Gabriel Cooney - Landscapes of Neolithic Ireland

I am very grateful to a number of colleagues who read various drafts of the manuscript. Alison Sheridan and Alastair Whittle read most of the text in detail. Richard Bradley, Seamas Caulfield, Eoin Grogan, Andrew Jones, Finola OCarroll and Aidan OSullivan also provided valuable discussion and comments for which I am very grateful. I would also like to thank Gordon Barclay, Gretta Byrne, Tom Condit, Shannon Fraser, Barrie Hartwell, Carleton Jones, Ann Lynch, Conleth Manning, Mick Monk, Andrew Powell and Paul Walsh for their help and discussion of specific points. I am very grateful to Gretta Byrne, Carleton Jones and Andrew Powell for access to largely unpublished data. I am also grateful to my colleagues in the Irish Stone Axe Project, Stephen Mandal and Emmet Byrnes for their help, support and contributions to the text and illustrations. The input of all the above has greatly improved the text, the faults it still has are mine, inevitably there are still lots of ideas and issues that we will debate!

In a book like this the illustrations play a major role and I am delighted and grateful to acknowledge the hard work and inspired input of Conor Brady who created most of the line drawings, in some cases from very fluffy originals! The pottery drawings are by Niamh OBroin and greatly enhance the text. I would also like to thank Dave Jennings for all his help with the illustrations.

Seamas Caulfield and Barrie Hartwell very kindly provided photographs. Clare Foley assisted in obtaining the Millin Bay photograph and I would like to thank Tony Roche, John Scarry and Con Brogan of the Photographic Section, National Monuments Service, Dchas for their help with regard to photographs, both on this occasion and in the past! is reproduced with the permission of the Cambridge University Committee for Aerial Photography.

The text contains some material which was published in an earlier form and I would like to thank Wordwell for permission to use material from .

I am pleased to acknowledge the support of my colleagues in the Department of Archaeology, University College Dublin and in particular Barry Rafterys interest and whole-hearted encouragement and support. The Faculties of Arts and Celtic Studies in University College Dublin have supported my research in various ways. The book was completed while I was on sabbatical leave as a Presidents Research Fellow. This fellowship was awarded by University College Dublin and I would like to formally acknowledge my gratitude and honour to be in receipt of this fellowship.

At Routledge Vicki Peters, Jody Ball, Nadia Jacobson, before her departure, and Catherine Bousfield were ever helpful and patient and made the production process a very smooth and calm operation, many thanks.

Of course writing and archaeology takes up a lot of time and I am especially grateful to my wife, Mer and our children, Eoin, Emma and Rosanna for their cheerful support and forebearance. The book is dedicated to them.

As an archaeologist the period I have always been particularly interested in is what is known as the Neolithic. For the archaeologist the word Neolithic conjures up a range of varied associations. In calendrical time terms it refers to the period in Ireland between 4000 and 2500 BC, but extending over 2,000 years earlier in parts of Europe. It is when we see the beginnings of agriculture, but also the continuity of foraging. This was when the first major human intervention into the then densely wooded Irish landscape was made. The archaeological record indicates a complex set of religious beliefs, including the construction of a range of ceremonial monuments. These monuments occur alongside evidence of the dominance of routine lives. It would seem that people had a great concern with the dead and the ancestors, matched with and perhaps reflecting the lived reality that most people could not expect to live past their early 30s. These are just a few of the images that the word Neolithic conveys to archaeologists working with the evidence from this period. Indeed the definition of what the term means is still a matter of considerable debate.