EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Cork
Curraheen, Co. Cork
Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure
Grid Ref: W60726922 (160722/069228)
SMR No: N/A
Excavation Licence: 01E1209
Excavation Duration/year: 2002
Site Director: E. Danaher (ACS Ltd.)
The site was discovered during archaeological testing in advance of road construction on a
slightly elevated area of ground (20m OD), surrounded by flat marshy landscape on three
sides and better agricultural land to the east and northeast.
The earliest activity on site dated to the Neolithic and was comprised of a number of chipped
stone artefacts- including two concave scrapers and an end-scraper- in secondary contexts
and two sherds of carinated bowls from a posthole/pit. A possible late Neolithic/Early Bronze
Age ‘Beaker’ settlement was also identified by pits and postholes, as well as a substantial
collection of Beaker pottery (c. 2300–2200 B.C.), flint debitage and a thumbnail scraper.
Subsequent prehistoric activity comprised a Bronze Age pit/posthole and two Iron Age pits,
one of which may have functioned as a bowl-furnace or hearth (see below).
The early medieval settlement comprised a conjoined enclosure (62m by 44m), consisting of
a large eastern enclosure with an attached smaller western annex (16m in diameter). Part of
the site had been destroyed by modern agricultural disturbance, quarrying, and the
construction of a (now) disused railway track (Fig. 70). Both enclosures were defined by
shallow ditches backfilled with re-deposited material from related earthen banks. The ditches
of the enclosures respected each other, supporting the radiocarbon results (see below) that
both were contemporary with each other.
The ditch of the small enclosure was V-shaped with an average width of 1m and depth of
0.85m. No artefacts, except for a possible hone-stone, were recovered from its fills, although
an iron axe-head was recovered in topsoil overlying the upper fill of the ditch. Charcoal from
the fills of the small enclosure ditch has produced calibrated dates in the seventh/ninth
century (see below). This enclosure appears to have had a south-eastern entranceway
(defined by two postholes), with the north-western quadrant of the larger ditch acting as its
eastern boundary. There were no occupational layers within the interior of the small
enclosure apart from two pieces of flint debitage and three large postholes, interpreted as
possible tethering posts for animals. Charcoal from one posthole produced a radiocarbon date
falling in the sixth/seventh century (see below).
The ditch of the large enclosure was 1.65m wide across the top and was 0.8m deep. Only the
southern extent of this ditch survived with the northern part destroyed by modern
disturbance. Two iron fragments were recovered in the fill of the large enclosure ditch. The
ditch was possibly re-cut along its north-western section where it bounded the eastern side of
the western annex. Along this section, the ditch was narrower and deeper than the other
excavated parts of the large enclosure ditch, although similar in profile to that of the ditch of
the western annex. It was suggested that this section of the large enclosure ditch was dug in
such a way as to prevent animals from the western annex crossing into the main enclosure.
An oval arrangement of ten postholes and an internal hearth associated with stakeholes were
interpreted as the remains of a post-and-wattle oval building (8m by 6m) in the northeast
quadrant of the large enclosure. Charred cereal remains of oats, barley and wheat as well as
charcoal and a glass bead were recovered from deposits overlying the hearth.
A cluster of post- and stakeholes were excavated 7m to the southwest of the oval building
and defined the ground plan of a small square structure (4m by 4m). The small size of the
structure suggests it may have functioned as an outhouse or storage unit. A number of postand
stakeholes were revealed to the south and west of the oval structure. Iron objects, slag,
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