1998:008 - ARMAGH: Market Street, Armagh

The building of a new theatre in Armagh city centre to the north of Market Square necessitated the presence of an archaeologist. Three trenches were sunk using heavy machinery.

Two were dug on the mound in the south-east corner, and one running east-west in the carpark to the north-east. The two trenches on the mound produced no features other than relatively modern pottery and house remains.

At the western end of the 6m-long carpark trench a large, square, organic-filled cesspit was uncovered. About 0.25m from the top of the organic material was a small, complete, glazed, early 18th-century pot, enabling close dating of the pit. Near this pit a house known as 'the Cottage' is shown on the 1st and 2nd edition OS maps. This pit may relate to this house.

At the eastern end of the third test-trench a filled-in ditch was uncovered. It was flat-bottomed and V-shaped, with its base at a depth of c. 2m below ground level, and c. 2.5-3m wide. It appeared to run in a north-south direction and was filled with grey, sticky clay with a large animal bone content. This ditch was uncovered to the north later in the excavation.

Part of the work involved the removal of several metres of land at the west of the site, part of the Archbishop's garden. The scarping of this area and topsoil-stripping in the northern part of the site uncovered a series of large pits and several ditches. These pits were up to 3m in both depth and diameter. They appeared to be rubbish pits as there was no sign of structural evidence or any sort of a pattern. They did contain large amounts of animal bone and antler. Several of the pits also contained late 18th-century pottery and glass. However, several pits contained material that gave an earlier date, including parts of an antler comb, souterrain ware pottery and part of a lignite bracelet.

At least three ditches were uncovered. The carpark ditch was traceable in the northern part of the carpark. It had been destroyed by the construction of the St Patrick's Trian carpark to the north. The ditch curved slightly to the west but appeared to run concentrically around the hilltop. It may be related to those found in the excavations on the site of St Patrick's Trian. There was no obvious dating evidence present, but again the ditch was full of animal bones. It also cut through some large pits, without dating evidence.

On removal of the mound in the area to the west of the two original test-trenches, a V-shaped ditch was discovered running east-west up the hill. It appeared to cut through a cobbled surface, had dark grey fills and was cut into subsoil. Part of the upper fill was composed of large limestone boulders. These occurred on the northern side of the ditch, suggesting that they had come in from this side.

Material found in the fills included souterrain ware, everted-rim ware, a piece of copper strip, one piece of Neolithic pot, part of a quernstone and a human skull. The skull, which had been deliberately placed, was found lying near the base of the ditch facing east, right way up. There was no lower jaw present. It was examined by Dr E. Murphy and was of a male aged between twenty-five and thirty-five who appeared to have been at least partially decapitated with a long, sharp object.

The third ditch was uncovered to the north-west of Ditch 2. It appeared to run north from a rounded terminal and was U-shaped, very steep-sided, relatively narrow and filled with an organic, almost peaty material. It contained animal bones but no artefacts. This ditch too was cut through the cobbled surface. It was not possible to trace it for any distance to the north.

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