EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Offaly
an open-air site used for cooking, bathing and the processing of antler and deer bone,
potentially associated with aristocratic red deer hunting. The occupation surface was on the
lake marls, overlying the late Bronze Age site. There were also 11 circular wicker structures,
clustered in groups, consisting of circular baskets, 1-2.2m in diameter, 0.95m in height, set
into the ground. There was also an ‘outer hearth’ on a small rise, with logs at the base, with
stone, gravel, sand and ashes filling the pit. This pre-occupation surface produced a large
amount of red deer bone (up to 30% of the site assemblage), consisting of at least 27
individuals, with eruption of antlers on skull indicating that they had been killed in the winter.
Chronologically diagnostic finds from Phase 2 included a copper-alloy pin (sixth/seventh
century date), sherds of E ware (sixth-mid seventh century), a zoomorphic pennanular brooch
(sixth century date, found under timber floor of later crannog). The outer hearth produced
gaming pieces, bone dice, glass beads and a bronze drinking horn terminal. Finds from
beneath the later crannog’s house floor included the bronze pennanular brooch, a bronze
armlet with twisted inlay, bone objects, whetstones, rubbing stones and a Type 3 pennanular
brooch.
Phase 3 – early medieval crannog (ninth century AD)
In the Phase 3 occupation (dating to the ninth century), there was an early medieval crannog
‘proper’, with extensive evidence for domestic and industrial activity. The early medieval
crannog had a palisade with an entrance, a laid surface of stone and brushwood and some
evidence for internal houses, although these were badly disturbed by nineteenth century
treasure hunting and antiquarian diggings.
The early medieval crannog (22m by 15m) was built of a stone and brushwood layer laid onto
a small natural knoll at the centre of the crannog, with layers of peat, brushwood and general
fill and debris making up the body of the mound. This stone and brushwood layer was
defined at its edges by small stakes driven into the soft lake marls. The internal area was
densely piled with smaller posts to consolidate the marshy ground. The crannog had a wellpreserved
timber floor on the southern side where there was a large hearth with several
layers of ashes. The crannog was enclosed by an ‘inner palisade’ of a dense concentration of
stakes and posts encircling the site, the tops of which lay below the level of the crannog’s
internal timber floor, implying that it was a revetment rather than a high enclosing fence.
There was also an ‘outer palisade’ of oak posts with a possible berm outside it. The palisade
was only partly surviving in the northern side, but it probably had an entrance or gate to the
northeast, defined by two posts driven to 1.5m depth. Although generally considered a later
feature, a brushwood track-way to the southeast may have been part of the early medieval
crannog. The crannog’s internal area had a timber floor of horizontal oak and ash posts in the
southeast quadrant. This was probably the floor of a house, but its plan has been lost due to
nineteenth century disturbance. The timbers had been freshly cut and were not re-used, and
were laid in four layers of logs, criss-crossing each other. Packed between the timbers were
deposits of cut peat and brushwood. There were also numerous bones in this area,
particularly between the inner and outer palisades, suggesting that this was the location of
the site’s midden.
The site’s animal bones were primarily found immediately outside the crannog palisade,
where there was an enormous accumulation of food bones, chips and fragments of wood,
particularly abundant on the east and south sides of the site. There were also huge quantities
of bone inside the palisade, while a refuse pit was filled with bones and gravel (where there
were also flint blades, arrowhead, and scrapers). Elsewhere the natural lake muds were
covered with a dark clay and thin layer of brushwood, in which animal bone was common.
The animal bone was primarily of cattle (90%), with smaller amounts of pig, horse (some
broken) and small amounts of hare, rabbit, badger, otter, dog and cat. There were also bones
of jay, heron, duck, pintail duck, tufted duck, goose and fowl.
The early medieval crannog at Ballinderry No. 2 produced a large numbers of finds. A dugout
boat was found beside the house area, between the inner and outer palisades. The site also
produced such high-status items as pennanular brooches (ninth-century types), two ringed
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