The proposed poster presents a critical review of the way inland navigation is constructed in the archaeological literature as an essential component in the mobility of the Mesolithic hunter-gatherer communities of Ireland, with a particular focus on boats and rivers. Against a scarce background of direct archaeological and environmental evidence, a content analysis of the academic discourse highlights a dominant processual approach structured around three themes: seafaring and pioneering “events”; boat technology and performance; broad generalisations about the land- and waterscape. It is argued that such a narrative could be usefully revisited by adopting a small-scale, high-resolution approach that would explore human and material agency and integrate analogy as a method.
| Subject : | : | Poster |
| Topics | : | Theme: Current research |
| Keywords | : | mobility ; landscape ; agency ; analogy ; methodology ; ireland |
| PDF version | : |  PDF version |
