County: Donegal Site name: ELEVEN BALLYBOES
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DG022-010 Licence number: 11D0119
Author: Colin Breen
Site type: Flint scatter—prehistoric
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 402652m, N 504482m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 55.209894, -6.974925
Over the last decade, a large quantity (>1,000 items) of lithic material has been recovered by local collectors from the intertidal zone of two small bays in Eleven Ballyboes townland. Based on typology, this material appears to date from the early Mesolithic. At this time sea levels were c. 10–15m lower than today, transforming the area from a marine shoreline into an estuarine or riverside locale. It has been hypothesised that the lithics are eroding out of a submerged deposit and washing ashore.
In June 2011, test pits were excavated in the intertidal zone and underwater in an attempt to verify this hypothesis by locating the submerged deposit or any other potential sources of the lithic material—for example, erosion out of the beach itself or the low sand cliff behind it. The excavation established that the lithics were not coming out of the beach or cliff, therefore supporting the original hypothesis of a submerged deposit. Firstly, neither active erosion nor lithic finds were noted at the cliff, which is in any case partly covered by a sea wall. Secondly, the intertidal and underwater test pits produced only water-rolled lithics. These were located in the same level as modern litter and hence are reworked. Thirdly, the least water-rolled finds were not buried but were lying exposed on the beach (or, in one instance, seabed) surface, implying recent deposition. When combined with the heavily rolled appearance of the lithics from the test pits, this suggests that the most recently eroded finds are washed onto the beach from offshore, and over time become more rolled and then incorporated within the beach sediment.
A walk-over survey of the adjacent shoreline found only a few reworked items, an observation backed up by information from local collectors. This contrasts dramatically with the collection of >1,000 items from the study area and strongly suggests that there is an eroding underwater hot spot in the vicinity, although the underwater test-pitting component was unable to locate this source deposit.
Centre for Maritime Archaeology, University of Ulster, Coleraine BT52 1SA, Peter Woodman, University College, Cork, and Kieran Westley, Centre for Maritime Archaeology, University of Ulster, Coleraine BT52 1SA
