EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Antrim
‘Ballymacash’ (Aghnahough? td), Co. Antrim
Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure.
Grid Ref: J23726629 (32372/36629)
SMR No. ANT 064:026
Excavation Licence: N/A
Excavation Duration/Year: May – July 1953.
Site Director: E. M. Jope (Queen's University Belfast).
An enclosure was excavated after permission had been granted to build an individual dwelling
in its interior. This site has been putatively identified as ANT 064:026. The site had an
internal diameter of 33.5m, with a bank, approximately 1.5m high, and an external ditch.
Excavation showed that the site had been modified over two phases of occupation. The
earlier phase site had a lower bank and evidence for a substantial square, timbered house.
The enclosure bank was heightened during the second phase. Two periods of house
construction were identified with this phase (Fig. 8). The early second phase house was
rectangular (approximately 6.1 m 2 ) with rounded corners. A ‘porch’ was later added to this
structure. Sixteen sherds of souterrain ware, a fragment of an iron nail, and a glass bead
were recovered from the hearth associated with the structure. The excavator interpreted that
this house was later replaced by a less substantial roundhouse, which may have re-used
some of the structural timbers from the earlier rectangular building.
Outhouses were also uncovered associated with the second phase of occupation. These
consisted of a drying kiln, an oven, and a hearth (which revealed a number of souterrain
ware sherds). Almost 4,000 sherds of pottery were uncovered from this site – the vast
majority of which were souterrain ware – and none were attributable to the earlier phase. As
well as the glass bead recovered from the house hearth, another glass bead (blue and white)
was found in a gully associated with the house.
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