The primary purpose of this book is to present in a comprehensive manner the results of the writer's research into the problems of the Irish Stone Age. The area is limited to the North-Eastern Irish coast, which witnessed a local development of culture in the Mesolithic Period during Early Post-Glacial times, and includes Counties Antrim and Down westward to the valley of the Lower Bann River. Between the littoral of this region, and the inland valley of Lough Neagh and the Bann, a highland zone occurs, formed by a plateau of Cretaceous chalk overlain by Tertiary basalt, and rising to an average height of 1000 feet above the sea. A ready and almost inexhaustible supply of flint was available in the chalk of this region, which was exploited throughout the Stone Age, and which doubtless was an important factor in attracting settlers.

For the most part the previous attempts to trace the origins and development of the Stone Age cultures of Ireland have been made from a typological point of view; however, it is a commonplace to state that even more important than the typology of a culture is its chronological position and its relation to comparable developments in other regions. Although recent excavations in Counties Antrim and Down have revealed prolific Mesolithic and Neolithic material at several sites, no Palaeolithic remains were discovered. The reason for this is obviously connected with the geological history of the area, and an examination of the published material has disclosed a wealth of disconnected but extremely important data, the clarification of which answers the question of the date of the earliest settlement in Ireland. The results of this investigation are incorporated into Part I of this book, and an attempt has been made to bring the material together with a definite purpose in mind: that of stimulating further work. Future research will doubtless show that some of the geological interpretation is incorrect in detail, nevertheless it is hoped that the data have been presented in a sufficiently comprehensive manner to be of use to other workers. The writer, trained as an archaeologist and approaching the problem from the purely objective viewpoint of an outsider, sees no valid reason for doubting an intimate relationship between Britain and Ireland on the one hand and Northern Europe on the other during Late-Glacial and Early Post-Glacial times.