Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo: Report 2011

When the charcoal is examined through different time periods, it is clear that hazel
dominates the Neolithic samples, while the picture of woodlands during the Early Bronze
Age is quite different, being dominated by willow and elm (Figure 21).
Annual ring counts range from 1 to 20 in the Rathlackan material. Growth is medium, with
instances also of fast and slow growth. The fragments are mainly strongly curved, with some
weakly curved annual rings indicating the use of larger branches or trunks.
Discussion
It is generally assumed that fuel and wood will be gathered from as close to the site as
possible (Shackleton and Prins 1992) and therefore archaeological charcoal can reflect the
surrounding environment. There are of course problems with this principle, such as
particular species may have been selected over others and there are issues with charcoal
fragmentation. Yet, for the purposes of environmental reconstruction, charcoal can be used
to provide a floristic background to archaeological sites, particularly when integrated with
other environmental data. It is impossible to know, however, how close to or far away from
a site wood was gathered.
fragment count
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
E24 921E40 E494 E109 E580
Ulmus
Taxus
Salix
Quercus
Pinus
Maloideae
Ilex
Hedera
Fraxinus
Corylus/Alnus
Corylus
Betula
Alnus
Figure 22 Comparison of charcoal data from all sites: N= 4195
The Middle Neolithic Glenulra scatter (92E140) and Neolithic/Early Bronze Age Rathlackan
(E580) sites are similar in the high levels of hazel (Figure 22). More oak is evident in
Rathlackan than Glenulra, however. In contrast, both the Middle Neolithic Glenulra scatter
(E24) and the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age Céide visitor centre (E494) are dominated by
birch. The levels of oak are low within the Céide visitor centre while they are important in
the Glenulra enclosure. The highest number of fragments was identified from Belderg Beg
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