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A lithic assemblage is described from numerous localities on the shores of Lough Allen, part of the River Shannon system in Ireland. By macroscopic and microscopic comparison with locally collected rock, the vast majority of the 869 artefacts are determined to be worked from a type of silicified dolomite*a finegrained rock type with nearly isotropic fracture properties not previously recognised amongst Irish prehistoric lithic assemblages. The geological distribution of this type of silicified dolomite is restricted to Lough Allen and the upland and lowland areas west, north and east of the lake shore. It is demonstrated through typo-technological analysis that the vast majority of the artefacts are from the Later Mesolithic, forming the second largest Mesolithic surface collection, after Lough Gara, in the west of Ireland. The collection includes a small number of axe roughouts, the first to be recorded in a lakeside setting in Ireland. The analysis provides firm evidence for extensive Later Mesolithic activity in the Lough Allen area based mostly on locally available material. C dating of an in situ oak trunk from the lake shore is also presented and indicates lake levels lower than those of today during the Bronze Age, which together with the distribution of lithics suggests that a broader lake shore may have been exposed during the Later Mesolithic. * Authors’ e-mails: killiandriscoll@gmail.com (corresponding author); j.f.menuge@ucd.ie; emmettokeeffe@gmail.com doi: 10.3318/PRIAC.2014.114.06 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Vol. 114C, 1 34 # 2013 Royal Irish Academy Introduction This paper presents the lithological and typo-technological analysis of a silicified dolomite-dominated surface collection from the post-drainage shoreline of Lough Allen, Ireland. The assemblage, dating primarily to the Later Mesolithic, is predominantly formed from locally derived silicified dolomite. This paper is the first detailed analysis to recognise an assemblage of such raw material in Ireland. The Mesolithic in Ireland is divided between the Early Mesolithic (c. 8000 c. 7000/6500 cal. BC) and the Later Mesolithic (c. 7000/ 6500 c. 4000 cal. BC), with the stone toolkit of Early Mesolithic communities characterised by a microlithic tradition as well as the use of cores, flakes, and ground and polished axes, while the Later Mesolithic witnessed a shift to a macrolithic tradition and the continued occurrence of stone axes (Costa et al. 2005; Woodman et al. 2006). Some of the classic diagnostic artefact types from the Later Mesolithic are the butt/distally trimmed types, including the leafshaped Bann Flake. Other types include bar forms, blade points, Moynagh points, picks, borers and others that defy easy typological categorisation (Woodman 2003, 2005). The Neolithic, beginning c. 4000 cal. BC (see discussion in Cooney et al. 2011), saw the introduction of farming to Ireland, bringing with it different plants, animals, material culture and technology such as monumental architecture, pottery and stone toolkits (Cooney 2007), and manufacturing techniques, including different projectile technologies, pressure flaking and bipolar knapping (Woodman et al. 2006). While the general distribution of Irish Mesolithic evidence to date is seen primarily in coastal, riverine, lacustrine and wetland settings (Woodman 2003), the Neolithic evidence is more widely dispersed in the landscape (Cooney 2000), albeit with an unsurprising coastal emphasis given that Ireland is a small Atlantic island (Driscoll 2013; O’Sullivan and Breen 2007), and also a continued use and inhabitation of rivers, lakes and wetlands (O’Sullivan 2007). Up until the end of the twentieth century, discussions regarding flaked stone-tool raw materials in Ireland were based primarily on flint, and secondarily on chert. This was due to the development of antiquarianism and archaeology on the island*the nineteenth-century explosion of lithic collecting in Ireland was primarily a northern Irish phenomenon, where the main sources of flint, especially in situ flint, lie (see Woodman et al. 2006). While some researchers, especially Knowles (e.g. 1889, 1891), noted a wide range of raw materials, for the most part discussions on the materials used for flaked stone were limited to flint or chert, and the northern flint deposits were seen as the major attractor for settlers to Ireland. Indeed, not only was flint seen as an attractor, but the lack of flint in the south of Ireland was seen as a reason for the perceived avoidance of the area during the Late Glacial period (see discussion in Driscoll 2009a). With the discovery of numerous Mesolithic chert assemblages in the midlands in the early and mid-twentieth century providing evidence for the non-primacy of flint there, Woodman (2003) noted that it was, nevertheless, initially interpreted that these midland chert sites were simply an extension of the north-eastern Mesolithic flint, rather than as signatures of a valid settlement distribution in their own right. Woodman et al.’s (1999) publication of the Ferriter’s Cove excavations emphasised that in terms of Killian Driscoll et al.

New materials, traditional practices: a Mesolithic silicified dolomite toolkit from Lough Allen, Ireland