“The place is full of cabbages”: An analysis of the Irish Late Mesolithic stone tool technology from Kenure, Co. Dublin

Abstract

This paper examines the stone tool technology from the site of Kenure, Co. Dublin, on the East coast of Ireland. Collected in the 1940s by the avocational archaeologist Gwendoline C. Stacpoole, Kenure represents an extremely large surface assemblage likely belonging to the later phase of the Irish Late Mesolithic period (~7000–5500 BP). The results of this analysis affirm the likelihood that the Kenure lithic assemblage does, in fact, date to the Late Mesolithic. Core reduction was conducted using hard hammers and was generally expedient, usually involving the splitting of locally occurring glacial till chert cobbles followed by the use of single platform core reduction strategies. Retouched tools were characterized by a range of scraper, notch, denticulate, and borer forms. Moderate frequencies of convergent flakes were also present, with many fitting the typological definition of Bann flakes. In addition, there were noticeable numbers of small blades, though these generally lack the specialized technical features of Mesolithic blades from the Irish Early Mesolithic and Mesolithic sites in other regions of Western Europe. Moderate frequencies of pieces derived from bipolar percussion were also present in the Kenure assemblage and this paper offers an explanation of the use of bipolar percussion in relation to the small size of locally available lithic raw materials. Finally, this paper concludes with a consideration of the implications of the technological features of the Kenure assemblage for the organization of Irish Late Mesolithic foraging technology, as well as the potential for future research on the Kenure collection.