County: Tyrone Site name: BALLYNAGILLY td ('the Corbie')
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Mr. A.M. ApSimon, Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton
Site type: Settlement cluster
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 674236m, N 882695m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.686901, -6.848669
Rescue excavation of a complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement sites on and around a low gravel hill was completed by the excavation of the Bell Beaker settlement site in square G.
Structural features included post and stake holes, some of which may have formed part of a house, though no complete plan was recovered There were numerous hearths and pits and finds included much Beaker pottery and flint work.
The evidence for settlement can be summarised as follows:
1) Earliest Neolithic: Three radiocarbon dates between 3600 and 3800 BC on material from Neolithic features. These are the earliest dates for Neolithic settlement in the British Isles.
2) Early Neolithic: Settlement with rectangular, plank walled house dated to about 3250 BC and contemporary with forest clearance for agriculture.
3) Middle Neolithic: One focus with pottery of Sandhills-Carrowkeel affinities, dated to around 2900 BC and apparently contemporary with change to predominantly pastoral land use.
4) Late Neolithic: The period between 2600 and 2100 BC was marked by abandonment of the area and regeneration of the forest.
5) Earlier Bronze Age-Bell Beaker: Three distinct settlement sites with material of early type, dating from around 2000–1900 BC and coincident with forest clearance for mixed farming.
6) Earlier Bronze site, dated to renewed forest- Irish Bowl: Reoccupation of one Beaker about 1600 BC and possibly connected with clearance, for pastoral farming
7) Earlier Bronze Age-Plainware: One site with plain pottery, apparently from large, well made, straight sided, flat bottomed pans. The affinities of this material remain to be defined. There are three radiocarbon dates between 1600 and 1500 BC.
8) Later Bronze Age -pre-Roman Iron Age: No archaeological sites found, but pollen evidence indicates extensive mixed farming in the area, between about 1200 and 200 BC.
9) Early Christian and Medieval: Pollen evidence suggests pastoral farming renewed from about 6th century AD onwards, with cereal cultivation prominent round about the 6th, 12th and 15th centuries.
Ref: ApSimon, A.M., ‘An Early Neolithic House in Co. Tyrone’, Journ. Roy. Soc. Antiq. Ireland, 99 (1969)
