EMAP_2012_Report_6_1.pdf (7.3 MB) - The Heritage Council

Chapter 6: Early medieval stone-working
Introduction
As one of the most basic raw materials, stone was widely exploited in early medieval Ireland.
A range of stones were used, including granite, limestone and sandstone as well as chert,
flint, jet and lignite. The latter two may have been imported into Ireland though there are
extensive deposits of lignite in Co. Antrim and around Lough Neagh (Comber 2008, 59).
Stone was utilised as a building material for houses, walls, souterrains and other structures
and for the manufacture of a wide range of objects such as querns, mill-stones, bullauns,
grave-markers, whet-stones, spindle-whorls, lamps and beads throughout the early medieval
period. The earliest sources make no reference to specialised stone-masons, stone-cutters
and sculptors. However, the evolution of the sáer from primarily describing a carpenter in the
earliest, original eighth century texts of the Uraicecht Brecc into a stone mason in later texts
and other sources, indicates the increasing importance of the stone sculptor around the turn
of the first millennium A.D. (MacLean 1995, 125, 129). While the technical ability was
probably available to most people to manufacture simple everyday domestic items, the
sculptors and masons who carved the high crosses and supervised the construction of stone
structures must have been highly experienced. A range of tools such as stone axes, hammerstones,
iron hammers and wooden mallets used in conjunction with chisels, punches and
wedges were part of the stone mason’s tool-kit and Comber (2008, 63) has discussed the
finds of these tools at early medieval settlement sites. Ornament could also be inscribed on
stone monuments such as the carved high crosses, stone lamps and quern stones. Iron
dividers were found at Garryduff (O'Kelly 1963, 47) and these may have been used as a form
of a compass for achieving this decoration (Comber 2008, 64).
6.1: Building material
As a building material, stone appears to have been most widely exploited towards the turn of
the first millennium A.D. on both secular and ecclesiastical sites. The drystone corbelled
clocháns and oratories were one of the earliest stone-built structures which had appeared by
at least the eighth or ninth century (Marshall and Walsh 2005, 103-24). These were probably
contemporary with a small set of mortared shrine chapels such as Temple Ciaran at
Clonmacnoise that emerged in the same period. (Ó Carragáin 2003, 132) with masonry
churches and round towers appearing in the tenth century but becoming more common in
the eleventh and twelfth (O'Keeffe 2003, 72; Ó Carragáin 2005b, 138; Manning 2009, 277).
On both ecclesiastical and secular sites, rectangular houses, often constructed using low
drystone walls or kerbs of boulders on edge became common from the tenth century (Lynn
1994, 92; O'Sullivan 2008, 231-2; O'Sullivan and Nicholls 2011). The main use of souterrains
also appears to have occurred in the last quarter of the first millennium and the first century
or two of the second millennium A.D. (Clinton 2001, 95). The various schools of stone carved
high crosses date mainly from the later eighth- tenth century with a further revival during the
twelfth century (Edwards 1990, 164-8) and sculpted cross-slabs also became more prevalent
at the turn of the second millennium. The evidence for over 700 carved cross-slabs, 6 high
crosses and a large collection of domestic and religious stone artefacts at Clonmacnoise
would indicate that some of the larger monasteries supported a number of highly-skilled
master masons and apprentices in this period (King 2009, 339-41).
6.2: Artefacts
A total of 158 settlements within the EMAP 2012 gazetteer had evidence for the use of stone
artefacts while 99 were associated with objects of lignite. 35 sites had evidence for the
working or manufacture of stone artefacts while only 7 were associated with the working of
lignite. Stone was widely used in the manufacture of equipment used in contemporary early
medieval crafts such as moulds and motif-pieces. Metal objects were often finished and
sharpened using whet-stones/hone-stones and grind-stones (Comber 2008, 60). Whetstones
are one of the most common early medieval artefacts and have been recorded on the
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