1995:240 - NEW GRAVEYARD, Clonmacnoise, Offaly

Excavation continued on this site with funding from the Office of Public Works and Offaly County Council (see Excavations 1990, 49; 1991, 40–41; 1992, 53–4; 1993, 66–7; 1994, 74–5). Cutting 10, which was partially excavated in 1994, was reopened, but time did not allow for this area to be finalised and it was again backfilled. Cutting 11, with an area of 1545 m2, was excavated to natural.

Cutting 11 linked Cuttings 1–5 on the west with Cuttings 7 and 10 on the east. The principal feature uncovered in this season's excavation was a metalled road running in a north-east/south-west direction across the site. It ran from close to the northern enclosing wall of the New Graveyard, which separates the burying-ground from the callows beside the Shannon, toward the higher ground on which the churches are built. The road was located immediately below the disturbed topsoil and consisted of layers and deposits of gravels to a max. depth of 0.7m. On the Shannon side of the cutting, the road lay directly on natural alluvial deposits, but on the uphill end of the cutting it overlay several Early Christian levels. It was c. 3m in width and the max. length uncovered was 18.5m. It was cut by a large refuse pit which produced a crutch-headed ringed pin with a date range of 1000–1075. This would suggest that the road had fallen out of use before the end of the first millennium.

Adjacent to the road on the east was a rectangular or D-shaped platform of yellow sand retained by large boulders. Dimensions were 6m east-west by 3m (min.) north-south. The full extent of this feature cannot be recovered as it has been destroyed by modern burial. This platform was similar to the previous examples found and brings the total number of 'house' platforms to five. A large post-pit within the structure may have held a roof support. The platform for Round House 1 was located c. 7m to the west at the same level above the Shannon, but on the west side of the road (Cuttings 1, 3 and 5). Both structures are probably contemporary with the road or street.

Two other large pits were excavated; one was dug through the floor of Platform 5 and appears to have been a storage pit as it had a peat lining and may have had a wooden cover which subsequently was burnt and collapsed into the pit. The second pit was stone-lined, 2.2m in diameter and c. 2.2m in depth and probably functioned as a well-shaft. Having fallen out of use, it would appear that it had been quickly and deliberately backfilled. Other smaller pits, postholes and cobbled/flagged areas were also uncovered. A fragmentary human burial, probably dating to the post-medieval period, was found.

A number of C14 dates supplied by the Groningen laboratory have corroborated the basic dating outline for the stratigraphy on the site, with one surprising addition. The most modern activity on the site has produced a date of 860±20 BP. This activity is mainly concerned with pits, paved area and postholes that cut through or are stratigraphically later than the house platforms and the road. Three dates of 1255±45 BP, 1330±20 BP and 1285±25 BP from the levels immediately prior to the construction of the house platforms suggest a 7th-century date for the beginnings of Early Christian activity in this area of the monastery, with the house platforms possibly being constructed in the 8th century. The most surprising date was 2280±25 BP, which came from a pit filled with partially burnt timber below the early alluvial deposits and suggests some pre-Early Christian activity in the area. A further 34 pits, running in arcs beneath the alluvial deposits, were found, and these may also belong to the Iron Age. They ranged in size from 0.5m to 1m in diameter and between 0.5m and 0.7m in depth and many had clearly functioned as post-pits as the packing stones survived. The majority of them appeared when the overlying sod collapsed into a void, indicating that a timber had rotted in situ.

Seven hundred and forty-three artefacts were found this year. Material recovered from sieving the topsoil included a small quantity of medieval and post-medieval pottery, an armour-piercing arrowhead, flint, cross-slab fragments, hone stones, blue glass beads, jet/lignite bracelet fragments, cut/decorated bone fragments including combs and beads, bone pins, bronze stick-pins, tweezers and sewing needles, a bronze escutcheon, a decorated tinned bronze disc with rivets, iron knives, nails and other miscellaneous objects. Stratified material included bronze stick- and ringed pins, decorated offcuts of bronze, a bronze mount and a binding strip, a very large range of iron objects including several knives, pointed and slotted objects and padlock keys, jet/lignite discs and bracelet fragments, bone handle, decorated bone pieces, crucible and mould fragments, mortar, slag and furnace bottoms, hones, quernstone fragments and flint scrapers. One pit produced a very large quantity of antler tines: cut, worked and shaved rolls of antler which would appear to represent the clearing out of a workshop floor.

51 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2