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

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Sligo<br />

Knoxspark, Co. Sligo<br />

Early Medieval Promontory Fort.<br />

Grid Reference: G67262876 (16726/32876)<br />

SMR No: SL020-166<br />

Excavation Licence: 94E060<br />

Excavation Duration/Year: May – July 1994.<br />

Site Director: C. Mount (<strong>Heritage</strong> Council).<br />

<strong>The</strong> site consists <strong>of</strong> an enclosure set on an elongated ridge. This area was to have been<br />

destroyed during a road construction project. However, upon preliminary excavation <strong>of</strong> the<br />

site, the road-take was diverted, allowing the interior <strong>of</strong> the enclosure to be excavated under<br />

research conditions, rather than rescue conditions.<br />

<strong>The</strong> enclosed area measured approximately 75m by 64m, defined by an arc <strong>of</strong> earthworks<br />

consisting <strong>of</strong> two series <strong>of</strong> banks, and an intervening ditch (Fig. 277). This effectively cut <strong>of</strong>f<br />

the end <strong>of</strong> the ridge, creating an inland ‘promontory fort’ defended by a river bed and marshy<br />

area. Two cairns excavated outside the main enclosure would appear to have been<br />

contemporary with the in-filling <strong>of</strong> the ditch.<br />

A smaller sub-rectangular enclosure (23m by 19m) was located within the confines <strong>of</strong> the<br />

‘promontory fort’. It was enclosed by a stone wall that survived up to 0.95m in height.<br />

Occupation debris from this smaller enclosure included animal bone, iron artefacts, and iron<br />

slag. This enclosure appears to have been established as the boundaries <strong>of</strong> a cemetery site<br />

for over 185 individuals which re-used the central area <strong>of</strong> the promontory fort. Although<br />

cremations were discovered in the two cairns, which seem to have provided the original focal<br />

point for this cemetery, radiocarbon dates from animal bones from the cairns suggest it was<br />

still in use during the early medieval period (see below).<br />

<strong>The</strong> cemetery was dominated by east-west orientated burials, suggestive <strong>of</strong> the Christian rite.<br />

A number <strong>of</strong> the burials may have been earlier, for example a decapitation burial similar to<br />

Iron Age example; and one burial was accompanied by a socketed iron spearhead. <strong>The</strong><br />

radiocarbon date from this later individual, however, placed him firmly in the eighth/ninth<br />

century (see below).<br />

622

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