Midden in Tievebane

In the townland of Tievebane, near Burnfoot, Co. Donegal, the construction of new housing units, roads and associated services allowed the identification of four potential areas for archaeology by Cia McConway and Vincent McClorey of Archaeological Development Services Ltd, der licence No. 06E0974. These areas were all contained within the southern end of the development, but, after investigation, only two of these areas produced any archaeological evidence. Both areas of archaeology lay along the lower-lying southern limits of the site, on or close to the flood-plain. The bigger of the two areas was a shell midden, part of which had already been disturbed and truncated with the construction of an access road, the remainder surviving into the unexcavated baulk. As exposed on plan, the midden spread measured 10m north-west/south-east by 4.5m, although it is uncertain how much of this spread was due to disturbance and compaction by machinery prior to our arrival. What can be certain, however, is that the midden continued undisturbed into a west-facing baulk and here measured 11m north–south by 0.45m deep. A number of strata were identified along the section face but in general consisted of a series of compacted shell, mostly oyster, whole and fragmented, within a charcoal-stained dark-brown friable soil. The midden exposed in plan has been sealed with terram and reburied; likewise, the exposed section face has been covered and reburied. The development has been redesigned to have no further impact here. The second area of archaeology measured 9m east–west by 6m and here a small number of intercutting pits of varying sizes and depths were excavated. In general these pits were filled with charcoal-flecked dark-brown soil with small amounts of burnt red earth and occasional burnt stones throughout. A small number of struck flint were recovered from these, and its nature and location along the flood-plain would suggest that this area is likely to have been used as a prehistoric cooking/temporary camp site (Bennett 2009, 100). Compiled by Caimin O'Brien Date of upload/revision : 17 November 2011