Graeme Warren
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 104458 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Graeme Warren |
| PRENOMES | Graeme |
| SOBRENOME | Warren |
| ASSINATURA | WARREN G |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University College Dublin |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6280-2576 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 45 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 95 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 45 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2002 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 6 |
The Mesolithic
This chapter asks two simple questions: what the Mesolithic is and why it matters. Answering the first question requires a review of the history of the definition of the Mesolithic including an emphasis on alternative ways of approaching the periodization of human activity. The second question asks what value knowledge about the Mesolithic brings and what might be distinctive about the period. Beyond increasing our understanding of particular reg…
Insularisation and isolation? Aligning the Mesolithics of Britain and Ireland
The chronological and typological frameworks used to describe the Mesolithic of Ireland and of Britain have developed along divergent paths. This has encouraged scholars to treat the areas as distinctive—especially in the Irish context, where changes within the Mesolithic are often understood as insular, sui generis developments. On the basis of two independent reviews of the chronologies of the Mesolithic in Britain (Conneller and colleagues) an…
MesoMag
investigating pyrogenic magnetism can support identifying Mesolithic land use traces, laboratory magnetometers can facilitate soil characterisation for archaeological applications
Reassessing the Mesolithic 'shell middens' of Rockmarshall, Co. Louth
Despite many discoveries and developments in the archaeology of the Mesolithic (both developer- and research-led) in Ireland in the past 30 years, representations remain somewhat influenced by the legacy of a few key sites excavated by a few people in the early days of the discipline. The 1946 and 1948 excavation of three 'shell middens' by Frank Mitchell in Rockmarshall, Co. Louth, on a moraine overlooking Dundalk Bay, has contributed to create …
Reassessing the Mesolithic ‘shell middens’ of Rockmarshall, Co. Louth
Despite many discoveries and developments in the archaeology of the Mesolithic (both developer- and research-led) in Ireland in the past 30 years, representations remain somewhat influenced by the legacy of a few key sites excavated by a few people in the early days of the discipline. The 1946 and 1948 excavation of three ‘shell middens’ by Frank Mitchell in Rockmarshall, Co. Louth, on a moraine overlooking Dundalk Bay, has contributed to create …
The European Mesolithic in Mountain Landscapes
The use of mountain environments is a recurrent, although not universal, feature of the Mesolithic across Europe. However, synthesis of this material is rare. This means that it is difficult to assess whether regional variation in archaeological evidence is a product of different activities in the past, different research traditions, different post-depositional landscape histories, or—most likely—complex local combinations of all three. To help m…
Iron Age Activity beside the River Dee, Cairngorms
In June 2019, a charcoal-rich pit was identified in an eroding riverbank during a walk-over survey along the River Dee, in the Mar Lodge Estate, Cairngorm Mountains, as part of a wider Mesolithic research project in the area led by researchers from University College Dublin. Subsequent radiocarbon dating of pine charcoal revealed that the pit was used in the earlier first millennium AD, providing the first archaeological evidence for Iron Age act…
Rewild Your Inner Hunter-Gatherer
We examine how hunter-gatherers are imagined in popular debate in Britain and Ireland, demonstrating that aspects of hunter-gatherer lifestyles are presented as both the antithesis and antidote to perceived crises in contemporary society. We apply an anthropological lens to four areas of popular discourse: physical health, mental health, bushcraft, and survivalism. We identify how the imagined hunter-gatherer in these debates is constructed throu…
Colonialism and the European Mesolithic
This paper heeds the broader societal calls for decolonisation in Britain and Ireland, and seeks to apply various strands of decolonial practice within the context of Mesolithic archaeology; a subfield which has seen little postcolonial reflection to date. We question the historic interactions between Mesolithic archaeology and colonial hegemony, and argue that Mesolithic research continues to reinforce these hegemonies today. This occurs simulta…
Unsettling Sin and Seeding Healing
Hunter-Gatherer Ireland
Scale Matters
For the greater part of the 20 th century, hunter-gatherer societies were regarded as "small-scale societies" by modern sociology (see Barth ed.1978 for overview).The broad distinction between "small-scale" and "large-scale" was increasingly losing its overall analytical grip in the late 20 th century, also with regard to the classification of hunter-gatherers in these terms.Anthropologists who approached hunter-gatherers from ecological-evolutio…
Mesolithic Montology
This article focuses on the Mesolithic occupation of mountain environments in Europe. The montane Mesolithic is a important aspect of the Mesolithic as a whole, but neither its significance nor its potential is fully recognised. Evidence also suggests that we have not communicated this to the wider interdisciplinary community of mountain researchers – a field sometimes known as montology – which is dominated by models of human behaviour in mounta…
Getting to the root of the problem
This paper presents new evidence for the harvesting of edible plant roots and tubers at Northton, a Mesolithic hunter-gatherer site on Harris, in the Western Isles of Scotland, in the north-west corner of Europe. The excavations uncovered abundant root tuber remains of Ficaria verna Huds. (lesser celandine), an excellent high energy and carbohydrate-rich food source, and produced the first evidence for the use of tubers of Lathyrus linifolius (Re…
Is There Such a Thing as Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology
This paper examines two related questions: firstly, whether there is a distinctive field of practice that might be called “hunter-gatherer archaeology” and which is different than other kinds of archaeology, and secondly, how such a claim might be justified. This question is considered through four prisms: (1) whether hunter-gatherers provide a unitary object of research; (2) whether hunter-gatherer archaeology is the same in different parts of t…
Looking Up for prehistoric hunter-gatherer archaeological sites in mountain landscapes in Europe
This paper introduces Looking Up, an intradisciplinary project combining archaeology and geological perspectives to contribute to the management of hunter-gatherer archaeological heritage in mountain landscapes, with a case study based in the Cairngorm Mountains, Scotland. Looking Up, which ran from 2021–2023, used a combination of original archaeological research – especially the development of predictive models of the location of areas of high …
The Invention of Equality
Early Islamic North Africa
This volume proposes a new approach to the Arab conquests and the spread of Islam in North Africa. In recent years, those studying the Islamic world have shown that the coming of Islam was not marked by devastation or decline, but rather by considerable cultural and economic continuity. In North Africa, with continuity came significant change. Corisande Fenwick argues that the establishment of Muslim rule also coincided with a phase of intense ur…
New Evidence for Upland Occupation in the Mesolithic of Scotland
This paper discusses the evidence for periodic human activity in the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland from the late 9th millennium to the early 4th millennium cal bc . While contemporary paradigms for Mesolithic Europe acknowledge the significance of upland environments, the archaeological record for these areas is not yet as robust as that for the lowland zone. Results of excavation at Chest of Dee, along the headwaters of the River Dee, are set …
No pottery at the western periphery of Europe
The past decade has witnessed an intensification of research into the use of pottery by hunter-gatherers. Long viewed by Western scholars as a marginal practice among these groups, pottery production is now known to have been widespread among prehistoric hunter-gatherers, many of whom practised no other activities associated with agriculture. In emphasising the centrality of ceramics to these communities, however, we risk marginalising those who …
H.a.r.p
Interactions of Care and Control
This contribution explores modes of human–animal interactions in hunter-gatherer communities in near-contemporary eastern Siberia and the Mesolithic of northwest Europe. By discussing notions of care and control and drawing on syntheses of Russian-language ethnographic data from eastern Siberia, this paper explores the diversity and nuances of hunter-gatherers’ interactions with animals. While some contexts may reveal respectful yet diverse treat…
Keynotes and a debate
Little House in the Mountains? A small Mesolithic structure from the Cairngorm Mountains, Scotland
From Moments to Histories
Little House in the Mountains? A small Mesolithic structure from the Cairngorm Mountains, Scotland
Is There Such a Thing as Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology
This paper examines two related questions: firstly, whether there is a distinctive field of practice that might be called “hunter-gatherer archaeology” and which is different than other kinds of archaeology, and secondly, how such a claim might be justified. This question is considered through four prisms: (1) whether hunter-gatherers provide a unitary object of research; (2) whether hunter-gatherer archaeology is the same in different parts of t…
New dates from the north and a proposed chronology for Irish court tombs
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature - Volume 112C, 2012
Getting to the root of the problem
This paper presents new evidence for the harvesting of edible plant roots and tubers at Northton, a Mesolithic hunter-gatherer site on Harris, in the Western Isles of Scotland, in the north-west corner of Europe. The excavations uncovered abundant root tuber remains of Ficaria verna Huds. (lesser celandine), an excellent high energy and carbohydrate-rich food source, and produced the first evidence for the use of tubers of Lathyrus linifolius (Re…
Stone Dead
In Europe, cremation as a burial practice is often associated with the Bronze Age, but examples of cremated human remains are in fact known from the Palaeolithic onwards. Unlike conventional inhumation, cremation destroys most of the evidence we can use to reconstruct the biography of the buried individual. Remarkably, in Ireland, cremation is used for the earliest recorded human burial and grave assemblage (7530–7320 bc ) located on the banks of…
Introducing LIR (Lithotheque Ireland), a reference collection of flaked stone tool raw materials from Ireland
The LIR (Lithotheque Ireland) reference collection of flaked stone tool raw materials from Ireland began in 2013, and is based on the geological prospection from two projects. The first (2013-2015) focused attention primarily on Carboniferous cherts from the northwest of Ireland, collecting 405 samples. The second (2015-2017) is currently collecting samples of the Cretaceous flint primarily from in situ contexts in the northeast of Ireland, but a…
From Moments to Histories
A late Mesolithic lithic scatter from Corralanna, Co. Westmeath, and its place in the Mesolithic landscape of the Irish Midlands
This report discusses a surface collection of late Mesolithic date from Corralanna, Co. Westmeath. The site, which was discovered after peat extraction in 1999, is characterised by a lithic assemblage comprised almost exclusively of chert, two axes, some coarse stone tools and a small range of organic finds including uncarbonised hazelnut shells. This discussion reviews the material from Corralanna, with an especial emphasis on the character of t…
Interactions of Care and Control
This contribution explores modes of human–animal interactions in hunter-gatherer communities in near-contemporary eastern Siberia and the Mesolithic of northwest Europe. By discussing notions of care and control and drawing on syntheses of Russian-language ethnographic data from eastern Siberia, this paper explores the diversity and nuances of hunter-gatherers’ interactions with animals. While some contexts may reveal respectful yet diverse treat…
Rewild Your Inner Hunter-Gatherer
We examine how hunter-gatherers are imagined in popular debate in Britain and Ireland, demonstrating that aspects of hunter-gatherer lifestyles are presented as both the antithesis and antidote to perceived crises in contemporary society. We apply an anthropological lens to four areas of popular discourse: physical health, mental health, bushcraft, and survivalism. We identify how the imagined hunter-gatherer in these debates is constructed throu…
Colonialism and the European Mesolithic
This paper heeds the broader societal calls for decolonisation in Britain and Ireland, and seeks to apply various strands of decolonial practice within the context of Mesolithic archaeology; a subfield which has seen little postcolonial reflection to date. We question the historic interactions between Mesolithic archaeology and colonial hegemony, and argue that Mesolithic research continues to reinforce these hegemonies today. This occurs simulta…
New Evidence for Upland Occupation in the Mesolithic of Scotland
This paper discusses the evidence for periodic human activity in the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland from the late 9th millennium to the early 4th millennium cal bc . While contemporary paradigms for Mesolithic Europe acknowledge the significance of upland environments, the archaeological record for these areas is not yet as robust as that for the lowland zone. Results of excavation at Chest of Dee, along the headwaters of the River Dee, are set …
No pottery at the western periphery of Europe
The past decade has witnessed an intensification of research into the use of pottery by hunter-gatherers. Long viewed by Western scholars as a marginal practice among these groups, pottery production is now known to have been widespread among prehistoric hunter-gatherers, many of whom practised no other activities associated with agriculture. In emphasising the centrality of ceramics to these communities, however, we risk marginalising those who …
Island Quarries, Island Axeheads, and the Neolithic of Ireland and Britain
A notable feature of the Neolithic Period (4,000-2,500 cal B.C.) of northwest Europe is the exploitation of lithic sources on islands for the production of stone axeheads and other artifacts. This article focuses on three such islands: 1) Rathlin in the North Channel off the northeast coast of Ireland, 2) the island group of Shetland between the North Atlantic and the North Sea, and 3) the island of Lambay off the east coast of Ireland. This work…
Excavation of an Iron Age, Early Historic and medieval settlement and metalworking site at Eilean Olabhat, North Uist
The promontory site of Eilean Olabhat, North Uist was excavated between 1986 and 1990 as part ofthe Loch Olabhat Research Project. It was shown to be a complex enclosed settlement and industrialsite with several distinct episodes of occupation. The earliest remains comprise a small Iron Agebuilding dating to the middle centuries of the first millennium BC, which was modified on severaloccasions prior to its abandonment. Much later, the Early Hist…
Quality Quartz
This paper discusses an assemblage of worked and smashed quartz associated with a Bronze Age kerbed cairn at Olcote. Most analytical treatments of quartz in Scottish prehistory have been structured around a pervasive dualism: quartz working is either the mundane use of a low quality raw material or the ritual use of a symbolically laden referent. The assemblage from Olcote highlights the dangers of such dichotomous analytical positions. We are ve…
The excavation of a Bronze Age cemetery at Seafield West, near Inverness, Highland
Excavations in 1996 in advance of a major commercial development at Seafield West revealed a Bronze Age cemetery. Inside a ring-ditch were two adjacent graves with wooden coffins, one a boat-shaped hollowed tree-trunk, the other plank-built. Both had probably contained crouched inhumation burials. Grave goods in the former included a bronze dagger of ‘Butterwick’ type whose scabbard of wood and cattle hide produced a date of 3385 ± 45 BP (1870–15…
Mesolithic Montology
This article focuses on the Mesolithic occupation of mountain environments in Europe. The montane Mesolithic is a important aspect of the Mesolithic as a whole, but neither its significance nor its potential is fully recognised. Evidence also suggests that we have not communicated this to the wider interdisciplinary community of mountain researchers – a field sometimes known as montology – which is dominated by models of human behaviour in mounta…
Looking Up for prehistoric hunter-gatherer archaeological sites in mountain landscapes in Europe
This paper introduces Looking Up, an intradisciplinary project combining archaeology and geological perspectives to contribute to the management of hunter-gatherer archaeological heritage in mountain landscapes, with a case study based in the Cairngorm Mountains, Scotland. Looking Up, which ran from 2021–2023, used a combination of original archaeological research – especially the development of predictive models of the location of areas of high …
The Adoption of Agriculture in Ireland
How can we understand researchers' perceptions of key research developments? A case study focusing on the adoption of agriculture in Ireland
Understanding how researchers perceive key research developments in their fields is not straightforward. This paper reports on a project focusing on perceptions of key developments in the adoption of agriculture (Mesolithic-Neolithic transition) in Ireland. The project involved over 60 interviews with active researchers, generating qualitative data that provide overview of these perceptions. Despite much diversity, several areas emerge as having …
Excavation of a Bronze Age kerbed cairn at Olcote, Breasclete, Near Calanais, Isle of Lewis
An archaeological excavation was carried out by the Centre for Field Archaeology (CFA) from October to December 1995 of a Bronze Age kerbed cairn at Olcote, Breasclete, Isle of Lewis (NGR: NB 2180 3475). The cairn was discovered by CFA during an evaluation of a dense scatter of worked and unworked quartz made by local archaeologists, Margaret and Ron Curtis. The remains lay in the path of the improvement of the single track road through Breasclet…
The Mesolithic in Scotland
This paper reviews recent trends and developments in the study of the Mesolithic period in Scotland and places them in their historical context. The last decade has witnessed a flourishing of research activity, not just in terms of discovery and excavation, but also artefact studies, dating programmes, and other types of research. The contribution of development-led projects is challenging traditional interpretations that have relied heavily on t…
The excavation of a Bronze Age cemetery at Seafield West, near Inverness, Highland
Excavations in 1996 in advance of a major commercial development at Seafield West revealed a Bronze Age cemetery. Inside a ring-ditch were two adjacent graves with wooden coffins, one a boat-shaped hollowed tree-trunk, the other plank-built. Both had probably contained crouched inhumation burials. Grave goods in the former included a bronze dagger of ‘Butterwick’ type whose scabbard of wood and cattle hide produced a date of 3385 ± 45 BP (1870–15…
Excavations of Neolithic and Bronze Age sites near Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, 1998
Several archaeological sites were located and excavated by the Centre for Field Archaeology, University of Edinburgh (CFA) during a watching brief associated with the construction of a c 13km gas pipeline from St Fergus to Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, in the summer of 1998. The discoveries comprised two Neolithic artefact scatters, Bronze Age structures and an enclosure, and two features akin to burnt mounds. Penspen Limited commissioned the work on…
Quality Quartz
This paper discusses an assemblage of worked and smashed quartz associated with a Bronze Age kerbed cairn at Olcote. Most analytical treatments of quartz in Scottish prehistory have been structured around a pervasive dualism: quartz working is either the mundane use of a low quality raw material or the ritual use of a symbolically laden referent. The assemblage from Olcote highlights the dangers of such dichotomous analytical positions. We are ve…
Excavation of a Bronze Age kerbed cairn at Olcote, Breasclete, Near Calanais, Isle of Lewis
An archaeological excavation was carried out by the Centre for Field Archaeology (CFA) from October to December 1995 of a Bronze Age kerbed cairn at Olcote, Breasclete, Isle of Lewis (NGR: NB 2180 3475). The cairn was discovered by CFA during an evaluation of a dense scatter of worked and unworked quartz made by local archaeologists, Margaret and Ron Curtis. The remains lay in the path of the improvement of the single track road through Breasclet…
Chipped Stone Tool Industries of the Earlier Neolithic in Eastern Scotland
This paper reviews chipped stone tool industries of the Earlier Neolithic in eastern Scotland. Assemblage size, raw materials and primary and secondary technology are discussed and some preliminary models are proposed: these suggest that assemblages are often small and dominated by flint. Very small quantities of Arran pitchstone are often present. Narrow flake and blade platform technologies are present and there is evidence for curation of core…
The 80s revival continues. Review of Mesolithic Miscellany (website)
After 10 years, Mesolithic Miscellany (MM) is back. Like encountering any friend you haven't seen for a decade, especially one from the 1980s, it is interesting to work out what has changed and what hasn't. And it's intriguing to try and imagine how this old friend is going to fit into your new life - especially with their two planned visits to your inbox a year
Excavation of an Iron Age, Early Historic and medieval settlement and metalworking site at Eilean Olabhat, North Uist
The promontory site of Eilean Olabhat, North Uist was excavated between 1986 and 1990 as part ofthe Loch Olabhat Research Project. It was shown to be a complex enclosed settlement and industrialsite with several distinct episodes of occupation. The earliest remains comprise a small Iron Agebuilding dating to the middle centuries of the first millennium BC, which was modified on severaloccasions prior to its abandonment. Much later, the Early Hist…
A late Mesolithic lithic scatter from Corralanna, Co. Westmeath, and its place in the Mesolithic landscape of the Irish Midlands
This report discusses a surface collection of late Mesolithic date from Corralanna, Co. Westmeath. The site, which was discovered after peat extraction in 1999, is characterised by a lithic assemblage comprised almost exclusively of chert, two axes, some coarse stone tools and a small range of organic finds including uncarbonised hazelnut shells. This discussion reviews the material from Corralanna, with an especial emphasis on the character of t…
How can we understand researchers' perceptions of key research developments? A case study focusing on the adoption of agriculture in Ireland
Understanding how researchers perceive key research developments in their fields is not straightforward. This paper reports on a project focusing on perceptions of key developments in the adoption of agriculture (Mesolithic-Neolithic transition) in Ireland. The project involved over 60 interviews with active researchers, generating qualitative data that provide overview of these perceptions. Despite much diversity, several areas emerge as having …
Creative Minds
Creative Minds: Production, Manufacturing and Invention in Ancient Ireland. Proceedings of a Public Seminar on Archaeological Discoveries on National Road Schemes, August 2009. Edited by M. Stanley, E. Danaher and J. Eogan." Archaeological Journal, 168(1), pp. 450–451
The Adoption of Agriculture in Ireland
New dates from the north and a proposed chronology for Irish court tombs
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature - Volume 112C, 2012
Transformations? The Mesolithic of north-west Europe
Island Quarries, Island Axeheads, and the Neolithic of Ireland and Britain
A notable feature of the Neolithic Period (4,000-2,500 cal B.C.) of northwest Europe is the exploitation of lithic sources on islands for the production of stone axeheads and other artifacts. This article focuses on three such islands: 1) Rathlin in the North Channel off the northeast coast of Ireland, 2) the island group of Shetland between the North Atlantic and the North Sea, and 3) the island of Lambay off the east coast of Ireland. This work…
The potential role of humans in structuring the wooded landscapes of Mesolithic Ireland
‘Mere food gatherers they, parasites upon nature …’
Graeme Warren*, ‘Mere food gatherers they, parasites upon nature ...’: food and drink in the Mesolithic of Ireland, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature, Vol. 115C, Food and Drink in Ireland (2015), pp. 1-26
Looking at things anew
The paper by Anderson-Whymark, Garrow and Sturt raises very important questions about how we understand Later Mesolithic Britain, Ireland and continental Europe. National research traditions have, at times, obscured our understanding of contacts and connections between areas in the Mesolithic. A focus on the distribution of a small range of artefacts has created a situation where Mesolithic cultures begin to resemble nation-states (Marchand 2014:…
Introducing LIR (Lithotheque Ireland), a reference collection of flaked stone tool raw materials from Ireland
The LIR (Lithotheque Ireland) reference collection of flaked stone tool raw materials from Ireland began in 2013, and is based on the geological prospection from two projects. The first (2013-2015) focused attention primarily on Carboniferous cherts from the northwest of Ireland, collecting 405 samples. The second (2015-2017) is currently collecting samples of the Cretaceous flint primarily from in situ contexts in the northeast of Ireland, but a…
Stone Dead
In Europe, cremation as a burial practice is often associated with the Bronze Age, but examples of cremated human remains are in fact known from the Palaeolithic onwards. Unlike conventional inhumation, cremation destroys most of the evidence we can use to reconstruct the biography of the buried individual. Remarkably, in Ireland, cremation is used for the earliest recorded human burial and grave assemblage (7530–7320 bc ) located on the banks of…
Keynotes and a debate
Little House in the Mountains? A small Mesolithic structure from the Cairngorm Mountains, Scotland
From Moments to Histories
H.a.r.p
Interactions of Care and Control
This contribution explores modes of human–animal interactions in hunter-gatherer communities in near-contemporary eastern Siberia and the Mesolithic of northwest Europe. By discussing notions of care and control and drawing on syntheses of Russian-language ethnographic data from eastern Siberia, this paper explores the diversity and nuances of hunter-gatherers’ interactions with animals. While some contexts may reveal respectful yet diverse treat…
Archaeology (39 obras) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (36 obras) · Geography (35 obras) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (28 obras) · Mesolithic (25 obras) · History (23 obras) · History (10 obras) · Ancient history (9 obras) · Sociology (9 obras) · Art (8 obras)