Common pools and private tools? Mobility and economy during Ireland’s Later Mesolithic

Due to environmental and historical factors, Ireland’s Later Mesolithic period is visible “through a glass, darkly.” The first three quarters of this period (7500–6000 BP) are significantly underrepresented; prospects are much better for study of the last quarter (6000–5500 BP). These limitations notwithstanding, excavations, regional surveys, and faunal and lithic analyses point to a highly mobile, generalized forager adaptation oriented toward Ireland’s coasts, rivers, and lakeshores during the Later Mesolithic. I present a conceptual framework borrowed from natural resource economics and use it to (1) classify Later Mesolithic raw material sources as “common-pool resources” and (2) to discuss the potential sociopolitical significance of “private goods” in Mesolithic society. Recent applications of stable isotope analysis and AMS radiocarbon dating of bones and teeth from humans and bovids (Bos taurus) offer glimpses of a dynamic picture for the last quarter of the Later Mesolithic. I conclude by discussing the sociopolitical significance of cattle and, perhaps, polished stone axes, both of which might have been private goods that fostered intergroup alliances for generalized foragers (e.g., as part of marriage exchanges or ritual activities) or prestige opportunities for incipient transegalitarian foragers.