EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Clare
Carrigoran, Co. Clare
Early Medieval Settlement landscape
Grid Ref: R38946719 (138944/167192)
SMR No: CL051:171
Excavation Licence: 98E0426; 98E0338 & Ext.
Excavation Duration/year: August 1998; February 1999-April 2000
Site Director: F. O’Reilly (Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.)
Excavations in Carrigoran townland in advance of road works revealed evidence for six main
phases of activity on an area of gentle south-easterly sloping land, with marshland to the
south and east. Two of these phase (1 and 3) would appear to belong to the early medieval
period, with a phase of abandonment (Phase 2) separating them.
The main finds from Phase 1 were comprised of the remains of three structures (A – C) and a
series of pits containing charred remains. Structure A had an internal width of 4.2m and was
at least 5.2m long. It was post-built and contained a central line of double stakes possibly
representing an internal divide. The presence of a number of external postholes outside its
south-western and southern walls suggests that these may have supported roof or wall
bracing timbers. A shallow pit was located in the interior of this structure, the primary fill of
which contained burnt soil, stone, bone, charcoal and charred seed remains. The charred
seed remains of hulled barley, possible barley, indeterminate cereal and grass seeds, and
weeds such as dock, cleaver and plantain were recovered from its secondary fill. This pit
appears to have been used primarily for storage or to contain waste products from crop
processing. The absence of oats from the pit fill suggests a prehistoric date.
Structure B was oval in plan (4.8m by 2.9m). It was post-built, with the roof supported by a
central post. As with Structure A, there was also had no evidence for any internal hearth.
Another possible structure (Structure C) was identified between Structures A and B as a
curvilinear drainage gully. There was no evidence for a hearth and three internal postholes
may have a structural function.
Eights pits were discovered to the south of the structures. Charred seed remains (dominated
by hulled barley, indeterminate cereals, oats) were recovered from a number of these pits
which appear to have been originally used for grain storage. A rim of a rotary quern and a
Class B comb fragment were recovered from the fill of the pits, and rotary quern fragments
was also found in a disturbed context. Although a complete chert end-scraper was also found
in one of these pits, the presence of oats indicates that the final use of the pits may have
been in the medieval periods.
Several small curvilinear stone-walled and ditched fields belong to Phase 3. There was also
evidence for iron smelting/smithing in the form of furnace pits and a large quantity of slag
from this phase. The end-plate of a Class E bone comb (pre-ninth/tenth-century) was found
in the fill of one of the field ditches. This was in a good condition and appears to have been
lost/discarded in the ditch during manufacture, implying that the ditch silted up in the early
medieval period.
(No plan was available for this site)
References:
Reilly, F. 1999:047. Carrigoran, Co. Clare. www.excavations.ie
Reilly, F. 2000:055. Carrigoran, Co. Clare. www.excavations.ie
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