EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Kerry
Coarhabeg, Valentia Island
Early Medieval Unenclosed Settlement
Grid Ref: V349758 (03490/07580)
SMR No: N/A
Excavation Licence: 94E0120
Excavation Duration/year: September 1994
Site Director: Alan Hayden (Archaeological Projects Ltd.)
A small unenclosed early medieval clochán was excavated in Coarhabeg townland on Valentia
Island just off the southern tip of the Iveragh peninsula. The excavation was undertaken on
behalf of and in conjunction with research by G.F. Mitchell of Trinity College Dublin in
Valentia Island. The site was situated 500m from the coast in an area of cut-away bog in the
vicinity of a late prehistoric landscape of field boundaries, huts and track-ways. St. Brendan’s
Well and its stone crosses were also situated 500m to the north.
The stone building survived as a 0.5m high rectangular mound with stones protruding
through its capping of peat. Excavation opened an area measuring a maximum of 11.2m by
10.2m, revealing a stone building consisting of three conjoined cells (Fig. 158). The walls of
two of the cells (1 and 2) were still visible in the northern half of the site though those of cell
(3) in the southern half had completely collapsed. The interior and entrances of cells (1) and
(2) were completely excavated; Cell 3 was cleared of peat but not further excavated.
The dry-stone walls of the trapezoidal central cell (Cell 1) (maximum internal dimensions of
3.4m by 2.8m) survived to a maximum 2m wide and 1m high. A stone-lined hearth was
revealed in the northwest corner of the cell. Large vertically set flat slabs faced the interior of
the wall in places and the entrance passage (2.6m by 1.2m). The entrance passage and the
area immediately outside the entrance were paved with flat slabs. Spreads of ash occurred
throughout the cell and to some extent in the entrance passage and on the paving outside
the cell on its south and west sides. Fragmentary calcified animal and fish bones were found
in the ash adjacent to the hearth with another small patch of animal bone recovered near
where the entrance passage met the cell. The burnt material yielded a 2Σ calibrated date of
A.D. 562 to A.D. 758 (see below).
Finds from the interior of Cell 1 consisted of an unfinished stone spindle-whorl and three
struck fragments of flint. A blue glass bead, a fragment of blue glass and a small flint blade
were found in the ash in the entrance passage. A number of water-worn pebbles (possible
rubbing stones?) were found in the ash and overlying silt. These deposits had been
subsequently buried by stone collapse and peat.
Cell 2 (1.5m by 1.4m) adjoined Cell 1 at its northwest end. Its walls survived to a maximum
height of 0.80m, and would appear to have been built at the same time as the north wall of
Cell 1. The 0.8m wide entrance to this cell was located in the northeast corner and was
defined by an in situ jamb stone at its western side. The cell had a roughly paved internal
surface, and a stone spindle-whorl and a number of water-worn stones were recovered from
a 120mm thick deposit overlying the paving. As with Cell 1, the occupation layer was buried
under collapsed stone and a deposit of peat.
The fragmentary remains of a third sub-rectangular or oval-shaped structure (Cell 3) were
uncovered to the west of the southwest corner of Cell 1. This cell is likely to have measured
3.4m x 2.7m internally, and the entrance was probably in the south wall where a large pillarlike
stone was uncovered.
The large amount of stone collapse within the interior and exterior of the buildings suggests
that the cells originally contained corbelled roofs. The dark blue glass bead and the available
radiocarbon date indicate an early medieval date for the building.
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