EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Cork
apart at one of the lowest levels excavated to date in Cork city. The revetment of vertically
set round-wood and roughly split logs was dated by dendrochronology to A.D. 1104±9 and
retained a clay platform 1.3m in height upon which a subsequent Hiberno-Scandinavian Type
1 house (1124±9) was built (Kelleher 2002 & forthcoming; Hurley 2003a, 157-58).
An excavation on the east side of South Main Street (35-39) uncovered two parallel east-west
aligned timber revetments at the lowest levels (Kelleher 2004). The base of these revetments
were driven into the natural clay and the ground behind was then artificially raised to a
height of 1.5m by the introduction of locally derived clay. Dates were pending for the
structure though it was expected to be late eleventh/early twelfth century. At least one of the
revetments subsequently marked the line of a later plot division.
An excavation was undertaken adjacent to the South Gate Bridge at the angle of the modern
quay wall and South Main Street (Ní Loingsigh 2003). The natural bank of the River Lee
sloped down to the South and was evident as a clay silt layer below the habitation evidence.
The earliest feature consisted of massive oak ‘planks’ (0.4m by 0.15m by 1.4m minimum), set
on edge and held in place by upright posts (0.34m by 0.16m by 1.4m minimum). The
structure stood to a height of 0.6m with both the upright and horizontal timbers extending
down into the silty clay.
The ground behind the revetment (i.e. to the north of) was consolidated by the introduction
of approximately 1.56m of silt, clay and organic material. Finds from the clay behind the
revetment included a barrel padlock key, a stick pin and sherds of Ham Green cooking ware.
The uppermost part of the revetment was possibly braced by three horizontal north-south
oak beams held in place by timber uprights situated on top of the introduced clays. The
timber base-pads of four upright posts, which may have supported a quayside structure or
may be the foundations of a sill beam house, were also recorded. The early thirteenthcentury
medieval city wall was exposed traversing the site on an east-west axis, 2m south of
the timber revetment.
A further area at 40-48 South Main Street uncovered at its lowest levels an east–west
boundary fence of upright timbers (felling date A.D. 1097/98) driven into the natural reed
marsh. Local muds and clays were deposited on both sides of the fence to a height of 1.2m
to create a dry platform upon which a series of Scandinavian post-and-wattle and timber
framed houses were built (Ní Loingsigh 2005).
A series of waterfront revetments were uncovered at an adjacent site between Grand Parade
and South Main Street on the southern limits of the South Island (Sutton 2004). The
reclamation activity began in the late eleventh century at the western end of the site and
extended eastwards over a 40 year period culminating in the enclosure of the southern
perimeter of the island by timber revetments. Locally derived estuarine clays were dumped
on either side of an un-braced east-west fence of cleft oak timbers and upright post- 1.5m
average height- dated to AD 1100. The base of the fence timbers doubled as a property
boundary and was driven into the natural muds. Similarly constructed north-south fences
dated to c. A.D. 1123/1124 and retained a second phase of reclamation clays which raised
ground levels to the west of the fences and were also deposited to the east as reclamation
advanced eastwards (Sutton 2004). The original boundary was extended further eastwards in
A.D. 1134/35 when an east-west fence of pointed and un-braced cleft timbers was built.
A low stone bank defined the southern perimeter of the island. Associated with it was a crude
timber revetment built to the south of the stone bank and dated c. A.D. 1143. Two
subsequent parallel timber revetments were constructed further to the south and retained
introduced muds. The most southerly revetment comprised up to two horizontal runs of
edge-laid planks, braced to the south by upright posts pegged into mortised base plates. It
appears to have replaced the abutting revetment to the north in mid-twelfth century (A.D.
1152 ± 9; A.D. 1166 ± 9). A timber jetty (10.2m long and surviving to a height of 1.8m)
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