County: Mayo Site name: BELDERGBEG
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: S. Caulfield, Department of Archaeology, University College Dublin
Site type: Field Settlement and Enclosure
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 498173m, N 841004m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.307621, -9.564714
The excavation concentrated on an oval-shaped enclosure at the W side of the site. The enclosure which was bounded by a low field wall had been partially robbed during the Bronze Age to provide stones for a later field wall built on a varying depth of peat.
An area approximately 700sq.m was uncovered but proved to be surprisingly barren of finds and structural features. Traces of burning at the pre-bog level and in the basal peat need be no more than the general burning evidence which occurs over a widespread area in the region of the site. There were no traces of any postholes or other structural evidence while the very stony nature of the enclosure rules out the possibility that it could have been an enclosed tillage plot.
One struck chert flake, a small amount of pottery and a few as yet unidentified seeds were the total finds from within the enclosure. A few sherds of poorly preserved pottery were also found immediately outside the enclosure wall.
The negative results from this area of the settlement has helped to define the main focus of occupation which is now seen to be confined within certain contour levels across the site.
