EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Galway
‘Feerwore Rath’ (Turoe td.), Co. Galway
Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure.
Grid Reference: M61692259 (161692/222590)
SMR No: GA097-150001
Excavation Licence: N/A
Excavation Duration/Year: September – October 1938.
Site Director: J. Raftery (Office of Public Works).
The site consists of a banked enclosure approximately 28.5m in diameter, set on a gently
sloping hill. No ditch was evident prior to excavation. The excavation was carried out under
an Irish Government Scheme for the Relief of Unemployment.
Excavation revealed the presence of a surrounding rock-cut ditch, 2.5m in width and 1.5m
deep (Fig. 141). The ditch appears to have originally been allowed to silt-up naturally,
although there are occasional layers which may represent bank tumble or deliberate in-filling.
The entrance to the enclosure was cobbled and flanked by two large stones and there was
evidence for the existence of substantial timber posts. The bank was formed by the
construction of a dry-stone walled internal revetment, which supported the earthen bank
(although evidence from one area suggests that the outer face of the bank was also stonerevetted).
This wall overlay an earlier organic-rich layer, which, in turn, was overlain by a
yellow clay horizon occupation layer that included charcoal and animal bones.
The shallowness of the soil in the interior meant that few stratigraphical and structural
features remained. However, a number of occupation horizons were identified. An early Iron
Age occupation was inferred from the presence of an iron fibula, half a bronze ring, some
pieces of iron and iron slag, and a couple of flint tools. The second phase of occupation was
identified with the yellow clay horizon. A possible posthole-built structure belonged to this
phase. A fragment of a crucible, two glass ring-bead fragments, a penannular bronze ring, an
iron bell, and an iron knife-blade were found in association with this occupation layer. The
third phase of occupation was identified with the construction of the banked and ditched
enclosure. It is possible that the two hearths were associated with this phase, but this could
not be corroborated from the archaeological evidence. The final phase of occupation appears
to have followed on from either abandonment of the earlier site, or a collapse of the bank,
since at this time the enclosure bank was remodeled. Two burials located in the interior of
the enclosure – both oriented east-west, and neither buried with grave goods – were dated
by the excavator to this final phase of occupation. It is possible that a cremation that was
enclosed in a cist, described by the antiquarian T. H. Knox, belonged to this final phase.
The absolute chronology of the site is more difficult to ascertain. The excavator notes the fact
that cremations had been replaced by inhumations by c. A.D. 500, and that the iron fibula
found in the earliest phase of occupation has similarities to examples from the first century
B.C.
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