Arch early medieval ireland bar

Early Medieval Dwellings and Settlements in Ireland, AD 400–1100 Aidan O’Sullivan Finbar McCormick Thomas R. Kerr Lorcan Harney Jonathan Kinsella

BAR International Series 2604 2014

Published by Archaeopress Publishers of British Archaeological Reports Gordon House 276 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7ED England bar@archaeopress.com www.archaeopress.com

BAR S2604 Early Medieval Dwellings and Settlements in Ireland, AD 400–1100 © Archaeopress, A O’Sullivan, F McCormick, T R Kerr, L Harney and J Kinsella 2014

ISBN 978 1 4073 1227 9 Cover image: photo reconstruction of an early medieval monastic settlement, by Conor McDermott, UCD School of Archaeology, based on images from Clonmacnoise and elsewhere

The Early Medieval Archaeology Project (EMAP) gratefully acknowledges the support of the Heritage Council through their Irish National Strategic Archaeological Research (INSTAR) programme, which is funded by the National Monuments Service of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

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The current BAR catalogue with details of all titles in print, prices and means of payment is available free from Hadrian Books or may be downloaded from www.archaeopress.com

CONTENTS

List of Tables and Figures ................................................................................................................................................ vii Preface .............................................................................................................................................................................. xi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................... 1 A brief historiographical analysis of early medieval settlement excavations in Ireland ........................................... 1 Origins: university and state-funded archaeological excavations in the mid-20th century .............................................. 1 EU Membership and the origins and development of Commercial Archaeology .............................................................. 3 The 1990s: The establishment of new Protective Legislation and Codes of Practice for Archaeological Heritage .......... 4 Digging through the Celtic Tiger boom: the mitigation of Infrastructural and Commercial Projects, c.1995-2010. ........ 5 Conclusions: changing excavation strategies and the development of the early medieval archaeological resource, 1930-2010 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER TWO: EARLY MEDIEVAL HOUSES AND BUILDINGS IN IRELAND . 9 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................................... 9 History of Research and Excavation ............................................................................................................................. 9 Domestic Houses in Early Medieval Rural Settlement Enclosures .......................................................................... 10 Houses in early medieval rural settlement enclosures, c. A.D. 400-800 ......................................................................... 10 Houses in early medieval rural settlement enclosures, c. A.D. 800-1100 ...................................................................... 11 Storage buildings, workshops and outhouses in early medieval enclosed ‘rural’ contexts .................................... 12 Sod-Walled Huts and Drystone-Built Clocháns in Western Ireland ......................................................................... 13 Houses at Early Medieval Unenclosed Settlements . .................................................................................................. 15 Dwelling structures at Coastal Occupations and Shell Midden Sites . ...................................................................... 17 Caves as Early Medieval ‘Houses’? .............................................................................................................................. 18 Souterrains as Places of Underground Habitation, Refuge or Storage, c. 700-1100? ............................................. 18 Souterrains and Associated Houses, c. 700-1100 . ........................................................................................................... 19 Early medieval rural settlement and social and ideological change: the evidence for houses and dwellings in the tenth-twelfth century . ................................................................................................................................................... 21 Norse Houses and Buildings in Urban and Rural contexts, c.AD 800-1170 .. ......................................................... . 22 Introduction . ................................................................................................................................................................... 22 House types in Norse towns . .......................................................................................................................................... . 22 Possible Norse or Hiberno-Scandinavian houses and buildings in rural contexts ... ................................................. ..... 24 Hearths, Doorways, Occupation Floors, Beds and Other Furnishings ................................................................... . 26 Introduction . .................................................................................................................................................................. . 26 Hearths and fireplaces: Symbols of the household . ....................................................................................................... . 26 Doorways . ...................................................................................................................................................................... . 26 Internal furnishings ... .................................................................................................................................................... . 27 Occupation floors .......................................................................................................................................................... . 27 Domestic Life: Artefactual and Paleoenvironmental Evidence from Houses .... ...................................................... 28 House Biographies and ‘Special Deposits’ .... ............................................................................................................. . 29 Introduction .... 29 Foundation deposits .................................................................................................................................................. ..... 29 Changing places .......................................................................................................................................................... ... 29 Protective or totemic items of the house ...................................................................................................................... ... 30 Marking the death of the house or structure ............................................................................................................... .... 31 Identifying Houses of Different Social Grades in Early Medieval Ireland ........................................................... ... 32 Aristocratic Houses: Status and Kingship and early medieval houses ......................................................................... .. 32 Dwellings of the ‘middle class’ .................................................................................................................................... ... 33 Dwellings of the poor and unfree ................................................................................................................................... 33 Domestic Space and Concepts of Privacy .............................................................................................................. ..... 34 Conclusions .... 34 CHAPTER THREE: THE ORGANISATION AND LAYOUT OF EARLY MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENT SPACES . ...................................................................................................................................................................... .. 36 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................ .. 36 Early Medieval Settlement Enclosures . ...................................................................................................................... 36 iii

Raths, ringforts and cashels .. ........................................................................................................................................ . 36 Raised and platform settlement enclosures ................................................................................................................... .. 36 Crannogs .. ...................................................................................................................................................................... 37 Promontory forts ............................................................................................................................................................ . 37 Settlement/Cemeteries ..................................................................................................................................................... 37 Defining Early Medieval Settlement Enclosures: Walls, Banks, Ditches, and Palisades .................................... .... 38 Enclosing Walls .......................................................................................................................................................... .... 38 Enclosing Banks . .......................................................................................................................................................... .. 38 Enclosing Ditches .......................................................................................................................................................... . 39 Enclosing wooden palisades, fences and revetments ...................................................................................................... 40 Entrances and Gateways . ........................................................................................................................................... .. 41 Controlling Movement: Passageways and Pathways ............................................................................................... .. 43 The Layout and Organisation of Enclosed Settlement Spaces: Boundaries and Plots ........................................... 44 Chronology, Change and Cultural Biographies . ...................................................................................................... .. 47 The Early Medieval Church and Ecclesiastical Settlement Enclosures .................................................................. ..50 Defining Early Medieval Ecclesiastical Enclosures – Walls, Banks and Ditches .................................................. .. 51 Enclosing Walls ......................................................................................................................................................... ..... 51 Enclosing Banks . ........................................................................................................................................................ .... 51 Enclosing Ditches ........................................................................................................................................................ ... 51 Entrances and Gateways ........................................................................................................................................... ....51 Controlling Movement: Passageways, Pathways and Roads .................................................................................... .51 The Layout and Organisation of Ecclesiastical Enclosures: Internal Spaces, Boundaries and Plots..................... 52 Early Medieval Ecclesiastical Enclosures: Their Chronology and Cultural Biographies ................................... ... 53 Viking and Hiberno-Norse Enclosed Settlements: longphorts and towns ........................................................... ..... 55 The Viking Longphort in Ireland .................................................................................................................................. .. 55 The Norse or Hiberno-Scandinavian town in Ireland .................................................................................................... 55 Defining Norse or Hiberno-Scandinavian urban settlements: Banks, Walls, Ditches and Revetments . ............... 56 Enclosing Banks and walls .............................................................................................................................................. 56 Enclosing Ditches ............................................................................................................................................................ 57 Enclosing Revetments ...................................................................................................................................................... 57 The Lay-out and Organisation of Space within Norse or Hiberno-Scandinavian towns ........................................ 57 Passageways, Pathways and Roads.................................................................................................................................. 57 Property plots and boundaries .................................................................................................................................. ..... 58 Living conditions within Norse towns ............................................................................................................................... 59 Norse or Hiberno-Scandinavian towns: Chronology and Change ............................................................................ 60 Conclusions...................................................................................................................................................................... 61 CHAPTER FOUR: AGRICULTURE, ECONOMY AND EARLY MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENTS .. 63 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................... 63 Early Medieval Settlement Enclosures as Farmyards: Houses, Sheds, Livestock Pens, Dungheaps and Pits...... . 63 The early medieval legal sources ................................................................................................................................ .... 63 Storage Buildings and Outhouse ...................................................................................................................................... 63 Pits – industry and waste disposal .................................................................................................................................. 64 Internal Divisions Within Settlement Enclosures: the Spatial organisation of economic activities ................................. 64 External Gardens and Fields ........................................................................................................................................ 65 Early medieval legal sources ........................................................................................................................................... 65 Field boundaries ............................................................................................................................................................... 65 Miscellaneous Livestock Enclosure .............................................................................................................................. 67 Early medieval legal source ............................................................................................................................................ 67 Other enclosures ............................................................................................................................................................... 67 Upland Transhumance Settlements .. .......................................................................................................................... 68 Booleying and transhumance in early medieval Ireland ............................................................................................. ... 68 Unenclosed Settlements as Farmyards ......................................................................................................................... 69 Cereal-Drying Kilns and Horizontal Watermills – Arable Agriculture as Part of the Wider Settlement Landscape ........................................................................................................................................................................ 69 The Celtic Tiger excavations and the identification of farming landscapes ................................................................... 69 The role of livestock and dairying ............................................................................................................................. ..... 69 Crop cultivation, cereal-drying kilns and processing . .................................................................................................... 70 Horizontal watermills ................................................................................................................................................. .... 70 Transformations in early medieval agriculture ............................................................................................................... 71 The Organisation of the Domestic Economy: Agricultural Labour, Food Production and Food Types . ............. 72 iv

Farm labour ..................................................................................................................................................................... 72 Technologies and materiality of agricultural labour ...................................................................................................... 72 Food preparation .............................................................................................................................................................. 73 Food and Diet ................................................................................................................................................................. 73 The Evidence for Agricultural Economy in Relation to Norse towns ....................................................................... 75 Conclusions ..................................................................................................................................................................... 76 CHAPTER FIVE: EARLY MEDIEVAL CRAFTS AND INDUSTRY ON SETTLEMENTS .............................. 77 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................................. .... 77 Early medieval Ironworking ....................................................................................................................................... . 77 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................... ..... 77 Artefacts ..................................................................................................................................................................... ..... 77 Raw materials, processes, manufacturing .................................................................................................................... .. 77 The status and role of the blacksmith and the contexts of ironworking ............................................................... ... 81 Contexts of ironworking ................................................................................................................................................ . 81 Levels of ironworking ..................................................................................................................................................... 83 Early Medieval Non-Ferrous Metalworking ........................................................................................................... ... 84 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................. ... 84 Raw materials, processes, manufacturing .................................................................................................................... .. 85 Non-ferrous metalworking workshops ..................................................................................................................... .. 87 Contexts of non-ferrous metalworking ............................................................................................................................ 88 Levels of metalworking ................................................................................................................................................... 89 Glass, Enamel and Milliefiori-Working ...................................................................................................................... 89 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................ .... 89 Artefacts ....................................................................................................................................................................... ... 89 Raw materials, processes, manufacturing ................................................................................................................... ... 90 Scientific analysis of vitreous materials ..................................................................................................................... .... 91 Contexts of glass-working ........................................................................................................................................... .... 91 Levels of glass-working ................................................................................................................................................... 91 Stone-Working .......................................................................................................................................................... .... 91 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................. ... 91 Building material .......................................................................................................................................................... .. 92 Artefacts 9 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 92 Contexts of stone-working ........................................................................................................................................... ... 94 Carpentry and Wood-Working .................................................................................................................................. . 95 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................... 95 Wood-working tools ........................................................................................................................................................ . 95 Artefacts and wood-working techniques ...................................................................................................................... ... 96 Contexts of wood-working . ............................................................................................................................................ . 97 Bone, Antler and Horn-Working . ............................................................................................................................. .. 98 Introduction . ................................................................................................................................................................... 98 Artefacts .......................................................................................................................................................................... . 98 Raw materials, processes, manufacturing . ..................................................................................................................... 99 Contexts of bone-, antler- and horn-working ............................................................................................................ ... 100 Levels of bone-, antler- and horn-working ................................................................................................................ ... 100 Textile Production ..................................................................................................................................................... . 101 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................... ... 101 Tools, raw materials, processes, manufacturing . ......................................................................................................... 101 Contexts of textile-working . ......................................................................................................................................... . 104 Leather-Working .. ...................................................................................................................................................... 104 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................. 104 Artefacts .. ...................................................................................................................................................................... 104 Tools, raw materials, processes, manufacturing ........................................................................................................... 105 Contexts of leather-working ....................................................................................................................................... .. 106 Clay-Working, Pottery and Manufacturing Tools .................................................................................................. . 106 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................... ... 106 Tools ............................................................................................................................................................................. 106 Clay as a resource . ...................................................................................................................................................... . 106 Raw materials, processes, manufacturing ................................................................................................................. ... 107 Contexts of clay-working ......................................................................................................................................... ..... 108 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................................. . 108 v

CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSIONS........................................................................................................................ ..... 110 APPENDIX A Gazetteer of a Selection of Early Medieval Settlements in Ireland

by Thomas Kerr, Lorcan Harney, Jonathan Kinsella, Aidan O’Sullivan & Finbar McCormick . ............................. .... 112 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................................................... .. 497

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