Britain and Ireland

Abstract In this chapter, we review current interpretations of the material culture and lifeways of Mesolithic foragers living on the northwestern fringe of Europe. Settlement remains are sparse, although the corpus of evidence is expanding. Residential sites with posthole-defined structures and middens occur in both Britain and Ireland. Key challenges to understanding occupations and permanence of place in the Mesolithic are acidic soils and sea-level changes, which have distorted the Mesolithic settlement record. However, there is a growing awareness of the existence of sedentary or semi-sedentary settlements not previously associated with the region’s hunter-gatherers. Organic and lithic technologies offer insights into hunting, food preparation, and other everyday activities. Lithic assemblages are regionally diverse, reflecting raw material access but also distinct material culture trajectories. New statistical approaches to modelling past diets, using stable isotope data, hint at a greater use of plant foods than the traditionally assumed emphasis on fish and meat consumption. Mortuary practices remain poorly understood but diversity in approaches to the treatment of the dead is evident, with primary and secondary inhumations as well as cremation burials, and occasional evidence of ritual defleshing. Both isolated burials and cemeteries have been recorded, as well as sporadic, disarticulated human remains in shell middens. Parietal and portable art includes personal ornaments and abstract engravings on cave walls and on movable artefacts. Symbolism embodied in antler frontlets or headpieces from the Early Mesolithic has been linked to shamanistic cosmology.