EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Sligo
discs and 1 rotary quern. There were also 2 iron pins, 2 iron ferrules, 3 iron knives, nails and
a staple. Raftery also mentions a ‘hoard consisting of a rotary quern, an iron horse-bit and a
wooden pin’, potentially a deliberate deposit. There were bone pins, antler handles, and
wooden stave-built and lathe-turned wooden vessels, as well as a clay bead. There was also
clay mould fragments for casting copper-alloy rings. Period IV occupation was ended by a
lake flood which deposited water-washed sands over the site.
The Period V occupation began with the raising of the level of the Period IV surface, with a
solid deposit of stone heaped over the whole site, to make a new crannog. This cairn or stone
deposit was 1.5m thick, measuring 26m by 20.5m, forming a crannog with oval plan. There
was also humus mixed through this cairn. However, the superficial features of the Period V
occupation had all but disappeared. It did have a small stone setting, 10m in length, which
may have been the curving arc of a wall, while a small concentration (2m by 1m) of fourteen
narrow (0.05m diam.) stakes may have formed some structure. A layer of clay and ash,
speckled with charcoal, could have been a floor. The raising of a stone cairn over the
crannogs in Lough Gara was also carried out on other sites, and at the small crannog at
Sroove, it dated to between the seventh and the tenth centuries A.D. The Period V finds
included the stone axes, pebbles, chert thumb-scrapers, hollow-scrapers, hones, flint strike-alights
and discs. There were also 2 rotary querns. There were five bronze ringed-pins and a
bronze strap end. There was an iron socketed spearhead, one iron shield-boss, iron knives,
nails, san iron sickle. There were bone pins, double-sided combs, spindle whorls and bone
and antler handles. Wooden vessels included stave-built buckets, bases, barrel hoops, carved
tubs a spoon, a bowl and pins. There was also a glass ring bead and a lead ring-bead. The
Period V crannog was then abandoned for a considerable period, allowing the build-up of a
turf layer and natural vegetation across the site, forming a 0.10-0.15m depth of dark soil.
The Period VI crannog saw re-occupation of the site after a period of considerable
abandonment. The inhabitants of the local area evidently decided to re-use the old crannog
site. They extended it by heaping small stones, twigs, peat and grassy sods on the existing
mound and beyond it, particularly at the perimeter of its eastern side. Raftery interpreted this
as a later crannog which availed of the earlier site as a foundation material. The crannog was
supported along its eastern side by a palisade of wooden posts erected in two rows,
strengthened on its outer side by a revetting bank of sandy and peaty material that sloped
down to the water’s edge. This may have been a high palisade, rather than a low revetment,
the lines of posts ran for about 31m along the side of the site. The inner row of posts were of
oak, the outer row of posts were of birch. The western side of the crannog had been largely
washed away by wave erosion. Traces of occupation were meagre, apart from finds of
artefacts and a layer of ash and clay on the northeast side of the site. A possible circular
house was represented by 7 postholes, a rectangular pit and a layer of flat stones. Finds from
Period VI included stone pebbles, flakes, scrapers and chert flakes, as well as whetstones,
some with sharpening grooves. There were also stone rotary querns. Other finds included
bronze decorated discs, bronze ringed-pins, an iron socketed spearheads, iron knives, iron
nails, iron rings, iron slag, bone pins (some with ornamental heads), combs, bone
‘spearheads’, bone tops, antler pins and handles, wooden staves, bases, binding hoops,
wooden beetles. There was also evidence for metalworking in the form of clay crucibles, as
well as a glass stud and amber pieces.
The Period VII phase of occupation was the final one on the site. The Period VII phase was
scanty and barely traceable. A small area on top of the mound had a thin layer of black soil
over it, which was covered by small, angular stones. Thereafter, rising lake levels submerged
the crannog under a considerable depth of water, perhaps up to 4m above the site. The
Period VII finds included stone axes, hammerstones, hones, chert flakes and stone discs.
There were also bronze pennanular rings, bronze discs and pins, iron nails and rods, bone
pins and combs, beads and a glass gaming piece.
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