County: Antrim Site name: MINNIS NORTH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR Ant 30:13 Licence number: —
Author: D.D.A Simpson and M Conway, Dept. of Archaeology, Queen's University Belfast
Site type: Midden
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 733823m, N 913087m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.947493, -5.911017
The small-scale rescue excavation revealed the site to be a shell-midden, parts of which were exposed in a natural section over 37m long. South (inland) of this were slight earthworks enclosing a natural hollow. A 4m x 4m cutting was opened up in this area and flint artifacts, including several scrapers, were recovered along with eleven polygonal cores and some crude flakes. Small quantities of shell and bone were also recovered from this cutting. A 7m stretch of the exposed shell-midden was cleaned down to the natural, drawn and samples of limpets and winkles were taken.
Samples of the slumped material to the north of this section produced human bones (a femur, tibia and fragments of pelvis) and animal bones. Due to the disturbed nature of the midden, precise dating is uncertain, although there are slight indications that it could be prehistoric, and radiocarbon determinations of its organic content must be awaited.
