AR01055_EMAP_Gazetteer_of_Sites_4-2_10.pdf - The Heritage ...

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in stone foundations or modern tombs and another formed a pillow-stone for a pre-thirteenth
century burial. A pre-twelfth century date was established for one of these; a fragment of an
upper quern stone with an unusual oval shaped perforation used as a turn mechanism for the
upper surface. The remainder were recovered from the modern burial layers.
Evidence for the spinning of yarn in the eleventh and twelfth century is confirmed by the
discovery of a bone and stone spindle whorl on the site. The bone spindle whorl was
uncovered beneath medieval cobbles while the stone equivalent was recovered from the
pelvic area of a medieval adult burial. A small iron adze or slice from an early medieval pit or
possibly hearth in the south transept indicates evidence for woodworking on the site. In
addition, the pit contained a long thin socketed iron implement which was also possibly used
as an early medieval woodworking tool. A whittle tanged knife was uncovered between the
legs of a middle-aged female skeleton and was tentatively identified as a possible eighth to
thirteenth century ‘scribe’s’ knife used for manuscript illumination.
A range of early medieval domestic objects were recovered. These included whet-stones, as
well as an iron spike with an attached chain found inside a pit to the east of the cathedral
and probably used as a wall-hanger for a pot or similar item. The context of its discovery
would indicate an early medieval date. Other domestic items included a twelfth/thirteenth
century copper-alloy toilet implement found beneath the cross wall at the east end of the
cathedral, but above a child burial radiocarbon dated to between A.D. 1038-1220 (Moore
2007, 63-66). A ninth century bronze hanging bowl with an ogham inscription was also found
near Ardfert in a bog in Kilgulbin townland.
Items of early medieval personal use or clothing included a tenth-twelfth century bone comb,
polished bone pins or needles, tenth-twelfth century copper-alloy stick pins, early eleventh to
early twelfth century crutch headed ringed pins, a tenth-eleventh century hooked tag, a
possible twelfth century baluster headed pin and glass beads. A small prehistoric polished
stone axehead possibly kept as some form of charm or amulet was found in an early
medieval pit in the south transept and an eleventh-thirteenth century gaming piece was
recovered from a fill of a grave containing two juveniles – one of which was protected by
pillow-stones. Other finds included a twelfth century baptismal font and a Hiberno-Norse
silver imitation long cross penny of Aethelred II (A.D. 1020-1035) in a disturbed context
beside a modern coffin.
The damliac was probably roughly contemporary with a round tower which formerly stood to
the southwest of the cathedral before collapsing in the eighteenth century. Large limestone
blocks encircling a family tomb to the southwest of the cathedral may possibly indicate the
remains of this disappeared structure. The early medieval monastic site also appears to have
been defined by an enclosure or termonn. Part of a wide, shallow curving enclosing ditch with
possible entrance causeway was excavated to the east of the cathedral. It measured 1m in
width and may have been wider originally but was disturbed when two large pits were cut
into it. Two post holes, one at the northern terminal of the fosse and another between the
two pits, suggest a structural feature connected with the entrance causeway (Moore 1991). A
simple medieval iron key for a casket was found within an early fill of this ditch feature. A
north-south flat bottomed ditch measuring 14.5m in length, 1.3m-1.6m in width and up to
0.55m in depth was also found to extend across the area of the south aisle and the west end
of the nave, to the west of the damliac foundations. It contained animal bone and pre-dated
the thirteenth century cathedral but it is unclear if it was related to the shallow, curving
enclosing ditch to the east of the cathedral (Moore 1991).
All that remains of the twelfth century nave and chancel church is its sandstone Hiberno-
Romanesque portal, incorporated into the western wall of a later thirteenth century Gothic
building containing three lancet windows at the east end and a row of nine lancets along the
south wall. This thirteenth century building with some additions and alterations dominates the
site today. One of the main excavated features of this cathedral comprised a stone wall plinth
which formed part of the base of a medieval rood screen (ornamented wooden or stone altar
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