EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Dublin
The final phase was associated with at least 450 burials. The outer enclosure was filled-in and a large
cobbled area was constructed that partly overlay the final back-filled ditch.
A large variety of artefacts, indicative of settlement, craft and trade, were retrieved from the inner
and middle ditch fills at Mount Offaly. These included ringed pins, stick pins, belt buckles, glass beads
and bone combs. The presence of spindle whorls, bone pin beaters and iron shears testify to cloth or
textile manufacture. Evidence for woodworking included gouges, chisels, punches and knives. Bone
and antler working was also identified from bone blanks and antler tines and burrs. The status of
Mount Offaly, notably during the sixth and seventh centuries, is evident from its imported pottery
including Late Roman Amphora (B ware), D ware, and E ware. The inner and middle ditches also
produced large quantities of butchered animal bone which testify to the processing and consumption
of meat at the site or nearby.
Perhaps the site developed from its inception as a ferta into a larger settlement-cemetery. Religioustype
artefacts were uncovered including box or book mounts and a composite bronze cross. The lack
of domestic evidence from the final enclosure may suggest that the site functioned solely as a
cemetery by this stage and was under the control of the Church. When this changeover occurred,
however, is unclear and the findings from the final report should clarify a number of these issues.
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