Place of residence at Ballynagilly

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The residential area at Ballynagilly ( Irish Baile na nGiolla ) in the parish of Cookstown in County Tyrone in Northern Ireland contains the remains of a building. The settlement, which was originally surrounded by a deep swamp, was later completely covered by peat, under which traces of the settlement history from the Neolithic to the Bronze and Iron Ages have been preserved.

The settlement has been excavated and examined by Arthur ApSimon since the mid-1960s . It turned out that as early as 3200 BC BC buildings had been erected. The date was confirmed by stratigraphic examinations, pollen analyzes and C14 dating . Investigations in the area of ​​the square and its surroundings relate its history to the prehistoric conditions of the flora . A chronology of the vegetation history was derived from the C14 data obtained in the swamp .

The oldest dates obtained from organic material date from around 8000 BC. In the early post-glacial period there was initially a juniper flora with interspersed birches and willows . Until about 6000 BC The water level remained low. Elms , oaks , hazelnuts and pines made for a dense forest. The 5000 BC Alder trees that can be detected for the first time were obtained by 3500 BC. BC hardly any importance. The charcoal formed from fire residues from pine, oak and hazelnut (a sign of slash and burn) was dated around 3200 BC. Dated. This date coincides with the dates of the Neolithic building. The Neolithic phase lasted several centuries, which were alternately accompanied by clearing and forest regeneration. Various types of agriculture may have been practiced during this period . Before the place was repopulated in the time of the bell jar (2000 BC), it was completely abandoned and it was reforested. From around 2200 BC The decrease in pine pollen indicates human activity in the area. From around 1800 BC In BC, heather developed and expanded in the early Bronze Age. Between 1650 and 200 BC There were several sequences of forests and clearings .

Oldest building

An important discovery in Ballynagilly was a Neolithic wooden building. It stood on a 200 m high hill. The west-east oriented dwelling was almost square and measured about 6.5 × 6.0 meters. In the wall area it shows only a little deviation from the construction of some old houses in the area. To build the walls, a 30–40 cm wide and 20–30 cm deep trench was dug. Radially split oak planks were placed in it and fixed with stones. The traces of the post holes only gave a clear picture of the position of the north and south walls. The east and west sides of the building may have been open. There were also post holes in the center of the house that could hold logs that might support the roof.

The structure was destroyed by fire. Charcoal made it possible to date a radiocarbon dating from 3215 BC. To determine. The building had two stoves. A small pit contained broken pieces. Other fragments of pottery were found outside the building along with flint tools.

Near the square is located Fund Court tomb of Creggandevesky in which a piece of pottery with the imprint of a barley grain was found from the Neolithic period. What statements can be made from research into the prehistoric habitation on the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic , i.e. on the development from a hunter-gatherer society to an agricultural culture in Ireland, is the subject of discussions.

literature

  • JR Pilcher and AG Smith : Palaeoecological Investigations at Ballynagilly, A Neolithic and Bronze Age Settlement in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, Vol. 286, No. 1013, pp. 345-369, 1979 Abstract & [rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/286/1013/345.full-text.pdf full text] on the Royal Society website
  • Peter Woodman : Getting back to basics: transitions to farming in Ireland and Britain. In: Theron Douglas Price (Ed.): Europe's first farmers. Pp. 219-259, Cambridge University Press, 2000 ISBN 0-521-66572-8
  • Peter Harbison : Pre-christian Ireland - From the first Settlers to the early Celts . London 1988, p. 29 ISBN 0-500-27809-1

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Laurence Flanagan: Ancient Ireland: Life before the Celts. Palgrave Macmillan, 1999, p. 167

Coordinates: 54 ° 42 ′ 14.4 "  N , 6 ° 51 ′ 24.9"  W.