Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The potential role of humans in structuring the wooded landscapes of Mesolithic Ireland: a review of data and discussion of approaches

  • Review
  • Published:
Vegetation History and Archaeobotany Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper has two primary aims. Firstly, we review new data demonstrating interactions between people, plants, animals and woodlands in Mesolithic Ireland (ca. 8000–4000 cal. b.c.). This includes a synthesis of evidence from archaeological fishtraps, plant macrofossils, palynological indications of disturbance, and large mammal records. Secondly, we suggest that the potential role of humans in structuring the wooded landscape of the island of Ireland has been underestimated and is a key area for future research; Ireland may be an important case study for understanding the role of hunter-gatherers in influencing ecological relationships at the landscape scale. The new data demonstrate that existing models of the role of humans in structuring the wooded landscapes of Ireland are inadequate, and we suggest that new models are required.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alley RB, Mayewski PA, Sowers T, Stuiver M, Taylor KC, Clark PU (1997) Holocene climatic instability: a prominent, widespread event 8,200 years ago. Geology 25:483–486

    Google Scholar 

  • Andersen ST, Rasmussen KL (1993) Radiocarbon wiggle-dating of elm declines in northwest Denmark and their significance. Veget Hist Archaeobot 2:125–135

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson MK (2006) Tending the wild: native American knowledge and the management of California’s natural resources. University of California Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Archaeological Services University of Durham (2009) Appendix 17: environmental report. In: Mossop M, Mossop E (eds) Report on the archaeological excavation of Clowanstown 1. Co. Meath. http://www.m3motorway.ie/Archaeology/Section2/Clowanstown1/file,16720,en.pdf. Accessed 14 Nov 2012

  • Bayliss A, Woodman PC (2009) A new Bayesian chronology for Mesolithic occupation at Mount Sandel, Northern Ireland. Proc Prehist Soc 75:101–123

    Google Scholar 

  • Behre K-E (2007) Collected seeds and fruits from herbs as prehistoric food. Veget Hist Archaeobot 17:65–73

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell M, Noble G (2012) Prehistoric woodland ecology. In: Jones AM, Pollard J, Allen MJ, Gardiner J (eds) Image, memory and monumentality: archaeological engagements with the modern world. Prehistoric Society and Oxbow, Oxford, pp 80–92

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernard V, Renaudin S, Marguerie D (2006) Evidence of trimmed oaks (Quercus sp.) in north western France during the early middle ages. In: Dufraisse A (ed) Charcoal analysis: new analytical tools and methods for archaeology. BAR Int Ser 1483, Oxford, pp 103–108

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyd M (2002) Identification of anthropogenic burning in the paleoecological record of the Northern Prairies: a new approach. Ann Assoc Am Geogr 92:471–487

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown AG (1997) Clearances and clearings: deforestation in Mesolithic/Neolithic Britain. Oxford J Archaeol 16:133–146

    Google Scholar 

  • Bye RA (1981) Quelites—ethnoecology of edible greens—past, present, and future. J Ethnobiol 1:109–123

    Google Scholar 

  • Carden RF, Carlin CM, Marnell F, McElholm D, Hetherington J, Gammell MP (2011) Distribution and range expansion of deer in Ireland. Mamm Rev 41:313–325

    Google Scholar 

  • Carden RF, McDevitt AD, Zachos FE, Woodman PC, O’Toole P, Rose H, Monaghan NT, Campana MG, Bradley DG, Edwards CJ (2012) Phylogeographic, ancient DNA, fossil and morphometric analyses reveal ancient and modern introductions of a large mammal: the complex case of red deer (Cervus elaphus) in Ireland. Quat Sci Rev 42:74–84

    Google Scholar 

  • Carruthers W (2000) The charred hazelnut shell and other plant remains. In: Mithen S (ed) Hunter-gatherer landscape archaeology: the Southern Hebrides Mesolithic project 1988–1998, vol 2: archaeological fieldwork on Colonsay, computer modelling, experimental archaeology, and final interpretations. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge, pp 407–415

    Google Scholar 

  • Chaix L, Bridault A, Picavet R (1997) A tamed brown bear (Ursus arctos L.) of the Late Mesolithic from La Grande-Rivoire (Isère, France)? J Archaeol Sci 24:1,067–1,074

    Google Scholar 

  • Christensen K (1997) Wood from fish weirs—forestry in the Stone Age. In: Pedersen L, Fischer A, Bent A (eds) The Danish Storebælt since the Ice Age. A/S Storebælt, Copenhagen, pp 147–156

    Google Scholar 

  • Coles JM, Darrah R (1977) Experimental investigations in hurdle making. Somerset Levels Papers 3:32–38

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooney G (2000) Landscapes of Neolithic Ireland. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooney G, Bayliss A, Healy F, Whittle A, Danaher E, Cagney L, Mallory J, Smyth J, Kador T, O’Sullivan M (2011) Ireland. In: Whittle A, Healy F, Bayliss A (eds) Gathering time: dating the early Neolithic enclosures of southern Britain and Ireland. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 562–669

    Google Scholar 

  • Copini P, Sass-Klaassen U, den Ouden J (2010) Coppice fingerprints in growth patterns of pedunculate oak (Quercus robur). In: Levanic T, Gricar J, Hafner P, Krajnc R, Jagodic S, Gärtner H, Heinrich I, Helle G (eds) TRACE—tree rings in archaeology, climatology and ecology, vol 8: proceedings of the dendrosymposium 2009. GFZ Potsdam, Potsdam, pp 54–60

    Google Scholar 

  • Crawford GW (2011) Advances in understanding early agriculture in Japan. Curr Anthropol 52:S331–S345

    Google Scholar 

  • Crone A (1987) Tree-ring studies and the reconstruction of woodland management practices in antiquity. In: Jacoby GC, Holmbneck JW (eds) Proceedings of the international symposium on ecological aspects of tree-ring analysis. U.S. Department of Energy, New York, pp 327–336

    Google Scholar 

  • Cross JR (2006) The potential natural vegetation of Ireland. Biol Environ 106B:65–116

    Google Scholar 

  • Cunningham P (2011) Caching your savings: the use of small-scale storage in European prehistory. J Anthropol Archaeol 30:135–144

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies AL, Tipping R (2004) Sensing small-scale human activity in the palaeoecological record: fine spatial resolution pollen analyses from Glen Affric. N Scotl Holocene 14:233–245

    Google Scholar 

  • Dietsch M-F (1996) Gathered fruits and cultivated plants at Bercy (Paris), a Neolithic village in a fluvial context. Veget Hist Archaeobot 5:89–97

    Google Scholar 

  • Driscoll K (2009) Constructing later mesolithic landscapes. In: Finlay N, McCartan S, Milner N, Wickham-Jones CJ (eds) From Bann flakes to Bushmills. Papers in honour of Professor Peter Woodman. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 101–112

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards KJ (1989) Meso-Neolithic vegetational impacts in Scotland and beyond: palynological considerations. In: Bonsall C (ed) The Mesolithic in Europe. John Donald, Edinburgh, pp 143–155

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards KJ, Berridge JMA (1994) The late quaternary vegetational history of Loch a’Bhogaidh, Rinns of Islay, S.S.S.I., Scotland. New Phytol 128:749–769

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards R, Brooks A (2008) The island of Ireland: drowning the myth of an Irish land-bridge. In: Davenport JJ, Sleeman DP, Woodman PC (eds) Mind the gap. Postglacial colonisation of Ireland. Irish Naturalists’ Journal, Dublin, pp 19–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards KJ, Mithen S (1995) The colonization of the Hebridean islands of Western Scotland: evidence from the palynological and archaeological records. World Archaeol 26:348–365

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards KJ, Ralston I (1984) Postglacial hunter-gatherers and vegetational history in Scotland. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 114:15–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards KJ, Schofield JE, Whittington G, Melton ND (2009) Palynology ‘on the edge’ and the archaeological vindication of a Mesolithic presence? The case of Shetland. In: Finlay N, McCartan S, Milner N, Wickham-Jones CJ (eds) From Bann flakes to Bushmills. Papers in honour of Professor Peter Woodman. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 113–123

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards CJ, Suchard MA, Lemey P, Welch JJ, Barnes I, Fulton TL, Barnett R, O’Connell TC, Coxon P, Monaghan N, Valdiosera CE, Lorenzen ED, Willerslev E, Baryshnikov GF, Rambaut A, Thomas MG, Bradley DG, Shapiro B (2011) Ancient hybridization and an Irish origin for the modern polar bear matriline. Curr Biol 21:1,251–1,258

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgerald M (2007) Catch of the day at Clowanstown, Co. Meath. Archaeol Irel 21:12–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Fossitt JA (1994) Late-glacial and Holocene vegetation history of western Donegal, Ireland. Biol Environ 94B:1–31

    Google Scholar 

  • Gearey BR, Hopla E-J, Marshall P (2010) Palynological analyses of deposits from Clowanstown I, Kilmainham 1c and Lismullin I: M3 Clonee to north of Kells motorway scheme. Unpublished technical report, Dublin

  • Germonpré M, Hämäläinen R (2007) Fossil bear bones in the Belgian Upper Paleolithic: the possibility of a proto bear-ceremonialism. Arct Anthropol 44:1–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghilardi B, O’Connell M (2013) Fine-resolution pollen-analytical study of Holocene woodland dynamics and land use in north Sligo, Ireland. Boreas 42:623–649

    Google Scholar 

  • Görannson H (1984) Pollen analytical investigations in the Sligo area. In: Burenhult G (ed) The archaeology of Carrowmore. Institute of Archaeology, University of Stockholm, Stockholm, pp 154–193

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall VA, Pilcher JR, Bowler M (1993) Pre-elm decline cereal-size pollen: evaluating its recruitment to fossil deposits using modern pollen rain studies. Biol Environ 93B:1–4

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton A, Bannon D (1985) Pollen analysis. In: Woodman PC (ed) Excavations at Mount Sandel 1973–77. HMSO, Belfast, pp 77–79

    Google Scholar 

  • Haneca K, Cufar K, Beeckman H (2009) Oaks, tree-rings and wooden cultural heritage: a review of the main characteristics and applications of oak dendrochronology in Europe. J Archaeol Sci 36:1–11

    Google Scholar 

  • Hather JG (1993) An archaeobotanical guide to root and tuber identification: vol 1, Europe and south west Asia. Oxbow, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Hather JG (2000) Archaeological parenchyma. Archetype Publications, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirons KR, Edwards KJ (1986) Events at and around the first and second Ulmus declines: palaeoecological investigations in Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland. New Phytol 104:131–153

    Google Scholar 

  • Holst D (2010) Hazelnut economy of early Holocene hunter-gatherers: a case study from Mesolithic Duvensee, northern Germany. J Archaeol Sci 37:2,871–2,880

    Google Scholar 

  • Huang CC (2002) Holocene landscape development and human impact in the Connemara uplands, western Ireland. J Biogeogr 29:153–165

    Google Scholar 

  • Huntley B (1993) Rapid early-Holocene migration and high abundance of hazel (Corylus avellana L.): alternative hypotheses. In: Chambers FM (ed) Climate change and human impact on the landscape. Chapman and Hall, London, pp 205–215

    Google Scholar 

  • Innes JB, Blackford JJ (2003) The ecology of Late Mesolithic woodland disturbances: model testing with fungal spore assemblage data. J Archaeol Sci 30:185–194

    Google Scholar 

  • Innes JB, Simmons IG (2000) Mid-Holocene charcoal stratigraphy, fire history and palaeoecology at North Gill, North York Moors, UK. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 164:151–165

    Google Scholar 

  • Innes JB, Blackford JJ, Simmons I (2010) Woodland disturbance and possible land-use regimes during the Late Mesolithic in the English uplands: pollen, charcoal and non-pollen palynomorph evidence from Bluewath Beck, North York Moors, UK. Veget Hist Archaeobot 19:439–452

    Google Scholar 

  • Innes JB, Blackford JJ, Rowley-Conwy PA (2013) Late Mesolithic and early Neolithic forest disturbance: a high resolution palaeoecological test of human impact hypotheses. Quat Sci Rev 77:80–100

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobi RM, Higham TFG (2011) The later upper palaeolithic recolonisation of Britain: new results from AMS radiocarbon dating. In: Ashton N, Lewis SG, Stringer C (eds) The ancient human occupation of Britain. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 223–247

    Google Scholar 

  • Jessen K (1936) Appendix 1: palaeobotanical report on the Stone Age site at Newferry, County Londonderry. Proc R Irish Acad 43C:31–37

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnston P (2011) Appendix 7: plant remains report. Eachtra J 10:295–306

    Google Scholar 

  • Kobayashi T (2004) Jomon reflections: forager life and culture in the prehistoric Japanese archipelago. Oxbow, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamb HH, Thompson A (2005) Unusual late-Holocene abundance of Ulmus in western Ireland—human impact in the absence of a pathogen? Holocene 15:447–452

    Google Scholar 

  • Larsson L (1990) Dogs in fraction: symbols in action. In: Vermeersch P, Van Peer P (eds) Contributions to the Mesolithic in Europe. Leuven University Press, Leuven, pp 153–160

    Google Scholar 

  • Lyons S (2006a) Appendix 7: soil sample analysis. Final report on archaeological investigations at Sites 21–23, in the townland of Granny, Co. Kilkenny. Unpublished technical report, Dublin

  • Lyons S (2006b) Appendix 7: Environmental report—soil sample analysis. Final report on archaeological investigations at Site 4 in the townland of Mullinabro, Co. Kilkenny. Unpublished technical report, Dublin

  • Lyons S (2006c) Appendix 4: Environmental report. Final report on archaeological investigations at Site 35 in the townland of Newrath, Co Kilkenny. Unpublished technical report, Dublin

  • Lyons S (2006d) Appendix 7: Environmental remains. Final report on archaeological investigations at Sites 36 & 37, in the townland of Newrath, Co. Kilkenny. Unpublished technical report, Dublin

  • Mac Coitir N (2006) Irish wild plants: myths, legend and folklore. Collins Press, Cork

    Google Scholar 

  • MacLean R (1993) Eat your greens: an examination of the potential diet available in Ireland during the Mesolithic. Ulster J Archaeol 56:1–8

    Google Scholar 

  • Marozas V, Racinskas J, Bartkevicius E (2007) Dynamics of ground vegetation after surface fires in hemiboreal Pinus sylvestris forests. Forest Ecol Manag 250:47–55

    Google Scholar 

  • Mason SLR (2000) Fire and Mesolithic subsistence—managing oaks for acorns in northwest Europe? Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 164:139–150

    Google Scholar 

  • Mason SLR, Hather JG (2000) Parenchymatous plant remains. In: Mithen S (ed) Hunter-gatherer landscape archaeology: the Southern Hebrides Mesolithic project 1988–1998, archaeological fieldwork on Colonsay, computer modelling, experimental archaeology, and final interpretations: vol 2. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge, pp 415–425

    Google Scholar 

  • Massei G, Genov PV (2004) The environmental impact of wild boar. Galemys 16:135–145

    Google Scholar 

  • McClatchie M (2008) Analysis of non-wood plant macro-remains: interim report, Derragh, Co. Longford, unpublished technical report for Discovery Programme, Dublin

  • McClatchie M (2010) Appendix 4: Archaeobotanical analysis on plant remains from Toome Bypass, County Antrim. The A6 Toome Bypass, Co. Antrim. Unpublished technical report, Belfast

  • McClatchie M (2011) Analysis of non-wood plant macro-remains, Belderrig, Co. Mayo. Unpublished technical report, Dublin

  • McComb AMG (2009) The ecology of hazel (Corylus avellana) nuts in Mesolithic Ireland. In: McCartan S, Schulting R, Warren GM, Woodman PC (eds) Mesolithic horizons: papers presented at the seventh international conference on the Mesolithic in Europe. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 225–231

    Google Scholar 

  • McComb AMG, Simpson D (1999) The wild bunch: exploitation of the hazel in prehistoric Ireland. Ulster J Archaeol 58:1–16

    Google Scholar 

  • McCormick F (2004) Hunting wild pig in the Late Mesolithic. In: Roche H, Grogan E, Bradley J, Coles J, Raftery B (eds) From megaliths to metals: essays in honour of George Eogan. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 1–5

    Google Scholar 

  • McCormick F (2007) Mammal bone studies from prehistoric Irish sites. In: Murphy EM, Whitehouse NJ (eds) Environmental archaeology in Ireland. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 77–101

    Google Scholar 

  • McLauchlan KK, Elmore AJ, Oswald WW, Sugita S (2007) Detecting open vegetation in a forested landscape: pollen and remote sensing data from New England, USA. Holocene 17:1,233–1,243

    Google Scholar 

  • McQuade M, O’Donnell L (2007) Late Mesolithic fish traps from the Liffey estuary, Dublin, Ireland. Antiquity 81:569–584

    Google Scholar 

  • McQuade M, O’Donnell L (2009) The excavation of Late Mesolithic fish trap remains from the Liffey Estuary, Dublin, Ireland. In: McCartan S, Schulting R, Warren GM, Woodman PC (eds) Mesolithic horizons: papers presented at the seventh international conference on the Mesolithic in Europe. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 889–894

    Google Scholar 

  • Mears R, Hillman GC (2007) Wild food. Hodder and Stoughton, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Mellars P (1976) Fire ecology, animal populations and man: a study of some ecological relationships in prehistory. Proc Prehist Soc 42:15–45

    Google Scholar 

  • Mighall TM, Timpany S, Blackford JJ, Innes JB, O’Brien CE, O’Brien W, Harrison S (2008) Vegetation change during the Mesolithic and Neolithic on the Mizen Peninsula, Co. Cork, south-west Ireland. Veget Hist Archaeobot 17:617–628

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell GF (1972) Some ultimate Larnian sites at Lake Derravaragh, Co. Westmeath. J R Soc Antiq Irel 102:160–173

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell FJG (2005) How open were European primeval forests? Hypothesis testing using palaeoecological data. J Ecol 93:168–177

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell FJG (2006) Where did Ireland’s trees come from? Biol Environ 106B:251–259

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell FJG, Kirby KJ (1990) The impact of large herbivores on the conservation of semi-natural woods in the British uplands. Forestry 63:333–353

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell GF, Ryan M (1997) Reading the Irish landscape, 3rd edn. Town House, Dublin

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell FJG, Stefanini BS, Marchant R (2013) A catalogue of Irish pollen diagrams. Biol Environ 113B:1–31

    Google Scholar 

  • Mithen S, Finlay N, Carruthers W, Carter S, Ashmore P (2001) Plant use in the Mesolithic: evidence from Staosnaig, Isle of Colonsay, Scotland. J Archaeol Sci 28:223–234

    Google Scholar 

  • Molloy K, O’Connell M (1991) Palaeoecological investigations towards the reconstruction of woodland and land-use history at Lough Sheeauns, Connemara, western Ireland. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 67:75–113

    Google Scholar 

  • Molloy K, O’Connell M (2004) Holocene vegetation and land-use dynamics in the karstic environment of Inis Oírr, Aran Islands, western Ireland: pollen analytical evidence evaluated in light of the archaeological record. Quat Int 113:41–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Monk MA, Pals JP (1985) Part 2: charred plant remains. In: Woodman PC (ed) Excavations at Mount Sandel 1973–1977. HMSO, Belfast, pp 79–81

    Google Scholar 

  • Mooney S, Tinner W (2011) The analysis of charcoal in peat and organic sediments. Mires Peat 7:1–18

    Google Scholar 

  • Movius HL (1940) An early post-glacial archaeological site at Cushendun, County Antrim. Proc R Irish Acad 46C:1–84

    Google Scholar 

  • Murray E (2011) A late Mesolithic shell midden at Kilnatierney near Greyabbey, Co. Down. J Irish Archaeol 20:1–18

    Google Scholar 

  • Nykvist N (1997) Changes in species occurrence and phytomass after clearfelling prescribed burning and slash removal in two Swedish spruce forests. Stud Forest Suec 201:1–33

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Connell M (1980) Pollen analysis of fen peat from a Mesolithic site at Lough Boora, County Offaly, Ireland. J Life Sci R Dublin Soc 2:45–49

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Connell M (1987) Early cereal-type pollen records from Connemara, W. Ireland and their possible significance. Pollen Spores 29:207–224

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Connell M, Molloy K (2001) Farming and woodland dynamics in Ireland during the Neolithic. Biol Environ 101B:99–128

    Google Scholar 

  • Out WA (2009) Sowing the seed? Human impact and plant subsistence in Dutch wetlands during the Late Mesolithic and Early and Middle Neolithic (5500–3400 cal BC). Leiden University Press, Leiden

    Google Scholar 

  • Out WA, Vermeeren C, Hänninen K (2013) Branch age and diameter: useful criteria for recognising woodland management in the present and past? J Archaeol Sci 40:4083–4097

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker AG, Goudie AS, Anderson DE, Robinson MA, Bonsall C (2002) A review of the mid-Holocene elm decline in the British Isles. Prog Phys Geogr 26:1–45

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterken GF (1996) Natural woodland: ecology and conservation in northern temperate regions. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Pilcher JR (1973) Pollen analysis and radiocarbon dating of a peat on Slieve Gallion, Co. Tyrone. New Phytol 72:681–689

    Google Scholar 

  • Pilcher JR, Smith AG (1979) Palaeoecological investigations at Ballynagilly, a Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Phil Trans R Soc B 286:345–369

    Google Scholar 

  • Preece RC, Coxon P, Robinson JE (1986) New biostratigraphic evidence of the post-glacial colonisation of Ireland and for Mesolithic forest disturbance. J Biogeogr 13:487–509

    Google Scholar 

  • Rackham O (1977) Neolithic woodland management: Garvin’s, Walton Heath and Rowland’s tracks. Somerset Levels Papers 3:65–71

    Google Scholar 

  • Rackham O (1979) Neolithic woodland management in the Somerset Levels: sweet track 1. Somerset Levels Papers 5:59–61

    Google Scholar 

  • Rackham O (1980) Ancient woodland: its history, vegetation and uses in England. Edward Arnold, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Rackham O (2006) Woodlands. Collins, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Rasmussen P (1990) Pollarding of trees in the Neolithic: often presumed, difficult to prove. In: Robinson DE (ed) Experimental and reconstruction in environmental archaeology. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 77–100

    Google Scholar 

  • Regnell M (2012) Plant subsistence and environment at the Mesolithic site Tågerup, southern Sweden: new insights on the “Nut Age”. Veget Hist Archaeobot 21:1–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowley-Conwy P, Layton R (2011) Foraging and farming as niche construction: stable and unstable adaptations. Phil Trans R Soc B 366:849–862

    Google Scholar 

  • Rozas V (2005) Dendrochronology of pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.) in an old-growth pollarded woodland in northern Spain: establishment patterns and the management history. Ann Forest Sci 62:13–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryan PA, Blackford JJ (2009) Late Mesolithic environmental change in the upland zone of Britain: high resolution records of woodland disturbance and fire. In: Crombé P, Van Strydonck M, Sergant J, Boudin M, Bats M (eds) Chronology and evolution within the Mesolithic of north-west Europe. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, pp 591–613

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryan PA, Blackford JJ (2010) Mid-Holocene environmental change at Black Heath, South Pennines, UK: a test of Mesolithic woodland management models using pollen, charcoal and NPP data. Veget Hist Archaeobot 19:545–558

    Google Scholar 

  • Selby KA, O’Brien CE, Brown AG, Stuijts I (2005) A multi-proxy study of Holocene lake development, lake settlement and vegetation history in central Ireland. J Quat Sci 20:147–168

    Google Scholar 

  • Selby KA, O’Brien CE, Hatton J, Brown A, Ruiz Z, Stuijts I, Langdon P, Caseldine C (2010) Environmental investigations. In: Fredengren C, Kilfeather A, Stuijts I (eds) Lough Kinale: studies of an Irish lake. Wordwell, Bray, pp 19–89

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheridan A (2010) The Neolithization of Britain and Ireland: the ‘big picture’. In: Finlayson B, Warren GM (eds) Landscapes in transition. Oxbow/Council for British Research in the Levant, Oxford, pp 89–105

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmons IG (1996) The environmental impact of later Mesolithic cultures. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmons IG, Innes JB (1988) Studies in the late quaternary vegetational history of the North York Moors. X. Investigations on East Bilsdale Moor. J Biogeogr 15:299–324

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmons IG, Innes JB (1996) An episode of prehistoric canopy manipulation at North Gill, North Yorkshire, England. J Archaeol Sci 23:337–341

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh G, Smith AG (1973) Post-glacial vegetational history and relative land- and sea-level changes in Lecale, Co. Down. Biol Environ 73B:1–51

    Google Scholar 

  • Sleeman DP (2008) Quantifying the prey gap for Ireland. In: Davenport JJ, Sleeman DP, Woodman PC (eds) Mind the gap. Postglacial colonisation of Ireland. Irish Naturalists’ Journal, Dublin, pp 77–82

    Google Scholar 

  • Sleeman DP, Yalden D (2009) Ireland’s mammals: an annotated list. In: Finlay N, McCartan S, Milner N, Wickham-Jones CJ (eds) From Bann flakes to Bushmills. Papers in honour of Professor Peter Woodman. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 211–219

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith AG (1961) Cannons Lough, Kilrea, Co. Derry: stratigraphy and pollen analysis. Biol Environ 61B:369–383

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith AG (1970) The influence of Mesolithic and Neolithic man on British vegetation. In: Walker D, West RG (eds) Studies in the vegetational history of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 81–96

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith AG (1981) Palynology of a Mesolithic-Neolithic site in county Antrim, N. Ireland. Proceedings of the IVth International Palynology Conference (1976–1977), Lucknow 3:248-257

  • Smith AG (1984) Newferry and the Boreal–Atlantic transition. New Phytol 98:35–55

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith BD (2001) Low-level food production. J Archaeol Res 9:1–43

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith BD (2011) General patterns of niche construction and the management of ‘wild’ plant and animal resources by small-scale pre-industrial societies. Phil Trans R Soc B 366:836–848

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith AG, Collins AEP (1971) The stratigraphy, palynology and archaeology of diatomite deposits at Newferry, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland. Ulster J Archaeol 34:3–25

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith AG, Goddard IC (1991) A 12500 year record of vegetational history at Sluggan Bog, Co Antrim, N Ireland (incorporating a pollen zone scheme for the nonspecialist). New Phytol 118:167–187

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith DN, Whitehouse NJ, Bunting MJ, Chapman H (2010) Can we characterise ‘openness’ in the Holocene palaeoecological record? Modern analogue studies from Dunham Massey deer park and Epping Forest, England. Holocene 12:1–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Soepboer W, Lotter AF (2009) Estimating past vegetation openness using pollen-vegetation relationships: a modelling approach. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 153:102–107

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart K (2009) Appendix 7: Palaeoenvironmmental sample report of E2589. Final Report on archaeological investigations at Site E2589, in the townland of Tinryland, Co. Carlow. Unpublished technical report for National Roads Authority, Dublin

  • Stuijts I (2004) Wood and charcoal identification. In: Gowen M, Phillips M, Ó Néill J (eds) The Lisheen Mine Archaeological Project 1996–98. Wordwell, Bray, pp 137–185

    Google Scholar 

  • Tipping R (1994) The form and fate of Scotland’s woodlands. Proc Soc Ant Scot 124:1–54

    Google Scholar 

  • Tipping R (1996) Microscopic charcoal records, inferred human activity and climate change in the Mesolithic of northernmost Scotland. In: Pollard T, Morrison A (eds) The early prehistory of Scotland. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp 39–61

    Google Scholar 

  • Tresset A (2003) French connections II: of cows and men. In: Armit I, Murphy EM, Nelis E, Simpson D (eds) Neolithic settlement in Ireland and western Britain. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 18–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Vera FWM (2000) Grazing ecology and forest history. CABI Publishing, Wallingford

    Google Scholar 

  • Vigne J-D, Zazzo A, Saliège J-F, Poplin F, Guilaine J, Simmons A (2009) Pre-Neolithic wild boar management and introduction to Cyprus more than 11,400 years ago. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106:16,135–16,138

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker D, Godwin H (1954) Lake stratigraphy, pollen-analysis and vegetational history. In: Clark JGD (ed) Excavations at Star Carr. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 25–69

    Google Scholar 

  • Warren GM, Little A, Stanley M (2009) A late Mesolithic lithic scatter from Corralanna, Co. Westmeath, and its place in the Mesolithic landscape of the Irish midlands. Proc R Irish Acad 109C:1–35

    Google Scholar 

  • White PS (1979) Pattern, process and natural disturbance in vegetation. Bot Rev 45:229–299

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitehouse NJ, Smith DN (2004) ‘Islands’ in Holocene forests: implications for forest openness, landscape clearance and ‘culture steppe’ species. Environ Archaeol 9:203–212

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitehouse NJ, Smith DN (2009) How fragmented was the British Holocene wildwood? Perspectives on the “Vera” grazing debate from the fossil beetle record. Quat Sci Rev 29:539–553

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitehouse NJ, McClatchie M, Barratt P, Schulting RJ, McLaughlin TR, Bogaard A (2010) INSTAR—cultivating societies. Archaeol Ireland 24:16–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitlock C, Larsen CPS (2001) Charcoal as a fire proxy. In: Smol JP, Birks HJB, Last WM (eds) Tracking environmental change using lake sediments: vol 3, Terrestrial, Algal, and Siliceous indicators. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp 75–97

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodman PC (1977) Recent excavations at Newferry, Co. Antrim. Proc Prehist Soc 43:155–199

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodman PC (1998) George Morant and the Mesolithic of Ballyhoe Lough. In: Ryan M (ed) Irish antiquity: essays in memory of Joseph Raftery. Wordwell, Bray, pp 1–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodman PC (2008) Mind the gap or gaps? In: Davenport JJ, Sleeman DP, Woodman PC (eds) Mind the gap. Postglacial colonisation of Ireland. Irish Naturalists’ Journal, Dublin, pp 5–18

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodman PC (2009) Challenging times: reviewing Irish Mesolithic chronologies. In: Crombé P, Van Strydonck M, Sergant J, Boudin M, Bats M (eds) Chronology and evolution within the Mesolithic of north-west Europe. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, pp 195–216

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodman PC, Johnson G (1996) Excavations at Bay Farm 1, Carnlough, Co. Antrim, and the study of the ‘Larnian’ technology. Proc R Irish Acad 96C:137–235

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodman PC, McCarthy M (2003) Contemplating some awful(ly interesting) vistas: importing cattle and red deer into prehistoric Ireland. In: Armit I, Murphy EM, Nelis E, Simpson D (eds) Neolithic settlement in Ireland and western Britain. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 31–39

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodman PC, McCarthy M, Monaghan N (1997) The Irish Quaternary fauna project. Quat Sci Rev 16:129–159

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodman PC, Anderson E, Finlay N (1999) Excavations at Ferriter’s Cove 1983–95: last foragers, first farmers in the Dingle peninsula. Wordwell, Bray

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan RA (1988) The case for wattling—what tree-ring studies could reveal. In: Murphy P, French C (eds) The exploitation of wetlands. BAR Brit Ser 186, Oxford, pp 77–91

    Google Scholar 

  • Zeder MA (2011) The origins of agriculture in the Near East. Curr Anthropol 52:S221–S235

    Google Scholar 

  • Zvelebil M (1994) Plant use in the Mesolithic and its role in the transition to farming. Proc Prehist Soc 60:35–74

    Google Scholar 

  • Zvelebil M (1995) Hunting, gathering, or husbandry? Management of food resources by the late Mesolithic communities of temperate Europe. In: Campana DV (ed) Before farming: hunter-gatherer society and subsistence. University of Pennsylvania Press, Pennsylvania, pp 79–104

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the participants at the Wild Things conference for discussion. We would like to thank Nyree Finlay, Christina Fredengren and the National Roads Authority for providing access to excavation and archaeobotany reports, and Welmoed Out, Caroline Vermeeren, Kirsti Hänninen and Rosie Bishop for access to data from their ongoing research projects. We are very grateful to Ceiridwen Edwards, W. Out and Richard Tipping for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. The comments of the two reviewers were very useful and we would like to thank Michael O’Connell for his significant editorial contribution. We are solely responsible for any errors of judgement that remain.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Newman Building, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland

    Graeme Warren, Steve Davis, Meriel McClatchie & Rob Sands

Authors
  1. Graeme Warren
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Steve Davis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Meriel McClatchie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Rob Sands
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Graeme Warren.

Additional information

Communicated by M. O'Connell.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

334_2013_417_MOESM1_ESM.doc

Details of pollen profiles that show evidence for disturbance possibly attributable to Mesolithic activity used in construction of Fig. 4; dates expressed in cal. b.c, cal. b.p., and (uncal.) b.p. (DOC 58 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Warren, G., Davis, S., McClatchie, M. et al. The potential role of humans in structuring the wooded landscapes of Mesolithic Ireland: a review of data and discussion of approaches. Veget Hist Archaeobot 23, 629–646 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-013-0417-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-013-0417-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation