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 o what did they eat? As stated above, fish, and lots of it. At least this was their main "animal" food. At two of the sites examined, one at Mount Sandel at the mouth of the Bann river and the other at Lough Gur in Limerick Co., from 70 - 80 % of the faunal remains were of fish, 15 - 23% of mammal and 4 - 8% of birds.  Mount Sandel's proximity to the sea and the river introduced Atlantic Salmon in to the diet, along with Eel and Brown Trout, some Sea Bass and Flounder. This site shows signs of what could be a drying rack, a double line of post holes, so it is possible that by this or other means they dried or smoked fish for storing. Lough Gur is an inland lake with no river to the sea, so we don't find Atlantic Salmon, the available fish were mostly Brown Trout and Eel. Crustacean shells have been found among the fish bones. Depending on the location, river, sea or lake side, these include, Crab, Limpets, Whelks, Cockles, Scallops, Periwinkles, Oysters and Mussels. Though no Irish fishing tools have yet been found, concurrent evidence from Britain and the Continent shows that spears and harpoons with barbs of bone and conical traps made of twisted willow rods and willow fibers nets were being used to catch fish either from the shore or in deeper waters from dugout canoes 2 . From their boats and armed with spears and harpoons they would have been able to add seals, dolphins and perhaps small whales to their choices.
Analysis of mammal bones shows that over 95% are of wild pig and most of these are from animals under two years of age. This finding seems to point to some type of "management" The rest were of Dog or Wolf, Brown Bear and Seal. What was interesting is that no Red Deer bones have been found at any Mesolithic site. The earliest conclusive dating of Red Deer bones is from the 4th millenium, which seems to indicates that either deer was not hunted, which seems unlikely, or that it was introduced around the time the bones refer to. It isn't impossible that early people kept herds of deer. The Lapps keep herds of Reindeer and the Pre-European Cherokee of this land also kept herds of deer to have a ready supply of meat. Perhaps some 4th millenium migrants brought the deer over and kept them in enclosures only to set them free later as cattle became more popular. Bird bones were a mix of waterfowl such as ducks and divers, and wood birds such as grouse and wood-pigeon. The site proximity to water and the presence of waterfowl bones may also indicate that eggs would have been part of the diet, these can keep for some time if buried and would have been available in the spring and early summer. Let's not forget frog...legs that is...I hear it tastes like chicken, but since they didn't have chickens yet, to them it probably just tasted like frog!... |
