Abstract
Environmental archaeology has historically been central to Mesolithic studies in Britain and Ireland. Whilst processual archaeology was concerned with the economic significance of the environment, post-processual archaeology later rejected economically driven narratives, resulting in a turn away from plant and animal remains. Post-processual narratives focused instead on enigmatic ‘ritual’ items that economic accounts struggled to suitably explain. Processual accounts of landscapes, grounded in economic determinism, were also rejected in favour of explorations of their sociocultural aspects. However, in moving away from plant and animal remains, such accounts lacked the ability to rigorously explore the specificities of particular landscapes and humans actions within them. This paper will bridge this gap by considering how palaeoecological and zooarchaeological analyses can be used to explore human interactions with plants and animals, which were key in developing understandings and relationships that ultimately structured landscapes, influenced past human actions and shaped archaeological assemblages.
Highlights
Approaches to Plants and AnimalsPlant and animal remains are conspicuously absent from early twentieth century accounts of the British and Irish Mesolithic
Whilst the potential of plants as a source of food was discussed, they were considered to be of secondary importance, and the botanical material was used primarily to determine the character of the local environment and to relate Star Carr chronologically to other Mesolithic sites in Northern Europe (Clark 1954)
Zooarchaeological and palaeoecological data continued to be used within economic frameworks, whilst enigmatic or artefactual items made of animal remains were being explored within social accounts of the British and Irish Mesolithic
Summary
Approaches to Plants and AnimalsPlant and animal remains are conspicuously absent from early twentieth century accounts of the British and Irish Mesolithic. This paper will bridge this gap by considering how palaeoecological and zooarchaeological analyses can be used to explore human interactions with plants and animals, which were key in developing understandings and relationships that structured landscapes, influenced past human actions and shaped archaeological assemblages.
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