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EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

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Offaly<br />

wicker-walled house were the earliest features on the site. Above this, approximately onethird<br />

of a round house was discovered in the form of a wall, a hearth and a clay floor. Most of<br />

the structures on the site appear to be contemporary with, and adjacent to, a metalled<br />

roadway which ran from the Eiscir Riada (the gravel ridge located behind the monastery), to<br />

the monastic enclosure. Radiocarbon dates from the post-road phase gave a<br />

twelfth/thirteenth century date (see below), with other radiocarbon dates suggest that the<br />

settlement developed in the seventh century and carried on for subsequent centuries (see<br />

below). A round house (6m in diameter) was discovered beneath a rectangular building. This<br />

structure (10.5m x 3.5m) had two identifiable phases of occupation, and had a probable<br />

internal division, creating a two-celled building. A later roundhouse (7m diameter) appears to<br />

have been contemporary with a rectangular or ‘D’-shaped platform (6m x 3m (destroyed)),<br />

and both are associated with the road-way. Both of these buildings had contemporary<br />

enclosed yards with evidence for a wooden gate and a hearth. Excavations in 1991 and 1992<br />

uncovered a rectangular ‘sod house’ and an external occupation area containing a central<br />

stone-lined hearth (a possible second structure), as well as many pits, potsholes, drains and<br />

trenches. <strong>The</strong>se were dated to between the seventh and twelfth centuries. Large post pits<br />

containing traces of timber and a number of shallow pits were also found in 1992. <strong>The</strong>se<br />

appear to have been contemporary with a cobbled surface near the River Shannon which was<br />

interpreted as a slipway.<br />

Over 4,000 artefacts were recovered during the excavation seasons at the new graveyard.<br />

<strong>The</strong>se included iron objects (e.g. knives, rings, pins, fishhooks), iron weapons (an axe-head,<br />

a sword pommel, and an armour piercing arrow-head) and bronze objects (e.g. wire, loopheaded<br />

pin, tweezers, needle, pins, buckle, and off-cuts). High status metals were also<br />

recovered (e.g. a fragmentary crucible with a speck of gold, and a silver ingot). Glass and<br />

enamel artefacts were also discovered (e.g. blue glass beads, a green glass bead, a yellow<br />

glass bead, fragments of a blue glass bracelet, and a blue enamel bracelet fragment).<br />

Imported material was present in the form of sherds of E ware, fragments of green porphyry,<br />

pieces of jet, and Hiberno-Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon coins. Many of the finds discovered<br />

point towards industrial activity on site. Crucibles, tuyères, mould fragments and slag indicate<br />

metalworking; spindle whorls indicate textile production; and off-cuts of bone and antler<br />

suggest bone-working and comb manufacture.<br />

(No Plans for New Graveyard were available at time of publication)<br />

Radiocarbon Dates:<br />

(PJ Reimer, MGL Baillie, E Bard, A Bayliss, JW Beck, C Bertrand, PG Blackwell, CE Buck, G Burr, KB Cutler, PE<br />

Damon, RL Edwards, RG Fairbanks, M Friedrich, TP Guilderson, KA Hughen, B Kromer, FG McCormac, S Manning, C<br />

Bronk Ramsey, RW Reimer, S Remmele, JR Southon, M Stuiver, S Talamo, FW Taylor, J van der Plicht, and CE<br />

Weyhenmeyer (2004), Radiocarbon 46:1029-1058).<br />

Sample No. Context<br />

14 C Date Cal. 2 Σ<br />

Gr-? After abandonment of road 860±20 BP A.D. 1056-1075;<br />

A.D. 1154-1224.<br />

Gr-? Pre-house platform 1255±45 BP A.D. 669-876.<br />

construction<br />

Gr-? Pre-house platform 1330±20 BP A.D. 652-695;<br />

construction<br />

A.D. 698-707;<br />

A.D. 748-765.<br />

Gr-? Pre-house platform 1285±25 BP A.D. 669-773.<br />

construction<br />

541

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