County: Derry Site name: MOUNTSANDEL
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: P. C. Woodman, Department of Antiquities, Ulster Museum
Site type: Habitation site
Period/Dating: Mesolithic (8000 BC-4001 BC)
ITM: E 685234m, N 930684m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 55.116207, -6.663951
This season was mostly concerned with the removal of a late Demense boundary bank and the excavation of Mesolithic features underneath it. This revealed an area of large pits but few other traces of structures. At the S end of the site an area of a chipping floor was revealed. This was a layer of flint flakes several inches thick.
Besides the excavation of the area under the Demense bank, the excavation was concerned with the removal of, in places, nearly 1m of fairly sterile earth from an area within Mount Sandel Forest so as to expose the original Mesolithic levels ready for excavation in 1977. Occasional sherds of Neolithic pottery, souterrain ware and post-medieval pottery were found during the removal of the earth.
