EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Westmeath
rectangular house, as the timbers were quite complex and skilfully worked, perhaps similar to
timber houses in Hiberno-Scandinavian Dublin. There were enormous quantities of animal
bone on the site. Finds from this phase included two socketed spearheads, a decorated iron
bill-hook, an iron tub hoop, an iron staple, nails, knife-blade fragment, metalworking detritus,
two stone hones, a decorated comb, wooden vessels, wooden carding comb, two wooden
paddles. There was an assemblage of artefacts that were of a distinctively Viking character;
including a Viking long bow, two iron Viking spearheads, an iron Viking sword, an iron Viking
battle axe, two glass linen smoothers and an iron strike-a-light. There was also a collection of
objects that could be described as Hiberno-Scandinavian (with good parallels from tenthcentury
Dublin), including a decorated yew-wood gaming board, motif pieces, a kite brooch,
ringed pins, a hanging lamp, a wooden zoomorphic terminal and a copper-alloy strap end.
Interestingly, the artefacts could be both interpreted as male (i.e. weaponry) and female (i.e.
carding comb, linen smoothers) in character.
Phase 2 – Primary crannog (early to mid eleventh-century AD)
Phase 2 sees the building and occupation of a ‘classic’, but modestly sized crannog, with a
circular palisade (15m diameter), a house and a surrounding timber decking. A deposit of
sterile, black peat was laid over the previous occupation. At the centre of the crannog was a
medium-sized, circular house (House 1), measuring 5m in diameter, constructed of vertical
posts with a possible entrance facing towards the south. The house’s floor was a brushwood
layer, with a wattle screen and a thin layer of clay suggesting that it was renewed. The house
was surrounded (and eccentrically placed within) by a pennanular area of timbers laid
concentrically to it. This appears to have been a timber walkway or decking around the house
(15m in diameter). Human bones were found in the substructure of Phase 2.
Finds from the substructure of Phase 2 included copper-alloy pin fragments, a plain-ringed,
loop-headed pin, two tanged knives, a stone hone, a leather shoe and a pig-fibula pin, a
decorated wooden motif piece, stave-built vessels, a wooden ladle, a boat fragment (probably
a knee from a dugout boat) and paddle. Finds from the occupation layer of Phase 2 included
a copper-alloy strip, a wooden tub, an iron plough coulter, a socketed pronged tool (probably
used for leather working), two iron rings, a lignite bracelet fragment, a double-sided bone
comb and a leather off-cut. Finds from the earliest phase of the house included a plain,
copper-alloy, pennanular brooch (tenth century type), a bronze pin, hones, an antler tip and
a blue glass bracelet. Finds from the intermediate phase of the house included a silver kiteshaped
brooch, three ringed pins, two bone combs, a millstone, hones, wooden containers.
Finds from the final phase of the house included an iron spearhead and a single-sided comb.
Phase 3 – Primary crannog (mid eleventh-century AD)
Phase 3 sees the construction of an enlarged crannog, with a massive pile palisade (26m by
32m), a defined entrance to the southeast, a quay and a brushwood floor. The internal area
of the crannog saw the deposition of a sterile peat layer over the whole area, burying the
previous, abandoned house. A wattle screen was laid down and the site was enlarged to the
east with layers of peat and brushwood. Indeed, the crannog was prone to slumping towards
the east and many more layers were added there. The entrance was quite elaborate, with a
passageway of posts lining the entrance area on either side. There was also a gatepost with a
bar-hole to the southwest, indicating the use of a gate.
Phase 4 – Reconditioning of site (mid to late eleventh-century AD)
Phase 4 saw the reconditioning of the crannog, with the use of two houses, the repair of the
palisade, the blocking of the entrance and the growing importance of the quay (suggesting
that the crannog was now surrounded by water). The interior of the site was levelled off with
peat and branches. There were various hearths within the site which have been interpreted
as the floor of houses. There was a large, centrally placed ‘hearth’ of ashes that developed in
two stages. This could have been a rectangular house floor. There was also two hearths at
the northeast edge of the site (Hencken’s House II and House III), with rectilinear plank
floors and fireplaces. An oak plank palisade was inserted in those places where the pile
palisade was in need of repair, particularly on the eastern side of the site (where the piles
were tilting dramatically). Finds from this phase included (Hencken’s group 2, 3, 4) an iron
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