EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Dublin
‘Mount Offaly’, Cabinteely, Co. Dublin
Early Medieval Settlement-Cemetery & Possible Later Ecclesiastical Site
Grid reference: O23302420 (32330/22420)
SMR: DU026-119
Excavation Licence No: 98E0035
Excavation duration: February – August 1998
Site director: M. Conway (Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd.)
Excavation in advance of the construction of an Esso service station revealed a large multi-phase
enclosed cemetery (Fig. 122). The site remains undated but it probably originated during the late Iron
Age. It is difficult to determine when it fell out of use. It appears that the cemetery began as an
ancestral burial place and was then taken over by the Church. The large number of internments
suggests it was utilised over many centuries, and potentially into the later middle-ages. The burial
ground contained 1553 burials as well as disarticulated remains and charnel pits. Settlement, on the
site or in the vicinity, was evident by numerous dress items, functional objects, imported pottery,
butchered animal bone and areas of cobbling. Evidence for industry included a furnace and
associated hearth. Excavation only revealed a section of the site and further burials and features
undoubtedly lie outside the excavated area.
Twenty individuals were associated with the first burial phase at Mount Offaly. They were all
extended W-E inhumations and were well-spaced and consistently aligned on the same axis. No
grave-goods or finds were associated with this phase, which remains undated, but the cemetery
probably originated during the late Iron Age (see below).
Phase II included 48 burials. Conway associates the inner ditch with this phase but it may have been
constructed for the first phase of internment. A bone pin was retrieved from the primary fill and E
ware, dating between the mid-sixth and seventh centuries, came from a secondary fill. A 6.5m stretch
of the ditch was filled with dark occupation soil and included a large quantity of butchered animal
bone and a double-sided bone comb. Further animal bone and E ware fragments were identified in
the upper fill. Therefore, the ditch was open prior to the mid sixth or seventh centuries. Also, the site
name suggests the former presence of a mound and this is strengthened by accounts of a mound on
the site in the early twentieth century. Based on evidence from many other mound, or ferta, sites and
settlement-cemeteries, Mount Offaly probably originated during prehistory and most likely in the Iron
Age.
During Phase III, the inner ditch was back-filled and burials extended over this area. At least 120
individuals were buried during the third phase. The cemetery expanded as far as the second or
middle ditch which was between 2m and 3.5m further east of the original enclosure.
The numbers interred within the confines of the middle enclosure ditch greatly increased during
Phase IV. A further 262 individuals were buried and some of the third-phase graves were re-opened
to accommodate further burial. The ditch produced less domestic waste than its predecessor. Its
upper fill contained butchered animal bone and numerous small finds including a rare sherd of D ware
which dates to the sixth century. Part of the newly expanded enclosure remained burial-free during
Phases III and IV which suggests the former presence of a structure or perhaps some form of activity
that left no trace archaeologically.
The cemetery expanded in size again during Phase V to incorporate further burial. The middle ditch
was filled-in and a third, and final, outer enclosure was created. It was positioned between 8m and
9m east of the former middle enclosure and its fill was mostly sterile apart from numerous stones. At
least 424 burials and a unique charnel pit were associated with Phase V. The latter contained at least
three individuals and the bones were carefully and deliberately positioned around a millstone base.
Potential settlement evidence was identified and included several areas of cobbling, significant
deposits of butchered animal bone, domestic waste and small finds. Iron working was also present. A
furnace and associated hearth were built over the former middle ditch and they contained dump
deposits and ironworking debris including large amounts of slag and several iron objects.
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