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

This article is from Current Archaeology issue 436

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This comprehensive site report details the excavation that was carried out by Oxford Archaeology, on behalf of the Isle of Man Airport division (part of the Isle of Man government’s Department of Transport), at Ronaldsway Airport in the south of the island between 2008 and 2009. With finds spanning from the Mesolithic to the modern day, the excavation revealed detailed new evidence of life on the Isle of Man over the past 11,000 years. 

Some of the highlights of the project include a Mesolithic ‘pit-house’ which, dating to the late 9th millennium BC, is currently the earliest house known on Man, and a Bronze Age settlement with both domestic and industrial buildings, which appears to have been deliberately decommissioned with stone cairns built on top, possibly as an act of commemoration. More than 15 years in the making, this report offers a detailed account of the project, opening up fresh opportunities for research and new comparisons to other archaeological sites on the island.

REVIEW BY KK

Pioneers, Settlers, Villagers, and Warriors: excavations at Ronaldsway Airport, Isle of Man
Richard Gregory and Fraser Brown 
Archaeopress, £85, or free eBook
ISBN 978-1805832553

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