EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Limerick
Croom East, Co. Limerick
Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure
Grid Ref: R505590 (15050/15900)
SMR No: LI030-022
Excavation Licence: E000129
Excavation Duration/year: March 1974
Site Director: E. Shee-Twohig (Office of Public Works)
A univallate enclosure at Croom East revealed a possible internal structure as well as other
pits, postholes and features. The site was one of two enclosures levelled in 1972/73 in
advance of a residential development. The excavation was undertaken in March 1974 and
financed by a state grant administered through the Office of Public Works. Two trenches (1m
wide) were excavated across the enclosing banks and ditches and a large area (80 m 2 .) was
investigated in its interior (Fig. 190).
The southern side of the enclosure (42m OD) was truncated by the Croom-Rathkeale Road
while the western side had been taken into the garden of the next door house. The site was
one of a group of three enclosures situated on well-drained soil, 1.6 km from Croom.
The enclosure had a diameter of 30m externally and 16m internally. The enclosing ditch was
U-shaped in profile. It measured a maximum of 3m in width and 1.80m in depth. The natural
silting of the ditch was easily identifiable from the more recent deliberate backfill which
contained pieces of wood and tree roots.
The levelled internal bank survived to a height of 0.25-0.30m and had a maximum basal
width of 4.15m. The bank had an estimated original height of 1.20-1.40m on the basis of the
basal width of the bank and the size and depth of the enclosing ditch.
A possibly recent secondary ditch/pit had been cut parallel with the defences at the lip of the
ditch and bank. It was filled with loose dark earth, stones and animal bone. At this point the
ditch had a marked shoulder which deepened sharply about half-way down.
The stratigraphy of the central area of the site had been seriously disturbed to a depth of
0.3-0.4m deep by recent bulldozing. The top-layer comprised a deposit of humus and yellow
clay 0.1-0.15m deep which had been spread over the enclosure interior during the
construction of the nearby house in 1973. A disturbed dark homogenous habitation deposit-
0.2-0.3m deep- containing animal bone was recovered beneath the top-layer.
A large number of disturbed pits, postholes and trenches were uncovered dug into the
boulder clay beneath this habitation deposit. The postholes did form any recognizable plan of
a structure, except in the northeast quadrant where a shallow trench about 5m long ran
parallel with a line of five shallow pits/postholes.
A number of irregularly shaped pits up to 0.45m deep were located in the southwest. Near
the centre of the site was a symmetrical pair of postholes each with a deep posthole cut into
the side of a shallower pit. The postholes from the site contained dark soil intermixed with
charcoal. There was no evidence for hearths or palisade/revetment on either side of the
enclosing bank.
A large quantity of animal bone (99 fragments) and human bone (30 bones) was recovered
from the enclosing ditch and central area. The animal bone comprised that of cattle,
sheep/goat, pig, horse and dog. Two femur bones belonging to two separate humans (one
less than seventeen years, and the other more than 20 years old) were identified in the
northwest quadrant of the site.
An iron knife with traces of a riveted bone handle was recovered from a pit in the northwest
quadrant of the site. A corroded iron loop or link was found in a hollow in the north-eastern
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