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occupation of northern Europe, this time for good – or at least until the present day. At first the
landscape was bare of trees, rather like parts of northern Scandinavia today. Large herds of
reindeer and wild horse roamed across the open plains once more. By the time Mount Sandel was
occupied, the landscape was filling with trees as the temperatures rose. This warming was not a
gradual process: the temperature literally shot up from bitter cold to very mild within less than a
century. Around 9,500 years ago the average temperature was as high as, or even higher than, it is
today.
The sea ice retreated way beyond the Shetland Isles and the sea level rose again as the ice
melted. First Ireland was separated from the rest of the Isles at around 8,500 years ago. That put a
stop to the colonization of Ireland by some land animals and explains why there are no moles,
lizards or snakes in Ireland. That is, of course, unless you prefer to believe, in the case of snakes,
that it was St Patrick himself who banished them. These animals, though, did have time to establish
themselves in Britain before it was eventually cut off from the European mainland by the rising
water levels in the North Sea 500 years later, about 8,000 years ago.
By now the Irish landscape had changed from tundra to an open forest of birch trees. As the
temperature continued to rise, this open woodland slowly changed to a thicker cover of hazel and,
by about the time the Isles became completely severed from the rest of Europe, they were covered
in a mature forest of elm, lime and oak. The herds of large mammals moved north if they could, but
in Ireland their way was barred by the sea. Many, including the magnificent Irish elk, with antlers
some 3 metres across, became extinct. They were replaced in the now dense forests by wild pig,
red and roe deer and the aurochs, the ancestor of modern domestic cattle, and by a host of smaller
mammals like squirrel and pine marten. From the remains at Mount Sandel and other Mesolithic
sites, it seems that anything that moved risked being roasted on the campfire. The ideal places to
live were near rivers, such as at Mount Sandel on the River Bann, or by the sea. Here you could
have the best of both worlds. Fish and shellfish from the sea and rivers, hazelnuts, pork and
venison from the forest. Not a bad life at all. All the best shoreline sites accumulated huge mounds,
or middens, of discarded shells built up often several metres high.
From the overall size of individual Mesolithic sites, archaeologists estimate that the number of
people occupying them was quite low, possibly just single nuclear families. There was not the
same need to join together in hunting bands of twenty or so as there had been in the colder, tundra
phases. Then the main prey had been the herds of large and dangerous animals like bison, which
called for organized ambushes and teamwork among the hunters. Neither was there any need to
move over large distances to keep up with the herds as they migrated from summer to winter
feeding grounds. Though many Mesolithic sites that have been found were obviously temporary,
used for just a few days, others, like Mount Sandel, were occupied for long enough to make it
worthwhile building the timber-framed houses.
Though the inhabitants of Mount Sandel were certainly hunter-gatherers, they were not above
manipulating the environment to make life easier. They deliberately created open glades within the
forest to encourage hazel trees to grow. They did not need to fell the mature elms and oaks to do
this, but merely to ring-bark them and wait for them to die and be blown over. By stripping away a
continuous band of bark from around the trunk, the capillaries that carry water to the leaves are
disrupted and the tree begins to die. The next winter storm may blow it to the ground. The
unremarkable life of the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers continued at Mount Sandel and elsewhere in