2006:841 - TREANBAUN, Galway

This excavation was undertaken as part of the archaeological investigations carried out on the route of the proposed N6 Galway to Ballinasloe road scheme. The site was identified during linear testing in October 2005. Excavation works were carried out between February and May 2006. Work was commissioned by Galway County Council and the National Roads Design Office and sponsored by the National Roads Authority.

The site is located on a low hillock surrounded by wetland and by two streams that converge immediately to the west of the site. The topsoil was thin and severely truncated by agricultural practices.

The site was divided into three areas, A, B and C, from west to east.

Area A, to the west, revealed numerous post- and stake-holes and pit features. All features were very truncated. These features contained large amounts of charcoal in their fills. Animal bone was not found on the site. The pits found in this area were associated with the use of fire. Degraded granite stones had accumulated in the vicinity of charcoal pits. Postholes were dispersed roughly surrounding these features, although it is difficult to establish the
presence of a structural pattern. The fragmented remains of a single pottery vessel with chevron decoration were recovered from this area.

Immediately to the east, Area B revealed a circular slot-trench (0.2m wide, 0.35m deep)enclosing an area c. 20m in diameter. Packing stones had been placed along the sides of the slot-trench and a number of stake-holes were exposed in the base of the trench, suggesting that they supported a vertical wooden palisade. A gap to the south-west of the slottrench marked by two post-holes at either side was interpreted as an entrance. Parallel to this entrance, inside the enclosed space, a curvilinear slot-trench may have supported a timber screen. A small number of shallow pits were located in the enclosed space. They contained small quantities of charcoal and some burnt bone, but their nature is uncertain.

Fifteen possible cremation pits were excavated in Area C, to the eastern extent of the site. These pits contained small amounts of burnt bone, mainly crushed, accompanied by a significant range of finds. These included burnt fragments of prehistoric pottery and flint, long transverse arrowheads, as well as remains of struck chert and flint. The pits were circular, with an average diameter of 0.5m. Some of them presented overhanging sides. Other features in this area included five shallow circular features filled with clay and gravels, which yielded small amounts of flint and chert, possibly in a secondary position. Some stake-holes were also identified stratigraphically truncating the cremation pits.

Stray finds included several struck and worked pieces of flint and chert. Quartz pebbles were relatively common.

The site at Treanbaun contains elements characteristic of a phase between the Final Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age (c. 2500 BC). Remains of a possible post-built structure share space with other types of structures, such as a circular palisade and several cremation pits. These types of features suggest that the element of ritual may have been quite significant in the formation of the site. The location of the site, on top of a low hillock bordered by two streams and surrounded by wetland, may also be significant, as it would make unnecessary the excavation of an enclosing ditch. The co-existence of possible structures, enclosed spaces and funerary features in a Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age temporal frame, as is suggested by the nature of the finds recovered from the site, resembles the characteristics of a henge-like monument.

Excavation works in Treanbaun are now finished and reporting and specialist analysis are currently being carried out.

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