Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T08:16:16.268Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Neolithic ceremonial timber complex at Ballynahatty, Co. Down

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Barrie Hartwell
Barrie Hartwell*
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology & Palaeoecology, Queen's University, Belfast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Introduction

Belfast Lough is a deep indent of the Irish Sea into the coastline of Northern Ireland. Its southwestern continuation is the Lagan Valley, which separates the steep scarp ofthe Antrim Plateau (height c. 300 m) from the hills of Co Down (c. 120 m) to the southeast. The River Lagan flows along this broad, undulating valley floor through thick deposits of glacial sands and gravels before emptying into the Lough at Belfast. Eight kilometres southwest of Belfast, the river passes the townland of Ballynahatty, a sandy plateau 100 ha in extent. This was the site in the 4th millenium BC of a small passage tomb, orientated to the northwest (Collins 1954: 48; Lawlor 1918: 16–19). Though now denuded of its covering mound, it provided the subsequent focus for a series of atypical passage tombs utilizing ever smaller settings of stone (Hartwell 1998: 33–6). Shortly after 3000 BC this was followed by a complex of large and elaborate east-facing timber structures (Ballynahatty 5 and 6). These in turn were eventually replaced by the earth and stone hengiform enclosure of the Giant's Ring, built around the original passage tomb.

Type
Special section: Archaeology in Ireland
Information
Antiquity , Volume 76 , Issue 292 , June 2002 , pp. 526 - 532
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Collins, A.E.P.C. 1954. Excavations at the Giant’s Ring, Ballynahatty, Ulster Journal of Archaeology (3rd series) 17: 44–60.Google Scholar
Eogan, G. & Roche, H.. 1997. Excavations al Knowth (2). Dublin: Royal Irish Academy.Google Scholar
Gibson, A. 1994. Excavations at the Sarn-y-Bryn-Caled cursus complex, Welshpool, Powys, and the timber circles of Great Britain and Ireland, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society fill: 143–223.Google Scholar
Gibson, A. 1998. Stonehenge and limber circles. Stroud: Sutton.Google Scholar
Gibson, A. & Simpson, D. (ed.). 1998. Prehistoric ritual and religion. Essays in honour of Aubrey Burl. Stroud: Sutton.Google Scholar
Hartwell, B. 1998. The Ballynahatty complex, in Gibson, & Simpson, (ed.): 32–44.Google Scholar
Hartwell, B. 2000. Ballynahatty 5, Ballynahatty, in Bennett, I. (ed.), Excavation 1999, summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland: 44–6. Bray: Wordwell.Google Scholar
Lawlor, H.C. 1918. The Giant’s Ring, Proceedings of the Belfast Natural History Philosophical Society 1917–1918: 13–28.Google Scholar
Macadam, R. & Getty, E.. 1855. Discovery of an ancient sepulchral chamber, Ulster Journal of Archaeology (1st series) 3: 358–65.Google Scholar
Rappaport, R.A. 1999. Ritual and religion in the making of humanity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sweetman, P.D. 1984. A Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age pit circle at Newgrange, Co. Meath, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 85C: 195–221.Google Scholar