1980-84:0051 - CORK: Grattan Street, Cork

In February a three-week excavation was carried out during the construction of houses by Cork Corporation on a site in Grattan St. within the area of the medieval town. The excavation was hastily organised as no archaeological provision had been included in the housing scheme. A trench (8m x 2m) was opened along the inside face of the town wall; the outside face was under the street pavement and not accessible. The town wall itself had been used in the 18th century as the foundation for the front wall of houses fronting onto Grattan St. It was probably at that stage that a trench was dug along its inside face, disturbing the stratigraphy in this area. Where undisturbed, a max. depth of  1.5m of archaeological deposits was discovered. This consisted entirely of dumps of organic matter mixed with lenses of oyster shells. No structural features were found. This material contained animal bones, pottery sherds and some fragments of iron nails. Cliona Papazian has recently examined the pottery. Of a total of 274 sherds, 245 were medieval with little difference between the earliest and later layers. Saintonge imports accounted for 77% of the medieval pottery; 3% came from an unknown French production area; 4% was Ham Green; 3% Hereford; 1.6% Bristol/Severn valley; 0.4% Gloucestershire; 3% Spanish Merida and the remaining 8% were of local manufacture. The suggested date-range for this pottery is late 13th to early 14th century.