EMAP_2012_Report_6_1.pdf (7.3 MB) - The Heritage Council

the preparatory stage occurred in the ‘other’ group of sites. While evidence for spinning was
more widespread, and generally surpassed the evidence for other stages on most site types,
it is interesting that non-circular sites had more evidence for weaving than for spinning.
Raw materials
Evidence for the raw materials to produce the known wool, linen and silk textiles may be
sought. In the case of silk, this was produced from silkworm cocoons which were not
available in early medieval Ireland, so this raw material (if not also the finished textile) must
have been imported. Wool however was widely available, as evidenced by the presence of
sheep, whose bones are frequent finds on many excavated sites (McCormick et al., 2011).
Although wool might have been clipped from sheep using iron shears, which occur on a
number of sites (see Table 8.12), it has been argued that Irish shears are generally too small
for this purpose, so wool would instead have been plucked from the sheep (FitzGerald 2012,
553). Animal hair, probably from goats, was also used and some textile fragments from
Lagore were made from a mixture of both (Start 1950). The wool or hair needed to be
carefully cleaned and combed to draw the fibres parallel to one another prior to spinning;
rare survivals at Lagore included pieces of wool fleece in the process of being carded, and
also animal hair which was being spun or twisted into thread (Start 1950, 207). Plant
materials including flax and possibly nettle could also provide fibres for textiles; surviving
bolls and seeds of flax may suggest the manufacture of linen (although flax seeds could also
be cultivated for their oil). Flax seeds have been identified at a range of sites including Deer
Park Farms (Kenward & Allison 1994, 93), Carraig Aille II (Ó Ríordáin 1949a, 110) and
Lisleagh II (Monk 1995, 113), as well as at Ballyegan, Boyerstown 3, Castlefarm,
Collierstown, Drumadoon, Lisnagun, and Millockstown (McCormick et al. 2011). The
additional survival of flax capsules and pollen at Deer Park Farms strengthens the evidence
for flax cultivation and processing there (Wincott Heckett 2011, 360). Cultivated flax seeds
have also been recorded in Scandinavian Waterford (Tierney 1997, 888-93) and Wexford
(Bourke 1995, 36), suggesting that these were imported into the towns before being worked
into fibres for spinning. While no nettle fibre textiles have been found, the possibility of the
use of this material, as in other contemporary societies, was noted (Proudfoot 1958, 30), and
recent evidence from the retting wells at Castlefarm supports this idea (O’Connell & Clark
2009, 25).
Processing tools
The range of tools associated with the manufacture of clothing includes some relating to the
preparatory phases of processing the raw material: wool combs or carders, and tools for
heckling or scutching flax. Flax was sown in March or April and was harvested five or six
months later before the seeds had fully ripened. The plants were then dried and the seeds
removed by pulling the heads through a coarse comb. Following this, the plants were
immersed in water (retting) to soften the fibres before being dried, beaten and twisted into
hanks in preparation for spinning (Edwards 1990, 81; Laing 2006, 91). Flat wooden beaters,
possibly used for flax, have been recorded at Lagore and Ballinderry I and II (Laing 2006,
91). Maria FitzGerald (2000, iii, 289-90, 296-8) identified two wooden scutching knives at
each of the crannógs of Lagore and Ballinderry I, suggesting the processing of flax for linen.
She also suggested that iron spikes (one each at Carraig Aille II, Garryduff I and
Cahercommaun (FitzGerald 2000, ii, 19-21) and two at Knowth (FitzGerald 2012, 553)) were
possibly heckle teeth, which would originally have been set into wooden handles. Such
wooden parts would only survive in waterlogged conditions; it has been suggested that
slotted wooden beams found at Deer Park Farms could have formed the base of heckling
posts for flax processing (Wincott Heckett 2011, 360). Possible wool carding combs were
identified in the re-interpretation of material from Ballinderry I crannóg (Johnson 1999, 44,
46), and potential wool comb teeth have been found at Cahercommaun, Carraig Aille I and
II, Garryduff, Lagore and Millockstown (FitzGerald 2000, v, 739-43, 745-51).
Overall, however, evidence for these preparatory stages is rare, being largely predicated on
survival and identification; only seventeen sites in the gazetteer provide such evidence. In
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