Mayo Theme -
1
Prehistoric Mayo
It is over nine thousand years ago that man
first set foot on the island of Ireland. The
evidence for this is scant in Mayo as these first
people were hunter-gatherers, people who threaded
lightly upon the surface of the landscape, leaving
very little in the way of artefacts, houses or
burials. These Mesolithic people were ultimately
dependent on the surrounding landscape for
everything and had to hunt incessantly throughout
the year in order to survive.
Around five thousand years ago a great change
occurred with the coming of the Neolithic peoples,
the first farmers with the skills and technology of
agriculture that would be used to control their
environment. In the modern world of microchips and
internet super highways it might be quite difficult
to imagine the impact that this would have brought,
but it is the foundation stone of all modern
societies in that it allowed people to store a
surplus of cultivated crops for the winter season.
It also enabled population growth and with it a
surplus of labour not concentrated on the
relentless gathering of food but able to focus on
other societal projects.
In Mayo, as with other sites around the country,
the pattern of what took place as the farmers set
about colonising the landscape by clearing forests
for the cultivation of crops can be seen in pollen
studies. The amount of tree pollen decreases as the
grass pollen increases. This agricultural
revolution had numerous impacts on the landscape in
that we now see from the archaeological evidence
the remains of houses, field systems, artefacts and
in particular the great megalithic
burial structures that only a well organised
and sustained society could embark upon
building.
Not all of the energies of prehistoric societies
were spent on the construction of graves but were
also expended, particularly during the Bronze Age
on a whole range of stone circles and alignments
which cause diverse explanations to be offered for
their creation, from astronomical maps, solar
alignments to seasonal guides for agriculture.
The Bronze Age (c.2000 BC to c.500 BC) contains
most of these stone arrangements and apart from
these there is little architectural progress over
the Neolithic period. But it must be noted that
given the outstanding degree of craftsmanship and
artistic interpretation exhibited on some of the
finds of ornamental gold and bronze objects now
housed in the National Museum that society was
becoming increasingly sophisticated. These gold
artefacts were being traded with Britain and the
Continent in exchange for luxury items such as
faience and amber. How this society was organised
and controlled is seen in the ancient Brehon
laws a set of rules, which governed Irish life
well into the Christian period and on.
Check out the following
sections of the website for related
information:
|
This
project has been supported by the EU as part of the Culture
2000 programme.