Ballachrink, Andreas

Date(s): 1998-1999

Creator(s): Centre for Manx Studies

Administration / Biographical History: In 1988 a later Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement was located and partially excavated on the western bank of the Lhen Trench within one of the richest concentrations of prehistoric settlement evidence (McCartan and Johnson 1992). In 1998 as part of a palaeoenvironmental survey of the north of the Island, a series of peat cores were recovered from the centre of the Lhen Trench. Further excavation took place in 1999 with the aim of linking the known geological and palaeo-environmental stratigraphic evidence to the human occupation evidence of the site found in 1988; and to identify the northern limit of occupation. A small area of the earlier excavation was opened up and extended, followed by a series of hand-excavated trenches reaching to the stratigraphic location of the 1998 pollen core.

Trench 1 was successfully relocated and a further three smaller trenches (R10, U10 and x9) were opened, these where then linked together by a thin ‘geological’ trench. The occupational limit of the deposit was found to extend no further than 3.5m from the southern edge of the 1999 trench.

Finds retained included approximately 965 fragments of flint, 18 sherds of prehistoric pottery and 4 sherds of modern pottery.

A total of 21 samples were collected from corings taken from transect A (or archaeological trench X9) and were analysed for pollen. A6: 1-2, A7: 1-3, A8: 1-3, A10: 1-2, A11: 1, A12: 1-4, A14: 1, A16: 1-5, they were all rich successful samples and produced a number of pollen diagrams. Nine samples were subsequently sent for radiocarbon dating which was also successful and displayed a complex occupational history for the site which suggested cycles of human activity from at least the middle of the 4th until sometime in the 1st millennium BC; the results ranged in date from 4715+-55BP [3614-3364BC; GU-9123] to 2755+-55BP [1011-804BC; GU9126]. A second set of 14 pollen samples were also analysed, 12 yielded rich palynomorph assemblages but 2 were sparse.

People:
J J Woodcock (JJW), A Johnson (ACJ), Jim Innes, M Rutherford, Richard Chiverrell, staff from CMS and local volunteers and VI form students from Ramsey Grammar School.

Language: English

Collection: Manuscript Archive

Level: SERIES

ID number: MS 14146/40

Access conditions: No regulations or restrictions are implemented on this material. Advance notification of a research visit is advisable by emailing library@mnh.gov.im

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