Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Excavations.ie

2000:0022 - TROOPERSLAND IDB SITE, West Division, Antrim

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Antrim

Site name: TROOPERSLAND IDB SITE, West Division

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A

Licence number: AE/00/62

Author: Cia McConway, ADS Ltd.

Site type: House - Bronze Age and Enclosure

Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)

ITM: E 738621m, N 886793m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.710104, -5.848758

Missing Mapbox GL JS CSS

The site encloses an area of 375m north-east/south-west by 375m (max.). It rises gradually from 18m OD towards a spur of higher ground in the north-western corner of the development at 36m OD, where it enjoys a clear view of Belfast Lough. The topsoil-stripping was monitored, and all deposits were investigated prior to the site being cut and filled. Excavations began at the end of 2000 and finished in early 2001.

Located at the end of the spur of higher ground was a circular enclosure with internal dimensions of 21m north–south by 23m. This ditch was 3m wide and up to 1.7m deep and had an entranceway to the east. There were no visible remains of an internal bank, but the fill of the ditch—large boulders along the base and heavy, redeposited subsoil—would suggest that it had originally been stone revetted.

Central to this enclosure on the highest part of the spur was a circular house 6.4m in internal diameter. The house slot was 0.60m wide and up to 0.55m deep and was filled with a charcoal-rich soil along the north-eastern half, grading to a lightly charcoal-flecked, orange clay elsewhere. The slot was fairly straight-sided with a wide base and contained a substantial quantity of packing-stone along its length. There was a break in the slot to the east, which has been interpreted as the entranceway, though this was not exactly aligned with the gap in the ditch. Struck flint, flint scrapers and a polished porcellanite axe were recovered from the charcoal-rich fill. There was no central post-hole, although the depth of the wall slots would suggest that the walls would have been structurally sound enough to bear the load of a roof.

The house was divided internally by two linear slots, 2m and 1.4m long, leaving a central break of 2.6m. Three equidistant stake-holes spanned this gap. It is unlikely that this internal divide functioned as a weight-bearing structure; it most probably acted as a formal division of the sleeping area from the living area. Several other small, shallow features and stake-holes were excavated in the house interior and, while their function is unclear, they may turn out to be either further subdivisions of the house or a separate phase of activity.

A curvilinear slot ran downslope from the south-eastern edge of the house slot and terminated some 5m away from it. This slot terminal ran in line with the internal division and also delineated an area of small charcoal-rich pits and stake-holes. This slot probably represents the footprint of a porch or extension to the house enclosing a cooking area and may have had a dual purpose as a run-off for rainwater from the roof of the house.

Two other curvilinear slots were excavated, both much narrower and shallower than either the central house slot or the extension slot. These slots lay outside the central house, one to the south-east and one to the south-west, and were both cut by the enclosing ditch. These may be the partial remains of an earlier phase of occupation. Most of the remainder of the features lay to the south-east, just inside the enclosing ditch near the entranceway. Although their function is currently unclear, their location near the ditch causeway might suggest a defensive structure.

Read More

en_USEN