Curran Point, Larne, County Antrim : The Type Site of the Irish Mesolithic

ABSTRACT:The Early Post-Glacial section revealed at the site excavated in 1935 on Curran Point, Larne, County Antrim, by the Harvard Archæological Expedition to Ireland shows a most interesting and important sequence of depositionary processes, changes in the mutual relations of land and sea, as well as contemporary climatic and ecological changes. The series of strata exposed in a pit 5·00 metres square and over 8·00 metres deep have been studied not only from point of view of a mechanical method of sediment analysis, but also on the basis of their contained fauna. No polleniferous deposits were encountered, but a nearby locality on Island Magee has provided the information necessary for tying in the Curran Point section with the palæobotanical zone sequence for Northern Ireland. A total of 116 species of mollusca, 92 species of foraminifera, and 5 species of calcareous algae was collected, and a detailed study of these, together with the results of the analysis of the sediments, has led to a clear understanding of the changes of level that have taken place in the region during Early Post-Glacial times. On the basis of these data it is now possible to establish more accurately than had previously been done the interval covered by the climatic optimum, or Early Post-Glacial warmth maximum, in terms both of the stratigraphic sequence of the coastal localities in Counties Antrim and Down, and the palæobotanical succession worked out for this region. It is demonstrated that this event does not correspond with the maximum of the transgression of the Early Post-Glacial Sea, as was formerly supposed. Furthermore, it can now be shown that the later stages of the submergence were interrupted by a second relatively minor phase of sinking, following which the movement of emergence began, the maximum of the transgression having been attained during the transition from Late Atlantic to Early Sub-Boreal times in terms of the climatic succession.The archæological wealth of Curran Point, Larne—the type locality for the Irish Mesolithic—was first recognized in 1863. Presumably during the long interval of relative stability represented by the Estuarine Clay (Deposit H) at the site, the Late Larnian Culture, so abundantly represented in the Curran deposits, was developed. The numerous foreshore localities in the region apparently were transgressed by the sea during the second phase of the sinking, and their contents were transported by long-shore currents and wave action into the intertidal sand and gravel deposits that were being laid down on the rapidly growing spit that was then being formed at the northern end of Larne Lough, now known as Curran Point. A statistical analysis of over 5,500 artifacts belonging to the Late Larnian Culture and found at the excavated site is given, together with illustrations and descriptions of the various types of tools characteristic of the assemblage as a whole. In this development of the Irish Mesolithic several new and interesting classes of implements were devised in response to the exigencies of the new environmental conditions. In Part IV the origin of the Larnian Culture, its affinities with contemporary developments in Scotland, and the nature of the cultural influences which affected the various Mesolithic complexes in Northern Britain and Ireland as a whole is considered. It is concluded that, contrary to the generally accepted view held by many authorities, the Azilian of Southern France and the Pyrenean region never reached the areas under consideration. On the other hand the diffusion of certain Forest Culture traits, of ultimate Baltic origin, is believed to account for the appearance of perforated antler tools and also for certain types of barbed bone points in the Scottish Mesolithic, as well as for the sporadic occurrence of bifacial core axes in the Late Larnian of North-eastern Ireland. Finally, it is suggested that the Bann Culture of the region immediately north of Lough Neagh, which persisted throughout Sub-Boreal times, represents a continuum in Ulster of a fundamentally Mesolithic way of life, long after the introduction of the new arts of agriculture and metallurgy.