EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Waterford
The cave was inhabited sometime between the fifth and tenth centuries A.D. The majority of
the early medieval material was uncovered in a severely disturbed black earth and stone
deposit in the inner chamber which also contained the bones of extinct fauna, fragments of
the skull of an individual (Kilgreany D), Late Bronze Age metalwork and post-medieval
pottery. Three concentrations of ash identified as hearths were also found within the early
medieval deposit in the inner chamber.
Early medieval domestic and personal artefacts included eighteen whetstones, lignite bracelet
fragment, ten spindle-whorls, amorphous bone ‘points’, fragments of a composite doubleedged
bone comb, fragments of worked bone and antler, antler dice, bone needle, fragments
of two rotary quern stones, tanged iron knife, incomplete bronze baluster-headed ringed-pin
and bone-pin with a decorated head. An iron loop-headed, ringed-pin was discovered in a
fissure in the rear chamber where it may have been placed for safe-keeping. Part of the crest
of an eighth-century bell shrine associated with several strips of gilded bronze was also
discovered.
The faunal evidence from the black early medieval deposit comprised both domestic and wild
animals which included cattle, sheep, goat, pig, horse, cat, red deer, hare, otter, fox, wolf,
marten, stoat, bat and hedgehog. One of the cattle bones from the cave (1515±55 BP)
produced a date between the fifth and seventh centuries A.D. Marine molluscs from the black
early medieval deposit comprised periwinkle, cockle, mussel, oyster and scallop.
The cave is large and spacious and has free circulation of air which would have provided a
habitable dwelling place for a single individual or small family unit in the early medieval
period. The rear chamber was frequently flooded and would have provided a valuable supply
of water. The sea-shells and some of the animal bone indicate food preparation and food
consumption at the site while the artefacts signify a range of activities involving sharpening of
tools, weapons or ornaments, textile manufacture and the working of skeletal material. The
personal items confirm that the cave also functioned as a home for a small community
engaged in everyday activities.
Evidence for the intermittent and irregular use of the cave between the eleventh and lateseventeenth
century was also identified. A bone gaming-piece for the Viking game of
Hnefatafal was recovered in the inner chamber and is similar to examples from lateeleventh/late-twelfth-century
Waterford city. The other finds included a late-seventeenth
century token, a late seventeenth century coin, over 200 sherds of post-medieval pottery, 26
clay-pipe fragments, over 200 fragments of iron and eight fragments of leather.
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