2007:286 - KNOCKATREENANE, Cork

In summer 2007 the Department of Archaeology in UCC investigated a prehistoric ring-barrow near Killumney, Co. Cork. This project is part of a wider study of the later prehistory of mid-Cork, and also addressed conservation issues at the site in question. The Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government collaborated with UCC to fund the work. The monument is a C-shaped earthwork enclosure, measuring c. 27m in overall diameter, comprising a low earthen bank and an internal ditch, with a flat central area.

The project was carried out over a nine-week period, involving surface and subsurface survey of the monument and its environs, followed by archaeological excavation and site conservation work. The aim of the excavation was to recover information relating to the construction and use history of this monument and its cultural affinities. Five trenches excavated over 41% of the visible monument yielded some significant results. The monument was not levelled on the eastern side as was initially thought, but was originally C-shaped in plan. It was built by digging a flat-bottomed ditch to a depth of 1m, in a semi-circular shape opening to the east. Soil and quarried rock from the ditch was piled close to its outer edge to form a low external bank.

The barrow appears to have been built exclusively for ritual purposes, connected to the burial of an important individual, and for religious observances during and after this funeral event. The enclosing bank and ditch served to demarcate the sacred space at the site and also provided a stage-like setting for the performance of ritual ceremonies. This was accentuated by the height of the enclosing bank and the way the monument opened to the east to allow mourners to gather in full view of the central platform. This area was undoubtedly the focus for the funeral ceremony, which involved placing an adult male cremation in a central pit. The burial pit was carefully marked with an arrangement of round stones, as well as a single fragment of white quartz of probable magical symbolism.

The excavation evidence suggests that funerary activity at the site was possibly limited to a single interment, also involving the placing of food offerings and the lighting of fires as part of the funeral ceremony. The monument does not appear to have a longer history of use, though various remembrance ceremonies connected to this burial are likely in the years that followed. There does not appear to have been any effort to keep the enclosing ditch open after the monument was built. The discovery of a single lump of iron slag, as well as some charcoal, in the central fill of the ditch is the only evidence of later human activity at the monument. This iron slag may be refuse but might also be connected with metal-making magic in later times.

With radiocarbon dates pending, and in the absence of other dating or cultural indicators, it is not possible to interpret the Knockatreenane barrow within a broader settlement context. The site is located in an area of mid-Cork that is rich in megalithic monuments of Bronze Age date, including stone circles, stone rows, single monoliths and boulder-burials. The presence of large numbers of fulachta fiadh from the same period along this ridge may provide a local settlement context for the barrow. Radiocarbon dating should clarify the chronological relationship of these sites, in particular the relationship of this barrow to a Late Bronze Age hillfort located at Clashanimud, 5km to the south.