EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Roscommon
Cloongownagh, Co. Roscommon
Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure.
Grid Ref: M90649997 (190644/299970)
SMR No: RO011-160002
Excavation Licence: 99E0193
Excavation Duration/Year: April 1999 – June 2000.
Site Director: A.M. Lenon & M. Henry (Mary Henry Archaeological Services Ltd.).
A large, sub-rectangular earthwork (64m in diameter, and defined by a ditch (2.3m in width
and 1m to 1.55m in depth)) was identified during field-walking. Excavation of half of the
enclosure was required in order to facilitate road building.
A number of phases of occupation were identified under excavation, ranging from the
prehistoric (there was evidence for Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age occupation), through
the early medieval period, and into the post-medieval (Fig. 255).
An earthen bank (2.75m to 3.5m in width) appears to have been constructed around this
time within the ambit of a prehistoric ditch which also appears to have been re-cut during the
early medieval period. Radiocarbon dates from the basal fills of the ditch, below the re-cut,
suggest that it had originally been excavated during the Iron Age. The later bank appears to
have been created from the up-cast from the re-cut of the ditch, and overlay a refuse pit
which included a broken rotary quernstone and animal bone. A seventh/eighth century date
was recovered from burnt bone from this pit (see below), giving a terminus ante quem for
the construction of the banked enclosure.
The interior of the enclosure had been damaged by subsequent agriculture and the early
medieval structural remains consist of two possible postholes and four slot-trenches. The
main feature that could be clearly identified to the early medieval period was a linear trench
of unknown length (the trench extended into the unexcavated portion of the site). The
excavated part of this trench (9.2m long by 1.10m wide by 1.1m deep) was filled with a
series of silts and clays, into which were set a series of upright posts and wooden planks, one
of which was radiocarbon dated to the eighth/ninth century (see below). Three other slottrenches
were uncovered in the interior, including one which may have been associated with
a series of postholes.
Iron slag and a fragment of a quernstone were recovered from the fill of the early medieval
re-cut ditch. Radiocarbon dates from the upper layers of the ditch fill suggest that the early
medieval site may have been abandoned by the eleventh or twelfth century.
Fig. 255: Location of possible early medieval structures at Cloongownagh, Co. Roscommon
(after Lennon & Henry 2001).
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