2007:1219 - Belderrig, Mayo

Excavations continued in 2007 at the site of Belderrig, Co. Mayo. The project is funded by the National Committee for Archaeology of the Royal Irish Academy. From 26 June to 20 July this year, a team focused on continued excavation of Trench 1 including opening a small annexe to the trench to investigate a second geophysical anomaly identified in the 2004 survey. Progress this year was undoubtedly hampered by difficult weather conditions, with over 50% of possible digging days completely lost. Excavation of the stony surfaces (see below) was exceptionally difficult in wet conditions as the highly compacted character of the deposits led to water sheeting across the surface. The trench remained incomplete this year, although good progress was made.
In the lower part of the trench the stony layers were completely removed. These continued to contain significant quantities of artefacts and in one location a cache of three polished stone axes was recovered (see below). The stony layer in part filled three throws, and in one location a mica schist Moynagh point had been deposited at the base of a throw. A large shallow pit was only identified beneath the stony surfaces, but appears to have been cut from the surfaces themselves. This pit contained substantial numbers of lithics.
The annexe to the trench contained a range of important structural features, and forced a reappraisal of sequences excavated in 2005. In the annexe a boulder-defined field wall ran north-west/south-east. This wall was abutted to the north by a small D-shaped cairn. A second D-shaped cairn, of similar size, was excavated in 2005, abutting the east–west-running field wall. Here modifications to the wall, including the possible creation of an entrance at the junction of the two walls, led to material being thrown back on to and around a cairn, which in a narrow trench was misidentified as tumble. To the south of the wall a low curving wall was identified, corresponding with a feature excavated in a test-pit in 2004 (Excavations 2004, No. 1136). Excavations in the annexe were incomplete this year but it is clear that an area of important Neolithic activity has been identified. The stratigraphical relationship between this area and the Mesolithic layers is of considerable importance.
Artefacts recovered this year included numerous lithics, again mainly of quartz but with some chert, siltstone and other materials. Notably a very fine large flint blade was found from deep within the stony layers – the blade is unlikely to have been manufactured from local flint and is presumably an import from north-east Ireland. The most important finds, however, were three polished stone axes, of currently unidentified materials, located in a small cache within the upper levels of the stony surface. A fourth axe, of similar material, was found by a member of the local community on the west of the bay some ten years ago.
Sample processing continues and further fish bones, plant macrofossils and insect remains have been identified. Importantly evidence of fish teeth is beginning to appear in Trench 1. Eleven radiocarbon dates have now been obtained from the site and demonstrate activity from the mid-fifth to mid-fourth millennium calibrated bc.