EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Galway
Rathgurreen, Co. Galway
Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure.
Grid Reference: F37872002 (13787/22002)
SMR No: GA095-009
Excavation Licence: N/A
Excavation Duration/Year: 1948; 1949.
Site Director: M.V. Duignan (University College, Galway).
The site is a bivallate enclosure set in a strategic position on the Maree peninsula and was
excavated in the late-1940s as a research dig. The enclosure consisted of an inner enclosure
with an internal diameter of 49m, and an outer enclosure with an internal diameter of 76m
(Fig. 146). Like many bivallate enclosures, excavation revealed that the site had originally
been a univallate enclosure. Unlike the vast majority of such sites, however, Rathgurreen was
converted into a bivallate enclosure, not by adding an external circuit of bank-and-ditches,
but by building a second series of vallation inside the original univallate enclosure. Both sets
of banks were faced internally and externally with dry-stone walls. A suggested ‘fighting
terrace’ or palisade trench had been identified in previous visual surveys of the outer bank,
however in excavation this was revealed to be a result of the gradual settling of the bank
material between the dry-stone walls that formed the inner and outer faces of the earthen
bank.
There was some evidence of possible metalling in the interior of the site, but no structural
remains were identified during excavation. A number of pits were excavated in the interior,
some of which may have functioned as rubbish pits, but others may have been used for ironsmelting.
The artefactual remains, therefore, constitute the majority of information from this site. Finds
from the univallate phase included a bronze pin; a decorated bronze ring; two bronze links;
and a fragment of bronze. Bronze working appears to have been undertaken on site and
sherds of clay crucibles found from this phase may relate to this. The discovery of a shell
midden of dog-whelks suggests that purple dye was produced on site. A sherd of E ware, and
a possible painted clay bead were also recovered from the early phase.
Bronze-working may have also been carried on during the bivallate phase; ironworking
appears to have been practised throughout the life of the site as iron slag was found for both
phases. Finds from the bivallate phase included fragments of an iron knife; an iron pin;
possibly an iron triskele-shaped object; and possibly an iron penannular brooch – both the
latter are unprovenanced. Parts of tuyères with green/red vitreous material and/or slag were
found from this phase. The presence of a Roman-type pottery oil lamp, like the sherd of E-
ware from the earlier phase, suggests that Rathgurreen had some access to imported goods
in the seventh/eighth centuries. There are some problems, however, with fitting the oil-lamp
into the later phase, and it is suggested that it may have been a curated item on site, having
been imported perhaps during the earlier phase.
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