1995:101 - LAMBAY ISLAND, Dublin

A third short season of excavation was carried out in July/August 1995. Excavation focused firstly on continued work in Cutting 1, at the southern end, and on the south-west-facing side of a south-east to north-west-trending-valley and secondly on the extension of the excavation area to the west of Test-Pit 2, one of a series of 1m2 test-pits along the floor of the valley, excavated in 1994 (Excavations 1994, 34-5).

Excavation of Cutting 1 (4m x 1.5m) in 1993 and 1994 had shown that there was a mass of porphyry debitage overlying and spreading beyond and to the south-west of a projecting shelf of bedrock. There are definite signs of layering in this material. Further excavation of the porphyry debitage build-up has revealed the top of a very distinct working surface which consists of a lower area close to the rock face and what appears to be an area where extracted porphyry blocks were placed further out from the rock face. There are in the order of 15 potential rough-outs on this surface. There was a sealed quartz-knapping cluster against the base of the rock face as exposed by excavation (just below the flint-knapping cluster found in 1994) and quantities of worked flint also occurred. As previously found, all the diagnostic artefacts are Neolithic in date. Along with the flint there were a few small sherds of pottery, including a small, perforated pottery disc, numbers of small beach pebbles, hammerstones, cobbles and sandstone rubbers of varying grain.

In 1994 Cutting 1 had been extended to the south-west, opening a further 3m x 1.5m area with a baulk 1m wide separating the excavation areas. Here, with the exception of a zone approximately 0.5m wide at the eastern end of the area and in the south-west corner of the cutting, it would appear that modern agricultural disturbance in the form of the digging of cultivation furrows led to the truncation of the porphyry debitage buildup. But at a depth of only 0.05–0.1m below the surface a dense mass of porphyry occurs. It would appear that the top 0.1m of this porphyry has also been disturbed by modern activity. In the south-west corner of the excavation area there was a sandstone grinding slab and three polishing slabs of porphyry in situ immediately below the surface, and the base of these slabs rested directly on a spread of poorly preserved Neolithic pottery which is currently undergoing conservation. The other finds are similarly Neolithic in date and include a ground stone axe of dolerite and a polished stone axe of porphyry; the latter would appear to have been produced at the site.

In 1995 the cutting was extended south-westwards by another 4m x 1.5m, leaving a 0.5m baulk, to try to establish the extent of the working area out from the rock face and the nature of the interface between the prehistoric levels and the area that was cultivated in modern times. The edge of porphyry buildup has been identified.

In 1994 test-pits, set 10m apart, on a line along the floor of the valley had been excavated. Cultivation furrows are visible on the surface of the valley and in all of the five test-pits there was evidence of a number of episodes of spade cultivation. The most significant evidence that the cultivated soil overlies and has disturbed Neolithic features came from Test- Pit 2, lying 10m to the north-west of Cutting 1. Here sherds of a decorated Neolithic pot occurred in a stony spread in the lowest part of the cultivated soil and above what appears to be part of a truncated cut feature. This test-pit was extended to the west and here a large pit cut into the pre-cultivation surface and filled with pieces of porphyry was exposed. Lying on the top of the porphyry fill was a flint core, a broken sandstone rubber and a granite hammerstone. Within the porphyry fill and directly below this deposit of three lithic objects was a deposit of decorated Neolithic pottery, which was in very poor condition, while at the base of the feature to the north, within a slab setting, part of a Carrowkeel pot was deposited. Further work on this feature revealed a further deposit of decorated pottery stratigraphically above the Carrowkeel pot and below the pottery excavated in 1994. Excavation revealed the extent of the pit, the top of the fill of which is at least 1.2m x 1m in extent. Exposure of the top of the western half of the pit revealed a very complex arrangement of stones. Not only are there structured deposits within the pit, but the arrangement of the stone fill itself was deliberate. Excavation of a 3m x 2m area immediately to the west of this feature failed to reveal any further features in the pre-cultivation soil surface. However, the presence of significant quantities of struck and broken flint and small sherds of Neolithic pottery within the cultivation soil indicates that there was extensive Neolithic activity in this area.

It is intended that excavation will continue in 1996.