EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Armagh
Dressogagh, Co. Armagh
Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure.
Grid Ref: H93075543 (29307/35543)
SMR No: ARM 009:001
Excavation Licence: N/A
Excavation Duration/Year: Spring 1964.
Site Directors: A.E.P. Collins (Archaeological Survey of Northern Ireland)
The site consisted of an irregular, ‘pear-shaped’ enclosure (Fig. 42) (29m by 34m internally)
set on the northern slope of a drumlin. Farm improvement threatened the enclosure, leading
to the excavation of the site.
Excavation through the inner bank and ditch revealed an earlier, pre-bank occupation layer.
This was indicated by the presence of an iron-smelting hearth (and associated iron slag)
located beneath the present inner bank. It was, however, suggested by the excavator that
the smelting hearth and inner ditch may have been contemporary features, suggesting
perhaps that the present bank may not have matched the proportions of the
contemporaneous bank. Indeed it would appear that scarping of the outer face of the bank,
and re-cutting of the ditch, were undertaken in recent years to assist in drainage.
The major feature on the site consisted of a ‘figure-of-eight’ house (Fig. 43). Both parts of
the house respected each other, and were held to be contemporary, rather than a succession
of roundhouses; and both ‘rooms’ were found to contain a central hearth. Both of the hearths
were flanked by small post-holes, which have been interpreted as supports for a cooking
crane. Small circles of charcoal found in the centre of the slot trenches would appear to
represent the remains of the vertical wands used in wickerwork, implying that the structure
had wicker, or wattle-and-daub, walls.
Two sherds of soutterain ware were found in the old turf-line under the main bank. These
finds, along with the presence of the smelting-hearth, suggests that the site was occupied
prior to the construction of the main bank and ditch. Over 50 sherds of soutterain ware were
recovered from the house, as well as fragments of a fine bronze chain.
Fig. 43: Plan of Dressogagh, Co. Armagh (after Collins 1966, 118).
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