EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Cork
shape was not able to be inferred from these. In a few cases the amount of charcoal in the
posthole and the blackening of the stones around it suggest that the building may have been
destroyed by fire. A rock hollow was utilized as the base of one hearth (V). Its fill consisted of
powdered charcoal, bone fragments and some fragments of iron and slag. Though there was
little depth of habitation material in this area, the scattered distribution of these features and
the superimposition of hearths and postholes over each other were suggestive of various
short successive habitation phases. A number of early artefacts including fragments of two
bronze pins, a glass bead and an iron chain were recovered in this area in the centre of the
site.
Three dry-stone built souterrains were excavated in the interior of the site. It was suggested
that the souterrains were roofed with timber supporting a covering of stone roofing tiles as
no evidence for stone lintels were uncovered and evidence for a series of rock-cut postholes
and recesses for wooden uprights was identified in Souterrain B. A large quantity of charcoal
as well as fragments of thin shale was found in the fills of Souterrain A and B. It was
suggested that the chambers in Souterrain C may not have been roofed and a large dump of
limpet shells in one of its chamber fills hints at its use as a refuse pit. A medieval iron axehead,
three small fragments of a bronze plate and a large quantity of animal bone were also
recovered within this structure. Though early medieval finds were recovered in the habitation
evidence at the centre of the site and inside the souterrains, the absence of E ware pottery in
both these contexts suggests that these structures were later in date than the black
habitation deposit found immediately inside the palisade in the southwest quadrant.
Nine crucible fragments and a large quantity of iron slag (13.6 kg), half from the early black
organic deposit, were recovered from the site. Two large heavy pieces, one from beneath the
black deposit and the other in the vicinity of a hearth in the centre of the site, were
interpreted as furnace-bottoms and attest to the practice of iron smelting. Two quern
fragments, a single spindle whorl, thirty pieces of flint and twenty whetstones were other
finds recovered. A small quantity of un-burnt animal bone belonging to cattle and sheep (or
goat) was recovered from the bottom of the palisade trench and in the lower layers of the
souterrain fills.
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