EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Tipperary
Bowling Green, Co. Tipperary
Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure
Grid Ref: S13895920 (213893/159201)
SMR No: TN041-041
Excavation Licence: E0091; 97E0282
Excavation Duration/Year: 1970
Site Director: T. Fanning (Office of Public Works); P. Steven (Margaret Gowen Ltd.)
A large univallate enclosure at Bowling Green revealed a possible post-built rectangular
structure, earthen hearth and pits as well as a small collection of early medieval finds. The
enclosure had been interfered with by a bulldozer in 1969 and was excavated the following
year in advance of a residential development. A number of cuttings were made across the
enclosing bank and ditch as well as in the interior of the enclosure (Fig. 265). Limited
monitoring in 1997 exposed part of the south-eastern enclosure bank and ditch. The site was
situated to the east of Thurles town, on a low ridge (117m OD) commanding good views of
the Suir valley and surrounding countryside.
The site was roughly circular in shape and had an internal diameter of 50m and an overall
diameter of 70m. The low bank had been badly scarped by the bulldozer though appears to
have been revetted with an external stone face along its northern and western perimeters.
The enclosing ditch was 1.6m deep in the northern cutting. Excavations in 1997 identified
that the south-eastern perimeter of the ditch was V-shaped in profile and measured between
4.5m to over 6m in width and over 1m deep. Two iron knives were found in its upper fills in
the eastern and western cuttings though no finds, apart from animal bone were identified in
the primary fill.
A linear ditch (1.3m–2m in width) containing charcoal flecks and animal bone was identified
outside the enclosure in 1997 and does not appear to have been associated with the
enclosure.
A number of post- and stakeholes, a probable hearth site, shallow pits and trenches as well
as a small area of rough pebbling were uncovered in a black stony habitation deposit in the
centre of the enclosure. Four large postholes were identified to the south-east of the centre
of the site and may have supported the side- and end-walls of a rectangular structure.
The hearth was evident as a clearly defined burnt area surrounding two charcoal pits
containing animal bone. Stakeholes in the vicinity of the hearth may represent supports for
pots or other instruments. A number of shallow pits containing charcoal were also located
around the hearth.
Re-deposited soil overlay the habitation deposit in the southeast quadrant and indicates that
the original ground of this area was raised to provide an internal level surface. A bronze stickpin,
two medieval sherds and a seventeenth-century bronze skillet were recovered from this
deposit; the latter which could provide a terminal date for its deposition. Sherds of
seventeenth/eighteenth-century wares and some iron objects were found within the humus
layer and represent further early modern activity.
The majority of the finds was recovered within the black stony habitation deposit in the
enclosure’s centre and south-eastern quadrant, and included an iron knife, iron horse shoe
nail, iron rod, two hone-stones, one spindle-whorl, one strike-a-light, a chert flake and a bone
needle. A blue glass bead, comparable to a type recovered at Garryduff I, Co. Cork, and a
small bronze buckle-tongue were recovered from the lowest habitation deposit. A large faunal
assemblage was recovered from within the ditch fills and inside the habitation deposit and
comprised cattle, pig and sheep as well as a small amount of horse.
569