From Hunter-Gatherers to Early Christians: The Archaeology of Ancient Societies in the Llŷn Peninsula

By Julian Maxwell Heath

Jutting out some thirty miles into the Irish Sea, from the western edge of Snowdonia, the Llŷn Peninsula, in north-west Wales, is renowned for its stunning beaches and countryside, with much of its landscape designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The peninsula is also home to a remarkable and abundant collection of archaeological sites and monuments, some of national importance, which bear witness to the ancient societies who once inhabited this narrow finger of land on the western fringe of Britain.

This abundantly illustrated book examines this rich corpus of archaeological evidence, beginning with the faint but fascinating traces that Mesolithic hunter-gatherers have left in the landscape of the Llŷn Peninsula and ending in the early medieval period, with about 9,000 years of human habitation thus covered in its pages. In the course of the book, we will encounter a wealth of fascinating archaeological evidence, which includes impressive megalithic tombs and an axe ‘factory’ from the Neolithic; burial mounds and mysterious standing stones from the Early Bronze Age; rural settlements and magnificent hillforts occupied in the Iron Age and Romano–British period; and memorial stones erected by early Christian communities.

Much more besides will be found in the pages of this volume, which throws considerable light on the ancient peoples of the Llŷn Peninsula, and the rich archaeological heritage of this special part of the United Kingdom, which has much to offer those who are interested in the distant lives of our ancestors.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Release date: Feb 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781914427237

Julian Maxwell Heath

Julian Heath was educated at Liverpool University where he studied Archaeology and Egyptology. He has since gone on to publish and illustrate several books such as Stories from Ancient Egypt (with Joyce Tyldesley), Life in Copper Age Britain, and Archaeological Hotspots Egypt: Unearthing the Past for Armchair Archaeologists. He has also worked on several archaeological excavations in both Europe and Egypt.

Book preview

chapter one

A Bough of Country Suspended Between Sea and Sky

The Llŷn Peninsula is sometimes known as ‘Snowdon’s Arm’, or the ‘Land’s End of North Wales’, as this long and narrow stretch of land, which measures c. 30 miles long and about 11 miles across at its widest point, juts out south-westwards into the Irish sea from the western edge of the Snowdonia National Park (Figure 1). The coast of southern Ireland is also visible from the peninsula on fine days and in fact, etymological evidence indicates that ancient Irish settlers gave their name to this part of Wales, as suggested by several scholars. For example, Max Adams (2015, 27) notes in his excellent book, In the Land of Giants: ‘Welsh Llŷn shares its etymological root with Irish Lein, from the ancient Irish tribal name Lageni, denoting those who lived in Leinster, the province lying to the south of Dublin on Ireland’s east coast’. In a similar vein, Edel Bhreatnach (2018, 17) has remarked, ‘the name of the Llŷn Peninsula in north-west Wales may derive from the name of the dominant people of the east and south-east regions of Ireland, the Laigin. This might suggest that parts of the west coast of Britain were ruled from time to time by Irish kings’. It is also interesting to note that the classical Greek scholar, Ptolemy refers in his Geography/Geographia (written c. AD 150) to the Llŷn Peninsula as Ganganorum Promonturium, ‘the promontory of the Gangani’. However, it has been argued (Counihan 2019, 10–11), that this was an error on Ptolemy’s part, and that ‘in reality Ganganorum Promontorium was in the west of Ireland, and can be identified with Loop Head in County Clare’.

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1. Location map of the Llŷn Peninsula, showing principal sites and monuments (Relief map courtesy of Nilfanion, Creative Commons)

Whether an ancient Irish king ever ruled over the peninsula in the early medieval period, can only ever be a matter of speculation. However, due to the survival of early Christian stones bearing bilingual Latin and Ogam/Ogham inscriptions, scholars are in general agreement that Irish colonists settled in western Wales in the post-Roman period and, that between the 4th and 6th centuries, Irish raiders were harrying Welsh communities (Wmffre 2007, 49–50). Moving further back in time, various aspects of the Welsh archaeological record also reveal shared cultural traits with Ireland during the prehistoric period (Grimes 1964; Lynch 1989; Wadell 1992), and trade, settlement, or a combination of the two (Grimes 1964, 1), help to explain the existence of similar monuments and artefacts either side of the Irish Sea in prehistory.

Historically, the Llŷn Peninsula comprised two main administrative districts or cantrefs (similar to Saxon hundreds) under the ancient kingdom of Gwynedd: Llŷn to the west, and Eifionyyd to the east, with a small part of Arfon also included (Smith 2003, 89). Welsh tradition has it that the ancient kingdom of Gwynedd, of which, the peninsula forms the westernmost part, was founded by the descendants of Cunedda Wledig, a northern chieftain of the Maeatae tribe, who travelled from Manaw Gododdin (roughly corresponding to modern-day Clackmannanshire, east-central Scotland) with his war-band and eight of his nine sons (one had previously died), to expel the Irish from North Wales. According to an article that appeared in the Welsh press (dramatically titled: ‘Scottish Warlord rode to Llyn Peninsula to rescue Celts from Irish invaders, researchers claim’, Powell 2015) the scientific research project, ‘ScotlandsDNA’ identified the ancestral Y chromosome marker of the Maeatae in 2014, and that a closely related genetic marker had been subsequently identified in a small number of Welsh men.

However, although the Historia Brittonum (‘History of the Britons’, written around the early 9th century, and usually attributed to a Welsh monk, Nennnius) does record that it was Cunedda who drove the Irish out of North Wales, there is no mention of any ‘rescue mission’ by Cunedda and his cavalry to the peninsula. Nonetheless, the 10th-century manuscript, the Harleian Genealogies (Harley MS 3859, now kept by the British Library), does place Cunedda and his sons in the mid-5th century, which agrees with the Historia Brittonum, and furthermore, ties them in nicely with the overthrow of Irish hegemony in north-west Wales in the post-Roman period (Iwan Wmffre, pers. comm., 2021).Whatever the truth about Cunedda and his military excursion, one thing that can be said for sure about the Llŷn Peninsula is that is has long been a popular destination for holiday makers, and many ‘incomers’ from England have either settled in, or have second homes here, leading to concerns that the Welsh language is in gradual decline here, as a result. The building of new holiday homes, apartments, and boutique stores geared towards the tourist trade has also altered the traditional appearance of these villages, with this problem particularly noticeable in Abersoch, a honeypot for affluent families from north-west England. A more serious problem is that this has led to a surge in property prices in the peninsula and that local people, particularly the young, are being priced out of the property market, although this is a situation mirrored in many other parts of Britain, such as the Lake District and the Cotswolds.

Nevertheless, the Llŷn Peninsula remains a stronghold of the Welsh language and culture with at least 70% of its inhabitants still speaking ‘Cymraeg’, and people also come from all over the world to learn Welsh at the Nant Gwrtheyrn (‘Vortigern’s Valley’) National Welsh Language and Heritage Centre (Figure 2). Often simply referred to as the ‘Nant’, this important cultural site lies in a remote valley on the peninsula’s northern coast and was originally a quarrying village inhabited from the mid-19th century to the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, with the granite blasted from the three quarries nearby being used to pave the roads and streets of Liverpool, Manchester, and Birkenhead. It may be interesting to note that this hidden valley takes its name from the legend that Vortigern, a 5th-century warlord, who was responsible for the traitorous crime of inviting the first Saxons into Britain, is buried here. In the late 18th century, the Welsh writer, naturalist, and antiquarian, Thomas Pennant, recorded that a cairn or tumulus existed at Nant Gwrtheyrn and that the bones of a tall man were found by its inhabitants in a stone grave beneath this burial mound, with the grave known locally as Bedd Gwrtheyrn (‘Vortigern’s Grave’).

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2. The ‘Nant’. Nant Gwrtheyrn National Welsh Language and Heritage Centre (Image courtesy of Tom Parnell, Creative Commons)

Coast, Countryside, and Wildlife

In 1957, a large part of the Llŷn Peninsula was rightly designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB – there are only four other AONBs in Wales: Anglesey, the Clywdian Range, the Gower Peninsula (the first AONB in the UK), and the Welsh section of the Wye Valley) and was aptly described by one of its more famous residents, the Anglican clergyman and poet, R.S. Thomas, as ‘a bough of country that is suspended between sea and sky’ (from the poem Retirement). Indeed, you are never far from the sea, and from lovely sandy beaches (Figure 3) set between pleasant, green headlands, or from wilder stretches of coastline comprising dramatic stretches of sheer, craggy cliffs. However, the peninsula also boasts a beautiful rural hinterland, which is characterised by its small cottages and farms, and little villages set among a patchwork of quiet fields and narrow winding lanes, with wooded river valleys, streams, colourful areas of heathland, and striking, isolated hills, adding to the great charm of this tranquil Welsh countryside. Many of the fields that blanket much of the peninsula’s rural landscape are enclosed by either stone walls or traditional ‘cloddiau’ (stone-faced, earth banks), with these field boundaries dating back several centuries in some cases (Figure 4).

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3. The popular Warren Beach, near Abersoch (Image courtesy of Pamela Norman)

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4. Traditional field boundaries, or ‘cloddiau’, at the south-western tip of the Llŷn Peninsula near Aberdaron

As well as having some of the finest coastline and countryside that Britain has to offer, the Llŷn Peninsula and the sea that surrounds it is also home to a diverse and important array of wildlife, which includes many notable – and in some cases – declining species, such as the red-beaked and red-legged chough (the rarest member of the crow family), peregrine falcons, puffins, curlew, yellowhammer, Manx Shearwaters, guillemots, Risso’s dolphins, harbour porpoise, grey seals, leatherback turtles (summer visitors), adders, and rarer polecats and otters. Wild goats can also be found living on the flanks of the famous Yr Eifl (coming from the Welsh for forks: gafl), a striking trio of hills known in English as the ‘Rivals’ (Figure 5). At 564 m, the central hill of the trio, Garn Ganol (‘central cairn’) is the highest in the peninsula; to the north-west, across the Blwch or ‘pass’ of Yr Eifl, is Garn Fôr (‘sea cairn’, 444 m), while to the south-east, is the most visited of the three peaks, Tre’r Ceiri, at 485 m (Plate 1). Yr Eifl, like several other areas of the peninsula, has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), with other examples being Porth Ceriad, Morfa Dinlle, Parc Glynliffon, Cors Geirch and Ynys Enlli, with the latter two also designated as National Nature Reserves.

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5. Yr Eifl, or the ‘Rivals’ as this famous trio of hills is known in English (Image courtesy of Llywelyn 2000, Creative Commons)

Thanks to its warm summers and mild winters, a great diversity of wildflowers and plants enhance the beauty of the Llŷn Peninsula’s landscape, with some nationally rare species such as Spring Squill, Golden Samphire, spotted Rock Rose (which only flowers once in its lifetime, also shedding its petals within hours of doing so), and sea lavender found on the costal cliffs. Inland, in spring and summer, many of the banks and hedgerows bordering the peninsula’s narrow country lanes are filled with wildflowers such as Stitchwort, Primrose, Red Campion, Dog-violet, and the ubiquitous Foxglove, providing a visual treat, best appreciated on foot, rather than four wheels.

The Geology of the Llŷn Peninsula: A Brief Look

The geology of the Llŷn Peninsula is complex, but it basically comprises pre-Cambrian rock formations from the earliest phase of the earth’s history, which are overlain by sedimentary and volcanic strata from the younger Cambrian and Ordovician geological periods, with the long and narrow finger of land that forms its landscape a natural extension of the Snowdonia massif (a group of mountains, including Snowdon or Yr Wyddfa, found in the area between Beddgelert, Pen y Pass, and Llanberis). The landscape that we see in the peninsula today was created through the gigantic forces of volcanic and glacial activity, but human settlement over thousands of years has also contributed to the unique appearance of its beautiful coastline and countryside.

Several striking hills dot the countryside of the Llŷn Peninsula, adding to its unique appearance and great charm, and these originated around 450 million years ago during a period of massive volcanic activity in North Wales (Plate 2). During this time, magma (molten rock) trapped below the surface pushed the rock above it, upwards, to create cone-shaped ‘igneous intrusions’, which were later ‘sculpted’ by the huge ice sheet or glacier that covered all of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and most of northern England, during the Last Glacial Maximum, c. 27,000–11,300 years ago. Further evidence of the sheer power of volcanic activity can be found around the coastline of the Llŷn Peninsula, particularly along its northern coast (Figure 6). Three spectacular sea stacks known as Trwyn y Tal can also be seen along this stretch of coastline and have been designated as a Regionally Important Geological Site, as have Mynydd Carreg and Porthdinllaen, the latter being one of the most picturesque and most visited parts of the peninsula; incidentally, Porthdinllaen, like ‘Llŷn’, may derive from the Irish word, Lein (Figure 7). Impressive evidence of the ice sheet that once covered and ‘carved out’ the hills and valleys of the Llŷn Peninsula can be seen at places such as Porth Neigwl or ‘Hell’s Mouth’, a huge curving bay backed by a sweep of cliffs formed from glacial till deposited by the retreating ice (Figure 8). These cliffs are being badly affected by erosion and some local properties are now dangerously close to the edge of the cliffs as a result. Similar glacial deposits can be seen in the exposed cliff face at Morfa Dinlle, and the countless rocks and boulders seen on the southern end of the beach at Porth Neigwl, and on other beaches in the Llŷn Peninsula, such as the lovely Porth Ceriad, were carried from Scotland and the Lake District by the British Ice Sheet.

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6. Looking along the northern coastline of the Llŷn Peninsula, from above Trefor (Image courtesy of Jeff Buck, Creative Commons)

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7. Pictureseque Porth Dinllaen (Image courtesy of Pamela Norman)

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8. Porth Neigwl (Hell’s Mouth) seen from above Plas yn Rhiw (Image courtesy of Skinsmoke, Creative Commons)

From Hunter-Gatherers to Early Christians: An Archaeological Overview

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the Llŷn Peninsula, and the raison d’être for this book, is the huge number of sites and monuments scattered across its landscape, which represent some 10,000 years of human habitation, c. 9000 BC–AD 1000. Sites and monuments (and stray finds) from the prehistoric period are particularly well represented (revealing the intensity of land-use here in prehistory) and it should also be borne in mind that many must have been lost in the face of the intensive agriculture that has been a significant feature of life in the peninsula since the 18th century (Smith 2003, 10).

It is also worth mentioning that there are many reminders of the peninsula’s more recent historical past. For example, there is Penarth Fawr, a fine, late medieval ‘hall’ house built about 1476, near the village of Chwilog (Figure 9), which, it is worth noting, has a wooden beam in its interior that bears the carved date, 1656 Feb 20. More well-known is Criccieth Castle (built c. 1230 and destroyed 1404), which although somewhat ruinous today, is still an imposing monument and a brooding reminder of the long-running wars fought between the Welsh and English in the medieval period (Figure 10). There are also hidden gems too, such as the superbly carved, 16th-century (c. 1530) rood screens from the early Tudor period, found in Saint Engan’s Church, Llanengan (Figure 11), one of the finest churches in the Llŷn Peninsula, and a Grade I listed building. The church is dedicated to Engan (properly Enion Frenin), a ruler of early medieval Gwynedd who is said to have helped Saint Cadfan to establish a monastery on Ynys Enlli in the 6th century. Remnants from the industrial past of the peninsula, can also be seen just outside Llanengan, with the towering chimney of the Tan yr Allt lead mine, a familiar local landmark (Figure 12). Tan yr Allt is just one of several lead mines in this area that were in use from at least c. 1630 to the late 19th century (Bennett and Vernon 2002). The peninsula also boasts several fine country houses that are of considerable age, the best-known, Plas yn Rhiw, an early 17th-century manor house, with perhaps much earlier, medieval origins, which nestles amidst delightful gardens and woodland above Porth Neigwl (Figure 13). It is worth noting that after his retirement from the church, R.S. Thomas lived at Sarn y Plas from 1978–1996, a quite rare, single-story, 18th-century cottage, which was originally part of the Plas yn Rhiw estate.

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9. Penarth Fawr, a late medieval, high-status Hall House

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10. The impressive ruins of Criccieth Castle (Image courtesy of Barry Skeates, Creative Commons)

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11. Detail of early Tudor rood screen in Saint Engan’s Church, Llanengan

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12. The chimney of the Tan yr Allt lead mine near Llanengan. Carn Fadryn is visible on the horizon

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13. Plas yn Rhiw country house and gardens (Image courtesy of Peter Barr, Creative Commons)

In fact, the rich and diverse archaeological heritage of the Llŷn Peninsula, has been recognised as being of national importance, as along with other areas of the country, it was placed on the register of Landscapes of Outstanding Historic Interest in Wales, the first part of which was published in 1998 (the second part being published in 2001). This register represents a joint initiative between Cadw, Natural Resources Wales and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), who worked in tandem with the four Welsh archaeological trusts: the Clywd-Powys, Dyfed, Glamorgan-Gwent, and Gwynedd Archaeological Trusts.

The earliest archaeological evidence found in the Llŷn Peninsula dates to the Mesolithic, or ‘Middle Stone Age’, which in Britain, spans some 5,000 years of prehistory, roughly dating from 9000–4000 BC, with any evidence from the preceding Palaeolithic (‘Old Stone Age’) lacking. During this time, hunter-gatherer, or hunter-fisher-forager groups (Lillie 2015), whose lives were dictated by the wild resources that land and sea had to offer, lived in its landscape, probably in short-term or seasonal camps. However, we cannot totally rule out the possibility that there were longer-lived settlements of a more permanent nature in the Llŷn Peninsula, as has been revealed at Mesolithic sites such as Howick in Northumberland, or the more famous Starr Carr, Yorkshire. No evidence of such sites has been unearthed in the peninsula (and probably never will be) but its hunter-gatherer communities have nevertheless left us with lithic scatters, comprising characteristic small stone tools or ‘microliths’, and the associated waste or ‘debitage’ from their production.

As in the rest of Britain, the ancient hunting and gathering lifestyle of the Llŷn Peninsula’s Mesolithic communities was replaced in the early centuries of the 4th millennium BC, by the novel Neolithic one, which was based on domesticated crops and animals. However, the introduction of the Neolithic in c. 4000 BC in Britain, represents more than just a radical change in subsistence and is associated with many other novel social customs and practices, such as the building of megalithic tombs (known as ‘cromlechs’ in Wales), several fine examples of which survive in the Peninsula. It seems likely that these substantial stone structures were more than just places where the dead were interred, and some examples may not even have been primarily built as burial places, although ‘tomb’ remains a useful label for these impressive monuments.

In the addition to its megalithic tombs, the Llŷn Peninsula also boasts a Neolithic stone axe factory, with this important site – which is now largely obscured below the slopes of Mynydd Rhiw, producing fascinating evidence relating to the quarrying and production of what was an essential item in the ‘tool kit’ of its first farming communities. It should also be noted that the term ‘factory’ is simply a convenient one, used by archaeologists for places that very probably had a deeper, ‘spiritual’ meaning to the communities that worked at them, which in turn, lent the axes produced at these sites a significance that went beyond their everyday, utilitarian use.

In the succeeding Chalcolithic (or ‘Late Neolithic’, as some archaeologists prefer – c. 2500–2150 BC) and Early Bronze Age (c. 2150–1500 BC), metalworking became established in Britain, and the prehistoric communities of the peninsula began burying their dead in stone cist graves and burial mounds (stone cairns and earthen barrows) rather than megalithic tombs. Little remains above ground of the latter, but several burial cairns (in varying states of preservation) can be seen in the landscape, which are often located high up on, or near, the summits of prominent hills. The Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age peoples of the Llŷn Peninsula also erected standing stones or ‘maen hirs/menhirs’ (from the Brittonic language – meaning ‘long stones’), with several examples of these rough, but often impressive, monolithic pillars still standing, and representing one of the most evocative and enigmatic reminders of prehistoric life to be found here.

Also known from the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age in the Llŷn Peninsula are a handful of cist grave burials of the famous Beaker culture, perhaps indicating prehistoric immigration from elsewhere, or simply the adoption of new cultural practices. This intriguing and highly influential, pan-European, late prehistoric phenomenon, takes its name from the striking and well-made pottery drinking vessels or beakers often buried with individuals in single graves (although Beaker graves featuring multiple interments are not unknown), along with other items that are characteristic of the Beaker culture (e.g., barbed and tanged arrowheads, small copper knives or daggers, and sheet-gold ornaments). The old and discredited idea that the Beaker culture represents an actual ‘folk’ with a distinct identity, who migrated across Europe, introducing metalworking and other cultural innovations, has been returned to by archaeologists in more recent years, as the archaeological evidence to support this theory is growing.

Several cremation burials from the Early Bronze Age, which displaced the practice of individual inhumation established in the Chalcolithic, have also been discovered in the peninsula, with the burnt bones of the dead placed in distinctive types of pottery known as Food Vessels and Collared Urns, and interred below earthen barrows/cairns or in cist graves like those used by the Beaker ‘people’.

The remains of numerus ancient settlements can also be found in the Llŷn Peninsula, consisting of a wide variety of sites dating from the Late Bronze Age, Iron Age and Romano-British period, and representing some 1500 years of human habitation, c. 1150 BC–AD 410 (although it is suspected that some sites at least continued to be inhabited or even built in the early medieval period). Iron Age/Romano-British roundhouses or ‘homesteads’ are the most common types of settlement, with these structures basically occurring either as single examples or in groups, and the peninsula is also home to a significant concentration of rarer ‘double ringwork’ enclosures (it is worth mentioning that a superb reconstruction of a roundhouse can be seen at Menter y Felin Uchaf Cultural and Eco-Centre, not far from Aberdaron, with two smaller, furnished roundhouses also available as holiday accommodation at the site). The most notable ancient settlements are the huge hillforts located on Carn Fadryn, Garn Boduan and Tre’r Ceiri, with the remains of hundreds of roundhouses and massive defensive walls surviving at these sites. The origins of these hillforts lie in the later Iron Age, before the Roman conquest of Wales in AD 77/78, although Tre’r Ceiri was occupied well into the Romano-British period and Garn Boduan and Carn Fadryn also had some level of occupation during this time. On the northern coast of the Llŷn Peninsula, there are the smaller, but still significant Iron Age hillforts of Dinas Dinlle and Dinas Dinllaen (strictly speaking the latter site is classified as a promontory fort).

Although the Llŷn Peninsula contains no surviving remains comparable to those of the early Roman fort of Segontium, at nearby Caernarvon, the remnants of a Roman fort were nevertheless found on its eastern edge, near Bryncir, in 1957. Sadly, due to gravel quarrying, the fort was destroyed within five years of its discovery, but an archaeological investigation of the site provided an invaluable and fascinating record of the architecture and chronological story of this ancient military installation located on the north-western fringe of Wales.

We finish this brief overview of the ancient archaeological record of the Llŷn Peninsula, in the early medieval period, which roughly spans the early 5th to mid-11th centuries AD, the period between the Roman withdrawal from Britain and the coming of the Normans. During this time, the ‘Celtic’ church became established in Wales, and the examples of early Christian, inscribed stones that have been found in the peninsula (which has a strong association with early Christianity) provide the most visible reminder of this phenomenon, although as we will see, other archaeological evidence relating to early Christianity has been found here.

Finally, it remains to be said, that some readers may be content to learn about the abundant, and fascinating remnants of ancient life that can still be found in the Llŷn Peninsula by simply perusing what is discussed in the following chapters of this volume. It is hoped, however, that others will be inspired to go out ‘into the field’ to experience this archaeological evidence for themselves, an activity that is highly recommended.

chapter two

The Last Hunter-Gatherers

Only about 0.001% of the world’s population still follow the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, the roots of which lie deep in the prehistoric past, in the Palaeolithic. Travelling around the towns, village, and countryside of the Llŷn Peninsula today, it is quite hard to imagine that there was once a time when it was inhabited by people who followed this deeply ancient way of life, which is now virtually extinct around the globe. Nevertheless, the Mesolithic hunter-gatherer communities of the peninsula have left tantalising traces of their lives in its landscape, reminding us of a time far removed from the comfortable but complicated one, in which many of us live today.

The hunter-gatherers of the Llŷn Peninsula, however, would not have been impoverished people with a low level of culture, as the Mesolithic communities of Europe were envisaged by famous archaeological names of the earlier 20th century, such as Gordon Childe or Sir Mortimer Wheeler (Spikins 2008, 4). Archaeologists have long since realised, from both ethnographic accounts of more recent hunter-gatherer societies, and archaeological discoveries, that the Mesolithic peoples of Europe would not only have had an intimate knowledge of their environment and its resources but would also have possessed a rich material culture that included a diverse range of artefacts made from various organic materials. Hints of the striking appearance of Europe’s last hunter-gatherers are provided by the discovery of items of personal ornamentation or jewellery, made from materials such as animal teeth and seashells, with Mesolithic ‘artworks’ also found on some sites (e.g., the engraved pebbles found at the Rhuddlan Mesolithic ‘base camp’). Indeed, Europe’s last hunter-gatherers were clearly not the ‘squalid…huddle of marsh-ridden food gatherers’ envisaged by Wheeler (1954, 231), but rather, they were intelligent and sophisticated people, who were much more in tune with the natural world than we can ever hope to be.

A Changing Land

Like their counterparts elsewhere in Europe, the Mesolithic groups of the Llŷn Peninsula lived during a time of significant climatic and environmental change, as the emergence of the Mesolithic around 12,000 years ago corresponds to the end of the Pleistocene or ‘Ice Age’ and the beginning of the Holocene, the current interglacial or warm period in which we now live. The hunter-gatherers of the European Mesolithic also represent the last of their kind, as with the emergence of the Neolithic, their way of life, which had been followed for many thousands of years, would ultimately die out.

During the Early Holocene (or Flandrian, as this period is alternatively known), the