The Billown
Neolithic Landscape Project is ajoint venture by Bournemouth University's
School of Conservation Science in association with Manx National Heritage.
It began in the summer of 1995 following the discovery, two years earlier,
of pits, postholes and gulleys containing early and middle Neolithic pottery
and flintwork within an area of land identified for stone quarrying. The
rationale of the Project involves three main strands: rescue excavation
of an extensive site prior to its destruction by quarrying; research into
the evolution and development of a tract of land during a critical period
in the early history of occupation on the Island, namely the later Mesolithic
through to the later Bronze Age; and, third, training and the provision
of opportunities to participate in the process of archaeological excavation
and survey.
It is the first
two of these, rescue and research, that provide the focus of these pages
cover work carried out during the first three years of what is currently
expected to be a six or seven year Project. There is a brief introduction
to the situation of the site and its discovery. Other pages review
in chronological order the results of excavations at the Billown Quarry
Site. Various surveys carried out in the surrounding area are also
covered. A short discussion section draws together a number of key themes
emerging from the work to date and provides a glimpse of what is anticipated
in future years. Annual interim reports on the Project have been published
, as too a more general account (Darvill 1996b;1999;2000).
