EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Fermanagh
‘Lisdoo’ (Castle Balfour Demesne td.), Co. Fermanagh
Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure.
Grid Ref: H36273313 (23627/33313)
SMR No: FER 246:015
Excavation Licence: N/A
Excavation Duration/Year: August 1977.
Site Directors: N.F. Brannon (Historic Monuments and Buildings Branch, Department
of the Environment (NI)).
The site consisted of a bivallate enclosure set on the summit of a small hill. Prior to 1977, half
of the enclosure had been destroyed by building, and the pending destruction of the
remainder demanded an archaeological excavation (Fig. 134).
The interior of the enclosure was badly degraded by subsequent agricultural activity. A
(possible) portion of a souterrain passage was discovered in the interior (Trench 5), from
which the articulated skeleton of a young male was recovered (Fig. 135). The excavator
speculated that this individual may have been suffocated by a collapse of the souterrain roof.
Excavations in the inner ditch revealed that it had originally been approximately 2m deep and
up to 8m wide; the outer ditch was found to be about 1.5m deep, and at least 5.5m wide
(the outer edge was not fully traced). The artefactual remains suggest that both of these
ditches were deliberately in-filled during the later medieval period. Excavation through the
bank and internal ditch (Fig. 2) revealed a couple of layers of charcoal, including one such
layer from beneath the construction phase of the bank (see below). A series of stakeholes
were also found at this level, perhaps suggestive of an earlier palisade enclosure.
A single sherd of E 1 ware was found in the occupation layer of the enclosure, and a number
of examples of coarse ware (crannog ware or souterrain ware), were also found. The only
other notable finds were six sherds of a crucible from the upper fill of the inner ditch.
The domestic animal bones are dominated by cattle (80%) with roughly equivalent
percentages of sheep and pigs. In later layers the percentage of cattle bones drops to 70%,
and sheep make up over 20%.
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