dubious finds were dumped (MNI File 1939: 158). Not surprisingly, the flow of axes going to Dublin dried up after this. So we can see that the museum actively discouraged further axes being sent, and the true number of axes is under-recorded. Therefore, a third of County Galway’s axes come from this parish*a considerable concentration given the size of the area. As mentioned, nothing else was recovered from the area, except for a clay pipe and a grindstone. A strong possibility why nothing else was found has to do with visibility: the glacial till in the area is abundant in chert, a lot of it high-quality, dark-blue to black chert. With this backdrop of chert it is not surprising that worked pieces were over-looked, if indeed they were actively looked for in the first place. There was no mention in the correspondence at the time of looking for material other than axes. While researchers like Knowles (1889) had noted that non-flint artefacts such as chert should be focused on during collecting, most researchers maintained a bias for flint when it came to their interest in flaked stone tools (see discussion in Driscoll 2009b). Moreover, when the axes were found it was during the process of clearing stones, and therefore the only stones they were picking up were the larger ones they had to clear. The axes*with a distinctive shape and larger in size*are more easily identifiable when walking the ploughed fields, and smaller items, such as scrapers and flakes, were ignored, especially if one was not actively looking for chert artefacts. Therefore, the 37

Killian Driscoll material was there but there was no clear direction given by the National Museum in the 1930s towards walking the fields, when so much was under tillage. From this we can see patently some of the biases at play in the distribution of material. When local collectors were encouraged to identify and report material to the museum, greater concentrations of material were found there: conversely, when the museum actively discouraged the reporting of further material, less and less artefacts were recorded.

Methodology

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The fieldwork was undertaken in 2005 in order to investigate whether other material culture besides stone axes was apparent in an area with a high density of stone axes and a complementary concentration of prehistoric monuments. The initial phase of fieldwalking involved an intensive, systematic inspection of the eroding cliff faces and erosion scars in adjoining fields. Once the availability of plough fields was identified, the second phase involved a systematic ploughzone survey of selected fields, with an intensive survey of a small sample of fields in order to determine the degree of lithic visibility in the area. The utility of ploughzone surveys has been well documented (e.g. Lewarch and O’Brien 1981; Schofield 1991; Zvelebil et al. 1992; Bintliff et al. 2000). Regional surveys such as the Bally Lough Project (Zvelebil et al. 1992) and the Lough Swilly Survey (Kimball 2000) have covered large areas, with the latter sampling an area of 300km2 and walking 430ha; Brady’s (2007) local survey of the Newgrange environs covered a small area but surveyed a large proportion of the available tilled fields (for an extended discussion on Irish ploughzone surveys see Brady 2007). The Bally Lough Project states that they ‘as a rule’ (Zvelebil et al. 1992, 201) walked during 5m intervals, and ‘approximately’ 5m intervals (Zvelebil et al. 1992, 208), suggesting a coverage rate of 40 per cent for each field walked. However, this was not explicitly stated. The Lough Swilly Survey*designed to compare results with the Bally Lough Project*states clearly that a coverage of 20 per cent was maintained, using the traverse and stint method, implying that they invariably covered more than 20 per cent when a possible sizable scatter was found (Kimball 2000, 15). For both surveys, one of the reasons for the regional scale was to look at differing geomorphological locations, and to sample these for comparative purposes. However, aims of the systematic ploughzone survey were different*the main aim was to ascertain whether the axes that had been found over the years were the sole type of find in the area, or whether a more varied range of types was overlooked; a second aim was to ascertain whether a Mesolithic and an Early Neolithic presence could be detected. As I was the sole surveyor involved, by necessity the area covered was comparatively small. Ballynacourty Parish is a little less than 23km2, with a small proportion of the land under tillage. Tillage had previously played a greater role in farming life there, but it has become all but uneconomical in the last generation. It was decided to survey the fields to a greater degree than the previously mentioned surveys had*most fields were walked at a coverage of 66.6 per cent, with three walked at 100 per cent coverage as a sample. Arguably, a lesser coverage could have been chosen, and more fields walked, but it was decided to look at a smaller area more

Coastal communities in earlier prehistoric Ireland carefully as the main issue was lithic visibility as opposed to deducing socioeconomic-ecologic positioning in the landscape. The choice of fields to walk was determined by a number of considerations. Firstly, townlands with previous axe finds were targeted, and two townlands (Knockawuddy and Stradbally West) with no previous axe finds were also chosen as a comparison. Secondly, fields from a range of topographical locations were chosen, such as hilltops, lowlands and fields that were directly coastal and estuarine (Figure 2). Finally, the decision was ultimately dictated by the land under tillage at the time of the survey. In total, seventeen fields were walked in ten townlands covering about 25ha. Table 3 provides the codes allocated to each field, the field size and average finds per hectare, and the names of the townlands. The lithics were analysed macroscopically, using a standard technological descriptive system (Inizan et al. 1999), an Irish typological system (Woodman et al. 2006) and a quartz analytical system (Driscoll 2010b); the axes were recorded using the Irish Stone Axe Project system (Cooney and TABLE 3*Summary of fields walked. Average finds per hectare in brackets is the adjusted rate to 66 per cent for fields walked at 100 per cent. Some fields do not have average finds per hectare: artefacts from SW3 were originally collected by Carleton Jones; TW1 was originally walked during the assessment stage and its finds are marked as TW1(1); TW2 was also walked during the assessment stage.

Townland Ballynacloghy

Field # Scraper Retouched

BCY1 BCY2 Ballynacourty BTY1 BTY2 Ballynamanagh BW West Knockawuddy KW Mweeloon MW1 MW2 Prospecthill PL Stradbally West SW1 SW2 SW3 Tawin East Erosion scar Tawin West TW1 TW1(1) TW2 TW3 Treanlaur TR1 TR2 Total

Other

Average Total finds finds per ha

3 6 6 14 2

4 3 7 9 3

   1 axe 

22 33 35 60 16

1 10 30 31 1 6 3 

2 12 11 11 2 6  

   2 axe  1 axe  

6 1  1 2 10

4 1 4 5 1 5

133

90

     1 arrowhead 5

Field size ha

29.3 33 17.5 24 16

0.75 1 2 2.5 1

28 91 84 175 37 39 39 6

14 91 76.4 76.1 (50.7) 26.4 13 N/A 

2 1 1.1 2.3 1.4 3  

28 18 20 38 14 49

23.3 (15.5) N/A N/A 76 (50.6) 11.6 24.5

1.2 1.2 0.5 0.5 1.2 2

800

32.9 (av.)

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Killian Driscoll Mandal 1998). Given that the lithics were collected from the ploughzone, caution was used in the identification of retouched artefacts. All dimensions are rounded to the nearest millimetre. The finds were recorded in an Access software database for integration with Geographical Information System (GIS) data from Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI) and the Sites and Monuments Record (SMR) digitised dataset. The radiocarbon dates cited have been calibrated to cal BC using the Oxcal 4.1 and the Intcal09 curve (Bronk Ramsey 2009).

Lithic analysis

Raw materials and condition The 800 lithics collected were almost exclusively chert. The only other materials were one flint scraper, one vein quartz core and four shale axes. Almost twothirds of the chert is black, with 30 per cent dark-blue, and a minor proportion of grey to dark-grey to dark-blue/grey. Only eight lithics (six cores and two flakes) show signs of use of chert beach cobbles, suggesting the quarrying of chert or use of glacially moved sources; as noted above, limestone bearing chert is available to the south of the parish, and numerous field walls in the parish contain large beds of chert. While Cretaceous flint cobbles have been identified through dredging off the Irish west coast (see McCartan et al. 2004) the near lack of flint suggests that little flint was imported into the area. The source of shale for the axes is unclear, with lower limestone shale found about 20km to the south-east (Pracht and McConnell 2004). Knowles (1904) suggested that the coastal site at Fisherstreet, Co. Clare, about 50km to the south-west may have been a source of shale, and Cooney and Mandall (1998) commented that shale also outcrops close to Killaloe (where hundreds of shale axes have been recovered), about 70km to the south-east of the present study area. Cooney et al. (2011b), in a review of the Irish Stone Axe Project, note that shale as a resource is significantly greater than was indicated in the project’s 1998 monograph, and that the majority of shale appears to be formed on water rolled cobbles, rather than quarried from primary sources. Almost all of the lithics are in an abraded condition and most exhibit edge damage, highlighting the ploughzone provenance. Only a few of the lithics are weathered to a great extent, but many of the pieces have small holes, evidence of the weathering out of fossil inclusions in the chert. Over half of the lithics are broken. While many of these breaks relate to accidents during manufacture or use, many are probably due to taphonomic processes*63 per cent of the non-modified flakes are broken, while 53 per cent of the modified pieces are broken.

Technology Cores The flaked-stone component comprises the bulk of the assemblage (Table 4 and Figure 4). Bipolar cores slightly outnumber platform cores, but given that bipolar knapping will produce multiple bipolar cores from each original 40

Coastal communities in earlier prehistoric Ireland TABLE 4*Artefacts: by type and modified/non-modified.

Artefact Debitage

Debitage Total Core

Core Total Retouched piece Axe Axe Total Grand Total

Class Flake Blade Bipolar flake Debris Bipolar core Bipolar on platform core Multiplatform core Single platform core Dual opposed core Dual right angled core Platform core Retouched piece Axe Flake

Nonmodified

Modified

Possible modified

Total

Total %

404 13 23 28 468 42 2

199 8   207 8 

12   2 14 1 

615 21 23 30 689 51 2

76.9 2.6 2.9 3.8 86.1 6.4 0.3

19

1



20

2.5

15





15

1.9

4

1



5

0.6

4





4

0.5

3 89 

 10 7

 1 

3 100 7

0.4 12.5 0.9

   557

3 1 4 228

   15

3 1 4 800

0.4 0.1 0.5 100.0

nucleus, this would suggest that the technological practices were dominated by platform knapping*there are a couple of examples of bipolar knapping of platform cores. Multiplatform cores are the predominant platform core, with slightly less single platform cores and lesser quantities of dual opposed and dual right-angled cores. None are blade cores, which corresponds to the minor amount of blades in the assemblage. Almost a quarter of the bipolar cores are fragments, while all but three of the platform cores are complete. The bipolar cores are on average the smallest core types, but a selection of single and multiplatform cores are amongst the smallest (Figure 4); the majority of the single platform cores are clustered in the mid-range size with a relatively low standard deviation (Table 5 and Figure 5). Overall, the size range of the bipolar and platform cores suggests that only in a few instances were they worked to exhaustion. While direct percussion and pressure-flaking techniques have been studied since the nineteenth century, the bipolar technique has only been widely recognised since the mid-twentieth century (see review in Johnson et al. 1978). Its widespread recognition in Irish assemblages was slower, with, for example, Herity (1987) not mentioning bipolar artefacts in his discussion on finds from Irish court tombs, nor Grogan and Eogan (1987) in their discussion on the 41

Killian Driscoll

FIG. 4*286: single platform core; 755: multiplatform core; 696: bipolar core; 492: convex scraper on bipolar core; 333: convex end scraper; 75: concave scraper; 343 and 130: disk scrapers; 776: arrowhead; 502: Mesolithic retouched point.

Neolithic and Bronze Age lithics from Lough Gur. O’Hare (2005, 306, 316) has argued that bipolar knapping ‘is a temporal marker for the whole of the Bronze Age in Ireland’ and the Bronze Age was ‘fully’ bipolar, with this shift tied to the Helka 4 event of 2345 BC. However, bipolar knapping was an integral part of the lithic technology from the beginning of the Neolithic, as seen at the excavations of Early Neolithic structures such as at Corbally (Brady 2001; Purcell 2002), 42

Coastal communities in earlier prehistoric Ireland TABLE 5*Dimensions for main core types: complete cores (mm and ratio). Core type Bipolar core (n 39) Multiplatform core (n 20) Single platform core (n 15) Total (n 74)

Median Std deviation Median Std deviation Median Std deviation Median Std deviation

L

W

LW Ratio

T

32.0 7.9 44.0 11.1 42.0 6.0 37.5 9.7

23.0 6.6 33.5 6.3 30.0 3.8 27.5 7.7

1.5 0.4 1.3 0.2 1.4 0.3 1.4 0.4

12.0 3.9 26.5 7.8 24.0 5.6 18.5 8.8

Newport (Milliken Forthcoming), Thornhill (Nelis 2004; Driscoll 2010b), Cloghers and Tankardstown (Woodman et al. 2006). Bipolar reduction has often been viewed as an inefficient, expedient, ad hoc technology needing a low level of skill to use (e.g. Ahler 1989; Peterson 1990), some going as far as to describe it as unconventional (e.g. O’Hare 2005). However, bipolar knapping is not necessarily just a ‘smash-it-and-see’ technique (see O’Hare 2005, 305). Rather, experimental research has shown that bipolar knapping can be a controlled, considered strategy for producing stone tools (e.g. Flenniken 1981; Knutsson 1988; Low 1997; Driscoll 2010b); Callahan (1987) has argued that while the technique can be seen as simple, it shouldn’t be seen as simplistic. Moreover, while the use of a bipolar technique is often discussed in terms of material constraints, or in terms of a degradation in knapping skills, others have suggested a more complicated picture in which social motives were also involved, with some cultures abandoning the bipolar technique (see Lindgren 2003).

Non-modified debitage The non-modified debitage is dominated by platform flakes, with few platform blades and few bipolar flakes (Table 4). Overall, the non-modified debitage is dominated by primary- and secondary-stage flakes, suggesting that the assemblage represents in situ knapping rather than the importation of blanks, as does the high quantity of cores; for the three debitage types, a greater proportion of the tertiary subset are fragments, and this may suggest a greater degree of breakage during use rather than knapping breaks (Fig. 6). The debitage is dominated by broken flakes and blades, and the debitage* especially the blades*range greatly in size (Table 6 and Figures 7 and 8). The complete flakes range from 12mm to 61mm in length with a median length of 27mm, while the complete blades range from 31mm to 58mm with a median length of 44mm; the complete bipolar flakes range from 15mm to 33mm with a median length of 24mm. Figure 8 highlights that the complete flakes generally fall around a length:width ratio of 1:1 with only a small proportion close to a 2:1 (i.e blade) ratio, while the bipolar flakes are relatively narrower and thinner. 43

Killian Driscoll

FIG. 5*Complete cores. Length by width and thickness by width.

Modified artefacts Of the flaked stone component 28 per cent are modified. This includes ten modified cores and seven retouched pieces (‘retouched pieces’ being artefacts 44

Coastal communities in earlier prehistoric Ireland

FIG. 6*Reduction stage for complete and fragmented flakes, blade, and bipolar flakes. Labelled numbers count per stage.

that are not directly identifiable as cores or flakes, but retouched). The assemblage contained one broken arrowhead (L 25, W 18, T 5) with rectilinear and convex, bifacial retouch (Figure 4, :776), a retouched point (L 53, W 24, T 12) with abrupt invasive retouch, and a Later Mesolithic retouched point (L 140, W 33, T 14) formed on a large blade (Figure 4, :502). Scrapers account for 60 per cent of the modified types, with 40 per cent general retouched artefacts (Table 7). Nearly half of the diagnostic scrapers are convex-end scrapers (n 46) (Figure 4, :333), and half of these are broken. The majority have direct, short, abrupt, distal retouch with some retouch continuing down one or either lateral edge and a number having retouch on all but the proximal end; i.e. similar to the smaller disk scrapers; a couple have invasive retouch, while another couple have alternate retouch. Half are formed on plunging terminations, a strategy noted in other Neolithic assemblages for convex scrapers (see Nelis 2004; Driscoll 2010a, 2010b). The complete examples form short, wide, thick scrapers (Figure 9 and Table 8). Nearly a quarter of the scrapers are concave scrapers (n 22) (Figure 4, :75), with direct, short, abrupt, TABLE 6*Dimensions for flakes and blades (mm and ratio). Debitage Complete

Bipolar flake (n 7) Blade (n 5) Flake (n 156)

Fragment

Bipolar flake (n 16) Blade (n 8) Flake (n 260)

Median Std deviation Median Std deviation Median Std deviation Median Std deviation Median Std deviation Median Std deviation

L

W

LW Ratio

T

24.0 6.0 44.0 10.2 27.0 9.7 21.0 5.6 31.5 9.1 24.0 7.3

15.0 6.1 22.0 5.2 25.0 8.5 18.5 5.6 14.0 3.2 22.0 7.4

1.4 0.3 2.1 0.3 1.0 0.3 1.1 0.4 2.1 0.4 1.1 0.4

5.0 4.1 10.0 2.6 8.0 4.3 4.5 3.0 7.0 2.8 7.0 3.3

45

Killian Driscoll

FIG. 7*Non-modified flakes length histogram. Top: complete flakes. Bottom: broken flakes.

lateral or distal left/right retouch the most common, but numerous examples of semi-abrupt retouch and inverse or alternate retouch. There is one example of a double concave scraper and one concave scraper is formed on a bipolar core. The concave scrapers are generally longer, narrower and thinner than the convex-end scrapers, with a couple formed on blades. The flake scrapers are generally of a similar size to the convex-end scrapers, but with direct, short, abrupt or semi-abrupt, convex-retouch on the lateral edge; a number have 46

Coastal communities in earlier prehistoric Ireland

FIG. 8*Complete flakes and blades. Length by width and thickness by width. Reference lines at 2:1 and 1:1.

inverse retouch. The disk scrapers’ retouch ranges from short to invasive, with almost all having direct, abrupt retouch on all but the proximal end (Figure 4, : 343 and :130). Similar to the convex-end scrapers, nearly half have retouch on plunging terminations. The two examples of end-of-blade scrapers are broken. The 32 non-diagnostic scrapers are primarily comprised of broken scrapers and 47

Killian Driscoll TABLE 7*Modified artefact categories and proportion broken. Diagnostic Type Convex end scraper Scraper Concave scraper Flake scraper Disk scraper End of blade scraper Retouched point Arrowhead Retouch/wear mark Total

Count

%

Broken %

46 32 22 21 10 2 2 1 88 224

20.5 14.3 10.3 9.4 4.5 0.9 0.9 0.4 39.3 100.0

50.0 65.6 50.0 61.9 30.0 100.0 50.0 0.0 51.1 53.1

FIG. 9*Complete and broken scrapers. Reference lines at 2:1 and 1:1.

are difficult to assign to a type, but also include seven convex scrapers formed on cores. Overall, eight cores*seven bipolar and one platform*were formed as scrapers (Figure 4, :492). One non-diagnostic scraper has rectilinear retouch on the distal end and is retouched to a point. The three axes and one flake from an axe are all shale. One is a lower portion of an axe (L 62, W 69, T 18) with a narrow oval cross section and flat sides, an asymmetrical, thin-blade profile, and has a curved, markedly asymmetrical edge shape. One is an upper portion of an axe (L 62, W 59, T 19) with a narrow oval cross section and flattened sides, and has a damaged butt; the damage on the butt is formed by a couple of large flake removals. The last is an upper portion of an adze (L 78, W 54, T 24) with a narrow oval cross section and one flat side, an asymmetrical, medium profile, and a rounded butt in plan and profile. The flake from an axe (L 35, W 37, T 13) is a large flake from the face of an axe. 48

Coastal communities in earlier prehistoric Ireland TABLE 8*Dimensions for scrapers (mm and ratio). Diagnostic Type Concave scraper (n 11) Convex end scraper (n 23) Disk scraper (n 7) Flake scraper (n 8) Scraper (n 11) Total (n 60)

Median Std deviation Median Std deviation Median Std deviation Median Std deviation Median Std deviation Median Std deviation

L

W

LW Ratio

T

29.0 8.9 25.0 5.2 23.0 5.3 29.0 3.4 32.0 8.3 27.0 7.1

25.0 6.7 25.0 7.8 24.0 5.2 22.5 7.9 31.0 7.5 25.0 7.4

1.3 0.5 1.1 0.2 0.9 0.3 1.2 0.4 1.1 0.3 1.1 0.3

8.0 3.7 10.0 2.9 9.0 2.4 10.0 4.2 11.0 4.1 10.0 3.5

Chronology The assemblage contains Later Mesolithic to Bronze Age material, with the bulk of the assemblage probably dating to the Late Neolithic/Bronze Age. As with most lithic assemblages, however, the vast majority of the lithics from Ballynacourty cannot be assigned to a particular time-period: as noted by Dolan and Cooney (2010), in Ireland even lithic assemblages from excavations have a lower chronological resolution than in Britain. The direct percussion and bipolar knapping techniques were used throughout the later prehistoric period, with bipolar becoming more prevalent during the Bronze Age (Woodman et al. 2006). It is stated above that in Ireland the use of the bipolar technique is seen from the beginning of the Neolithic, with rare instances in the Mesolithic (e.g. Woodman et al. 1999; Driscoll and Warren, forthcoming). For the scrapers, the small disc scrapers are Bronze Age (Woodman et al. 2006); Woodman et al. (2006, 160) have cautioned, however, that not all small, circular scrapers can be assigned to the Bronze Age, suggesting that one needs to compare assemblages from roughly the same locality to identify chronological differences. On this basis, the small disc scrapers from Ballynacourty compare broadly with the Bronze Age assemblage from Roughan Hill (pers. ob.; Jones 1998). Concave scrapers are ‘more or less’ an Irish phenomenon dating from the Middle Neolithic and stopping in the Late Neolithic (Bergh 2009). For the concave scrapers, and debitage in general, the assemblage only has rare occurrences of blades, which may imply a later assemblage than the Middle Neolithic (Woodman et al. 2006). While concave scrapers are common in the assemblage, hollow scrapers are conspicuous by their absence.

Spatial analysis The largest concentration of finds came from Tawin Island and the ridge running from Mweeloon on the mainland towards the island (Figures 2 and 10). Overall, the average finds per hectare was 33, while the average finds 49

Killian Driscoll for the fields with the greatest concentration (PL, MW1 and MW2 TW, see Table 3 for all field name codes) ranged from 51 to 91 finds per hectare. The density of finds does not correlate with the proportion of cores or primary-stage material*the fields with the highest proportion of cores and primary-stage artefacts are the fields with the lowest density of finds on the southern side of the survey area, while the fields in the northern area have a high proportion of cores but a relatively low proportion of primary-stage artefacts (Figure 10). All the fields produced at least one core, with an average of six cores per field; most had a mix of bipolar and platform cores, but the two fields in Ballynacloghy had platform cores only, while two fields on Tawin Island and one in Stradbally had bipolar cores only. For the distribution of scrapers, they accounted for less than 3 per cent of the field’s assemblage to 36 per cent at MW2 (Figure 11). Generally, the concave scrapers were more dominant on the southern side of the parish, while scrapers formed on cores were more common on the northern side*the majority of the scrapers on cores were convex scrapers but one concave scraper from MW2 was formed on a core. In general, the disk scrapers were more commonly found on the western side of the parish but were not found in all the fields there; one was found across the bay at SW3. Nearly half of all the finds came from two adjoining fields in Mweeloon (22 per cent of total) and one field in Prospecthill (22 per cent of total). The adjoining fields in Mweeloon lie between 3m and 10m OD with the top of the fields relatively flat, then quickly sloping moderately to steeply and levelling out towards the bottom of the field to the sea, sloping west and north-west*the shore was 10m away. From the top of the fields, Tawin Island lay ahead to the west, and the skyline was dominated by the Clare (Burren) hills to the southwest, and to the north by Galway city and its environs and the Connemara mountains behind. While these two fields had similar proportions of primarystage non-modified flakes and artefact fragmentation, MW2 had, proportionally, more cores, bipolar cores and bipolar flakes than MW1 but less blades. MW2 had almost double the proportion of modified artefacts than MW1, and while nearly three quarters of MW2’s modified artefacts were scrapers, less than half of MW1’s were. About a kilometre east along the same ridge is the field in Prospecthill. This field lies on the crest of a low hill (12m to 16m OD) in undulating land, and slopes gently westwards and more steeply to the north and south, and overlooks the portal tomb in the valley basin (Figure 2). Compared to the Mweeloon finds, there was a greater degree of fragmentation and the cores were dominated by bipolar cores but relatively few bipolar flakes and no blades; there were less primary non-modified flakes. While the proportion of modified artefacts was similar to MW1, it had a similar ratio of scrapers to retouched artefacts to MW2. This field contained the one diagnostic Later Mesolithic artefact from the assemblage*the possibility of some of the axes and other artefacts being Mesolithic notwithstanding*and also contained two of the four assemblage’s axes. Based on the coastline model for the Later Mesolithic (Figure 3), this find would have been about two kilometres from the shore, and three kilometres from the nearest river. 50

Coastal communities in earlier prehistoric Ireland

FIG. 10*Top: average finds per hectare Middle: proportion of primary stage artefacts. Bottom: proportion of cores of total finds per field; text where bipolar or platform cores only occurred.

The assemblage in Mesolithic evidence in the mid-west has been limited (see Driscoll 2006 for discussion), with a number of finds from along the River Corrib close to the bay context (Figure 12). While one definitive Mesolithic artefact from the area may not appear to represent extensive activity in the area, it should be remembered that 51

Killian Driscoll

FIG. 11*Top: proportion of scrapers of total finds per field; text notes certain types. Bottom proportional pie charts for scraper types per field; text where scrapers on cores occurred.

just one lithic was noted in excavations on the Liffey where dating of fish traps provided evidence for Mesolithic activity spanning at least 200 years (McQuade and O’Donnell 2007). Therefore, even one lithic artefact may represent many generations of landscape inhabitation. The conjectured sea-level change for inner Galway Bay highlights the extent to which the Early and Later Mesolithic landscapes around the coast are now submerged, with a slowing down of the sea-level rise towards the end of the Mesolithic. The Mesolithic find from Prospecthill therefore extends the known Mesolithic activity further along the bay, with the modelled shoreline positing that at the time the finds at Prospecthill and the River Corrib would have been a shorter, direct walk apart 52

Coastal communities in earlier prehistoric Ireland

FIG. 12*Distribution of surface/non-excavated finds for general area; text excavations mentioned in text.

by land, instead of the present-day circuitous route around the bay (Figure 3). Since the survey, a Later Mesolithic blade point was uncovered during the excavations of an Early Bronze Age dated burnt mound, at Caherweelder 6 (Hegarty and Delaney 2010). This burnt mound is on the edge of a former turlough a couple of kilometres from the Kilcolgan River, which flows in Dunbulcaun Bay; during the Mesolithic period the river would have flowed due south of the Prospecthill find, entering the bay further to the west (Figure 3). Of course, it would be inappropriate to regard the bay as an obstacle for communication and transport during the Mesolithic and the later prehistoric period*the predominance of water-based contexts for Mesolithic evidence in Ireland highlights the extent to which watercraft would have been central in the lives of the Mesolithic communities, with the bay and rivers serving as conduits for movement across the landscape. Following the coast northwards, there is intermittent evidence for Mesolithic activity in Connemara, north County Mayo, and into County Donegal and the north coast (Driscoll 2006), as well as more extensive evidence along the Shannon system from Lough Allen (Driscoll 2009a) at the top of the Shannon to Hermitage (Collins and Coyne 2003) towards the bottom of the river, including the recently excavated site at Ballynaclogh in east Galway (Dowd, pers. comm.). It is generally accepted that the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic in Ireland was initiated by the arrival of farming communities sometime around 4000 cal BC (Cooney et al. 2011a), bringing with them different plants, animals and material culture, and technology such as monumental architecture, pottery and stone tool kits and manufacturing techniques. While this broad point is recognised, the nuances of the 53

Killian Driscoll transition*e.g. how large scale was the population arrival, over what time period did communities migrate, what were the interactions between the new arrivals and the communities already present*are debated (e.g. Whittle 1996; Cooney 2007; Cooney et al. 2011a). Cooney (2007) has argued that the new technologies and resources brought to Ireland can be viewed as transported landscapes rather than individual entities. What is important to bear in mind is that these transported landscapes modified already existing Mesolithic physical and cultural lived-in landscapes (see Driscoll 2009a) in areas such as Ballynacourty. Given that Ireland is a small island with a large coastline, it is unsurprising that so much Neolithic monument building, settlement and activity took place close to the coast, and unsurprising that much has been written about the roles the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea played in prehistory ´ Nualla´in 1983, Burenhult 1984, Waddell 1991, (e.g. Herity and Eogan 1977, O Cunliffe 2001, Sheridan 2003, Fowler and Cummings 2004, Cooney 2007, ´ Nualla´in O’Sullivan and Breen 2007). In terms of megalithic structures, O (1983) noted that almost half of portal tombs are within 8km of the coast, while in Donegal 78 per cent of all megalithic tombs are within 3km of the coast and a third are within 1km (Cody 2002). For all of Ireland a fifth of the court, portal and passage tombs are within 2km of the coast, over a third are within 5km, and over half are within 10km (Table 9 and Fig. 13). In terms of settlement, of the 39 Early Neolithic house groups, a quarter are within 2km of the coast, over a third are within 5km, and nearly half are within 10km (Table 9). And in relation to other activity, there are various shell middens dating to the Neolithic (Burenhult 1984; Milner and Woodman 2007), stone axe production sites on Lambay Island, Dublin (Cooney 2007) and at Mad Man’s Window on the Antrim coast (Woodman 1992), Neolithic activity on the Shannon estuary (lithic, organic, and human remains (O’Sullivan 2001)) as well as coastal and near-coastal finds of lithics from non-excavated contexts (see Driscoll 2006, figs 5.43 and 6.3, passim for finds from the west of Ireland). Four Neolithic dugout canoes have been identified on the coast*two from Larne Lough, Antrim (36403370 cal BC and 36603380 cal BC (Fry 2000)), one from Strangford

TABLE 9*Distance of monuments and Early Neolithic houses from the coast. Monument data based and adapted from the SMR (anon. 2008) and NISMR (Anon. 2011) digitised datasets; passage tomb data adapted from Prendergast (pers. comm.). Neolithic house data based and adapted from Smyth (2006) and Driscoll (2010b).

Type

Total

Portal, court, passage 746 tombs Wedge tombs 526 Early Neolithic house 39 groups

54

B2 km

B 2 km %

B5 km

B 5km %

B 10 km

B 10 km %

154

20.6%

284

38.1%

385

51.6%

74 10

14.1% 25.6%

135 14

25.7% 35.6%

222 18

42.2% 46.2%

Coastal communities in earlier prehistoric Ireland

FIG. 13*Neolithic megaliths, houses/structures, and shell middens. Distribution of court, passage and portal tombs by distance from coast. Megalith data based and adapted from the SMR (Anon. 2008) and NISMR (Anon. 2011) digitised datasets; passage tomb data adapted from Prendergast (pers. comm.). Neolithic houses/structures data adapted from Smyth (2006) and Driscoll (2010b).

55

Killian Driscoll Lough, Down (3500302 cal BC (Forsythe and Gregory 2007)), and one from Galway Bay, mentioned above (c. 3800 cal BC). For the Bronze Age, however, a recent synthesis concludes that it is difficult to make statements concerning coastal exploitation (Murray 2007, 127). In terms of megaliths, there is a clear diminution in the coastal setting for wedge tombs in the Bronze Age (Table 9), and the evidence for settlement also shows a greater distancing from the coast (Cleary 2003; Cleary 2007; Doody 2000). Nevertheless, Caulfield et al. (2009) comment that in terms of ‘architectural sophistication and settlement complexity’ the most impressive of the Bronze Age settlements*with the authors citing Slievemore and Belderg Beg, Co. Mayo; Cappagh Beg, Corrstown, Knockdhu and Ballyprior Beg, Co. Antrim (see Ginn and Rathbone 2011)*are all located within 4km of the coast. As well as in the Neolithic, there is a continued formation of shell middens from the Bronze Age (Milner and Woodman 2007), and evidence for the use of estuarine locales (O’Sullivan 2001; O’Sullivan and Breen 2007). The coastal setting of the Neolithic and Bronze Age farming communities at Ballynacourty is paralleled on the west coast in north County Mayo (Caulfield 1983; Caulfield et al. 1998); Valencia Island, Co. Kerry (Mitchell 1989; Cooney et al. 2011a); and InishBofin, Inis Oı´rr, and Lough Sheeauns in County Galway (O’Connell and Molloy 2001). At both the Early Neolithic coastal farming sites in north Mayo and the Beaker/Bronze Age inland farming sites of the Burren such as Roughan Hill (Jones et al. 2011; see also the Parknabinnia court tomb (Jones 2003) and Poulnabrone portal tomb (Lynch and O Donnabha´in 1994) in the Burren for dates highlighting earlier occupation) there is evidence for the construction of megalithic monuments and field systems. At Ballynacourty, while portal and court tombs survive, other megalithic monuments have been destroyed and no evidence of prehistoric field systems has been found. While it can be conjectured that a similar settlement pattern of field systems existed at the time at Ballynacourty, O’Connell and Molloy (2001) note that no evidence for field systems was forthcoming for the Neolithic farming activity sealed by bog around Lough Sheeauns in Connemara. Therefore, while no direct evidence is available in Ballynacourty for the use of extensive field systems in the Neolithic and Bronze Age, the concentration of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments and sites such as the fulacht fia, added to the significant evidence from the stone axes and lithic scatters, nevertheless point to an extensive settlement in the area. Dolan and Cooney (2010) have commented that the proportion of modified to non-modified artefacts in coastal and inland surface collections is highly variable, mainly with coastal collections having a greater proportion of non-modified artefacts*with a range of between 3 per cent and 44 per cent and a median of 10 per cent. The present assemblage’s proportion of modified artefacts at 28 per cent is therefore in the upper range, nearly three times the median and four times the median for coastal collections. However, it must be borne in mind that Dolan and Cooney’s comments relate to flint assemblages, and it is unclear if a direct comparison with chert assemblages is applicable. The most common modified type in the Ballynacourty assemblage is the scraper, 56

Coastal communities in earlier prehistoric Ireland dominated by convex end scrapers and concave scrapers. Elsewhere, use wear analysis has suggested that larger convex scrapers were used on hide while smaller convex scrapers were used on wood; when reduced in size from resharpening, convex scrapers shifted from use as hide scrapers to wood scrapers, but there was no evidence for a shift from wood-working to hideworking as they were reduced in size (Bamforth and Woodman 2004). Hollow scrapers were used on wood and were often put to this use before a formal hollow was flaked into them; some of the hollow scrapers also had evidence for cutting of softer material (hide or plant) (Bamforth and Woodman 2004). That the hollow scrapers were used before the formal hollow was flaked into puts the non-diagnostic edge-retouched flakes in perspective*some of these may represent scrapers that, for whatever reason, were abandoned before attaining a formalised, identifiable retouch. More recently, use-wear analysis on concave scrapers has identified its usage as dry wood (Bergh pers. comm.), possibly related to arrow shaft production (Bergh 2009). Commenting on this use-wear analysis in relation to a large assemblage of concave scrapers from Knocknarea, Bergh (2009, 1101) has suggested that the functional attributions of this scraper type do not explain the emergence and subsequent disappearance of the concave form in the Neolithic: for its disappearance ‘the role and function of these rather specific tools may have been linked to a certain ideology or ritual behaviour, which ceased to be part of the habitual practices at this time . . . it is possible that the concave scraper had a role linked to the passage tombs’ ideology’ which also ceased at that time. Bergh’s interpretation highlights that it is difficult to draw a line between a sacred and mundane use of a given implement. An implement as ubiquitous as a scraper, found in seemingly ‘non-ritual’ places such as the fields of Ballynacourty Parish, is nevertheless intimately intertwined in the totality of ‘‘the stone tool users’ society.’’ This ‘sociality of technology’ (see Pfaffenberger 1988; Lemonnier 1993; Reynolds 1993; Dobres 2000; Ingold 2000) is of course not limited to a distinctive type such as the concave scraper, but rather involves the gamut of technological practices, of which the scraper was just one part, and includes non-modified flakes. Even though the assemblage contains a high proportion of modified artefacts compared to other large surface collections, the assemblage nevertheless contains hundreds of non-modified flakes. The lack of modification does not mean that all these flakes were necessarily ‘waste products’. A large corpus of ethnographic and use wear research has shown that nonmodified lithics were in fact tools (see Man 1883; White and Thomas 1972; Hayden 1979; Flenniken 1981; Symens 1986; Knutsson 1988; Odell 1994; Banks 1996; Kozlowski et al. 1996; Read and Russell 1996; Finlayson and McCartney 1998; Briels 2004; Hardy 2004; Setzer 2004; Shott and Sillitoe 2005; Akerman 2006; Hardy et al. 2008). Without a programme of use-wear analysis, however, it is impossible to quantify the extent of this non-modified flake use. While some researchers use a category of ‘utilised’ piece (e.g. Brady 2001; O’Hare 2005) to macroscopically identify use-wear, Young and Bamforth (1990, 408) have demonstrated that the macroscopic identification of use-wear*the ‘utilised’ 57

Killian Driscoll piece*has a very low success rate and they warn that macroscopic identification of use-wear should be carried out with ‘extreme caution if it must be carried out at all’. Moreover, attempts to qualify and quantify the use of non-modified artefacts as tools based on morphology*i.e. if it looks like it could have been a tool it probably was one (e.g. O’Hare 2005)*are tenuous. This means that many possible ‘tools’ in this and other assemblages remain unidentified, with the modified artefacts only representing one facet of the prehistoric tool kit. The stone axe component of the prehistoric tool kit was the tool type that stimulated the present research, with the high density of stone axes in this area having attracted the attention of scholars in the early twentieth century. Mahr (1937) cited the area in his formulation on the Riverford Culture, and later, Woodman et al. (1999) also considered the possibility that some of the Ballynacourty axes may be Mesolithic. While Woodman et al. (1999) have argued*citing the Ballynacourty Parish axes as examples*that Mesolithic axes used the natural cobble shape with minimal alteration, the Neolithic and Bronze Age assemblage from Lough Gur contains numerous examples of such minimally altered axes (O’Keeffe, pers. com.), therefore this characteristic is not useful as a chronological marker (Cooney et al. 2011b). The Early Mesolithic cremation at Hermitage on the Shannon, which contained a large, polished shale axe (Collins and Coyne 2003; ISAP 2006), highlights that finely crafted polished axes were a part of technological and ritual practices of the Mesolithic communities. Given the breadth of Neolithic and Bronze Age flaked stone artefacts in Ballynacourty Parish, it would seem likely that the majority of the axes are of a similar chronology; nevertheless, it is difficult to discern typological and technological differences between Mesolithic and post-Mesolithic axes. Some of the axes, however, are distinctive. The Group VI tuff axe from the area (Garraun Lower) is part of a corpus of such Neolithic axes found throughout Ireland, with Cooney and Mandall (1998, 11819) noting that the raw material for these may originate in Britain, suggesting long-distance trade and relations during the Neolithic.

Conclusion

58

The systematic ploughzone survey at Ballynacourty represents the first of its kind undertaken in the west of Ireland, and was at the time of collection the largest lithic assemblage from both excavated and non-excavated contexts in County Galway. One of the initial research questions posed was what further evidence for prehistoric settlement could be discerned in an area that contained a significant concentration of stone axes and a range of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments. The collection of 800 almost exclusively chert artefacts in an area that had witnessed keen archaeological interest and inspection during the twentieth century, but resulted in no chert artefacts being collected, highlights the significant biases in the archaeological record as it has been built over the years. The considerable proportion of bipolar artefacts in the assemblage reaffirms the integrity of this stone-working technique in prehistoric lithic traditions. Just as chert has previously been viewed by researchers as a secondrate material, the bipolar technique has often been seen as the poor cousin to direct percussion. However, the bipolar technique should not be seen as

Coastal communities in earlier prehistoric Ireland unconventional or an ad hoc strategy in the prehistoric manufacturing repertoire*while the bipolar technique may be simple that does not mean the technology was simplistic (Callahan 1987), and bipolar knapping should be viewed as a valid manufacturing technique in its own right. The predominance of chert, and almost entire lack of flint, in a ploughzone assemblage in Ireland is very unusual (see Brady 2007), but this pattern does match assemblages from excavated contexts from the west of Ireland such as Roughan Hill, Co. Clare (Jones 1998), Knocknarea, Co. Sligo (Bergh 2009), and the Ce´ide Fields, Co. Mayo (Driscoll 2010a), highlighting the important role that this material played in prehistory, and not simply as an alternative to flint. While the extent of the present survey is of a much smaller scale than other ploughzone surveys on the east coast or in the south such as the Boyne Valley survey or the Bally Lough survey, the results of the targeted research question*why only stone axes from this area contribute to the picture drawn of prehistoric communities along the west coast, from the Mesolithic to the Bronze Age.

Acknowledgements The fieldwork was undertaken as part of an M Litt thesis funded by a National University of Ireland, Galway, Arts Faculty Fellowship for M Litt Research. Thank you to Stefan Bergh for supervising the M Litt. Thank you to Graeme Warren and Carleton Jones for commenting on the initial draft of the paper, and to the anonymous reviewers for their critiques. This paper was finalised while Killian Driscoll held a Spanish Ministry of Education Postdoctoral Fellowship for Foreign Researchers, part funded by HAR2011-26193 research projects of the MICINN and the Quality Research Group of the Generalitat de Catalunya SGR2009-1145 based at SERP (Seminari d’Estudis i Recerques Prehisto`riques), University of Barcelona.

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