EMAP_2012_Report_6_1.pdf (7.3 MB) - The Heritage Council

number of hearths and were interpreted as platforms for anvils (Simpson 1999, 30). Small
quantities of tin ore have also been found within the town (Wallace 1987, 217) implying the
manufacture of the bronze from its constituent parts.
Woodstown produced considerable manufacturing evidence for iron, copper alloy, silver, glass
and perhaps lead. A sheltered portion of one of the enclosing ditch terminals at the northern
end was used for metal-working (iron, lead, silver, copper and copper-alloy). The main
feature consisted of a smithing hearth/furnace with a chimney structure set around a central
firing area which produced in situ metal-working (O’Brien & Russell 2005, 119). One furnace
fill was radiocarbon-dated to between the early fifth and early seventh-century although
subsequent re-evaluation suggests that the feature may be contemporary with the remainder
of the Hiberno-Norse material (Harrison pers. comm.). The furnace was sealed when a
deposit containing waste and finished artefacts, dating to the seventh century, were dumped
into the ditch (ibid. 119). A furnace outside the enclosing ditch was also possibly used for the
smelting of lead or silver. Three post-holes around the circumference may have supported a
clay-lined shaft. The recovery of a tiny lead weight from the oxidised clay of the furnace
indicates that it may have been used for smelting lead or silver ingots, or possibly the forging
of lead-weight. The discovery of 208 pan lead weights across the site would support this
suggestion (O’Brien & Russell 2005, 122).
A sod-walled hut (C) on the southern edge and most exposed location of the monastic island
at Illaunloughan appears to have been used as a non-ferrous workshop though it is uncertain
if this was its primary function (Marshall & Walsh 2005, 16-21). An area of metal-working
debris covered the hut and revealed evidence for the designing and casting of copper-
/bronze-alloy brooches and pins as well as over 80 fragments of clay moulds, crucibles, part
of a tuyère and a carved bone motif. Hut C was the earliest structure on the site and dated to
the mid-seventh/mid-eighth centuries. A small single-celled sub-circular clochán (Hut G) in
the northwest sector of the monastery at Reask produced evidence for both iron- and nonferrous
working (Fanning 1981, 97-8, 108-10). The hut contained two internal pits which
appear to have been initially used for smelting iron ore, before being infilled and re-used as a
large hearth. Finds from these features included a substantial quantity of slag, clay lining,
tuyères pieces and crucible fragments. The basal courses of the primary enclosure wall were
tied in with the surviving courses of Hut (G) and indicate that both were roughly
contemporary and were one of the earliest structures built at the monastery.
A timber-built workshop defined by stone packed post-holes and settings cut into a ditch
surrounding the monastery at Tullylish (Ivens 1987, 60-1). A deposit of industrial debris
accumulated while the structure was in use and a large hearth, hot-plates and mould
fragments were found near these remains. Evidence for a forging area, two iron-smelting
furnaces and non-ferrous metal-working material and equipment were found in the southern
sector of Kilpatrick monastery and lay south of and almost contiguous to, the footing trench
of a house or shelter (Swan 1994/95, 8-11). Two areas in the ‘New Graveyard’ to the east of
the ecclesiastical buildings at Clonmacnoise produced evidence for copper-alloy working (King
2009, 432-43). A deep layer of burnt clay and charcoal in the south side of the ‘New
Graveyard’ produced crucibles, moulds, scraps of metal and a green stained cattle rib while
another area produced a small circular hearth surrounded by over 1m of red clay containing
charcoal, broken moulds, crucibles as well as a cache of scrap-metal objects and two
fragments of gauge bronze wire nearby.
At Nendrum, there was evidence for ferrous and non-ferrous metal-working from the ‘hut
circles’ in the south-western sector of the middle enclosure (Bourke 2007, 407, 419). A
roughly horse-shoe shaped platform (No. 5) was labelled the bronze foundry or brazier’s
workshop as the finds from inside and around this house included ‘innumerable fragments of
crucibles for bronze-working’ (Lawlor 1925, 142). The stone rectangular house (No. 8)
described as ‘the monastic school’ produced the most interesting finds including 30 slate
motif-pieces, four iron styli for use on wax tablets, four short knife blades, probably for bone
and wood-carving, approximately 13 stone discs, 16 bone beads and one bronze and one iron
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