Public Archaeology
Exploring the earliest connections between Ireland and Wales
Portalis explores connections between Cardigan Bay Wales and South-East Ireland during the Mesolithic period, or what used to be known as the Middle Stone Age. We do this by using existing evidence and providing new data, to create an exciting cross-border narrative. This pilot project seeks to identify the platforms and cultural assets which will allow visitors to immerse themselves in a variety of cultural experiences that are connected through time and place.
Public Archaeology collaboration
Cross-border cooperation includes sharing expertise between Ireland and Wales. Our focus is on gaining a better understanding of where our earliest ancestors came from, where and how they lived, and how the landscapes of occupation differed from those of the present day. In order to achieve our objectives, existing museum collections have been reviewed, and fieldwork on new sites has been undertaken in order to understand environmental change and its context for early occupation.
Our collaborative approach extends to creating Citizen Archaeologist resources and innovative visitor experiences, which provide new and widely accessible content. Portalis builds on existing research and develops interpretative heritage tourism, in order to provide a foundation for increasing tourism within the cross-border area.
Geoarcheology Research Associates (GRA), delivering the Irish Public Archaeology and Irish Artefact Review within Portalis, highlight that this existing research from the past 40 years has rewritten the prehistory of Southeast Ireland.
Portalis cross border activities and measurable outcomes are aligned closely with ‘Archaeology 2025’ by the Royal Academy & Discovery Programme. This is a ten year strategy to guide the future development of Irish Archaeology. It aims to raise awareness of the value of archaeology and recognise that 3D modelling, digital archiving and community archaeology are changing the landscapes of how archaeological investigations are conducted.
Archaeology in Wales
Excavations at the site at Talsarn in the Aeron Valley in May 2022 allowed us to re-visit our site first excavated in 2019. The site lies at the top of an old infilled glacial lake. When meltwaters finally infilled much of the lake the landscape was transformed into one of low sand and gravel islands surrounded by wetland with reed swamps, open water and small rivers.
In 2019 excavation of one of these islands produced a small number of flint artefacts as well as a partially polished stone axe-head. We hypothesised that this may be around 5-6 thousand years old, used by Early Neolithic groups of people who are usually associated with the introduction of farming and construction of large monuments.
This year we returned to examine more of this island and to examine a second island to see whether human activity was more widespread in this wetland. Our first island continued to produce artefacts while a small but significant collection of flintwork were recovered from the second island. In total 33 finds were large enough to record in the ground, while a further 15-20 pieces of worked flint, including formal tools, were also recovered from sieving. Significantly a small microlith, probably a projectile point, was recovered from sieving on this second island.
Other pieces include a core, blades and a bladelet, and several flakes which have been used, possibly as scrapers. It is also clear that people were not only using flint as a raw material. It may be that local quartz was also utilised, although this is usually more difficult to work into useable tools.
These finds hint at a more complex story as microliths are typical of what has often been considered the final hunter-gatherer-fishers (Mesolithic people). Our excavations at Talsarn suggest a group of people whose way of life reflects connections rather than divisions between Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and Neolithic communities.
A connection with the sea is now clear. Looking at the flint flakes recovered from this year’s excavations, many of the flakes exhibit a cortex (the outer layer of the nodule that has been flaked) that is typical of beach pebbles. Consequently we can envisage people collecting raw material on the beaches, and then heading to the islands at Talsarn to make their tools. But what were they doing here? So far we have no evidence for hearths, pits or other structures which might suggest they were spending any length of time at the site, perhaps they were present fleetingly to hunt wildfowl or fish. We might know more after next year’s excavation.
The Welsh Archaeology Team
Professor Martin R. Bates, Public Archaeology Lead, Portalis, UWTSD
Dr. Samantha Brummage, Portalis Post Doctoral Researcher, UWTSD
Dr. Katharina Zinn, UWTSD
Dr. Ros Coard, Senior Lecturer, UWTSD (vertebrates)
Mr. Quentin Drew, Senior Lecturer, UWTSD (excavation)
Dr. Tudur Davies, Hogg Fellow, UWTSD (pollen)
Dr. Carla Ferreira, Queens University Belfast (pollen)
Dr. Rosie Everett, Lecturer, Northumberland University (pollen)
Dr. Tim Kinnaird, University of St. Andrews (OSL dating)
Steve Thomas, Drone Operator
Jake Whittaker, Videographer
Nicola Sharman, Project Officer
Jody Deacon, Project Officer
Mr Jay Hodges
Archaeology in Ireland
The 2022 research season featured 8 weeks field and lab work to document the earliest and subsequent settlement of the Waterford Estuary and (specifically Fornaught Strand located on its west bank) and to reconstruct the environmental prehistory of this region since the receding of the most recent glaciers 12,000 years ago. The 2022 field season included artefact analysis of current collections and sedimentary coring of the estuary.
Examination of Artefacts and Bones
Our focus on lithic (stone tool) analysis compared a sample from Noel McDonagh’s collection of stone artefacts and animal bones from the Creadan Head area with previous analyses of lithic artefacts collected during the Bally Lough Archaeological Project in the 1980’s and 1990’s. This lab work reconfirmed that the first colonizers of the area came 9,000-10,000 years ago, during what is known as the Early Mesolithic Period. This confirms that southeastern Ireland was among the earliest entry points for Ireland’s first settlers. The artefacts further demonstrate continuous use of the Fornaught Valley through later Mesolithic to Neolithic (first farming) and the Bronze Age (village settlement) of 3,000 years ago.
Our research details the specific type of stone tool making known as Bipolar Knapping during the early Mesolithic that was suitable for making small cutting and scraping tools from local beach pebbles. Crafts people placed the small chert beach pebbles on other stones and hit them with larger hammer stone. Beginning in the later Mesolithic, bipolar technology was complemented by the more common platform technology where larger flints were handheld and chipped to create larger flakes, blades and other tools. These larger flint stones were probably imported during their settlers’ seasonal settlement movement and exchange networks.
Environmental Coring
A team of geo-archaeologists spent one week coring the Fornaught strand, its intertidal zone, and the adjoining marsh using a Geoprobe brought in from Belfast. Approximately 2 dozen cores were drilled to reveal the depositional layering of Fornaught Strand over the past 12,000 years. These cores were cut and sampled in the lab. The samples are now being prepared for specialist analysis that will date the layers, reconstruct the vegetation, and reconstruct salinity, sea level and overall climate of the region as it has changed over the past 12,000 years.
The Irish Archaeology Team
The Irish Archaeology Team
Dr. Stanton Green, Professor Emeritus, Monmouth University, US
Dr. Joseph Schuldenrein, President Geoarchaeology Research Associates, US
Claudia Green, Independent Archaeologist, US
Dr. Thomas Kador, University College London, UK
Dr. Heidi Luchsinger, Professional Geoarchaeologist, SWCA Environmental Consultants, US
Sophie Green, Professional Graphic Designer and Photographer, US
Julia O’Donoghue, Certified Archaeologist, Mizen Consultants, Cork
Dr. Peter Rowley- Conwy, Professor Emeritus, University of Durham, UK
John Castleford, Professional Archaeologist, Rosslare, Republic of Ireland
Conor Donegan, MA History, Dunmore East, Republic of Ireland
Dr. Linda Scott Cummings, Paleo-Research Institute, USA
Robert Barry & his Geoprobe Crew, Antrim, NI, UK
Brian Gordon Phillips, Local Liaison, Dunmore East, Republic of Ireland
