EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Cork
charred oat grains and one charred weed. A radiocarbon determination from a large piece of
charcoal returned a calibrated two sigma radiocarbon date of A.D. 689-888. A pit (0.85m by
0.3m at the top & 0.3m deep) was situated close to the souterrain and contained animal
bone and iron slag.
A horizon layer situated directly beneath the sod but significantly overlying the interior
features in the south-western part of the site contained a large quantity of animal bone, iron
slag, iron ore and various stone and metal artefacts, displaced from their primary context due
to the modern cultivation. Finds from this displaced layer included a knife blade, an iron pin
with remains of ringed head, an iron shears, iron nails and spikes and a possible part of a
blowpipe, five whetstones, two stone discs and various late finds.
The animal bone was fragmentary and contained an overwhelming number of teeth remains.
Sheep, pig, cattle, deer, dog and horse were the domestic animals in descending order of
frequency recovered during the excavation. The quantity of iron slag found, and the recovery
of tuyère fragments, indicates iron smelting on the site. The corn-drying kiln and the cereal
grain (especially barley, as well as oats and fat-hen) indicate a mixed farming economy.
Fig. 72: Plan of Killanully, Co. Cork (after Mount 1995, 124).
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