¹⁴C Dating of a Neolithic Field System at Céide Fields, County Mayo, Ireland

Abstract

Céide Fields is a 12 km2 Neolithic field system in North Mayo in the west of Ireland. The fields, enclosed by an integrated system of stone walls, have been preserved intact by a cover of blanket bog that is >4 m deep in places. At many locations within this blanket bog the stumps of ancient pines (Pinus sylvestris) are found in situ. The pine roots in most cases are either on the surface of the mineral soil under the peat or at an intermediate level in the peat itself. The age of the trees in the bog overlying Céide Fields is therefore of great significance for the dating of the fields, as the trees must be younger than the bog in which they are growing, which in turn must be younger than the field system beneath it. We present here the dates (N = 15) for pine trees from the bogs overlying Céide Fields and the dates (N = 29) of pine trees from other areas of the North Mayo blanket bog. We compare these pine dates with published dates of peat associated with a major pollen analytical study from within the fields and with published dates for bog pine from Scotland. The results of the study suggest that the dates for the construction and period of use of Céide Fields and other Neolithic pre-bog field systems in North Mayo are older than anticipated and that the date for initiation of blanket bog in many parts of North Mayo is also older than previously estimated. Further, the range of dates of the pine stumps indicates a synchronic event contemporary with a similar phenomenon observed in Scotland.

Early Neolithic Agriculture in County Mayo, Republic of Ireland: Geoarchaeology of the Céide Fields, Belderrig, and Rathlackan

“…1; Caulfield et al 1998). The Early Neolithic co-axial fields are delineated by stone walls that are now buried beneath up to 4 m of peat (ibid.…”

The palaeogeography and Neolithic archaeology of Herm in the Channel Islands

“…A closer analogy indeed might be provided by the 4th millennium Céide field system in western Ireland, where a series of tombs (many of them relatively small in size) are scattered among a Neolithic field system (Caulfield et al 1998). The analogy is admittedly inexact in that the Céide fields are exceptional and have no known parallel in Britain or northern France; nor is there evidence that the landscape of Herm was partitioned on this scale.…”

Field Boundary Stone Walls as Exemplars of ‘Novel’ Ecosystems

“…Here, dry stone walls have been utilised as field boundaries for several millennia (Aalen, et al, 1997;Caulfield, et al, 1998) and, along with earth embankments, they are the only remaining prehistoric boundary features still in functional use today (Feehan, 2003). Through the ages, dry stone wall have construction has become intertwined with the lives of countless individuals and communities (Allport, 1990;Anon., 2002;Hannay, 1957;Lindner, 1946;Russell, 1933), and the sheer diligence and labour involved in building and maintaining them points towards an interrelationship that may now be viewed as culturally embedded.…”

“…Field boundary stone walls, on the other hand, are often far older, though there are no studies on the ages of field boundary stone walls, excepting those from antiquity (e.g., Caulfield, et al, 1998), and thus their modern values and functions may extend beyond their original functions, as is the case for hedgerows. It may be that such values differ over time and regionally and culturally, and depend on such variables as utility and rock type.…”