2002:0594 - GLEBE, Dublin

The excavation of a large ringfort and field system described in Excavations 2000 (No. 300) and Excavations 2001 (No. 425) was completed in April 2002, before the construction of the South-Eastern Motorway at Glebe, a small townland east of Laughanstown in south County Dublin. The site consisted of a 50m-wide enclosure on a steep north-facing slope with a single ditch on average 1.7m long 0.9m deep. It had an entrance on the uphill side at the south-east, which was marked by expanded terminals. At the downhill side the ditch overlooked a deep, wide gully, a topographical glacial feature. Large quantities of stone were found in the ditch at both terminals, suggesting collapsed earth-and-stone banks. The ditch was filled with a variety of silt deposits and redeposited natural and contained a considerable quantity of butchered animal bone, including sheep, pig, horse, goat and dog. Artefacts from the ditch were limited but included a number of inscribed bone trial-pieces, small quantities of slag, a stone pounder, residual flint and a copper ring that may be from a baluster-headed ringed pin. Artefacts from ploughsoil included a stone spindle whorl, blue glass beads, a barbed arrowhead, flint scrapers, Western Neolithic pottery and a large schist adze. On the western side the ringfort ditch had been recut, as it formed part of the townland boundary. Therefore it contained a number of 18th-century artefacts. The western and northern sides of the enclosure had an earthen bank that had been damaged by tree growth and animal activity. A number of trees and dense vegetation were removed, along with a recent stone wall that topped the bank. The western bank was composed of layers of redeposited natural underlying humic overburden and overlying natural boulder clay.

The northern bank was composed of mid-brown, silty, sandy clay containing frequent rounded stones and animal bone, along with a zoomorphic horse-head bone pin. It was cut by two pits that contained slag and burnt and unburnt bone. This overlay a deposit of dark brown, silty sand with charcoal, frequent animal bones and burnt clay. This contained a bone pin, a fragment of a copper-alloy ring, perhaps from a ringed pin, and a burnt rotary quern. A double line of large post-holes that appeared to have been cut through this deposit was excavated. These were confined to the area under the northern bank. It is suggested that the original bank at this point had subsided into the ditch and some of the original interior (including occupation horizons) had been reclaimed and a wooden revetment built to support a new bank. Elsewhere in the enclosure, occupation horizons had been ploughed out, and the only features were found slightly south of centre, facing the entrance: eight shallow post-holes arcing from south-east to north-west. They did not form any formal building arrangement and may have been internal supports for a wattle/stone/clay-footed building. They were situated 2m west of a simple hearth and a subrectangular pit.

Two further external enclosures were formed by a north–south linear ditch that joined the western terminal of the ringfort entrance. A large stone-lined post-hole was excavated c. 1m to the west and has been described in previous bulletins. A further, slightly curving ditch c. 19m to the west ran north–south and may have formed an elongated oval enclosure with a relict ditch, which was incorporated in the present townland boundary. This ditch stopped 3m short of the ringfort ditch in a rounded, expanded terminal that contained large stones. This mimics the ringfort entrance and seems to be a gate into the adjoining field. Both ditches were filled with silt and redeposited natural and contained no artefacts or bone. These field ditches continue beyond the southern limit of the motorway. These are described in more detail in earlier bulletins.

Post-excavation research is well under way, and the results of palaeoenvironmental, geological, faunal, archaeo-metallurgical, radiocarbon-dating, socio-historical/geographical and artefact studies will be incorporated in the excavation findings.

Brehon House, Kilkenny Road, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny