EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Roscommon
Tulsk, Co. Roscommon
Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure.
Grid Ref: M83418106 (183412/281068)
SMR No: RO022-114003
Excavation Licence: 04E0850
Excavation Duration/Year: 2002 - Ongoing.
Site Director: N. Brady (Discovery Programme).
The site consists of a raised mound (36m by 27m on the summit), and a maximum height of
5.3m. The site was subject to a series of surveys and research excavations from 2002 to
present (2009).
An early result from the surveys was the identification of an outer ditch, which suggested an
overall internal diameter of 55m for the site. Geophysical survey also identified several
anomalies which provided the focus for excavations in 2004. These identified the presence of
the ditch suggested by the earlier survey, and resolved an anomaly on the summit of the
mound as the foundations of a stone tower associated with the motte (Fig. 256).
Excavations in the 2007 season identified an earlier ditch underlying the interior of the
medieval tower, and the later medieval ditch. The in situ remains of a dry-stone revetment
associated with an area of harder clay, which presumably served as a bank, were also
identified beneath the medieval tower. The dry-stone wall appears to have been an internal
revetment feature, and there was no indication of postholes or other cuts into the bank clays.
The early medieval ditch and enclosure were subsequently further investigated in 2008 and
2009.
The early medieval ditch had a steeply sloping V-shaped profile, and was both deeper and
narrower than the later ditch. In the west of the site, the fill of the early medieval ditch forms
the east-facing side to the later medieval ditch. This fill is homogenous in form and in depth,
suggesting that it had been pushed into the earlier ditch when the earlier enclosure was
being transformed to accommodate the later stone tower. Underlying this re-deposited level
was a clean cut into compact yellow boulder clay that is considered to be the original profile
of the enclosure ditch. This layer disappears under the base of the later tower wall. It
appears to be sterile, insofar as no artefacts or bone were visible in its matrix.
The early medieval levels were most fully exposed in the western part of the site, although
these were somewhat truncated, suggesting that this part of the site was leveled to
accommodate the Elizabethan structures. A layer of dark grey/black-coloured clay represents
a continuous horizon of early medieval occupation. Above this was located a complex of ash
spreads and two firing pits (Fig. 257). A stone-lined flue attached to the northern pit
suggested that both pits might have formed part of a corn-drying kiln, although the kiln
superstructure did not survive and was presumably removed during the Elizabethan
redevelopment.
The early medieval contexts revealed an assemblage of small finds. In previous seasons, the
recovery of two bronze pins, and one iron penannular pin in later disturbed contexts,
indicated a tenth/eleventh century dating framework for the early medieval horizon. The
recovery of lignite bracelet fragments, glass beads, and bone pins – one of which is stylized
with a horse-head form, and is comparable to a pin recovered as part of the Lagore - may
indicate somewhat earlier levels.
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