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Winner of European Association of Archaeologists 2024 Book Prize
Explores the Irish Mesolithic - the period after the end of the last Ice Age when Ireland was home to hunter-gatherer communities, mostly from about 10,000-6,000 years ago. At this time, Ireland was an island world, with striking similarities and differences to its European neighbours - not least in terms of the terrestrial ecology created by its island status. To understand the communities of hunter-gatherers who lived there, it is essential that we consider the connections established between people and the other beings and materials with which they shared the world and through which they grew into it. Understanding the Mesolithic means paying attention to the animals, plants, spirits and things with which hunting and gathering groups formed kinship relationships and in collaboration with which they experienced life.
The book closes with a reflection on hunting and gathering in Ireland today. The overriding aim of the book is to provide a point of entry into the lives of the Irish Mesolithic, to show the different ways in which people have lived on this island, and to show how we might narrate those lives.
About the author
Graeme Warren is Associate Professor in the School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, where he is is a specialist in the archaeology of hunter-gatherers, focusing on the Mesolithic of northwest Europe.
Summary
An examination of the hunter-gatherer communities of the Irish Mesolithic to understand the unique ways societies have lived there throughout history.
