The key focus is the Neolithic period (c.4000 – 2500 BC), a time when the transition from hunting and gathering to farming changed how people lived, worked and buried their dead.
Dig into Ancient Ireland
We’ve created a brand new set of learning resources for Key Stage 2 teachers on the topic of Ancient Ireland. Illustrated by images from our collection and including suggestions for learning activities, you’ll find a wealth of information and ideas for the classroom.
We’ve also created a bespoke Minecraft World called Ancient Ireland, with activities linked to each part of the learning resource and plenty of opportunities for children to enjoy exploring this fascinating period in our history.
The Neolithic period happened in a part of the past that we call prehistory. We call it pre-history because during this time people did not record their lives by writing things down, and so there is no written record.
Archaeology is the study of how people lived in the past. By carrying out excavations, archaeologists discover material remains usually referred to as artefacts. They use this evidence to create a picture of what life might have been like in early times.
Archaeologists are not certain if Ireland was occupied during the Palaeolithic period. The first substantial evidence for the settlement of Ireland is during the Mesolithic. The people who settled in Ireland during the Mesolithic period were hunter-gatherers who probably came from Britain, crossing the sea in wooden canoes.
The Neolithic lifestyle was brought to Ireland by a new group of settlers. At this time Ireland was already home to a group of people living a Mesolithic hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Around 4000 BC the evidence for the Mesolithic disappears, and instead we see evidence for the Neolithic. These new settlers in Ireland may have mixed with the native hunter-gatherers, but it is also possible that there was little interaction between them. In either case, the Mesolithic way of life seems to have disappeared very quickly.
The Neolithic period brought with it a change in the types of technologies that people used. Flint was the main type of stone used to produce tools. It is a hard stone that breaks into smooth, sharp-edged pieces.
The Neolithic period saw one of the most significant changes in human history - the adoption of farming. Instead of hunting animals, Neolithic people bred them and reared them, and instead of gathering plants from the landscape, they grew them and harvested them.
Farming led to a change in the way people lived. The mobile hunter-gatherer lifestyle of the Mesolithic gave way to permanent homes. These were larger and more substantial than the round huts used by hunter-gatherers.
Read this Key Stage 2 resource.
Neolithic communities had a strong belief in the afterlife, which was expressed in the construction of burial monuments. These are known today as megalithic tombs (megalith = large stone).
The Neolithic was the first period during which human activity in Ireland began to substantially alter the landscape.