Abstract

Seasonality studies can facilitate identifi cation of variability in the purposes for which Mesolithic sites were occupied and relations among forager mobility, economy, and society. Analyses of fi sh remains at the site of Ferriter’s Cove have produced evidence for occupation during the summer half of the year. Our study – an oxygen isotope analysis of seven Littorina littorea (periwinkle) shells from a pit feature (F488; c. 5200–5350 BP) at Ferriter’s Cove – complicates this pattern by introducing preliminary evidence for occupation during the winter half of the year as well. These results, when corroborated by further research, will inform the development of explanatory models for Later Mesolithic settlement and mobility and, because of F488’s late date, those for social change during the last quarter of the Later Mesolithic and the transition to Ireland’s Neolithic.