CONNACHT TRIBUNEFRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2018NEWS16

DOCK ROAD, GALWAY

“If it’s worthdoing ...”

Dr. Paul Moore. Dr. Brian Delgado.

Winner of the Best Dental Practice 2018 and Winner of the Best High Technology Practice 2018

in the Republic of Ireland

Don’t wait, call the Gate 091 547 592info@gateclinic.com • www.gateclinic.com

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■ Research offers journey back 7,000 years into the mists of prehistory

BY BILL DALY

IT’S a village with a proud his-tory, but even the most learnedof historians wouldn’t antici-pate that the story of Oughter-ard goes back almost 7,000years… way back before the be-ginnings of written history – intoprehistory and the realm of ar-chaeologists. The village’s ancient history

was established after microliths(small stone tools) which werefound in 1975 at River Island,where the Owenriff River flowsinto Lough Corrib.That allows Oughterard to

claim a pedigree to be amongsta very small number of places inIreland where the first settlersto this country came to live andbuild their homes, almost 7,000years ago.Mesolithic Oughterard is the

theme of a presentation that Iwill deliver on Friday week,April 27, at the OughterardCourthouse at 8pm, hosted byThe Oughterard HeritageGroup.We will look at the geology

and landscape the first settlerscame into, and also their cultureand lifestyle. However, it will not just be a

presentation, because we willbe bringing it to life by also pre-senting physical reconstruc-tions of a Mesolithic house,tools, weapons and artifacts.To put this into context it is

12,000 years to the end of the

last Ice Age. The era betweenthe retreat of the ice and the de-velopment of farming is calledthe Mesolithic, or the MiddleStone Age. This phase – the one we’re

looking at on Friday week –lasted from 8,000BC to4,000BC, which is over 40% ofour recorded time on this Is-land. Ireland at that time was com-

pletely different than it is nowand everywhere was covered ina thick canopy of trees. The new settlers could move

more easily on rivers and lakes,and sought out these places fortheir refuge. A good supply ofwater was very important, fordrinking purposes and also toattract wild game.They were the last of the

hunter-gatherer people, beforehumans were to become in-volved in farming (Neolithic) ormetal-working (Bronze Age),but they were also very creativeand inventive. Because they did not grow

any crops, or have the ability tostore their produce, they had tobecome very skilled at huntingand fishing. The main animals at the time

in Ireland were the wild pig andhare, along with fowl, and therivers and seas yielded salmon,trout, eels, oysters and mussels.They always had to be on top oftheir hunting and fishing game,or they did not eat.From flints and sharp stones,

they made sharp blades called

microliths, creating tools andknives for cutting, and theywere the first humans to createa vital new weapon – the bowand arrow. Long before there was any

hint of farming practices in Ire-land, they would have beenhunting wild boar, and also col-lecting hazelnuts and berriesthat would have been availableseasonally.

They would have known theirlandscape very intimately, andwhat was available in certainareas at different times of theyear.They also had another hunt-

ing asset at their disposal…dogs. Dogs would have been do-

mesticated for many thousandsof years at this stage, and it gavethem the ability to become in-volved in driving game, and it

would not have been uncom-mon for men, women and chil-dren to participate in thesegame drives.Nothing went to waste, and

they used sharp bone needlesand animal gut thread to makeclothing. Wooden poles,saplings, animal skins andrushes were used in the con-struction of their flexible housesthat could be quickly moved if

required.Our presentation on Friday

week will look at that geologyand landscape – but we will alsobe bringing it to life by also pre-senting physical reconstruc-tions of a Mesolithic house,tools, weapons and artifacts. It is, in essence, a celebration

of our very first residents, andall are welcome on the night.Admission is free.

Oughterard’s earliest settlers

The way we were...a depiction of the first settlers by the shores of Lough Corrib.