Mesolithic Places: Portalis and Humap

Samantha Brummage

Connections

The social value of archaeology is increasingly being realised in heritage and related professions.  This has meant that community input into cultural, environmental and archaeological resources are now prioritised and firmly established. Recent Ireland-Wales projects such as CHERISH (https://cherishproject.eu/en/), CUPHAT (https://cuphat.aber.ac.uk/) and Ports, Past and Present (https://portspastpresent.eu/about/) have operated within this framework, promoting social and economic growth in coastal communities and protecting cultural heritage resources.  Another recent Ireland-Wales collaboration, the Portalis Pilot Project, was designed to connect Southeastern Ireland and West Wales through Mesolithic archaeology. The idea was to create community networks through engagement with cultural and natural heritage and develop ways of increasing sustainable tourism. The project was funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Ireland Wales Cooperation programme, as a collaboration between the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and South East Technological University, supported by partners in Waterford and Ceredigion, including Amgueddfa Ceredigion Museum.

The Portalis Project identified six coastal communities who would benefit from development of heritage-related networks. In Ireland the project was concentrated in the Waterford Harbour and Estuary, and in Wales we focused on Central Cardigan Bay. Portalis also worked with Humap to develop a map which could link sites, stories and project events across borders ( Figure 1), making our findings accessible to the public. Humap is an interactive platform that enables users to produce dynamic histories through geospatial mapping (https://humap.me/). It also gave us the tools to create a virtual museum of our project, supporting our exhibitions at Amgueddfa Ceredigion and Waterford Treasures. 

Archaeology

Most prehistoric projects tend to focus on large sites or above ground archaeology. On the other hand, in Cardigan Bay and Waterford Estuary the project sites mainly comprised flint scatters, with Mesolithic through to Bronze Age material, and very little in the way of radiocarbon dating.  However, we also carried out geoarchaeological work; cutting and sampling sediment cores and producing detailed environmental records for prehistoric time periods along these coastlines. We wanted to use this archaeological record to connect Ireland and Wales through a shared engagement with Mesolithic ways of life, in changing landscapes and environments, and to find relevance and value for present day communities. 

We initially hoped to find connections in the style (typology) and the dating of artefactual material across both countries. In Ireland analysis was carried out on a sample of Mesolithic (c8,000 – 4,000 BC), Neolithic (c4,000 – 2,500 BC) and Bronze Age (c2,500 – 500 BC) flint artefacts, collected during the Ballylough Archaeological Project or BLAP.[1] It was then compared to, and integrated with surface scatters collected by Noel McDonagh, and finds from archaeological test excavations.[2] Noel McDonagh was a local fisherman from Dunmore East who collected over 10,000 flint artefacts from the Waterford Estuary. BLAP was a programme of systematic fieldwalking and artefact mapping, carried out in the 1980’s and 1990’s in the Creadan Head area (Figure 2). 

The Welsh data was the result of more than a decade of work recording sites in the intertidal area of the West Wales coast, including offshore survey carried out as part of Europe’s Lost Frontiers project.[3] Further investigations during the project meant that past environments could be reconstructed at sites including Borth, Tanybwlch and Llanrhystud, Llanon and Aberaeron. In Wales the artefactual element came from collections at the National Museum of Wales, Ceredigion Museum and Llanerchaeron National Trust. This data was added to by the generation of artefactual and environmental material during community excavations at Llanllyr in Talsarn.    

Initial assessment and analysis suggested we had two very different collections to work with, not only due to different methodologies for data collection, but also in terms of the dating and typology of the artefacts. For example, in Wales a Late Mesolithic presence was identified at Tanybwlch and Llanllyr through the presence of narrow blade microliths (Figure 3). In Ireland, however, while microliths are not found after c7000 BC,[4] Late Mesolithic butt trimmed or Bann flakes were identified in the artefact collections (Figure 4). This didn’t necessarily mean contemporaneous people, however, as Late Mesolithic typologies are noticed later in Ireland (7th – 4th millennium BC) and butt trimmed flakes often in the final centuries.[5] On the other hand, narrow blades occur from the 8th millennium BC onwards in Wales.[6]Despite differences in Irish and Welsh Mesolithic heritage, we could still maximise its value to connect communities and develop sustainable tourism. 

Communities

Events in Wales included volunteer excavations which were integrated with the undergraduate field school at Lampeter. The excavation was also open to visitors from schools and community groups – for example the Felinfach Theatre and Ceredigion History Society. Public lectures and networking events ran throughout the project at venues in Aberystwyth, Aberaeron, Cardigan, Tregaron and Llandysul, and connections were established between local communities. A story was also written, the purpose of which was to present the archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data in an accessible way to the general public. In Ireland a citizen science component was designed to engage communities with local cultural and natural heritage. The project culminated in a presentation of the archaeology for temporary and legacy exhibitions at Waterford Treasures and Amgueddfa Ceredigion Museum. 

We wanted these events and opportunities to connect people, communities and businesses across coastal regions in West Wales and Southeast Ireland. This wasn’t only about what was in the archaeological record, but also the information we were generating through community engagement and expertise – leading to the development of self-maintaining networks and responses to local heritage. Humap provided a method of integrating historic collections with new data generated by excavation, research and events, and a public interface which would effectively contribute towards the legacy of Portalis.

We started by creating records and collections associated with either Mesolithic or Neolithic archaeology, mapped to sites of excavation and investigation. We could upload records and reports, photographs and images of artefacts from these sites, and link to Portalis geoarchaeological work in the Waterford Estuary, Creadan Head and Cardigan Bay. Taxonomies and tags functioned as categories and themes and meant we could show ways in which there were comparisons and/or connections. For example, records and collections tagged with ‘flint artefact’ and ‘Mesolithic’ meant the BLAP material from the Waterford Estuary could be directly compared with artefacts from the Welsh side of the project (Figure 5). 

Another functionality of the map was the creation of trails which linked collections, sites and stakeholders. These were accessible to anyone planning walks, tours, and visits, to find out about local history, culture and activities (Figure 6). Portalis trails gave local communities and visitors options to self-drive Mesolithic sites in West Wales, for example (Figure 7 & Figure 8), and to experience the layers of history and cultural heritage at sites like Llanerchaeron National Trust, an 18th century villa on the site of prehistoric excavations.[7] We could signpost people to local foraging walks (https://www.knight-foxwildaboutlearning.co.uk/), or talks on the submerged forest at Borth (https://www.facebook.com/events/6484061674950087?ref=newsfeed). Trails enabled the user to access records and collections of photographs, documents, links to local websites, businesses and activities, and to understand ways in which these sites and places are meaningful to different communities - historically, culturally, and environmentally.

Portalis focused on small communities and areas not often associated with prehistory. Neighbouring areas like Pembrokeshire, or the Boyne Valley in Ireland are well-known for Neolithic monuments and consequently receive a lot more in the way of interest and investment. However, the Portalis sites and landscapes are part of rich cultural knowledge and histories and are a valuable resource for local communities and visitors alike. Humap helped to bring these stories together and to give people the opportunity to discover their own connections. Unfortunately, the significance of this is in danger of being lost and raises questions about how we ensure funding legacies. The lifespan of projects like Portalis are dependent on limited streams of funding, which for us was an 18-month window. The Portalis map continues to exist but can no longer be added to and without long-term contributions may disappear as a local heritage resource. 

Author

Samantha Brummage

Portalis Post Doctoral Researcher

Prifysgol Cymru: Y Drindon Dewi Sant | University of Wales: Trinity Saint Davids

Campws Llambed | Lampeter Campus

E-mail: s.brummage@uwtsd.ac.uk

www.portalisproject.eu

Notes

[1] Green, S. and Zvelebil, M. (1990) The colonization and agricultural transition of southeasttern Ireland. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society of London (56) 57-88

[2] Jacinta Kiely, Eachtra Archaeological Projects Ltd, for Peter Woodman, RIP (2016) 2016:790 - Creadan Head, Creadan, Waterford. Database of Irish Excavation Reports: ie/report/2016/Waterford/0029014/

[3] Bates, M., Bates, C. R., Bates, D. E.B., Boyd, S., David, A., Fitch, S., Harding, R., Macklin, M., Walker, J., Walker, M. J. C. and Whittaker, J. E. (submitted) Early Holocene landscapes and human activity in Cardigan Bay, West Wales.  In: Gaffney, V. et al Europe’s Lost Frontiers. Vol 2.

[4] Woodman, P. (2015) Irelands First Settlers: Time and the Mesolithic. Oxbow Books: Oxford.

[5] Woodman, P. (2015) Irelands First Settlers: Time and the Mesolithic. Oxbow Books: Oxford.

[6] Lillie, M. (2015) Hunters, Fishers and Foragers in Wales: Towards a Social Narrative of Mesolithic Lifeways. Oxbow Books: Oxford.

[7] Evans, N. (2003) The Llanerchaeron estate before emparkment. Archaeology in Wales (43) 25-32.