The Mesolithic people were nomadic: they regularly moved from place to place, probably when food supplies in an area ran low. Archaeologists believe they lived in temporary dwellings such as tents – or basket-like houses made from saplings driven into post holes in a circle and tied at the top. The walls would have been covered with skins, reeds or sods of turf.
Mesolithic temporary houses
preparing animal skins
a dugout canoe
making fl int-tipped arrows
fi shing
cooking meat on a spit
A Mesolithic campsite and activities Burials
A burial site in Hermitage, Co. Limerick tells us that the Mesolithic people cremated (burned) the bodies of the dead and buried them with axes and other valuable items – called grave goods. These are very important for archaeologists, as the objects are well preserved and also suggest that the people believed in some form of afterlife.
CHECKPOINT!
1. Why is this period called the Stone Age? 2. Explain the terms: hunter-gatherer; nomadic; grave goods. 3. What weapons and tools did they use? What were these made from? 4. Describe a Mesolithic house. 5. Why might archaeologists think that the Mesolithic people believed in an afterlife?
. I can describe life in Mesolithic Ireland. TIME TO GO BACK I CAN MOVE FORWARD
