Neolithic pottery.


A large late Neolithic jar was found in 1944 during construction work at Ronaldsway aerodrome. The pot was found close to another of similar type by construction staff employed levelling ground to the north of the site of the millpond which once supplied the farm mill at Ronaldsway, and slightly to the south of the (then) northern taxiway, close to one of the wartime hangar sites.


The findspot was a little over 300m west of the site of the Neolithic house discovered in 1943.


It has generally been assumed that the pots represented burials, but more recent discoveries of similar, earth-fast pots buried upright at Billown suggest that they may equally well have been buried for other purposes.


The pot is less complete than its neighbour, but is likely to have been similarly round-bottomed. The rim is decorated. It is now in the collections of Manx National Heritage, accession no. 1983-0212B.