County: Tipperary Site name: DERRYNAFLAN, Lurgoe
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Raghnall O Floinn, National Museum of Ireland, Dublin
Site type: Ecclesiastical enclosure
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 610748m, N 649045m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.592574, -7.841368
The 1986 season concentrated on the area surrounding the hoard findspot (Area 1 in 1985 report) and involved the re-excavation of a trench partially explored in 1980 (see M. Ryan (ed.), The Derrynaflan Hoard 1. A Preliminary Account, Dublin 1983, 52-3).
Re-excavation of the hoard pit indicated that it had been partially dug in the W edge of an oval pit, 3m x 2m, which contained sterile boulder clay. It is thus not possible to establish a terminus post quem for the deposition of the hoard.
A further stretch of the linear ditch contained imported Bii ware. It is the earliest feature on the site and its orientation is at variance with the other ditches and buildings.
Excavation in the 1986 season indicated that the field bank overlay a ditch running N-S outside the E gable of the church. The V-shaped ditch contained charcoal and animal bone, a number of bronze and iron stick pins, bone comb fragments, cut antler and a piece of sheet bronze decorated with an engraved Ringerike-style foliage pattern.
A large pit, 1.8m deep and dug into boulder clay, was back-filled with a mixture of clay and mortar. The back-till also contained a sherd of medieval pottery and the pit may be associated with one of the building phases on the site.
