Cultivation ridges

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on a slight E-facing slope, 100m W of the River Moy.
In 2003 an archaeological excavation took place in advance of a realignment of the N26 road at a burial ground (MA039-107003-), which was established in the late 15th century, and was later reused in the modern era as a children’s burial ground (MA039-107----) (Nolan 2008, 89-101). An Iron Age metal-working site (MA039-107002-) was found 40m to N of the burial ground.
Evidence of a phase of early medieval agricultural activity was uncovered during the excavation. Remnants of cultivation ridge and furrows were found immediately outside the burial ground at its NW corner and on its E periphery; they were narrow, and somewhat irregular in layout, and were truncated by both the burial ground and by modern lazy beds. A radiocarbon-dated charcoal sample from the furrows produced an early medieval date of 467–648 AD (ibid, 99-100). The finding of twenty fragments of rotary querns, some of which had been reused in the construction of a leacht (MA039-107001-) and grave settings in the burial ground, serves to corroborate this picture of early medieval settlement activity in this area of lowlying fertile ground on the banks of the River Moy. Evidence of metal-working (MA039-107004-), dating to slightly later in the early medieval period, was also uncovered. (Nolan 2006, 99).

Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 15 April 2020

References

Nolan, J. 2006 Excavation of a children’s burial ground at Tonybaun, Ballina, Co. Mayo. In: O’Sullivan, J. and Stanley, M. (eds.) Settlement, Industry and Ritual. Archaeology and the National Roads Authority Monograph Series No. 3, 88-101. Dublin: National Roads Authority.