Pioneers, Settlers, Villagers, and Warriors: Excavations at Ronaldsway Airport, Isle of Man

Excavations at Ronaldsway Airport uncovered the Isle of Man’s earliest known house (c. 9000 BC), Neolithic and Bronze Age timber structures, a later Bronze Age village with metalworking, an Iron Age settlement and two burials—including a violently killed ‘warrior’—plus later agricultural remains, illuminating long-term occupation in the region.

During 2008 and 2009, Oxford Archaeology completed an extensive campaign of archaeological excavation at Ronaldsway Airport, Isle of Man, as part of a programme of runway and taxiway extension, and other airport improvements, undertaken by the Isle of Man Airport Division (part of the Isle of Man Government Department of Transport). This investigation uncovered a range of highly significant archaeological remains that complement other important discoveries made at the airport in the mid-twentieth century, which have figured prominently in discussions of the archaeology of the island.

This volume presents details of these recent discoveries, which included an extremely rare Mesolithic dwelling dating to the end of the ninth millennium cal BC, representing the island’s earliest known house, along with Mesolithic pits and artefact scatters. Other important discoveries included Neolithic and earlier Bronze Age timber structures, and well-preserved elements of a later Bronze Age ‘village’, which contained domestic roundhouses, ancillary buildings, and workshops engaged in the casting of bronze and lead objects. Evidence relating to an unenclosed Iron Age settlement was also identified, as well as two important Iron Age burials, one of which contained an Iron Age ‘warrior’ who had been graphically killed during an act of interpersonal violence. Other recorded remains, dated to the later medieval and postmedieval periods and furnish evidence for the form of the agricultural landscape that existed prior to the construction of the modern airport.

This volume is the result of a multi-disciplinary approach to the archaeology, involving detailed analyses of buried remains, artefacts, and environmental remains, with the work of a range of authors from Oxford Archaeology, as well as several external specialists. The results greatly enhance an understanding of the archaeology of the Isle of Man, and, more generally, provide important information on prehistoric settlement, contacts, and connections in the Irish Sea region, and along Britain’s western seaboard.

List of Illustrations

Abbreviations

Contributors

Summary

Acknowledgements

1. INTRODUCTION

The Isle of Man

Ronaldsway Airport

The RESA Project

Site Chronology

Structure of the Volume

Archive

2. MAN’S FIRST SETTLERS: THE MESOLITHIC BACKGROUND AND THE CASS NY HAWIN II HOUSE

The Mesolithic Period on Man

Cass ny Hawin II

3. THE WORKED STONE AND ENVIRONMENTAL REMAINS FROM CASS NY HAWIN II

Environmental Evidence

Coarse-stone Tools

Flaked Lithics

Significance of the Assemblages

4. MESOLITHIC LITHIC SCATTERS AND PITS

Lithic Scatters

The Cass ny Hawin III Pits

The Importance of the Lithic Assemblages

The Development of Man’s Lithic Industries

5. NEOLITHIC AND EARLY BRONZE AGE STRUCTURES AND ACTIVITY

Characterising Man’s Neolithic Period and Early Bronze Age

Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Activity at Taxiway Alpha East

6. LATER BRONZE AGE SETTLEMENT ON THE TAXIWAY

The Character of the Later Bronze Age

The Later Bronze Age Settlement at Taxiway Alpha East

7. LATER BRONZE AGE FINDS AND ENVIRONMENTAL REMAINS

Finds

Environmental Evidence

8. LIFE AND DEATH IN THE IRON AGE

The Iron Age of the Irish Sea Basin

The Iron Age of Man

Iron Age Activity at Ronaldsway Airport

9. THE HISTORIC LANDSCAPE

The Medieval and Post-medieval Background

Medieval and Post-medieval Archaeology at Ronaldsway Airport

10. PIONEERS AND SETTLERS

Mesolithic Pioneers

Neolithic and Earlier Bronze Age Farmers

11. VILLAGERS AND WARRIORS

Dividing and Enclosing the Later Bronze Age Landscape

A Later Bronze Age ‘Village’

Iron Age Warriors

Historic-period Burial, Settlement, and Farming

Conclusions: Backwards and Forwards

APPENDIX 1: PETROGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF THE BRONZE AGE POTTERY

Methodology

Results and Discussion

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

• By (author) Richard Gregory
• By (author) Fraser Brown