Ulster J Archaeol 64 (third series)

Excavations in advance of development at Ballynacraig, Newry, County Down, revealed a series of small pits, stake-holes, linear ditches and charcoal-rich deposits. The site was heavily truncated and only the bases of features remained. A small assemblage of pottery was recovered, of which some sherds clearly date to the Early Neolithic period. Radiocarbon dating of deposits within three features provided dates ranging from 2460 BC to 170 BC, indicating the use of the area over a relatively long period of time. Although the site was heavily denuded, the radiocarbon dates, lithics and pottery indicate prehistoric activity in the area as far back as the Early Neolithic. Separately authored contributions include

The archaeological evaluation of a development site near Antrim town located a number of prehistoric lithic artefacts and post-medieval pottery sherds and lithics. Their analysis indicates separate activities or events on the outskirts of the present town. Includes

A segmented Bronze Age cist was discovered close to Newtownstewart Castle, County Tyrone, in 1999. Each chamber of the cist was found to contain a pile of cremated bone and a highly decorated bipartite bowl. One of the cremations had a hollow-based arrowhead within it. Radiocarbon determinations of the cremated bone suggest that the cremations were not contemporaneous and raise the question of the curation of human remains. Separately authored contributions include

Excavation of an enclosed hut circle site and a nearby relict field bank was undertaken on McIlwhans Hill, Ballyutoag, County Antrim, in 1982. The excavations in the hut circle site focused on a Late Bronze Age roundhouse which overlay a number of earlier features of probable Early Bronze Age date. The roundhouse was abandoned prior to the formation of blanket bog on McIlwhans Hill. No direct dating evidence for the relict field bank was recovered, although it is likely to post-date the roundhouse as it formed part of a system intended to divide large areas of land following the formation of the blanket bog. Separately authored contributions include

Excavations carried out at Newtownstewart Castle, County Tyrone, in 1999 revealed two phases of seventeenth-century activity during the lifetime of the castle, including the remains of an enclosing bawn wall. No evidence of any earlier castle was uncovered. Separately authored contributions include

Report on two small excavations carried out in 1999 in advance of redevelopment at sites within the historic core of seventeenth-century Belfast. The site at Gordon Street contained the remains of an eighteenth-century building and seventeenth- and eighteenth-century artefacts in dumped layers along the town's littoral. The excavation at Waring Street uncovered the remains of a late-seventeenth-century building, perhaps part of the Potthouse tenements marked on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century maps of Belfast and related to the Belfast Potthouse (Pottery), which was producing high quality tin-glazed earthenware from c. 1697 to 1725. Ceramics derived from this pottery were also recovered during the excavation. The two excavations in the core of historic Belfast proved that stratified archaeological deposits and the remains of buildings from at least the seventeenth century have survived the extensive redevelopment within the city over subsequent centuries. Separately authored contributions include

Four early drawings of buildings in County Down, previously unpublished, are presented and discussed.

Five prehistoric flint artefacts collected in the area of the Shimna River between 1994 and 2003 are identified, described and discussed.