Tool hoards and Neolithic use of the landscape in north-eastern Ireland

Authors: Bamforth D.B.¹; Woodman P.C.²

Source: Oxford Journal of Archaeology, Volume 23, Number 1, February 2004 , pp. 21-44(24)

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Abstract:

Summary.

Archaeologists frequently suggest that the Neolithic occupants of Ireland and Britain may not have been fully settled farmers, but were, instead, at least partially nomadic pastoralists. However, human use of any landscape is more complex than the current debate suggests, and this debate has included few systematic studies designed to evaluate this issue in detail. This paper examines hoards (or ‘caches’) of flaked stone tools in County Antrim, Ireland, to consider the links between anticipatory tool storage and human land-use patterns. Our data imply regular human movements over the study area, possibly linked to transhumant use of different altitudinal zones, with functionally and, sometimes, technologically specific classes of tools stored in different areas. However, the larger context of data on the Irish Neolithic clearly indicates that these movements were part of a way of life centred on permanent horticultural homesteads.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0092.2004.00200.x

Affiliations: 1: (DBB) Anthropology Department, CB 233 University of Colorado Boulder, CO 80309-0233 USA 2: (PCW) Department of Archaeology University College Cork, Ireland

Publication date: 2004-02-01