Prehistoric site - lithic scatter

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on an alluvial gravel beach projecting from the N shoreline of Glencar Lake. The beach built up at the mouth of a steam, Sruth in Aghaidh an Aird, which flows down to the lake from the steep mountain slope immediately to N.
This lithic scatter was discovered in May 2020 by Dr. Marion Dowd (Archaeology Dept., IT Sligo). The National Monument Service commissioned an archaeological assessment and recovery of the assemblage, which was carried out in June 2020 by Drs. Dowd and Bonsall (2020, 1-23).
A grid of squares each measuring 1m x 1m, with two additional grids measuring 1m x 2m, was established at the location to allow systematic recording. A total of 930 lithics were recovered from 66 grid squares. The lithics are almost exclusively chert, with a few possible flint pieces. Chert is abundant in this region, and the raw material may have been collected from local alluvial deposits. The quality of the chert is good, and the majority of the lithics are in fresh condition.
Specialist analysis is required to fully understand the nature and date range of this assemblage. Preliminary examination, however, reveals that the assemblage includes debitage (waste from knapping/tool-making), cores and a few formal tools. The bulk of the assemblage represents knapping debitage, indicating on-site manufacture of tools. A few formal tools, including convex scrapers and retouched pieces, were also recovered, and these hint at specific tasks conducted at the lake shore, possibly cleaning fowl and/or gutting fish that had been caught in the lake. Some tools may also have been employed in wood working, plant processing, basketry, butchery or tasks associated with subsistence strategies.
It is likely that this attractive lakeside location was used repeatedly by prehistoric people, and the assemblage, therefore, may be the result of many visits, possibly over several millennia, rather than a single event in time. The presence of convex scrapers suggests a Neolithic and/or Bronze Age date for some of the material, but the collection may include several lithic technologies from different archaeological periods; the possibility of a Mesolithic component, for instance, cannot be ruled out. (Dowd and Bonsall 2020).
The assemblage is now in the National Museum of Ireland (collection number: 2020C1:1-930).
Only one other prehistoric lithic scatter (SL014-277----), located at the base of Knocknarae, is known from county Sligo; two (LE008-026----; LE018-048----) are known from neighbouring county Leitrim, one (LE018-048---) of which was also found in a lakeshore setting.

Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 9 October 2020

References

Dowd, M and Bonsall, J. 2020 Archaeological assessment and recovery of exposed Prehistoric Lithic Scatter (Knapping Floor) Tormore townland, Glencar Lake, Co. Sligo. SMR: SL009-069----; NMI collection number: 2020C1. Unpublished report submitted to NMS, 19th June 2020.