archaeological & built heritage assessment - The Heritage Council

These bronzes were valuable commodities not lightly discarded and this, therefore, may well have been an
elite ritual activity. There is an abundance of bronze and gold artefacts recorded from the study area that
relate directly to the Bronze Age. These include two bronze swords; four bronze axeheads; five bronze
spearheads; one bronze bowl; two bronze halberds; two bronze daggers; one bronze palstave; one bronze
rapier; one bronze ringed pin; one bronze brooch; two gold beads and one gold ball (see Appendix 2 for
more details).
From c. 500BC onwards a shift from Bronze usage towards the development of iron was apparent.
Throughout this period, various items of personal adornment continued to be manufactured such as gold
torcs, fibulae (brooches) and pins as well as weaponry in the form of axes, swords, scabbards, spearheads
and horse harnessing. There have been a number of finds dating to the Iron Age period that have been
retrieved from the study area: iron adzehead with wooden haft (NMI 1987:1); bronze bridle bit and
bronze leading piece (NMI 1969:832-3); iron spearhead (NMI 1939:270); iron nails (from dug-out canoe)
(NMI 1964:115-117); iron slag (NMI ?) and an iron core head (NMI 1998:4).
Fulachta fiadh or fulachta fian, meaning cooking places of the wild (or of deer) frequently survive as low
mounds, often horseshoe-shaped, of charcoal-enriched soil packed with fragments of heat-shattered
stones (termed ‘burnt material’); when levelled they are often noticeable as black spreads in ploughed
fields. They are usually situated close to a water source, such as a stream or spring, or in wet marshy
areas. They can occur singly or in groups of up to ten; ‘sites in a group being perfectly intervisible and
within a few metres of each other (Ó Drisceóil 1991). While it is generally thought that they were
probably used as cooking places (Ó Drisceóil 1988), finds from excavated examples where there is a
noteworthy absence of animal bone do not support this theory. Lucas (1965) suggested that fulachta fiadh
might have been utilised for processes such as bulk washing, dying and leather working. Barfield and
Hodder (1987) have suggested that such sites were covered by light structures and used as sweat houses.
It is not certain whether fulachta fiadh were elements of temporary hunting camps or of permanent
settlements. The majority of radiocarbon dates place these monuments in the Bronze Age (Brindley &
Lanting 1990) though evidence from early Irish texts (Ó Drisceóil 1988) suggest use of this type of site up
until the sixteenth century AD. Until recently there was a distinct paucity of recorded fulachta fiadh
remains within the study area. However a series of excavations during the 1990s have revealed at least
ten examples of which their existence had previously been unknown (E2000:0853; E1998:562; E1999:774;
E1994:147; E1989:082; E1994:149; E1994:150 & E1994:153).
Hillforts are large enclosure situated on hilltops. The enclosed area is at least 100m across, and can be
enclosed by up to three banks and fosses that usually follow the contours, so that hillforts are not
necessarily circular in form. They were built in Ireland, Britain and the non-Mediterranean parts of Europe
during the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age (c. 1200BC-c. 500AD). Excavation of Irish examples leads to
the suggestion that they were only occupied temporarily, if at all – perhaps during times of stress – and
that they may have filled a more symbolic or ritual role. The building of hillforts, if only as places of refuge,
is one indication of the larger social and political units evolving in later prehistory which cannot be
perceived at earlier periods. There is a possible hillfort located within the study area at Smutternagh, Co.
Roscommon.
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