Archæological Investigations in Ireland

Abstract

DR. O'NEILL HENCKEN, director of the Harvard Archaeological Mission to Ireland, before leaving for a brief vacation in America, has given an account of the results achieved in the recently completed third year of the Mission's work, which appears in the Observer of December 9. Excavations at Cushenden, Co. Antrim, would seem to have confirmed fully the view of the importance of this site for the elucidation of the origin and affinities of the stone age industries of north-east Ireland, which is held by Mr. C. Blake Whelan, with whom the Mission has been in co operation. Mr. Whelan has recently pointed out the probability that further systematic investigation of stone age sites in this area would provide evidence of stratification, which is lacking for certain of the com parable European industries of the mesolithic and earlier phases of the neolithic ages (see NATURE, Nov. 4, p. 702). From Dr. Hencken's statement, it now seems that this evidence is likely to be forthcoming from Cushenden, when certain comparative studies now in progress have been completed. He states that all the phases of the Irish stone age have been found at Cushenden in conditions, geological and other, which should provide the necessary data for the discussion of the origin of these cultures and their affinities with comparable material from sites in Britain and on the Continent.