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Meath
Lagore crannog produced huge amounts of animal bone, fifty thousand pounds of bone were
recovered from the excavations and the nineteenth-century antiquarian accounts describe
similar huge amounts being removed for fertiliser. Cattle easily predominated (much of it
slaughtered) in the faunal assemblage, but pigs and sheep/goat were also kept. Horse was
fairly infrequent, although certainly present in small numbers. Dog, cat and fowl were also
present. There may have been some limited hunting of deer, hare, wild geese and wild duck.
Hencken’s impression was that meat-eating predominated over grain, although little attention
was paid by him to the use of dairy products. Agricultural tools included iron plough shares,
plough coulters, sickles, billhooks and a few rotary querns. Wheat straw (Triticum sp.) was
identified in a mass of plant remains. There were also iron shears, although these may have
been used for textile working. Other evidence for textile production included spindle whorls,
fleece and goat hair and woven textiles.
Fig. 257: Ground-plan of Lagore crannog, Co. Meath (after Hencken 1950).
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