Submerged Mesolithic landscape investigation, Eleven Ballyboes, Republic of Ireland
Submerged Mesolithic landscape investigation, Eleven Ballyboes, Republic of Ireland
This paper reports on the first systematic attempt to conduct archaeological survey and excavation for submerged prehistory on the island of Ireland. Fieldwork was conducted in two small bays where Early Mesolithic flint artefacts washed ashore hinted at the presence of a submerged assemblage. Methods employed include non-intrusive survey, hand coring and excavation. Together, these allowed identification of the artefact source, albeit reworked, in one bay and an early Holocene peat in the other. Though the subtidal assemblage is reworked and relatively small, it is significant in an Irish context and more widely illustrates the potential preservation of prehistoric sites and palaeo-landscapes in high-energy settings.
Mesolithic, Holocene, peat, lithics, sea-level change, underwater archaeology
243-257
Westley, K.
d5a9133b-32e3-478b-ac63-b812f94bd673
Westley, K.
d5a9133b-32e3-478b-ac63-b812f94bd673
Westley, K.
(2015)
Submerged Mesolithic landscape investigation, Eleven Ballyboes, Republic of Ireland.
International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 44 (2), .
(doi:10.1111/1095-9270.12114).
Abstract
This paper reports on the first systematic attempt to conduct archaeological survey and excavation for submerged prehistory on the island of Ireland. Fieldwork was conducted in two small bays where Early Mesolithic flint artefacts washed ashore hinted at the presence of a submerged assemblage. Methods employed include non-intrusive survey, hand coring and excavation. Together, these allowed identification of the artefact source, albeit reworked, in one bay and an early Holocene peat in the other. Though the subtidal assemblage is reworked and relatively small, it is significant in an Irish context and more widely illustrates the potential preservation of prehistoric sites and palaeo-landscapes in high-energy settings.
Text
KWestley_11 Ballyboes_IJNA_accepted_version.pdf
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
e-pub ahead of print date: 8 June 2015
Keywords:
Mesolithic, Holocene, peat, lithics, sea-level change, underwater archaeology
Organisations:
Geology & Geophysics, Archaeology
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 378666
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/378666
ISSN: 1057-2414
PURE UUID: 0f0742cd-9074-4c42-a672-7c4693d4ddb0
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Date deposited: 06 Jul 2015 09:06
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 05:19
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Author:
K. Westley
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