EMAP_2012_Report_6_1.pdf (7.3 MB) - The Heritage Council

comb of Scottish origin at Castlefarm (Riddler & Trzaska-Nartowski 2009, 7). Equally there
are problems with terminology when comparing different artefacts such as pins, needles.
Comber used the presence of finished artefacts, bone working tools and unfinished artefacts
on ringforts, crannogs, monastic and miscellaneous sites to determine the scale of
craftworking with bone (2008, 94-95). She identified five settlements with extensive evidence
for bone working; Cahercommaun, Garryduff, Nendrum, Ballinderry 2 and Carraig Aille (ibid.
95). Eight had average evidence while twenty three sites had minimal evidence.
Roestown
Raystown
Rathgurreen
Parcnahown
Killickaweeny
Johnstown
Garryduff
Dowdstown
Deerpark Farms
Castlefarm
Cahercommaun
Carraig Aille 1
Baronstown
Ballinderry II
Ballyfounder
0 50 100 150 200 250
Antler Waste
Waste bone
Pins
Bone awls
Pig Fibulae pins/needles
Knife Handles
Bone comb
Pointed, socketed objects
Needles
Beads
Spindle whorls
Other
Figure 5.1: Evidence for bone objects from recently excavated sites alongside
settlements ranked within Combers survey (2008, 95) like Rathgurreen (ranked
average), Carraig Aille I, Cahercommaun, Garryduff, Ballinderry II (ranked
extensive) and Ballyfounder (ranked minimal).
A brief look at a sample of recently excavated sites which were extensively excavated
indicates the numbers and types of bone artefacts present (Fig. 5.1). Sites like Carraig Aille
and Cahercommaun while both ranked by Comber as having extensive bone working
evidence clearly have considerable differences in the range and scale of objects made and
used over time. Garryduff had a relatively low number of objects but was ranked as having
extensive bone working because it had iron tools and unfinished bone objects. Recently
extensively excavated sites like Castlefarm would certainly belong alongside or even above
Carraig Aille in terms of significance. Raystown and Deer Park Park farms would seem to have
produced approximately equivalent quantities on a lower scale. The latter sites had a similar
range of objects such as an emphasis on pig fibulae pins and needles, small numbers of
spindle whorls, bone combs and bone handles. Rath complexes like Baronstown and
Dowdstown seem to have had low levels of bone objects. Many ecclesiastical sites appear to
have also specialised in bone- and antler-working and there is much evidence from Armagh,
Clonfad, Clonmacnoise, Iniscealtra, Moyne and smaller monasteries like Illaunloughan, Co.
Kerry. Actual archaeological evidence for antler-working on an industrial scale has been
confined to urban Dublin and Waterford. In Dublin, large deposits of antler waste were found
in Viking levels in High Street and Christ Church Place (Anonymous 1973, 15). The Waterford
deposits dated to the late eleventh and twelfth centuries. While it might be assumed that the
antler for these workshops would have been acquired from their rural hinterland, the
presence of roe deer amongst the Waterford assemblage suggests that at least some of the
antler was imported (McCormick 1997, 837).
There are a growing number of qualitative specialist studies of animal bone from a significant
number of individual settlement sites. This combined with fine-tuned dating of archaeological
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