County: Antrim Site name: BALLYHARRY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Norman Crothers, Archaeological Development Services Ltd.
Site type: House - Neolithic
Period/Dating: Neolithic (4000BC-2501 BC)
ITM: E 746820m, N 898090m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.809206, -5.715933
The discovery of two well-preserved Neolithic houses in Ballyharry townland (Sites 4 and 5) on part of the Belfast Transmission Pipeline testifies to the importance of pipeline-monitoring. The most complete example excavated (Site 4, Ballyharry 1) compares in plan to that found at Newtown, Co. Meath. However, in this case the house appears to consist of at least four phases, starting with a subcircular structure defined by a series of well-preserved postholes. Evidence for the second phase suggests that the house was redesigned in the form of a single-roomed rectangular structure, with traces of an ancillary building to the north. In phase three a second room with an apsidal north end was added to the rebuilt rectangular structure, with the addition, in phase four, of a series of pits.
A significant quantity of artefacts were recovered, including several thousand sherds of Western Neolithic pottery, flint arrow- and javelinheads, polished stone axe fragments, quernstones and rubbers.
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