Archaeological Excavations at

Behy (E747)
Stratigraphic Report

Report compiled by
Graeme Warren, David McIlreavy, Stuart Rathbone and Patrick Walsh

UCD School of Archaeology

Irish National Strategic Archaeological Research Fund 2009 INSTAR: GRANT No. 16710 November 2009 Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo

Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo 2009 Behy Court Tomb: Stratigraphic Report

1. General Information ........................................................................................................................... 2 1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 2 1.2 Background and Methodology...................................................................................................... 2 2. Site Location & Description................................................................................................................. 4 2.1 Location and Land Use .................................................................................................................. 4 2.2 Description of site ......................................................................................................................... 4 2.3 The Site Archive and Preparation of the Current Report.............................................................. 5 3. Stratigraphic Report............................................................................................................................ 6 Natural ................................................................................................................................................ 6 Pre cairn activity.................................................................................................................................. 6 The cairn.............................................................................................................................................. 6 Revetments ......................................................................................................................................... 6 The North facade of F13 (description)................................................................................................ 7 The South Facade of F13 (Description) ............................................................................................... 7 External surface .................................................................................................................................. 7 Spreads................................................................................................................................................ 7 Post cairn deposits .............................................................................................................................. 8 The Court ............................................................................................................................................ 8 The Gallery .......................................................................................................................................... 8 Features in the court......................................................................................................................... 11 Deposits on the cobbling .................................................................................................................. 12 Enclosure Wall .................................................................................................................................. 12 4. Radiocarbon Dates............................................................................................................................ 13 4. Bibliography ...................................................................................................................................... 14 5. Figures............................................................................................................................................... 15 6. Appendices........................................................................................................................................ 23 Appendix One: Feature Register....................................................................................................... 23

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Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo 2009 Behy Court Tomb: Stratigraphic Report

1. General Information
1.1 Introduction
This stratigraphic report provides details the excavations that took place between 1963 and 1964 at the Enclosed Court Cairn of Behy, Co Mayo, under the direction of Dr Michael Herity, Sen Nuallin and Ruaidhri de Valra. The site had first come to scientific attention during a reconnaissance of the Ballycastle area of North Mayo by the archaeological Section of the Ordnance Survey (de Valra and Nuallin 1952). At that time the cruciform gallery was identified as belonging to a passage tomb but this opinion was subsequently revised when the site was revisited in 1959, and it was included as a Court Cairn in the Mayo volume of the Megalithic Survey of Ireland which included a summary of the excavation (de Valra and Nuallin 1964, 4-6). The excavation was funded by grants from the Excavations Fund under the Special Employment Scheme of the Office of Public Works and from University College Dublin. The excavation crew consisted of local workmen from the adjacent villages.The original excavation funding did not provide for post-excavation analysis although later funding from Dchas did allow for many areas to be considerably advanced under the leadership of Prof Gabriel Cooney but more work was required. In the context of the development of the Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo (NBNM) the inclusion of Behy seemed appropriate. In 2009 grant support through INSTAR has enabled the Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo project to work on the archives and, in particular, to significantly develop the stratigraphic account.

1.2 Background and Methodology

The Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo (NBNM) project aims to bring to full publication critically important aspects of the Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeology of North Mayo. The overarching aims of the project address four areas: Noel Dunnes survey work on the Pollatomish peninsula; Seamas Caulfields survey/excavation in Belderrig; survey and excavation by varied parties at Cide Fields; and Gretta Byrnes survey/excavation from Ballinglen to Rathlackan. Individually these are important sites and/or landscapes, taken as a whole they are of international significance in terms of understanding early agricultural communities in north-west Europe. Furthermore, the buried landscapes of the Cide Fields are iconic for Irish archaeology and a state candidate for World Heritage Site status. The project builds on the success of the Cide Fields work in outreach, and remedies the lack of full academic publication. Our model is for a three year project resulting in: an academic monograph detailing results of survey, excavation and further specialist work full excavation reports and archives deposited with the relevant authorities a book targeted at the general public outlining the nature, significance and future of these archaeological landscapes

At present, funding has been obtained for the first year of this project which focuses on preparing stratigraphic accounts of all of the excavations, archiving materials, generating basic catalogues and processing relevant samples. The enclosed reports outline the results of this project.

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Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo 2009 Behy Court Tomb: Stratigraphic Report

The specific excavations included in this proposal are: Belderg Beg (Caulfield), Behy ( Nuallin), Glenulra Enclosure (Caulfield), Cide Visitor Centre (Byrne and Dunne), Glenulra Scatter (Byrne), Rathlackan Court Tomb (Byrne). Project partners include Seamas Caulfield, Gretta Byrne, Martin Downes,Noel Dunne and Graeme Warren (Project Coordinator). Grant support for 2009 enabled us to hire two research assistants, Mr Stuart Rathbone and Mr David McIlreavy and a research fellow, Mr Patrick Walsh. These three researchers were based in Belderrig from August-Nov 2009 The nature of the archives encountered by this current phase of analysis varied. The earlier excavations took place in a different archaeological framework: single context recording was not carried out, and expectations of the scale and character of recording were very different to today. In general for the earlier excavations, the written archive is poor, but the recollections of the excavator, alongside a good photographic and drawn record, has enabled a good level of reconstruction of stratigraphy. The more recent excavations have a more complete archive, and here we have focused on synthesising the annual reports previously presented. For the earlier excavations the first phase of analysis has been to create a synthetic working plan of the site and assign context numbers as appropriate. These were then used to create a stratigraphic narrative. Within the constraints of the budget for this phase we have not been able to fully reconstruct the coordinate systems used in the excavations which means that many finds are still not directly associated with a context. When the spatial information is available these designations will be made. In the case of Behy much work had already been carried out on the archives an early draft of an excavation report was written by Madeline Murray from 20012002. This comprised a description of the excavation and tomb architecture and basic notes about site stratigraphy. The text also contains a portion on the radiocarbon dates, a summary and conclusionThe bulk of the text is based on a hand written version by Sean Nuallin which is in the archive. The excavation report does not include a detailed stratigraphy, has limited description of features and requires substantial updating in terms of referencing, landscape and comparative context etc. Specialist reports have been carried out for some materials including analysis of prehistoric pottery by Helen Roche, the charred wood by Sandra McKeown and the lithics by Brian Dolan and Graeme Warren but these are varied in character (i.e. the charred wood was only carried out to identify materials for C14 dating) and full sample processing has not been carried out. Some illustrations have been prepared by Ursula Mattenberger. Our current phase of work focused on the stratigraphy,and the generation of a feature register. In distinction to the other NBNM reports, appendices of find and sample registers are not provided. Electronic and paper copies of specialist reports form part of the site archive. Given the nature of extant reports in the archive, little or no comparative discussion is advanced at this stage.

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Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo 2009 Behy Court Tomb: Stratigraphic Report

2. Site Location & Description

2.1 Location and Land Use
The Behy Court Cairn is located close to the Behy townland boundary, approximately 6.5km north west of the village of Ballycastle (NGR105200, 340400; E747; Figure 1, 2). The topography of the area consists of valleys opening towards the north onto a high cliff coastline. The site lies on the north western slope of a mountain ridge that extends north eastwards from Maumakeogh Mountain. Northwards the land falls to the sheer cliffs along the sea coast some 550m away. The site commands a wide view westwards to Belderrig and the Stags of Broadhaven (see Figure 3) while in the distance across Donegal Bay Slieve League and the mountains of South West Donegal are visible. The north Mayo coast from Belderrig to Killala Bay is highly varied, with complex geological and geomorphological sequences. In the west extensively deformed pre-Cambrian metamorphics form the core of the landscape (Sleeman 1992), which is characterised by rounded hills, sharp cliffs and bleak bog-filled basins and wet podsol soils (see Verill 2006). Approximately half way between Belderrig and the Cide Fields, these schists give way to a variety of Carboniferous limestones and sand/siltstones. Hill and plateaux peat is present in the uplands, with blanket peat extending down the hills, but in the lowlands the land is of higher quality; with brown earth soils in the Ballyglass region and grey brown podzolic soils near Ballycastle. On the plateau east of Ballycastle bog and podzols dominate again. Behy itself lies in blanket bog, developed on Carboniferous deposits. Most land in the area is uncultivated except for small pockets at the seaward end of the river valleys. The monument is situated between two turf banks running roughly north to south and which are approximately 28m apart. The Behy Court Cairn is located beyond the area owned by the OPW and the area is now used for peat extraction for private domestic use and for sheep grazing.

2.2 Description of site

The Behy Court Cairn is located within the centre of the western block of the pre-bog fields at Cide Fields (Figure 2). This western block of fields is defined by long linear fields running from northeast to southwest which are sub-divided by cross walls which in general are offset so as to form an alternating pattern of offset rectangular fields rather than a grid pattern. This block of pre-bog fields dates to the Middle Neolithic period but may have continued in use until the Late Neolithic. There are two more blocks of fields within the Cide Fields complex, in the townlands of Ballyknock and Aghoo, both of which present different field patterns. A large number of other field systems are present along the North Mayo Coast, running from Ballina to Broadhaven Bay, with only the area to the west of Belderrig being apparently devoid of fields. In addition to the fields there are numerous Megalithic sites in the area, the closest of which is in the townland of Glenulra. The court cairn at Behy consists of a trapezoidal mound measuring 28.65m in length, 10.4m in width at the court end and 6.5m in width at the western end (Figure 3 for overview). The edges of the cairn were defined by a substantial dry stone kerb. The court was fully enclosed and was defined by two large arms with dry stone facing, and which also presented a substantial facade at the east end of the cairn (Figure 4). The gallery was very unusual in that it consisted of a small front chamber and a larger rear chamber from which two
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Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo 2009 Behy Court Tomb: Stratigraphic Report

opposing transeptal chambers accessed from the mid points of the northern and southern side walls, giving the gallery a regular cruciform shape. A total of ten trenches were excavated over the site exposing the majority of the tomb. The trenches were aligned north to south, perpendicular to the cairns long axis and generally separated by a narrow baulk running along the central axis. A low, crudely constructed wall was found to have been built up against the collapsed cairn material in front of the north eastern facade of the cairn. This wall ran for several metres before splitting off in two directions. In one direction it ran off to join with the large field walls which divide the area into large rectangular fields. In the other direction the wall loops around the south of the cairn and then connects back onto the western end of the cairn, thus forming a D-shaped enclosure against the southern side of the cairn, but which crucially does not enclose the entire cairn. Crucially, the stratigraphic relationships here suggest that the walls post date collapse of the cairn, in contrast to the relationship at Rathlackan.

2.3 The Site Archive and Preparation of the Current Report

Preparing this report almost 40 years after the excavations began presents a range of difficulties. The excavations, in particular the recording, were conducted according to the standards of the time and single context recording was not utilized. This current report has a very complex history. Michael Herity began an original draft report which was not completed. This report formed the basis of a draft report compiled by Madeline Murray and which involved a re-examination of the original site archive. This draft report was was not completed. In 2006 Brian Dolan re-examined the site notebooks and attempted to identify and number individual contexts from the written descriptions. The current version of this report incorporates elements from the original summary report published in the Mayo Volume of the Megalithic Survey of Ireland, from the first part of Murrays report, from elements of Dolans report and new observations from the site archive. This included an extensive collection of photographs, a selection of the site plans and the site notebooks. Also included were a series of specialist reports detailing the artefacts, ecofacts and dating evidence for the site. In this report an entirely new sequence of context numbers has been utilized due to the very inconsistent use of feature numbers used throughout the site archive. This will necessitate some coordination with extant reports. Some aspects of the stratigraphy will only allow of final interpretation when issues of finds distribution can be integrated back into the stratigraphic narrative.

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Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo 2009 Behy Court Tomb: Stratigraphic Report

3. Stratigraphic Report
The excavations included 8 main cuttings, focusing primarily on the tomb and immediately adjacent land surfaces (Figure 5)

Natural
The natural subsoil was noted as a grey chippy parent material (F1), overlain by a fine grey (sandy?) layer sometimes described as yellowish (F2).

Pre cairn activity

A coarse red sand (F3) 0.1 m deep overlay the fine grey (sandy?) subsoil (F2), overlain in turn by another layer of grey sand (F4) 0.1 m deep. To the southern end of the excavations the thin grey sand (F4) has noticeable charcoal inclusions, which may indicate a spread (F5). At this point the F4 layer reaches 5-8 cm in depth. In the court area, a shallow pit (F6) was recorded, and although no records of dimensions exist the fill was described as a sticky greenish grey clay with vegetation (F7). A concentration of charcoal (F8) was noted in the upper level of the pit. An ill defined area overlying the grey sandy layer (F4) was covered by a layer of rough cobbling (F9). The cobbling was noted around the cairn to the north and south of the tomb, with the kerb stones of the cairn resting on the cobbling at the north. The cobbling is also noted running under the kerb at the SW corner of the excavation. The cobbling was not noted around the eastern edge of the cairn, and to the southeast does not extend beyond the cairn and kerbs which rest on the relict soil F2.

The cairn
The basal layer of the cairn would seem to have been comprised of larger stones (F10) than the majority of the body (F11). These larger stones are noted as causing some disturbance to the cobbling (F9) layer that extended under the cairn material (see above). In Cuttings 7 and 8 sections of the main body of the cairn were removed in order to examine the underlying soil sequence, which revealed that the cairn preserved a thin black layer of peat (F12), although its relationship to the cobbling (F9) or the pre cairn sandy deposits is not noted.

Revetments
The main body of the cairn (F11) was retained by a dry stone revetment (F13), but the level of preservation of this feature varied around the perimeter depending on very localised factors. The northern side of the cairn was better preserved than the southern side. In particular the north eastern side of the cairn survived well, with up to seven courses of revetment with the stones used were typically around 0.5m in length, although some larger examples, up to 0.9m long, were occasionally used. The south eastern revetment survived to a height of four courses. At the south west the cairn was heavily robbed and no traces of the revetment were discovered. In all areas where the revetment was recorded it was concealed by a substantial amount of collapsed cairn material (F14). This collapsed cairn material was most extensive around the north of the cairn where it extended for up to 2.5m beyond the line of the revetment. Around the south there was far less collapsed cairn material and it only extended up to 0.7m beyond the line of the revetment. It is possible that originally the cairn was higher around the northern side, an arrangement which makes sense in terms of the local topography as it would emphasise the size of the cairn when viewed from downslope. It is interesting to note the apparent contradiction between the high surviving height of the revetment along the north and the large quantity of adjacent

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collapse, in comparison to the low surviving height of the revetment along the south and the low quantity of the adjacent collapse. However this pattern could easily be explained by a process of differential stone removal and the arms of the cairn appear to have been of approximately the same height, which is more consistent with this explanation.

The North facade of F13 (description)

The northern facade of the cairn was aligned from north east to south west and measured 3m in length (Figure 6). Larger stones had been utilised to form the facing of this facade than were utilised within the court, and because of this it had not collapsed to the same degree. For most of its length it survived to 0.75m in height and had between four and six courses of stone forming the facing but in places it was significantly higher. This was not overlain by the jumble of collapsed stone that was present elsewhere and it may be that this facade survives close to its original height. The north east corner of the facade is not vertical, but forms a 45 degree slope to join with the sloping external edge of the northern arm of the cairn.

The South Facade of F13 (Description)

The southern facade of the cairn was aligned from north to south and measured 3.2m in length. The different alignments of the northern and southern facades mean that taken together the eastern end of the cairn presents a concave facade with a centrally placed entrance (see Figure 3). The southern facade was in a noticeably more collapsed state than its northern counterpart. Only a small portion of the dry stone facing survived, located 1m south of the northern corner of the facade, but this does imply that the entire facade had originally been faced with proper dry stone courses. In general then the southern facade simply appeared as pile of jumbled stone standing to a height of 0.75m. As with the north east corner of the northern facade, the southern corner of the southern facade was not vertical, but formed a 45 degree slope to join with the sloping external edge of the southern arm of the cairn.

External surface
An external gravelled surface (F15) that was between 0.03m and 0.05m deep was present around the north and south of the cairn. Small spreads of charcoal were frequently encountered on the upper surface of the gravel layer, and this is also the location from which the majority of the artefacts were recovered. These artefacts included pieces of flint, chert, quartz and chert debitage. This was overlain by brown clay layer up to 0.09m thick.

Spreads
In Cutting 5 there was a spread of charcoal rich material, F16, which was 6m in diameter and 1.3m deep. The spread/pit was located 2.3m south of the kerb and had been covered by a large stone measuring 4m in length, 3m in width and 1m in depth. Numerous pieces of quartz and chert were recovered from this material, some of which was worked. A spread of charcoal rich material, F17, was found in the south west of Cutting 4 on the old ground surface adjacent to, and possibly continuing under, the dry stone kerb. It was oval in plan and measured 0.55m from north to south and 0.7m from east to west, but no depth is recorded. Quartz and chert was recovered from this material A second spread of charcoal rich material, F18, was also present in the south west of Cutting 4, 0.4m south of the dry stone kerb and 0.6m south east of F17. It measured 0.87m from north to south and 0.75m from east to west. Again no depth is recorded. Apparently this spread was on top of the old ground surface and was covered by sod. A spread of charcoal rich material, F19, was encountered within the entrance to the court and immediately south of the southern end of the northern facade. It was oval in plan and measured 1.4m from east to west and 0.8m from north to south. It was between 0.15m and 0.2m thick and consisted of a fine grey sand with pieces of charcoal. A spread of charcoal rich material, F20, was encountered 0.6m south east of the northern facade in Cutting C1a. It was circular in plan with a diameter of 0.45m. A second much larger spread of charcoal rich material, F21, was present in Cutting C1a, running parallel with and 0.4m north of the dry stone kerb (F13) reveting the northern edge of the cairn. It was oval in plan and measured 2.8m in length

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Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo 2009 Behy Court Tomb: Stratigraphic Report

and was up to 0.7m wide. A particularly dense area of charcoal (F22) measuring 0.5m by 0.5m was identified towards the east of this spread. This spread was on top of the old ground surface and was covered over by a layer of sod. A spread of charcoal rich material, F23, was encountered in the north of Cutting C3. It measured 0.88m from north to south and 0.5m from east to west. To the north an ash spread (F24) is described occurring near the kerbstone.

Post cairn deposits

Some silting (F25) was noted to the north of the cairn, overlying the grey sandy subsoil (F2). Over some collapse to the north of the cairn a brown clay (?) (F26) developed. This layer is noted as underlying the peat (F27) over the excavation area.

The Court
The enclosed court (Figure 4 and 6) has internal dimensions of 8m east to west and 4.9m from north to south. It has a distinctive pear shape in plan, narrowing towards the eastern entrance. The entrance to the court is 2.25m wide and the centre of the entrance is positioned approximately 2m south of the line of the central axis of the cruciform gallery. The arms of the cairn which define the court are constructed from a very well coursed dry stone wall which retains a jumbled mass of stone. It is clear from the site archive that the stones of the retaining walling (F28) had been selected for their thin and regular nature, whilst the stones they retain are of a much more varied nature. Because of the substantial amount of collapse that has occurred the dry stone facing only survives at the base of the walls, and this is overlain by jumbled stone to a considerable height. At the eastern end the total height of the arms of the cairn are just below a metre in height, with between three and four courses the dry stone facing surviving at the base, to a height of around 0.4m. Both the total height of the wall and the height of the surviving drystone facing and the number of surviving courses increase gradually to the west. The maximum surviving wall height was found just to the north of the entrance to the gallery which was around 1.5m. Here the dry stone facing was almost complete to the full height of the wall, and approximately twelve courses of dry stone were present. On the northern arm of the cairn, at a point 1.5m west of the court entrance there is a gap where the coursed stone is entirely absent. This gap is filled by a jumble of stone that bulges into the court and indicates a point of total structural failure. It is clear from the photographs in the site archive that the basal course of the dry stone walling, and in some cases the second and even the third course, utilised much larger stones than the upper courses. It is also recorded that the southern arm of the cairn utilised larger stones than the northern arm.

The Gallery
The entrance to the gallery is very unusual (Figure 7 and Figure 8). The entrance is formed by two lateral jambstones covered by a long lintel. The entrance is 0.5m wide and 1m high. In front of this entrance there is an upright sill stone that is 1.15m long, 0.1m thick and stands to a height of 0.4m. In total the entrance is 0.85m in length from the sill stone to where it opens up into the main chamber. The lintel is currently 1.25m long, but it appears that part of its southern end has broken off. To the south of the southern jambstone the east end of the southern sidestone of the front chamber projects out to the same line as the jambstones. The dry stone walling of the southern arm of the cairn is build up against the southern side of this sidestone whilst the gap between the sidestone and the southern jambstone, which is 0.28m wide, is plugged with a disorganised mass of stone. A photograph from the 1964 season shows that a slab like stone, presumably from the adjacent collapse, was fitted very neatly back into this gap, and it may be the case that this was its original location and the rough stone infilling was originally covered by this slab giving a neater appearance to the entrance. The dry stone walling of the northern arm of the cairn neatly abuts the northern side of the northern jambstone. Above the lintel the edge of a massive roofstone is clearly visible. The gallery is cruciform in plan with a small front chamber followed by a large rear chamber. Half way along the sides of the rear chamber there are openings into a pair of opposing transeptal chambers.

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The front chamber measures 2.4m long, from east to west and 1.7m wide from north to south. The northern wall of the chamber consists of two large orthostats, whilst the southern wall consists of a large orthostat at the east and a second orthostat at the west which continues into the rear chamber where it forms the south eastern wall. Dimensions of these sidestones were not identified in the archive and the plan of this area is too indistinct to allow for measurements to be taken directly from it. At the west the front chamber is formally divided from the rear chamber by a complicated arrangement of jambstones and a sill stone. The lowest level encountered within the chamber was a yellow earth presumably some sort of clay from which pieces of quartz and chert were recovered. A similar deposit was encountered in the rear chamber (F29) and shown to overlie several features, and therefore it is assumed that this layer in the front chamber was a deposit of some sort rather than being the top of the natural sub soil. This yellow earth was overlain by a paving consisting of flat slabs of stone up to 0.7m by 0.35m in size. Parts of this pavement had been displaced. A number of artefacts were associated with this paving including flint and chert debitage and sherds of Neolithic pottery with heavy rims. Above this the front chamber was filled with a large quantity of stone, possibly including displaced corbels, which filled the chamber close to its full height. The front chamber is separated from the rear chamber by a pair of large longitudinal jambstones and a sill stone. The northern jambstone is 0.75m long, 0.15m wide and stands to a height of 1.5m. The southern jambstone is 0.55m long, 0.15m thick and stands to a height of 0.82m but the top of it has clearly been broken off. Between the two jambstones there is a high sill stone which is o.7m long and stands to a height of 0.95m. At its top it is 0.2m wide but widens to 0.4m at its base. The gaps between the jambstones and the sidestones is filled with low drystone walling. Standing to a height of 0.35m behind the northern jambstone and just 0.18m behind the southern jambstone. The rear chamber measures 3.2m in length from east to west. It is widest near the centre point where it measures 1.7m from north to south but is somewhat narrower at the eastern and western ends. The northern wall of the rear chamber consists of two large orthostats which have a 0.9m gap between them which forms the entrance to the northern transeptal chamber. The north eastern sidestone is 1.3m long, 0.3m thick, stands to a height of 1.2m and leans slightly inwards. The north western sidestone is 1.5m long, 0.3m thick, stands to a height of 1.25m and is upright. The southern wall of the rear chamber consists of two large orthostats, the eastern example also forming part of the southern wall of the front chamber, as described above. There is a 0.88m wide gap between these two stones which from the entrance to the southern transeptal chamber. The south eastern sidestone is 1.6m long, 0.35m thick and stands to a height of 1.4m. The south western sidestone is 1.35m long, 0.3m thick and stands to a height of 1.4m. Both of the southern sidestones lean inwards. Heavy packing stones are present around the bases of all four of these sidestones. A large backstone rests against the western ends of the western sidestones which measures 1.75m in length, is 0.35m thick and stands to a height of just 0.6. A large corbel rests on top of the backstone, which measures 1.85m in length from north to south, 1.2m in width from east to west and is up to 0.25m thick. Above this corbel there is a large capstone which measures 2.3m in length from north to south, 0.9m in width from east to west and which is up to 0.2m thick. Local informants stated that another great capstone had covered the gallery west of this but it had been removed 60 years prior to the excavations and used in the manufacture of a culvert (de Valra and Nuallin 1964, 5). The lowest major level within the rear chamber was described as yellow earth (F29) which appears to be a deposit of some sort as two spreads of material, Spreads H (F30) and I (F31), were discovered underneath it. Numerous spreads of charcoal and pits were present either on top of this yellow earth or cut into it. Spread H (F30) was located in the south east of the rear chamber. It is recorded as being a large spread of charcoal lumps, but its dimensions have not been identified within the archive. It is recorded as being between 0.03m and 0.08m below the yellow layer, but it is not entirely clear whether it was found within the yellow layer at this depth from its surface or if it was within an otherwise unmentioned layer that underlay the yellow layer. Spread I (F31) was located in the south east of the rear chamber. It measured 0.2m by 0.2m but no description of its nature has been identified within the archive. As with Spread H this is recorded as being under the yellow layer (F29). Pit A (F32) was located in the north west corner of the gallery. It was roughly circular in plan with a diameter of 0.45m and a depth of 0.2m. It was filled by sticky black matter with a few stones (F32). No finds were recovered from this feature. This feature was apparently cut into the yellow layer (F29).

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Pit B (F33) is very poorly recorded and neither its location or size have been identified from within the archive. Apparently pieces of pottery were recovered from its fill, but the type and quantity have not yet been identified. It is not clear if this pit was cut through the yellow layer (F29) or was found underneath it. Pit C (F34) was located in the centre of the rear chamber. Its dimensions have not yet been identified within the archive. The fill was apparently a dark clay with charcoal (F35) and some poor quality pottery was recovered from it. Depression D (F36) was located in the centre of the rear chamber. It measured up to 3m in length from east to west and up to 0.63m in width from north to south, although there was a considerable degree of variation in these measurements at different points. The depression was between 0.07m and 0.02m deep and was filled by a soft brownish black clay (F37) which included pottery and charcoal. Spread E (F38) was located in the centre of the rear chamber, south west of Depression D (F36), and extending into the entrance of the northern transeptal chamber. The exact dimensions of this spread have not been identified within the archive. It was a thin deposit of fire reddened clay and charcoal from which a number of pieces of pottery and a single piece of quartz were recovered. The spread was thought to represent the location of a fire and it was located on top of the yellow layer (F29). Pit F (F39) was located in the southern half of the main chamber. It was an oval shape in plan measuring 0.29m from north to south, 0.2m from east to west and 0.18m in depth. Its fill was dark black and contained several small stones (F40). Pit G (F41) was located 1m west of the sill stone at the entrance to the rear chamber. It was an oval shape in plan and measured 0.5m from north to south, 0.4m from east to west and was 0.13m deep with sloping sides. No information regarding the fill has been identified within the archive. Above the pits cut into the yellow layer there was a paving (F42) consisting of thin slabs of stone, very similar to the one discovered in the front chamber (F48). Overlying the pavement there was a spread of small stones (F43) between 0.2m and 0.3m in size, which were overlain in turn by a jumble of stone (F44) between 0.1m and 0.4m in size which was mixed through with crumbly peat (F45). Above this, at least in the area around the sill stone, there was a layer of peat (F46) 0.2m thick and which contained modern rubbish, and this peat was covered in turn by a layer of loose stone and vegetation (F47). The backstone of the rear chamber had been scorched by fire but this stopped 0.15m above the height of the paving. It seems clear that this sequence represents the re-use of the rear chamber during the 19th and early 20th century and local informants reported that the chamber had been in use as a potn distillery. The excavators questioned whether the paving in the rear chamber, and the associated pits and spreads, may all date to this period of re-use. However this seems unlikely given the presence of a similar pavement overlying a yellow layer in the undisturbed front chamber, and the fact that the burning of the backstone halted 0.15m above the height of the pavement. A radiocarbon date of 3965-3645 cal BC (AA 43416/GU9396; 500575 bp) was obtained on oak was obtained from a sample underlying the pavement in the front chamber, although it is not clear what feature this sample was obtained from. Assuming that the old wood effect is not creating too much of a problem here (see below for discussion), it would appear then that the basal layers within the chamber were undisturbed and that the sequence of features that was observed represents the original period of the court cairns use in the Early Neolithic. The northern transeptal chamber was constructed of two large sidestones and a backstone which rested against the ends of the sidestones, a similar arrangement to that found in the rear chamber. The chamber was almost square in plan measuring approximately 1.8m from north to south and 1.75m from east to west. The western sidestone is 1.55m long, 0.1m thick and stands to a maximum height at its southern end of 0.8m but its top slopes down steeply to the north. Over this sidestone there is a high pitched corbel 1.2m long, 0.08m thick and at least 0.4m high. The eastern sidestone is 1.6m long, 0.12m thick and stands to a maximum height of 0.7m at its southern end. Again the top of this stone slopes down steeply to the north. There is a small gap between the southern end of this stone and the rear face of the north eastern sidestone of the main chamber which was filled by a small slab like stone 0.4m long, 0.05m thick and 0.75m high. Tilted against the outside of this slab are two almost vertical corbel stones. The northerly example is 1.1m long, 0.07m thick and is over 0.75m high. The southerly example overlaps behind this and is at least 1.1m long, 0.1m thick and is over 0.8m high. The bases of both of these corbels are concealed by the cairn. The backstone is 1.2m long, 0.07m thick, stands to a height of just 0.25m and is supported by packing stones. Behind the backstone there is a very high pitched corbel 1.15m long from north to south, and
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0.12m thick. It rises 0.4m above the backstone and its base is concealed in the cairn. The southern part of the northern chamber is covered by a roofstone 1.35m long from east to west, 0.7m wide from north to south and 0.07m thick. The northern part of the northern chamber is covered by a roof slab sloping corbel like which measures 1.3m long from north to south, 0.1m thick and is at least 1.4m wide from east to west. Both of the roofstones rest on the corbels which in turn rest on the sidestones and backstones. No proper descriptions of the fill of this chamber are present within the archive and it is not clear if it had been backfilled like the front chamber, emptied out like the rear chamber or had never been filled in during the closing of the gallery. The interior was however paved (F49) with good quality stone work that covered most of the floor area. The paving consisted of large thin slabs, the largest of which measured 0.6m from east to west and 0.5m from north to south. The stones of the pavement decrease noticeably in size towards the rear of the chamber. The southern transeptal chamber was constructed of two large sidestones and a backstone which rested against the ends of the sidestones. The chamber was rectangular in plan and measured and noticeably narrower than the northern chamber. The eastern sidestone is a large slab which is 1.45m long, 0.1m thick and stands to a height of 1.1m. The stone leans slightly inwards. The western sidestone is 1.6m long, 0.15m thick and stands to a height of just 0.6m. The western sidestone leans slightly inwards and supports a steeply pitched corbel 1.6m long, 0.15m thick and 0.6m high, with its base concealed in the cairn. A second steeply pitched corbel rises behind the first. It is split but when complete would have measured 1.25m in length, 0.07m thick and over 0.5m high. The backstone is 1.1m long, 0.07m thick and stands to a height of 0.8m. Two stone slabs are set against the inside face of the backstone, within the chamber. The slabs are each about 0.55m long, 0.1m thick and they stand to heights of about 0.35m. The roof of the northern part of the chamber is formed of a slab 1.5m long from east to west and over 1m wide from north to south. It lies horizontally with its southern edge supported on the sloping roofstone of the southern end of the chamber. The roof of the southern portion of the chamber is made of a large slab measuring 1.7m from east to west, 0.85m from north to south and is 0.08m thick. The slab slopes steeply and at the south rests on the taller of the two upright slabs in front of the backstone. At the east the sloping roofstone of the inner part of the chamber rests directly on the eastern sidestone, whilst the horizontal slab of the outer part of the chamber rests on small cairn stones beyond the chamber. At the west the roofstones rest on the corbels. As with the northern transeptal chamber there are no proper descriptions of the fill of this chamber present within the archive and it is not clear if it had been backfilled like the front chamber, emptied out like the rear chamber or had never been filled in during the closing of the gallery. The interior was around the entrance was paved (F48) with good quality stone work but this extended only as far as the centre of the chamber and the southern half had either never been paved or had had its pavement removed. The paving consisted of large thin slabs.

Features in the court

The entire court area had been filled with jumbled stone (F50) and it is believed that this represents the gradual collapse of the cairn rather than a period of deliberate infilling. An amount of small flat stone was thought to have derived from the collapsed faces of the northern and southern arms whilst larger more irregular stones were thought to have derived from the main body of the cairn. Several large stones were found at the base of the collapse within the court, including a stone that resembled a lintel and which measured 1.4m by 0.3m by 0.25m. Beneath the collapsed material revealed an uneven surface of small stones (F51) which had black peaty material dispersed amongst them (F52), presumably the peaty material had simply washed down through voids in the collapse and built up on the first solid layer underneath it. Removal of this layer of small stones revealed the thin layer of rough cobbling, mentioned above. Patches of charcoal (F53) were found across the upper surface of the cobbling (F 9) and the spaces between the stones were filled a film of purple brown silty sand (F54). Within the court, and presumably underlying the layer of small stones (F51) a total of two features were discovered. A small oval feature, F55, was located against the northern side of the court, a little to the west of the central point. It measured 0.8m from north to south and 0.8m from east to west and possibly extended under the northern arm of the cairn. It is described as soft patch on the plan of the court and unfortunately no other information is available within the site archive. An irregular pit, F56, was located against the southern side of the court, close to its central point. It was sub-triangular in plan with a maximum length of 1m from east to west and maximum width of 0.7m from north to south. The depth was
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unrecorded. It appears to have continued underneath the southern arm of the court and contained two fills, only recorded as a darker soil (F57) overlying a lighter soil (F58). The base of the pit included traces of iron pan.

Deposits on the cobbling

Peaty wash (F59) over cobbles at the southern edge of the cairn, presumably downwash from peat further upslope. Some charcoal is noted between the stones of this cobbling layer to the south, and some rootlets possibly indicating growth on the surface before it was covered with collapse.

Enclosure Wall
A pre bog wall, F60, abutted the collapse cairn material lying against the northern facade of the cairn. The wall runs away to the east south east and after 7m it branches off in two directions at a Y shaped junction. The northern branch heads off to the north east and forms the division between two long rectangular fields. The southern branch loops round to enclose the southern side of the court cairn before connecting to the rear end of the cairn. The enclosure thus forms an enclosure approximately 60m long and 20m wide. At the west where it connected to the northern facade it was 1.6m wide but narrows rapidly to 1.3m. It was built on top of a layer of silty soil that overlay the original ground surface. Clearly this wall post dates the collapse of the cairn but its exact date is not known and there are numerous permutations of the relationship between this wall and the major field walls forming the surrounding rectangular fields. Without additional excavation it would be impossible to firmly establish the relationship between this enclosure wall and the field walls.

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4. Radiocarbon Dates
A total of eight radiocarbon dates have been obtained from site. Many are difficult to tie down into the stratigraphic sequences as they are currently understood, and are made more problematic because of the use of bulk charcoal for most dates. It is, however, interesting that most of the dates from the court are consistent and, broadly, lie between c 3700 3300 cal BC (Table 1), slightly later than the date sealed beneath paving in the front chamber, but the possibility of an old wood effect here has been noted above. Roches analysis of the ceramics suggests that The assemblage from Behy consists entirely of Early Neolithic carinated, round-based bowls, a type of vessel in use from c. 4000 BC to c. 3600 BC although she notes that some decorated forms may imply a mid fourth millennium date rather than earlier. The available dating evidence suggests minimal prehistoric reuse of Behy, in notable distinction to the evidence from Rathlackan (Byrne et al 2009) which saw substantial later modifications. The presence of a medieval cranium in the tomb is unexpected, and suggests some further chronological complexity.
Lab code AA43428 (GU9416) AA43429 (GU9417) AA43430 (GU9418) AA43416 (GU9396) UCD00118 UCD00141 Cutting C2 C2 C10 (?) C5 C8 C11 (?) Location Court, same area as pottery Court, same area as pottery Court, among cobbles at E end Front chamber under paving Spread in C1, along N arm of court Spread in C1, court. Under rough cobble and beside pottery Spread S of gallery C5 ID Hazel Rosaceae Hazel Oak Hazel, willow/poplar Oak, hazel, scots pine, willow/poplar Hazel, willow/poplar Human cranium BP 4790 4805 4685 5005 4580 4610 Error 55 55 55 75 60 60 2 cal BC 36603379 BC 36973381 BC 36363355 BC 39653645 BC 35153097 BC 36193102 BC 36403345 BC 12841396 AD cal cal cal cal cal cal

UCD00142 UB6899

C12 (?)

4680 638

70 30

cal cal

Table 1: Radiocarbon dates from Behy

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4. Bibliography
Byrne, G. J., G. M. Warren, S. Rathbone, D. McIlreavy and P. Walsh (2009). Archaeological Excavations at Rathlackan (E580): Stratigraphic Report. UCD School of Archaeology/INSTAR: Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo 2009. de Valra, R. and S. Nuallin (1952) A Cruciform Passage-Grave at Behy Townland, Co. Mayo. Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society, XXV: 47-51. de Valra, R. and S. Nuallin (1964.) Survey of the megalithic tombs of Ireland, vol. II County Mayo. Dublin, Stationary Office. Sleeman, A.G. editor. 1992. Geology of North Mayo: a geological description to accompany the bedrock geology 1:100,000 map series: Sheet 6, North Mayo, Dublin: Geological Survey of Ireland. Verrill, L. (2006). Later prehistoric environmental marginality in western Ireland: multi-proxy investigations. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Edinburgh.

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Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo 2009 Behy Court Tomb: Stratigraphic Report

5. Figures

Figure 1: location of key sites discussed in text

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Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo 2009 Behy Court Tomb: Stratigraphic Report

Figure 2: Behy and the Cide Field System

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Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo 2009 Behy Court Tomb: Stratigraphic Report

Figure 3: plan showing main morphological features of tomb

Figure 4: Overview of the tomb at Behy looking Northwest out towards the Atlantic

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Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo 2009 Behy Court Tomb: Stratigraphic Report

Figure 5 Plan showing the main cuttings and main sections (not illustrated here)

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Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo 2009 Behy Court Tomb: Stratigraphic Report

Figure 6: Overview of the entrance court post excavation facing North.

Figure 7: Close up of the niche feature on the south facing wall of the court entrance

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Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo 2009 Behy Court Tomb: Stratigraphic Report

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Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo 2009 Behy Court Tomb: Stratigraphic Report

Figure 8 Detailed plan and two sections of the chambers

Figure 9: Close up of the ground level within the court entrance at Behy

Figure 10 Overview of the tomb with the locations of the pits as found during excavation

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Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo 2009 Behy Court Tomb: Stratigraphic Report

6. Appendices
Appendix One: Feature Register

Context No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43

Type Layer Layer Layer Layer Deposit Cut Fill Deposit Layer Layer Layer Layer Deposit Layer Deposit Deposit Deposit Deposit Deposit Deposit Deposit Deposit Deposit Layer Layer Layer Layer Deposit Deposit Cut Cut Cut Fill Cut? Deposit Deposit Cut Deposit Cut Layer Layer

Description Grey chippy parent material Fine grey sandy layer (sometimes yellowish) Coarse red sand Grey sand Charcoal spread (possible) in F4 Pit Greenish grey clay with vegetation in F6 Charcoal in upper fill of F6 Rough cobbling Large stones at base of cairn Main body of cairn Thin layer of black peat under main cairn body Dry stone revetment for main body of cairn Collapsed cairn material Gravel surface on north and south of cairn Charcoal rich spread Charcoal rich spread Charcoal rich spread Fine grey sand with pieces of charcoal Charcoal rich spread Charcoal rich spread Dense charcoal area within F21 Charcoal rich spread Ash spread Silt Brown clay underlying peat Peat (upper surface) Revetment wall in court Yellow earth in base of rear chamber Charcoal rich spread Charcoal rich spread Pit A rear chamber Pit B rear chamber Pit C rear chamber Dark clay with charcoal - fill of Pit C Pit D (depression) Brownish black clay Fire reddened clay - Spread E Pit F Dark/black clay ? with stones Pit G Paving with thin layers of stone - rear chamber Layer of small stones overlying F42

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Context No. 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

Type Layer Deposit Layer Layer Layer Layer Layer Layer Deposit Deposit Layer Cut? Cut? Fill Fill Layer

Description Jumble of stone overlying F43 Crumbly peat mixed with F44 Undisturbed peat layer overlying F44 and F45 Loose stone and vegetation Paving with thin layers of stone - front chamber Paving with thin layers of stone - northern transeptal chamber Jumbled stone filling court area Uneven surface of small stones Peaty material amongst F51 Patches of charcoal in court overlying F9 Purple brown silty sand overlying F9 Small oval feature to north of court area Irregular cut to south of court area Dark soil fill of F56 Light soil fill of F56 Peaty wash material Bre bog enclosure wall

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