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Limerick<br />

Cush, Co. Limerick<br />

Early Medieval Enclosure Complex.<br />

Grid Ref: R69802580 (169800/125800)<br />

SMR No: LI048-034---<br />

Excavation Licence: E000010<br />

Excavation Duration/year: August-October 1934; July-September 1935<br />

Site Director: S.P. Ó Ríordáin (University College Cork)<br />

A significant early medieval landscape containing a large number <strong>of</strong> settlement enclosures,<br />

with internal occupation evidence, structures and souterrains, together with a complex<br />

pattern <strong>of</strong> rectangular field systems was excavated at Cush. <strong>The</strong> research excavations were<br />

undertaken between August-October 1934 and July-September 1935 and were financed<br />

under a state scheme for the relief <strong>of</strong> employment. <strong>The</strong> site (210-240m OD) was situated on<br />

the border <strong>of</strong> good agricultural land along the foothills <strong>of</strong> a northward extension <strong>of</strong> the<br />

Ballyhoura Hills (Slieve Reagh), commanding considerable views across the Limerick plain to<br />

the north. <strong>The</strong> site consisted <strong>of</strong> a southern group <strong>of</strong> enclosures, a northern group <strong>of</strong><br />

enclosures, the western field, the related field systems and three prehistoric tumuli.<br />

<strong>The</strong> greater part <strong>of</strong> the interior <strong>of</strong> the enclosures was excavated as well as various sections<br />

through their ramparts and entrances. Also excavated were the three tumuli, various portions<br />

<strong>of</strong> the rectangular ‘enclosure’, a small area <strong>of</strong> the ‘western field’ and trial-trenches along the<br />

field boundaries. <strong>The</strong> enclosures generally produced relatively thin occupation deposits and<br />

this lack <strong>of</strong> stratigraphy hindered any detailed reconstruction <strong>of</strong> the sequence <strong>of</strong> and<br />

relationship between the various different internal features and structures- buildings and<br />

souterrains.<br />

Considerable evidence for Bronze Age burial activity was uncovered and comprised five<br />

cremation urn burials within the northwest sector <strong>of</strong> Cush 5 in the southern group, Tumulus I<br />

(to the south <strong>of</strong> Cush 7), and a small cist burial with two food vessels, just inside a section <strong>of</strong><br />

the modern field fence dividing the ‘western field’ from that containing the tumuli. Ó Riordáin<br />

claimed that the burials inside Enclosure 5 were later than the occupation <strong>of</strong> the enclosure<br />

though the stratigraphic evidence to substantiate such a claim is neither completely clear nor<br />

detailed. Most recent commentators (e.g. Edwards 1996, 17) now believe that the enclosure<br />

is early medieval and was simply built in an area <strong>of</strong> prehistoric burial activity. Tumulus I<br />

revealed a primary long cist burial (1.9m by 0.6m internally) with a food vessel type pot<br />

beneath its original ground level. A kerbed mound (0.9m high and 11m in maximum<br />

diameter) was erected over this burial. Following this, an encrusted urn was placed near the<br />

centre <strong>of</strong> the mound and a ditch dug around the site. <strong>The</strong> mound was covered with a paving<br />

<strong>of</strong> small stones after the ditches had silted up, on which at least one cremated burial was<br />

placed.<br />

Iron Age burial activity was uncovered at the sites <strong>of</strong> Tumulus II and possibly Tumulus III.<br />

<strong>The</strong>se bowl barrows each measured about 1.8m high and 13.7m and 16.46m respectively in<br />

diameter with enclosing ditch. Spreads <strong>of</strong> charcoal mixed with fragments <strong>of</strong> cremated bone<br />

were uncovered on the old ground surface <strong>of</strong> tumulus II and was interpreted by the<br />

excavator as the site <strong>of</strong> a cremation fire. A small pit was found in one <strong>of</strong> the spreads filled<br />

with cremated bone and charcoal and contained near its top a small bone plaque with early<br />

Iron Age La Tène decoration (O’Kelly, 1989, 329-330). Tumulus II revealed a scatter <strong>of</strong><br />

cremated bone on the old ground surface where a possible cremation pyre had been lit and<br />

over which the mound had been built.<br />

<strong>The</strong> early medieval activity comprised ten excavated ‘ringfort’ type enclosures, an adjoining<br />

rectangular ‘enclosure’ and a system <strong>of</strong> field boundaries. <strong>The</strong> southern group <strong>of</strong> enclosures<br />

cover three acres and consist <strong>of</strong> a six conjoined enclosures (1-6) associated with a subrectangular<br />

area ‘the enclosure’ delimited by a ditch and bank to the west (Fig. 206). <strong>The</strong><br />

excavations revealed that Cush 2, 3 and 4 were roughly contemporary but were preceded by<br />

Cush 1, while Cush 5 was built at a later stage, followed finally by Cush 6. <strong>The</strong> site known as<br />

424

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