EMAP_2012_Report_6_1.pdf (7.3 MB) - The Heritage Council

fragments of lignite from armlet manufacture at 50-56 Scotch Street (Lynn and McDowell
1988b, 60) and unfinished lignite objects at English street (Crothers 1999, 63, 66).
Amber was used to produce beads, studs and other decorative features on brooches and
other metal objects. While 27 sites in the EMAP 2012 gazetteer had amber artefacts only four
settlements had any evidence for their manufacture. It would be tempting to interpret the
presence of amber in Ireland as either evidence for Viking trading, or even as evidence for
Hiberno-Norse settlement. The vast majority of the amber found in Ireland comes from the
excavations at Fishamble Street in Dublin – over 4,000 pieces were recovered from
workshops in this area (Wallace 1987, 215) – and this may represent the source of much of
the rest of the amber found in Ireland. In recent years evidence for craftsmanship with
amber was found at the Hiberno-Norse settlement at Woodstown (McNamara 2005).
However, amber – mostly in the form of beads - has been found on rural sites such as Lagore
(Hencken 1950, 150-1); Ballinderry II (Hencken 1942, 13, 51); Ballycatteen (Ó Ríordáin and
Hartnett 1943, 27); Garranes (Ó Ríordáin 1942, 121); Garryduff I (O'Kelly 1963, 77-8);
Carraig Aille (Ó Ríordáin 1949a); Cahercommaun (Hencken 1938, 40); Lough Faughan
(Collins 1955, 65) and Nendrum (Bourke 1997, 415) and many of these sites (particularly
their early phases) may pre-date the arrival of the Vikings. It must, therefore, be assumed
that there was some low level importation of amber into Ireland from the Baltic area before
A.D. 800 but this may have been accomplished through middle-men in Saxon England.
Amber-working evidence in rural Ireland is indicated by hundreds of chips of amber at Scotch
Street, Armagh (Lynn and McDowell 1988b, 60) and a small quantity of amber chips and an
amber bead at Moynagh Lough (Bradley 1993, 80). There was also possible amber-working
evidence at Lagore (Hencken 1950, 150-1) where a number of finished and possibly
unfinished amber beads and studs were also found. At Rathinaun a number of amber
fragments were found (Raftery 1957) while the rath at Lisduggan had an unworked piece of
amber (Twohig 1990). Amber appears to have become popular as decorative settings on
brooches and other metal artefacts from after the eighth century and replaced the more
ornate and intricate polychrome glass studs in this period (Comber 2008, 126).
Porphyry has been found on a number of Irish sites and has been discussed by Lynn (Lynn
1984). All examples were green in colour, and were sourced to Greece, with the exception of
a single piece of red porphyry from Armagh sourced to Egypt (ibid. 19). Lynn noted that
fragments have been found at the ecclesiastical sites of Armagh, Downpatrick, Movilla Abbey
and Kilteel. Generally, they were found in contexts that post-dated A.D. 1000. Since Lynn’s
survey, further examples of green porphyry have been found at Clonmacnoise (King 1992),
Derrynaflan (Ó Floinn 1985), and Christ Church Place, Dublin (Wallace 1987, 220). Porphyry
is found almost exclusively on ecclesiastical sites (with the exception of Fishamble Street,
Dublin (Wallace 1987, 220), suggesting that it was imported for the beautification of the
church, or possibly for inclusion in portable altars. Slate was also possibly utilised as a
building material in early medieval Ireland. Several hundred perforated slates of shale were
found at Ballycatteen and it was suggested that they may have formed part a pegged slate
roof, possibly for one of the site’s souterrains (Ó Ríordáin and Hartnett 1943, 31-3; Comber
2008, 62). Soapstone (steatite) vessels are known from a number of sites at Beginish and
Scandinavian Dublin (Wallace 1987, 218); part of a steatite ring was recorded at Dalkey
Island promontory fort (Liversage 1968, 117) and the habitation sites at Inishkea North
produced soapstone spindle-whorls (Henry 1951a, 75). The presence of soapstone vessels,
walrus ivory (available only in the Arctic Circle) and amber (Baltic area) indicates that trade
was maintained with Scandinavia and the Scottish islands, particularly in the Viking-Age
period.
Stone was also widely employed to produce a range of other domestic artefacts, including
spindlewhorls, querns, mortars and pestles and lamps. Spindlewhorls are commonly found
and evidence for unfinished examples at Carraig Aille II (Ó Ríordáin 1949a, 86), Cush (Ó
Ríordáin 1940, 158), Garranes (Ó Ríordáin 1942a),Castleskreen II (Dickinson and Waterman
1959, 80) and Garryduff I (O'Kelly 1963, 89), Rathmullan (Lynn 1981-2, 44-45) can suggest
on-site manufacture of these objects. A few chlorite spindlewhorls were found at Inishkea
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