Evidence of earliest humans at lakes

THE earliest human settlement in the south-west of Ireland has been discovered in a huge archaeological find on the Lakes of Killarney.

Evidence of a human presence dating back 7,000 to 7,500 years has been found by archaeologist Michael Gibbons.

The find confirms a human presence on the Lakes of Killarney before 5000 BC, in the Mesolithic Age or Middle Stone Age.

In particular, Mr Gibbons discovered a leaf- shaped spear-head termed a Bann Flake (named after an archaeological type-site on the River Bann) which dates to this period. He found it below low water at Ross Island on the lakes.

The significance of the discovery is that it suggests that there was a human settlement in the south- west a millennium earlier than previously thought.

A now-famous site at Ferriters Cove at the tip of the Dingle Peninsula was discovered by Professor Peter Woodman during the 1990s and dated a human presence there to between 6,000 to 6,500 years ago.

Mr Gibbons said yesterday that radiocarbon dating of the Bann Flake, which may have come from a hut on Ross Island peninsula, suggests there was a nomadic hunter- gatherer group living on the Lakes of Killarney up to 1,500 years before the first farmers arrived in the south-west.

“Ross Island was probably a key site in the hunter-gatherer cycle, as they followed the migrating fish and fowl on their annual migrations from sea to river via Lough Leane.

“It is likely that many other sites from this period are to be found around the Lakes of Killarney,” said Mr Gibbons .

The flake is the second discovery he has made below low water since May.

Mr Gibbons explained: “I identified the other on the upper lake at Glendalough in Wicklow National Park. In this case, I was able to identify the remains of an early harbour and quay-side, together with a number of probably house platforms at Ireland’s other Skellig, Teampall na Scellige.

“Teampall na Scellige is next to [St] Kevin’s Bed which was the site of a major pilgrimage up until modern times. This remote and now rarely visited monastic complex is one of the most beautiful and spectacularly sited in the country and the discovery of these features is an important addition to the site’s documented history,” he added.

Mr Gibbons has recently campaigned to have a moratorium put on the works on Skellig Michael so that the level of rebuilding and remodelling going on there can be subject to an independent assessment and that UNESCO guidelines can be followed.

Working as an independent archaeologist, Mr Gibbons is currently looking at settlement in the MacGillycuddy Reeks for a forthcoming publication by Kerry mountaineer and conservationist Con Moriarty.