County: Antrim Site name: Cromy/Taggartsland
Sites and Monuments Record No.: ANT003–012 Licence number: AE/08/43
Author: David McIlreavy, Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University, Belfast, BT7 1NN.
Site type: Medieval structure, slot-trenches, pits
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 715061m, N 886525m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.713630, -6.214280
An archaeological evaluation was carried out in advance of development c. 20m south of a large souterrain structure, consisting of a mechanically excavated test-trench (20m by 1m). The evaluation revealed a number of truncated features consisting of a curvilinear slot-trench and an area of fire-reddened clay.
An excavation was carried out in advance of development, consisting of five trenches, mechanically excavated to archaeological deposits. Four of the trenches produced no evidence of archaeological features. The fifth trench, excavated over the original evaluation trench, produced evidence for a series of possible structures, slot-trenches and pits. The earliest interpreted archaeological features consisted of six subcircular pits across the trench, a cluster of three to the south of the trench showing evidence of possible recutting activity. Coarseware pottery and some charred cereal remains were identified in the fill of two of the pits.
Three slot-trenches (two linear and a curvilinear feature) were identified as stratigraphically later than the pits noted above, all of which contained charred cereal seeds and charcoal. The linear slot-trenches also contained possible metalworking-hearth cake fragments. One of the linear features displayed evidence for recutting.
The stratigraphically latest feature is thought to represent a subrectangular structure (maximum dimensions 3m by 2m). Two of the exterior walls to the structure were represented by stone footings in a shallow slot-trench. The eastern stone footing is considered to be contemporary with a probable stone-flagged pavement area (2.5m by 1.25m) that extended to the south-east. The stone-flagged pavement overlay a possible earlier shallow linear cut, represented for 1.5m, interpreted as an earlier metalled pathway. Ten post-holes were identified in the interior of the structure, consisting of subcircular cuts, on average 0.1m in depth, considered to be internal supporting structures. Three of the post-holes cut the two linear slot-trenches noted above.
The majority of the archaeologically datable finds were recorded as unstratified; however, several of the coarseware pottery sherds recovered suggest early medieval activity. A piece of possible 14th-century green-glazed pottery and some unglazed pottery pieces were recovered from below the stone-flagged pavement structure. The fire-reddened clay noted in the original evaluation on the site was considered to represent the end of activity associated with the above structure. The material represented either rake-out from hearth structures inside the building or burning associated with the destruction of wooden components of the structure.
