Excavation of a Court Tomb, Dunloy, Co. Antrim (original) (raw)
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During the months of June, July and August of 2015, our fieldschool staff and students excavated a wedge tomb on Roughan Hill. The tomb in question was CL017-180002, a very dilapidated wedge tomb missing its capstone and one of its side-stones. The excavation aimed to address questions and theories set out in a paper by this author, our academic director and Thor McVeigh (Jones et al. 2015). Prior to the excavation, relatively little was visible. The site had only been discovered during an intensive survey in the 1990s (Jones et al. 1996, Site E). A surrounding mound and some possible kerb remnant were also noted during that survey. Removal of the sod revealed a substantial circular stone cairn, approximately 7 m in diameter, surrounding the chamber (Fig. 1). Where surviving, the outer edge was neatly kerbed with large slabs up to 1 m in length. A second inner kerb-line, most obvious to the rear of the chamber and around 4 m in diameter, was concealed within the cairn (Fig. 2). In terms of sequence, the chamber must have been built first and then the cairn would seem to have been added in two stages; however, it is not clear how much time, if any, there was between these stages. The chamber was approximately 2 m long and 1 m wide and orientated to the west-southwest. While one side-stone was missing, judging from the front blocking stone and the size of rear of the chamber, the tomb was wider to the front than the rear. The alignment of a possible pinning stone, for the missing side-stone and similar to the stone pinning the extant side-stone, would support this supposition. It would appear that, internally, the chamber was c. 0.9 m wide at the rear and c. 1.1 m wide at the front. The extant side-stone and the front blocking-stone were carefully knapped into shape and the side-stone rose noticeably toward the front of the chamber (Fig 3); at the rear it was c. 0.5 m high and at the front 0.75 m high. The entire contents of the chamber, the area to the front of the chamber and a section through the cairn, to the northeast of the chamber, were excavated. A substantial amount of cremated and unburnt human bone was retrieved. The majority of the bone came from within the chamber, where it was retrieved from within a layer of soil underlying a layer of stone. There were few notable concentrations that could be interpreted as individual ii deposits; rather, the bone appeared mixed throughout the layer of soil. The bone is currently being analysed by Osteoarchaeologist Dr Linda Lynch and Zooarchaeologist Dr Fiona Beglane. There were no obvious grave goods within the chamber; however, some partially articulated sheep/goat bones, retrieved from under the front of the sidestone, may represent the remains of an offering. An unburnt, and at least partially articulated, adult was uncovered within the stones stacked up against the north-northwestern outside of the chamber. It sat largely within the voids among the stones; however, some elements that had fallen to the base of the cairn were suspended within soil. Several lithics were retrieved from and around the cairn. These were mostly debitage and cannot be stratigraphically tied to the burial depositions within the tomb. The assemblage does include one particularly fine flint blade and several other stuck lithics that are not of a local geology. These are being analysed by lithics specialist Dr Killian Driscoll. Once, the osteological and zooarchaeological analyses are complete a comprehensive program of radiocarbon dating, aDNA and isotope analyses are planned. Two petrous bones have already been forwarded for aDNA analyses and the initial results are promising. The aDNA work is being carried out by Lara Cassidy and Professor Dan Bradley at Trinity College Dublin, and the isotope analysis is being carried out by Dr Rick Schulting’s team at the School of Archaeology, Oxford University. It is intended to get all radiocarbon dates through Queen’s University Belfast.
2012
Haggardstown townland, Co. Louth, has been the focus of intense archaeological investigation, mostly between 1994 and 2002, due to a range of infrastructural developments. Jordan, back in the 1930s, referred to the removal of stones from an underground passage and this is one of the first references to a souterrain in the area. Subsequent excavations have revealed enclosures, souterrains, field boundaries, cereal-drying kilns and industrial areas. Many of these features have been dated, by morphology and artefactual evidence, to the early medieval period. However, certain features such as the cereal-drying kilns and a variety of ditches, may not belong to this period, and radiocarbon dates are needed to resolve this. Undoubtedly though, Haggardstown was an intensively settled and farmed landscape during the early middle-ages as evidenced by the variety and scale of archaeological features discovered to date. Test excavation, in advance of a housing development, was undertaken by Campbell in 1994 on the southwest corner of a 23-acre field with clear views towards the sea. A previously unrecorded enclosure, with a possible entrance to the east, was discovered that measured 45m east-west by 40m north-south. A section through the ditch determined that it was 5.5m wide and 2.2m deep. Further test trenches across the interior of the enclosure uncovered 11 features including a possible small souterrain. Three ditch-like features were also located immediately north of the enclosure. In 1995, the remains of a dry-stone souterrain were identified during land reduction at an ongoing housing development. Monitoring and test excavation by McConway determined that the passageway survived for 10m east-west before turning sharply south, for a further 11m, to a single, badly collapsed, chamber. The passage was approximately 1.5m wide and the chamber was sub-rectangular in shape and measured 3.5m by 5m. Test trenches around the perimeter of the souterrain revealed an enclosure ditch that had a diameter of 30m. A section through the ditch showed that it was 3.4m wide and 1.8m deep and it contained organic-rich deposits of shell and bone. Archaeological monitoring of two fields in a low-lying area, mostly below 15m OD, was undertaken by O'Carroll in 1999 in advance of a housing development. The proposed development avoided the nearby enclosure, partially excavated by Campbell, to the northwest and its surrounding area. A field boundary, which contained iron slag, and an associated stonefaced bank were revealed to the southeast of the enclosure as well as a narrow gully. Their date is unknown but they may relate to field enclosure activity associated with the enclosure. A drystone-constructed keyhole-shaped cereal-drying kiln and rake-out spread, which had been built into an earlier ditch, were also exposed. These tend to date to the latter part of the early medieval period and late middle-ages. Archaeological testing in 2001 by Moore, on top of a hill and its environs at Haggardstown, revealed a number of north-south and east-west ditches and related features. The ditches may relate to a series of settlement enclosures. One of the ditches included a fragment of souterrain ware and human bone. Substantial areas of burning, including frequent fragments of animal bone and shell, were also revealed on top of the hill which is suggestive of an occupation layer. A possible souterrain was revealed in a field to the east.