EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Limerick
Knockea, Co. Limerick
Early Medieval Raised Enclosure
Grid Ref: R61294945 (161299/149455)
SMR No: LI013-111002
Excavation Licence: E000744
Excavation Duration/year: 1960
Site Director: M.J. O’Kelly (University College Cork)
An early medieval platform enclosure with internal structures and an adjacent burial
enclosure with association habitation evidence were excavated on a hill at Knockea over the
course of eight weeks in 1960. The excavations were financed by a state grant administered
through the Special employments Scheme and the Royal Irish Academy. A complex of
earthworks and enclosures covered an area of ten acres running from the highest point of the
hill southward. The excavation comprised full investigation of a small enclosure (Site I) and a
trial-trench across an adjacent platform enclosure (Site II).
Site I consisted of a burial enclosure (18m by 18m) with its sides orientated to the cardinal
points. Three curving trenches pre-dated the burial enclosure. Two were identified on the
eastern side with one running north-south having cut the other east-west trench. The eastwest
trench was cut by the ditch of the burial enclosure but continued intact under the bank.
Another curving trench was also cut by the southern ditch of the burial enclosure. These
trenches contained no wattle or postholes though were interpreted as either foundation
trenches of huts or possible drains for structures. A few animal bones were recovered from
the trenches.
The enclosing ditch of the burial enclosure was square in plan with rounded corners and
displayed a U-shaped profile, approximately 2m wide at the top and 0.8m deep on average.
The spoil from the ditch was placed on the inside to create a broad low bank faced internally
with a vertical dry-stone-built revetment which survived to a maximum height of 0.7m. The
bank had an average thickness of 3m and enclosed an area 8.3m by 8.3m.
There was no entrance opening and the original ditch was continuous throughout. However,
a causeway of stones was built across the ditch on the western side to create an entrance
passage, 1.5m wide. It led on to a gravel cobbled path on the top of the bank, defined by
two sets of postholes on the spine of the bank and on the ditch. A line of large postholes
spaced 1m apart were uncovered all the way around the spine of the enclosing bank, 1m
from the inner facing.
An inhumation cemetery of at least 66 burials was uncovered within the enclosing bank
beneath a scatter of stones which appeared to have been deliberately spread across the
interior. The burials were extended and mostly orientated east-west. Most were interred
within simple unlined pits though the heads of a small number were partly protected by a few
stones. A strike-a-light stone was uncovered beside the skeleton of child in a pit in the
northwest quadrant. 111 water-rolled pebbles- 83 of them white quartz- were found in the fill
directly over the child’s skeleton.
There were no associated grave-goods except the possible strike-a-light. Most of the other
finds were from disturbed contexts inside the enclosure and none could be said to have
belonged to any particular burial horizon. Finds comprised a bone comb fragment, four strikea-lights,
ornamented pebble, all from disturbed contexts as well as a flint scraper and stone
disc.
The burial enclosure was post-dated by two parallel trenches which extended over its
northern silted-up ditch. The fill of the trenches and the area between them was much
flecked with charcoal. An irregular-shaped pit extended from the centre of the area to the
southeast corner and produced animal bones and a blue glass bead. The trenches contained
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