County: Antrim Site name: LYLE'S HILL, Toberagnee
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: D.D.A. Simpson, Dept of Archaeology, Queen's University, Belfast
Site type: Enclosure
Period/Dating: Neolithic (4000BC-2501 BC)
ITM: E 724724m, N 892892m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.768503, -6.061664
The earlier excavations had revealed the nature and possible Neolithic date of the enclosure but there were no absolute dates from the site, and nothing was known of its ancient environment. The excavations were carried out over a three-week period in June and July 1987, and were funded by Queen's and Leicester Universities and the Historic Monuments and Buildings Branch of the DOE(NI).
A cutting was made through the bank on the eastern side of the hill. This showed that it had been built on the line of a natural outcrop which gave the impression of greater height to the earthwork. The core consisted of red soil capped by gravel with traces of a possible revetment, although represented only by a single course, on its outer face. In the core of the bank and on the buried soil which it covered were unweathered sherds of Lyles Hill Ware and numerous struck flints. Cut through the underlying subsoil were three parallel grooves which almost certainly represent the base of ancient furrows produced by a traction plough. Evidence of agriculture was further confirmed by a pollen analysis of the buried soil which indicated that barley had been grown on the site before the construction of the bank.
The second cutting, 45m to the south-west in the interior of the enclosure, produced further evidence of Neolithic activity. The principal feature was a bedding trench, some 0.2m wide and deep, running diagonally across the western end. Only one clear posthole could be recognised, although it is undoubtedly a palisade trench truncated by a later cultivation. Mixed with the packing stones in the fill were numerous sherds of unweathered Lyles Hill Ware and here too pollen indicated barley cultivation in an open environment. A hearth adjacent to this feature produced large quantities of carbonised barley and again sherds of Lyles Hill Ware. It is hoped that a second and more extensive season of excavations will be undertaken in 1988. A preliminary account of this work is published in Archaeology Ireland Vol. 1, No. 2 (1987), 72-75.
