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Antrim
Craigywarren, Co. Antrim
Early Medieval Crannog.
Grid Ref: D11800930 (31180/40930)
SMR No: ANT 032:043
Excavation Licence: N/A
Excavation Duration/Year: September – October 1901.
Site Director: W. J. Knowles (Antiquarian).
The site consisted of a small crannog, formerly located at a depth of 2m in a bog, about 80m
out from the former western shore of the original lake. The precise location of this site is now
unknown. Lisnacrogher crannog, the reputed nineteenth-century find-spot of an assemblage
of La Tène metalwork, was located about 500m to the north. The site was almost totally
excavated by W. J. Knowles, George Coffey and a team of nine assistants over a two-week
period in September-August 1901.
The crannog was small and circular, measuring only about 14m in diameter (Fig. 21). It was
defined at its edge by a lightly built wooden palisade, of cleft oak planks and roundwood ash
posts driven into the peat in a regular manner. There was a possible entrance at the north
side. The site was constructed of a primary layer of heather and small branches lay on the
underlying black mud. This was followed by a second layer of horizontal tree trunks and
heavy branches, staked down by oak piles. These trunks were laid lengthways around the
edge of the site. This was followed by another layer of heather, making a clean, even
surface. The upper-most occupation surface was of hewn and mortised planks laid down,
with the north side of the crannog consolidated by spreads of stones.
There was a possible house or hut at the north side of the crannog, represented by a scatter
of planks covering an area 2.6m by 2.6m. These were small planks, occasionally drilled and
pegged, partly overlying the palisade at one area. There was also a stone-lined hearth beside
these planks, which consisted of a single flat stone (0.5m diameter), surrounded by smaller
stones, overlain by a layer of white ash. There was also a ‘midden’ of animal bone beside this
house. It produced most of the site’s finds, including pottery, a concave scraper, a silvered,
plain pennanular brooch, a bronze pin and a finger ring and a bracelet. A sword was found
beneath the timbers, and a spear-butt was found near it.
A midden on the north side (beside the house and possible entrance) produced bones of
cattle, sheep, goat, pig, deer and horse, including three well-preserved horse skulls. It also
produced other finds including an iron pan, an iron rod, a possible barrel padlock key and
fragments of decorated, leather shoes.
A range of lithics were also found at Craigywarren, including 50 flint flakes, 3 scrapers, a
concave scraper, a lozenge-shaped arrowhead, three polishing stones, spindle whorls and a
stone axe fragment. The excavators decided that the flints were not strike-a-lights
(presumably because they were un-bruised). However, because there were no cores to
indicate on-site flint working, they suggested that the flints were introduced on to the site
with stone and gravel during its construction. Alternatively, they may have been seen as
exotic or magical items by the early medieval inhabitants of the site, being used to protect
food or the house against fire.
Undecorated souterrain ware pottery and clay crucibles were also recovered from site, one of
the latter had red vitreous matter on its surface, possibly the remains of melted enamel. A
bone trial piece and a bronze bracelet were also found. The finds indicated to the excavators
the presence of craft-workers (metal, leather and possibly enamel) and relatively wealthy
inhabitants. On the basis of the typology of the pennanular brooch, the site was dated to the
tenth century A.D.
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