Editing County Mayo (section)

===Prehistory===
[[File:Ceide Fields Visitor Centre.jpg|left|thumb|[[Céide Fields]]]]
There is evidence of human occupation of what is now County Mayo going far back into prehistory.<ref name="Comhairle Contae Mhaigh Eo Archaeology Overview">{{cite web |url=http://www.mayococo.ie/en/Services/Archaeology/Glossary/ |title=Comhairle Contae Mhaigh Eo Archaeological Overview |access-date=2013-04-26 |archive-date=20 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720000420/http://www.mayococo.ie/en/Services/Archaeology/Glossary/ |url-status=live }}</ref> At [[Belderrig (archaeological site)|Belderrig]] on the north Mayo coast, there is evidence for [[Mesolithic]] (Middle Stone Age) communities around 4500 BC.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Warren|first1=Graeme|editor1-last=Finlay|editor1-first=Nyree|editor2-last=Sinéad|editor2-first=McCartan|editor3-last=Milner|editor3-first=Nicky|editor4-last=Wickham-Jones|editor4-first=Caroline|title=From Bann Flakes to Bushmills|date=2009|publisher=Oxbow|location=Oxford|isbn=978-1-84217-355-8|chapter=Belderrig: a 'New' Later Mesolithic and Neolithic Landscape in Northwest Ireland}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Driscoll|first1=Killian|title=Understanding quartz technology in early prehistoric Ireland|date=2010|url=http://www.lithicsireland.ie/phd_quartz_lithic_technology_chap_9.html|access-date=8 April 2017|archive-date=9 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170409110818/http://www.lithicsireland.ie/phd_quartz_lithic_technology_chap_9.html|url-status=live}}</ref> while throughout the county there is a wealth of archaeological remains from the [[Neolithic]] (New Stone Age) period (ca. 4,000 BC to 2,500 BC), particularly in terms of megalithic tombs and ritual stone circles.

The first people who came to Ireland – mainly to coastal areas as the interior was heavily forested – arrived during the Middle Stone Age, as far back as eleven thousand years ago.<ref name="Comhairle Contae Mhaigh Eo Archaeology Overview" /> Artefacts of [[mesolithic|hunter/gatherers]] are sometimes found in [[midden]]s, rubbish pits around [[hearth]]s where people would have rested and cooked over large open fires. Once cliffs erode, midden remains become exposed as blackened areas containing charred stones, bones, and shells. They are usually found a metre below the surface. Mesolithic people did not have major rituals associated with burial, unlike those of the Neolithic (New Stone Age) period.<ref name="The Neolithic, or New Stone Age">{{cite web |url=http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/pre_norman_history/neolithic_age.html |title=Travel with us through the history of Ireland! |access-date=2013-04-26 |archive-date=28 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100328062406/http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/pre_norman_history/neolithic_age.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
The Neolithic period followed the Mesolithic around 6,000 years ago. People began to farm the land, domesticate animals for food and milk, and settle in one place for longer periods. These people had skills such as making pottery, building houses from wood, weaving, and knapping (stone tool working). The first farmers cleared forestry to graze livestock and grow crops. In North Mayo, where the ground cover was fragile, thin soils washed away and [[blanket bog]] covered the land farmed by the Neolithic people.

Extensive pre-bog field systems have been discovered under the blanket bog, particularly along the North Mayo coastline in [[Erris]] and north [[Tyrawley]] at sites such as the [[Céide Fields]], centred on the northeast coast.

The Neolithic people developed rituals associated with burying their dead; this is why they built huge, elaborate, galleried stone tombs for their dead leaders, known nowadays as megalithic tombs. There are over 160 recorded megaliths in County Mayo, such as [[Faulagh]].

[[File:Greystone011-6may08 004.JPG|thumb|Megalithic tomb at [[Faulagh]], [[Erris]]]]