2007:32 - Rectory Gardens, Raceview Road, Broughshane, Antrim

Monitoring and excavation of a site at Raceview Road, Broughshane, Co. Antrim, was undertaken between July and September 2007 under licences AE/07/127 and AE/07/182, held by Brooke Jamieson and Moira O’Rourke respectively. Excavation was concurrent with the monitoring and was completed by the end of December 2007.
The site is located c. 400m south-west of Broughshane town, on the south-east side of Raceview Road. The site is roughly square, measuring c.100m north-west/south-east by 90m, and prior to development consisted of a field that had previously been under pasture and used for grazing horses. The topography of the field slopes uphill to the east, with the gradient becoming more pronounced in the north-east corner. The majority of the field to the west was fairly level.
A large number of deposits suggestive of archaeological features were uncovered during topsoil-stripping; the majority of these were situated in the northern portion of the site and included a cremation burial in an urn within a pit.
Within the southern area of the site two outcrops of bedrock were present. The first was revealed as an area of shattered bedrock, oval in plan, c. 26m north–south by 19m, with a concentration of water-rolled cobbles at its southern end. As first uncovered, the area was suggestive of a possible robbed-out cairn. After cleaning up, a circular concentration of loose water-rolled stones at the southern end of the feature was targeted for investigation and excavated by means of two opposing quadrants. This indicated that the stones were the infill of a quarry pit c. 4m in diameter by 0.8m in depth. Another circular area of loose, water-rolled stones was identified along the northern edge of the ‘cairn’ and this was investigated by means of a test-trench. This also confirmed that the loose stone was the infill of a quarry pit, measuring c. 4m by 3m and 0.6m in depth. The remainder of the ‘cairn’ when cleaned down by hand indicated that it was a naturally occurring bedrock outcrop.
Immediately to the south-west of this was a second outcrop of bedrock, measuring c. 33m north-east/south-west by 26m, that continued beyond the limits of the site. This outcrop rose to a flattened platform upon which an infrequent number of features of no formal pattern were revealed.
The cremation in urn burial was situated on flat ground in the north-east portion of the site. It measured 0.42m in diameter and survived to a depth of 0.14m. Only the fractured base of the urn was present within the pit, indicating that it had been heavily truncated, probably by ploughing. Surrounding the urn burial were five post-holes forming a semicircle with the burial at its centre; each post-hole was situated between 3.94m and 4.2m from the centre. The two end post-holes were located south and north-west, respectively, of the centre and from this it would appear that the burial was approached from the west-south-west.
A total of 122 kilns were also excavated and include keyhole, linear, figure-of-eight, L-shape and pit types. The kilns were located throughout the site, although the main concentration was situated in the north-east portion. It is assumed that these kilns functioned as cereal-dryers, as no evidence of either metalworking or pottery making were noted.
Of the remaining features excavated, these may best be described as pits of varying size scattered throughout the site. Many contained charcoal-rich fills and may be related in function to the kilns.
Finds of archaeological artefacts from the excavation have been infrequent and largely derived from topsoil context. In the main these consist of 19th- and 20th-century material such as pottery and glass. Finds of flint, including some diagnostic prehistoric tool types including several scrapers, have been recovered mainly from the surface of the subsoil horizon.
Post-excavation analysis is ongoing and therefore the above is a preliminary account of the excavation findings. However, first impressions would indicate two clearly defined periods of use: (i) Early Bronze Age and (ii) early medieval to possibly post-medieval. The urn burial and timber semicircle points to an earlier ritualistic use of Early Bronze Age date. Two recorded urn burials, one in a cist, the other unprotected, are situated within a 2km radius of the site, as are four standing stones, suggesting that the site was situated in a late Early Bronze Age landscape.
The presence of so great a number of kilns would indicate a predominately agri-industrial usage of this land from the early medieval period onwards. There are three known early medieval sites within a 2km radius: two souterrains, and a rath and souterrain. Two further sites, both enclosures, within this radius have been ascribed a similar date. However, continued use of the site into the post-medieval period should not be discounted and it should be pointed out that cereal dryers are not restricted in date to the medieval period. Kilns of the keyhole type are known to have been in use in Ireland until the early 20th century (Monk and Kelleher, 2005). A comprehensive understanding of dating and function of the kilns will be dependent on the results of radiocarbon dating and archaeobotanical analysis.
Reference
Monk, M.A. and Kelleher, E. 2005 An assessment of the archaeological evidence for Irish corn-drying kiln in the light of the results of archaeological experiments and archaeobotanical studies. Irish Journal of Archaeology XIV.