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Early Neolithic domestic structures and settlement

Mobile or sedentary?

Flints, Farmers and Forts:

Ireland in Prehistory
GAP2041

Lecture 5
Neolithic Settlement

Bradley 2007
Ireland comes the closest to accepted definition of the Neolithic
period: changes in settlement, material culture, crops

Duration?
Seasonality?
Proportion of the population?
Persistent places?
Ideological sedentism?

Houses and settlement

S. English model explicitly based on analogy with Scandinavia

Based on concepts of social complexity in Mesolithic & small use of
domesticates: but limited evidence this model works for Britain and
Ireland (see Rowley-Conwy 2004)

Neolithic narratives often concerned with the dead

rather than the living
> 80 rectangular houses discovered due to Celtic Tiger
building boom
Change over course of Neolithic: evolution of forms
Houses signal new engagement with wider landscape
Dwelling perspective (cf. Ingold): living spaces reflects
peoples position within environment (e.g. proximity to
rivers, natural landforms, etc).
Domestic space & routine activities: ritualised over time
Interconnection between domestic & ritual (e.g. Bradley
2005)

Early Neolithic Houses

LBK Longhouse

Houses: distributed widely & associated with crops, domesticated

animals
Field systems (Cide Fields)
Mortuary monuments

In Wessex situation less clear: mobility still important, wild

resources continue in use, less cereals; domestic buildings very
few (but changing scenario); dominated by buildings for the
dead (Thomas, 1988)

80 houses,
c. 50 sites

Rectangular or
apsidal
Single or
multiple

6-12 m long, 4-8 m

wide
Constructed using
split oak planks &
posts, post and wattle,
or combination
Probably supported
large & heavy roofs
Setting for domestic
activity
Family or kin group (c.
12 people)

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Linear,
Space divided
Reconstruction of early Neolithic house at
Cloghers, Co. Kerry John Murphy

Selection of Irish early Neolithic houses - plans

Smyth 2010

Reconstruction
Ballygalley House 1
Cia McConway in
Simpson (1996)

Reconstruction Barnagore
house, Co. Cork

Distribution of Irish
Neolithic settlements

Reconstruction Kishoge house ,

Co. Dublin Simon Dick

Corbally, House 5 photo John Sunderland

Cooney et al. 2011

6.5 m in length, c. 6 m in width

Early examples
Ballyglass, Co. Mayo

Ballynagilly, Co. Tyrone

(burnt remains beneath
blanket bog)
Widespread woodland
clearance evident in pollen
diagram from bog nearby

Ballynagilly, Co. Tyrone.

Dates on charcoal: 4750-4350 cal BC; 3950-3620 cal BC)
Side walls: oak planks, vertically set into foundation trenches; post holes at the
end may indicate end walls (? panels of wickerwork or wattle & daub); roof
supporters in the middle; heath and burnt clay ?oven. Finds: flint flakes,
fragments of polished stone axes; pottery (Lyles Hill ware)

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Tankardstown, Co. Limerick

Ballynagilly, Co. Tyrone

(ApSimon 1969; 1976)

Hazelnut shells

Bronk Ramsey 2009

Charcoal outlier model in OxCal 4.1.7 places use firmly within the
house horizon (albeit with long early tail at 95% confidence)

Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd

Tankardstown, Co. Limerick

15 x 8m/7 x 6m
Square house (1) built entirely of
oaks planks
Burnt animal bone in foundation
trench
House destroyed by fire
Western Neo pottery
Arrowhead (lozenge)
Cereals (emmer wheat), hazel,
wild apple
Cattle, sheep/goat, pig

Corbally, Co. Kildare: 6 houses contemporary?

The house horizon

Start: 3715 3650 BC
End: 3690 3625 BC
Span: 65 years or less

Corbally
internally divided, several
hearths.
Largest structure: 11x7.7 m
Wheat, barley, hazelnuts,
pottery, flints, stone axes,
saddle quern recovered

Based on 18 dates from

7 sites
How robust?

after McSparron 2008

Smyth 2010

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Sites
Irish house horizon
(n = 108)
Start: 3715-3675 BC

Irish court tombs

(n = 36)
Start: 3715-3550 BC
(Schulting et al. 2012)

Balbridie, NE Scotland,
Early Neolithic longhouse
3960-3500 cal BC

Arrangement of space
Floor deposits scarce
Lough Gur (site A) & Granny, Co. Kilkenny, rare examples

Certain parts of building differentiated

24 x 12 m (exterior)

sleeping areas, other activity areas, concentration of artefacts around

doors ways

Configuration of space almost certainly had a role in

maintaining social relations
Doors: east & south-east common, others e.g. Enagh &
Thornhill doors towards Foyle River
Some imposing structures (e.g. Corbally) statement of
identity?

Foundation deposits (Smyth 2010)

Mudstone axe, surrounded by
ring of pottery sherds in
foundation trench - probably
foundation deposit,
from trench of house at Corbally,
Co. Kildare Tobin 2003

Burnt/broken porcellanite and flint

axes from slot trench of house at
Ballintaggart, Co. Down photo S.
Large

Often size and arrangement of

foundation deposit distinguishes it
from random material

Often associated
with entrance/front
portion of house

Smyth 2010

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Abandonment deposits?

Burnt oak post, Monanny, Co. Monaghan photo: F. Walsh

Porcellanite axe
blade found in situ
immediately over post
hole of annex wall
slot

Burnt planks, Ballynagilly, Co. Tyrone

photo: J. Pilcher

Associated with
entrances

Smyth 2010

Middle-Late Neolithic Houses

Large portion of houses

destroyed by fire: lack of
superimposition dissolution
of household?
Burnt planks, Monanny, Co. Monaghan photo: F. Walsh

Irish Neolithic House Size

Spreads of occupation material, pits and occasional hearths

Lough Gur, Co. Limerick

3 small round houses
Stone foundations
? Turf-filled walls

Knocknarea Mountain, Co. Sligo

Small circular buildings
beneath summit 5
excavated
Oval ditch around site to
create a bank, wooden
stakes inserted
Possibly incorporated
turf: sod layers used in
passage tombs in Boyne
Valley; but poor survival
in archaeological record

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n = 108

n = 37

Rectangular houses
(108 dates from 25 houses
from 16 sites)

Rectangular houses
(108 dates from 25 houses
from 16 sites)

Pit complexes
(37 dates from 10 sites)

Pit complexes
(37 dates from 10 sites)

End

Start

Tullahedy, Co. Tipperary

Traditional Irish landscape?

Rectangular
structures
palisade

Dispersed settlement (1 - 3 households)

pits
(Cleary and Kelleher 2011)

Thornhill: palisaded
enclosure (early Neolithic)

Causewayed enclosures
Dated to 3800-3400 cal BC

Enclosure sites (Britain,

Ireland), rare in north
Defined by interrupted
ditches
Windmill Hill
Continuum of enclosed
settlements to hillforts
and ceremonial centres
Some have buildings,
pits, etc., others are
Carn Brea
almost empty: ceremonial
centres or settlements?
Opinion has oscillated

The Trundle

Robin Hoods Ball

Whitehawk Camp

Orsett Camp

Logue 2003

Coombe Hill

Briar Hill

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Irish
causewayed enclosures

70 certain and probable

examples of Early/Middle
Neolithic causewayed or
hilltop enclosures in
Britain and Ireland
3 (1 of which is possible
only) in Ireland
2 (1 possible) in Wales
1 on Isle of Man
3 possible examples in
Scotland

Distribution of known and

probable causewayed enclosures

Cooney et al. 2011

Suggested function/s

Double ditch system,

interrupted; palisade slot
on inside of inner ditch

settlements / defended settlements

cattle enclosures
meeting places/fairgrounds
high status settlements
ceremonial sites

places for exposure of the dead

Donegore Hill

Internal banks

Many stake-holes but no certain houses

Several 100 postholes, pits, hearths1,500 Neolithic vessels

(carinated, plain) (45,000 sherds); porcellanite axeheads (from
Tievebulliagh, Rathlin), lithics (23,849 pieces); hazelnuts, cereals,
chaff & weeds; no unburnt bone

Donegore population: settlement evidence

Area of possible settlement = 9,000 m2
Theoretical c. 200 m2 per structure and empty
space = 45 possible structures
45 x 5 = 225 maximum
Area of probable settlement =4,000 m2
Theoretical 20 structures
20 x 5 = 100
11 rectangular houses found in the vicinity
Considerable labour input (18,000 labour hrs)
considerable number of people
Assemblage different to house sites
(considerably larger)
People using Donegore & houses probably
connected through social ties, reflected via
exchange networks: role in a trading network?
(e.g. Ballygalley circulation of lithics across
Irish Sea Zone with Arran pitchstone

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Palisade

Began: 3855-3665 cal BC; Ends: 3590-3430 cal BC (95%

probability): 200-455 years span (Cooney et al. 2011)

Magheraboy causewayed enclosure

Magheraboy, Co. Sligo

Lowland setting
c. 190m N-S
single ditch (interrupted) +
palisade
interior: shallow pits with carinated
bowl, arrowheads, axes, etc; also
porcellanite
sheep, wheat
Bayesian modeling
Start
Model A:40403850 cal BC
Model B: 3965-3780 cal BC **
Model C 4320-3775 cal BC
Cooney et al., 2011, 582

Whittle et al. 2011

Bibliography

Bradley, R. 2005 Ritual and Domestic Life in Prehistoric Europe. Routledge, London.
Bradley, R. 2007 The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland. Routledge, London. (Chapter
2)
Cooney, G. 2000 Landscapes of Neolithic Ireland. London: Routledge. (Chapter 3)
Cooney et al. 2011 Ireland. In: Whittle, A.; Healey, F. and Bayliss, A. Gathering Time;
dating the early Neolithic enclosures of southern Britain and Ireland. Oxbow Books,
Oxford, pp. 562-669.
Grogan, E. 2002 Neolithic houses in Ireland: a broader perspective. Antiquity 76,
517525.
Logue, P. 2003 Excavations at Thornhill, Co. Londonderry. In I. Armit, E. Murphy, E.
Nelis and D. Simpson (eds), Neolithic Settlement in Ireland and Western Britain.
Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 149155.
Smyth, J. 2006 The role of the house in Early Neolithic Ireland European Journal of
Archaeology 9, 229257.
Smyth, J. 2010 The house and group identity in the Irish Neolithic. Proceeding of the
Royal Irish Academy 111C, 131.
Waddell, J. 2010 The Prehistoric Archaeology of Ireland. Wordwell, Dublin (Chapter
2).
Whittle, A., Healey, F. & Bayliss, A. 2011 Gathering Time; dating the early Neolithic
enclosures of southern Britain and Ireland. Oxbow Books, Oxford. (Chapters 14-15).

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