2014:325 - Goldenview, Upper Station Road, Greenisland, Antrim

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Antrim Site name: Goldenview, Upper Station Road, Greenisland

Sites and Monuments Record No.: n/a Licence number: AE/14/166

Author: Colin Dunlop

Site type: Early to Middle Bronze Age house and cremations

Period/Dating:

ITM: E 737191m, N 885903m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.702502, -5.871365

Excavation which took place at Goldenview, Greenisland in November 2014. Two areas previously identified during trial trenching by Farrimond MacMannus in 2007 (Licence AE/07/094) were re-opened and widened, and the archaeological material excavated and recorded.

Area 1: This was a small piece of high ground on the eastern side of the development, which contained an oval Early to Middle Bronze Age house (radiocarbon dates were returned for the period 1730 BC to 1545 BC) and three later cremations, two of which were in late Early to Middle Bronze Age pots (c. 1750–1500BC). The post-built structure measured 6.5m north to south by 7m, with an internal floor space of approximately 35m2. An entrance to the structure was situated on the eastern side. The structure is consistent with Doody’s classification Type 1 (Doody 2000) as it is constructed with a single row of posts, it is also consistent with his discussions on miscellaneous house types where a structure has used a combination of techniques in its construction.

The cremations uncovered appeared to post-date the abandonment of the structure. The pottery within the cremations is suggestive of a later Early Bronze Age to Middle Bronze Age date, which is slightly later than the date for the structure. Small flat cremation cemeteries which contain inverted Urn-like pots within small rectangular pits, with or without cists, are associated strongly with the Middle Bronze Age (Brindley 2007, p.117). One of the cremations contained a plano-convex knife, another contained two scrapers. Plano-convex knifes have been associated with other Middle Bronze Age cremations which contain urns (Woodman et al. 2006, p168). The bone within the cremations found at Goldenview was mostly well-fired with the bone turning white. The remains within the pots were in a very fragmentary state which suggests post-cremation crushing. Because of this, bone identification and analysis was difficult; the minimum number of individuals within each cremation was one, with minimum age at death being 4-7 years old (cremation within upturned decorated pot, no grave goods), 16 years old (cremation within upturned undecorated pot, pit contained plano-convex knife) and 8-16 years old (cremation in pit, no pot, pit contained two scrapers). Five further token cremated human deposits were associated within features associated with the house. These were too small to allow for further age/sex/minimum number of individual identification.

Area 2: This was an area of high ground along the northern edge of the development examined by Farrimond MacMannus Ltd in 2007 (Licence AE/07/094). At this time flint scatters were recovered from the topsoil. Upon further investigation there were no further features and no artefacts discovered, other than those collected by Farrimond MacMannus Ltd during test trenching.

Bibliography:

Brindley, A.L., (2007).  ‘The Dating of Food Vessels and Urns in Ireland’.  Galway. National University of Ireland.

Doody, M. (2000).  Bronze Age houses in Ireland.  In A. Desmond, G. Johnson, M. McCarthy, J. Sheehan, and E. Shee Twohig (eds) New Agendas in Irish Prehistory, 135-160. Bray, Wordwell.

Woodman, P C, Finlay, N, Anderson, E 2006 ‘The Archaeology of a Collection: The Keiller-Knowles Collection of the National Museum of Ireland.’  National Museum of Ireland monograph series (2). Bray: Wordwell Ltd.

 

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