County: Cork Site name: MAUGHANASILLY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Ann Lynch, University of Amsterdam
Site type: Stone row
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 504584m, N 558808m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.773437, -9.382629
The excavation of this stone alignment near Bantry was undertaken with the following objectives in mind:
(i) To detect by means of area excavation any signs of occupation in the form of structures or artifacts;
(ii) To recover dating evidence for the construction of the alignment;
(iii) To obtain a series of samples suitable for pollen and seed analysis and thereby help reconstruct the environmental background of the alignment builders.
The alignment is sited at an altitude of 700ft OD. on the crest of a small boulder-clay hillock in the E-W valley of a tributary of the Coomhola River. The site before excavation consisted of an alignment of 5 standing stones and a large slab, partly overgrown by peat, lay 5m to the SW. An area of 170 sqm. centred on the alignment was excavated and the stratigraphy revealed was as follows: blanket peat (average depth 25cm) overlying a hard grey, gleyed podzol layer (average depth 10cm) which in turn overlay an intermittent iron pan layer on top of orange soil (brown podzol). This brown podzol layer averaged 25cm in depth and overlay undisturbed boulder clay. The sockets of all 5 standing stones had been dug into the top of the gleyed podzol layer which may be regarded as the old ground surface. No evidence was recovered to suggest that the prostrate slab to the SW ever formed part of the alignment. No structural remains were recovered - several charcoal spreads were revealed in the upper levels of the gleyed podzol but none of these were sufficiently well defined to be termed hearth-sites. Two finds were recovered - a flint thumb-nail scraper and a flint waste flake. The charcoal from the burnt areas has been submitted for C14 dating but since no definite association could be proved between these features and the construction/use of the alignment, the resultant date will have to be treated with certain reservations. The basal peat layer has also been submitted for dating. This date should provide a definite terminus ante quem for the alignment. During excavation extensive sampling for pollen and seed analysis was carried out. This analysis is being undertaken at the Instituut voor Prae-en Protohistorie, as part of a larger project on the environmental history of SW Ireland.
