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Lough Boora Archaeological

Discovery...1977.

The story of the Mesolithic site at Lough Boora is a fine example of how new discoveries can result in the rewriting of history. In the late 1970s, archaeologists working in Boora bog, near Kilcormac uncovered evidence of a lakeshore settlement dating from the Mesolithic period (7,000 BC) Before this discovery, the earliest evidence of humans in Ireland came from a Mesolithic site at Mount Sandel in Co. Down. Because of its coastal location, archaeologists thought that early humans came from Europe and settled along the coastline as the interior of the country was impenetrable due to the dense forests. The Lough Boora site changed all that. Dated between 7,000 BC and 6,500 BC, the finds at the site proved instead that people had frequented this part of the country for up to 9,000 years.

 

The site, in the townland of Broughall, appears to have been located on a lakeshore, covered by peat and then by a lake.

 

 

These early people lived in small circular huts constructed from saplings inserted into the ground and bent over to form a dome-shaped timber structure. The structure was then covered with hides and other materials with a hearth or fireplace in the centre. The hearths consisted of patches of noticeably darker soil, rich in charcoal with little flakes of burnt bone, predominantly of immature pig but also of some wildfowl and of eels.

Excavations carried out by the National Museum uncovered evidence of the diet of these early people. They ate wild pig, wood pigeon, brown trout, eel and hazelnuts.

The evidence suggest in this period, small communities lived in hunter-gatherer type groups, gathering what they could from their environment. Here our ancient ancestors caught salmon and eels in the nearby lakes and hunted pigs in the surrounding forests which at that stage covered much of the countryside. Archaeologists have no evidence yet of how Mesolithic man buried their dead and there are still a range of other questions about how they lived which have yet to be answered.

Speaking at a Lough Boora Parklands Summer season of events two years ago, Dr John Feehan claimed that the Mesolithic site was of European significance.

 

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