2016:108 - Squire's Hill, Belfast, Antrim

Introduction

In April 2016 the Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork (CAF) in the School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen’s University Belfast was commissioned by Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiach and the Spectrum Centre to devise and lead a two-week community-based archaeological fieldwork programme on their behalf as part of the Farset Heritage Project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The site selected for the investigation was on the south-facing slope of Squire’s Hill on the outskirts of Belfast (grid reference: J30330 78190), with the fieldwork being conducted between 18 and 29 April 2016. Located in the townland of Ballysillan Upper and in the parish of Shankill, the excavation at Squire’s Hill was of a reconnaissance nature, undertaken close to where a range of prehistoric artefacts had previously been discovered in 1938 (Evans 1938; NISMR ANT 056:039) with the objective of investigating if this had once been the location of a settlement. The 2016 excavation revealed flint artefacts from the early Neolithic (c.4000 BC to c.3500 BC) along with a number of subsoil-cut features that may have been foundations trenches for a prehistoric structure. The investigation also discovered a simple blue bead from the Early Medieval period, and a selection of artefacts of Early Modern date, including ceramics vessels, glass, slate, clay tobacco pipes, an iron nail and a bottle stopper. Two 5m x 2m trenches (Trench 1 and Trench 2) were opened to either side of the 1938 Neolithic find spot.

Findings

A wide variety of Early Modern ceramic types were uncovered in the topsoil, including sherds of Brown Glazed Earthenware, Black Glazed Earthenware, Transfer Printed Earthenware, Creamware, Staffordshire Ware and Stoneware as well as two clay tobacco pipe bowls and some pieces of roofing slate. The vast majority of the artefacts encountered, however, were of prehistoric date. There was a very high struck flint content in the soil excavated in both trenches, indicating prehistoric activity in this area. More than 2,000 pieces of mostly undiagnostic flint were recovered from the excavation, largely from the topsoil horizons. Several simple hollow scrapers suggest an early Neolithic date (c. 4000 BC to c. 3500 BC). However, the general lack of formalised tools and the minimal nature of any retouch suggests that the flint-knapping episodes were carried out in a rather ad hoc fashion, producing basic tools as and when required. The fact that no sherds of Neolithic pottery or porcellanite axes were discovered (as happened in 1938) suggests that this area was used for industrial, and not domestic, purposes. While no archaeological features were uncovered in Trench 1, evidence of prehistoric structural activity was identified in Trench 2. This consisted of a number of subsoil-cut features. How many of these features were contemporary remains uncertain, but a curving linear feature and an associated post-hole in the north of the trench may represent a section of a prehistoric structure, perhaps the corner of a wall slot and a post-hole to carry a load-bearing timber. The exact function and date of a pit or post-hole immediately to the north of these features is unclear but it may also have been connected to this possible prehistoric structure. The narrow dimensions of the structure may suggest the features were part of a prehistoric industrial structure – perhaps a storage area or a wind-break – used by the people working the flint resource at this location; the close proximity of the source of the River Farset would certainly have made Squire’s Hill an attractive site for prehistoric people to base themselves at while exploiting the flint outcrops that are found here and at nearby Wolf Hill. It should also be noted that while more than 100 Neolithic structures have been uncovered on archaeological excavations throughout Ireland, this is the first definitively identified example to have been discovered in the Belfast region.

References

Evans, E.E. (1938): ‘Notes on Excavations: Northern Ireland. Neolithic. Belfast, Co. Antrim’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 4 (1938), 322.

Ó Baoill, R. (2016): Archaeological excavations at Squire’s Hill, Belfast, Co. Antrim. CAF DSR No. 118. Unpublished report prepared on behalf of Farset Béal Feirste. http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/CentreforArchaeologicalFieldworkCAF/PDFFileStore/Filetoupload,719213,en.pdf

Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen's University Belfast BT7 1NN