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Habitation site in Brittas

Habitation site

What is recorded here

Two knolls sat at the base of a crannog, separated by a narrow channel where people worked chert and flint during the Mesolithic. They laid brushwood across the water like a bridge, creating a temporary road to the western knoll. Six hundred years later, Bronze Age builders covered the old path with lake mud and raised two huts above it. The earlier road became the foundation for the later home, linking both periods in one earthwork.
At the base of the crannog two knolls c. 3m apart were utilised during the Mesolithic. The W knoll (diam. 9m; H 0.55m above water) was covered in a layer of white mud over stones with activity represented between both knolls by a total of 167 pieces of chert and flint including cores, blades, and Bann flakes. Brushwood layers spreading out from the knolls were probably deliberately laid down. A C14 date of 4313-3980 cal. BC +- 60 BP was obtained from charcoal from the brushwood layer (Bradley 1984, 86; O’Sullivan 1998, 52-3). The knolls were covered with lake mud (max. T 0.6m) which contained a few stray items but was largely sterile until a platform was established on the mud in the Early Bronze Age, on which two huts (ME005-088004-; ME005-088006-) were built. (Bradley 1982-3, 12-19; 1991, 7-9; O'Sullivan 1998, 52-3) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 6 September 2018

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What survives
Recorded monument

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