EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Introduction
1.1 Description of this Gazetteer
This draft of the Gazetteer consists of 228 site summaries, although excavations on
urban sites, and large scale multi-season excavations (e.g. Clonmacnoise, Co.
Offaly), have been included as one summary. These represent a select number of
key or significant excavations undertaken on early medieval settlement sites in
Ireland between 1930 and 2008. These summaries were short-listed for inclusion in
the gazetteer based on the quality of archaeological material recovered. Although
they represent roughly 10% of the total early medieval excavations undertaken
during this period (O’Sullivan et al. 2010; EMAP), because many of those excavations
were of ‘no archaeological significance’ this present report accounts for a high
proportion of archaeological sites of significance. For those excavated post-1970 this
was done with reference to the Excavations Bulletin (http://www.excavations.ie),
which allowed a complete list of excavations for this period to be drawn up and
assessed. Those sites which uncovered structural remains, which had good
stratigraphy and dating, and which produced quantities of artefacts and ecofacts
were then further examined and a short produced. The short-listing of sites
excavated pre-1970 was a rather simpler process and consisted largely of reading
published excavation reports. Although summaries of certain ecclesiastical and
cemetery sites are also included in the gazetteer, these focus on the settlement
evidence from these sites, rather than church architecture or skeletal populations.
In this report, each site summary provides key information in concise form, including
the Site name and County; the Type of site (e.g. ‘Early Medieval Settlement
Enclosure’) the National Grid Reference, the SMR No., the Excavation Licence
No., the Excavation Duration/Year (months and years when the excavation was
carried out) and finally the Site Director, which information is usually but not
always linked to the Licence itself. The site summary then provides a concise,
focused site description providing information on location, site dimensions, phasing
and general chronology and any site activities implied by various features and finds.
All available radiocarbon dates are then provided, both in uncalibrated and
calibrated form, in a table towards the end of each site summary (we suspect that
this will be a key resource for all researchers. Finally, an individual site’s
bibliography of previous publications or unpublished reports is listed.
The summaries are based on a variety of original sources. In many cases they
represent a précis of published work (updated with more recent discoveries where
necessary). Published excavation reports were found in a large number of different
works and journals, and incorporating differing levels of detail. The major regional
and county archaeological journals were a rich resource (e.g. the Ulster Journal of
Archaeology has large numbers of Northern Irish excavations, and the Journal of the
Cork Archaeological and Historical Society incorporates many of the excavations
undertaken in south Munster); as were the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy
and the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. Smaller local journals
such as Ríocht na Mídhe and the Clogher Journal were also consulted. Excavation
reports were also found in festschriften (e.g. M. J. O’Kelly’s excavations at Knockea,
Co. Limerick were included in North Munster Studies: Essays in commemoration of
Monsignor Michael Moloney (Rynne 1967)), as well as in company-produced
monographs (e.g. Three Irish gas pipelines: new archaeological evidence in Munster
(Gowen 1988); Pieces of the Past: archaeological excavations by the Department of
the Environment for Northern Ireland 1970-1986 (Hamlin & Lynn 1988)). More
recently the series of excellent seminar proceedings and monographs produced by
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