2009:706 - KILTEASHEEN, Roscommon

The 2009 field season at the Bishop’s Seat, Kilteasheen, Knockvicar, Co. Roscommon, ran over four weeks, from 1 to 26 June 2009. This was the fifth and final season of the excavation and the fourth funded by the Royal Irish Academy (see Excavations 2008, No. 1034, for earlier work). This final field season brings the amount of time spent excavating on site to 25, weeks with the successful completion of all thirteen cuttings.
This year’s excavation strategy was focused on completing the excavation of Cutting J inside the hall-house, started in 2008. In addition, three new cuttings were excavated along the exterior of the building. The first of these, Cutting K, comprised an extension to Cutting I (excavated in 2008) and concerned the full exposure of the fore-building located on the north-west corner of the hall-house. Cutting L originally proposed targeting the north-east corner of the building but had to be divided into two separate cuttings, Cutting L North and Cutting L East, given the presence of a substantial tree on the extreme external north-east corner of the hall-house. Cutting L North covers the northern section of the original cutting and Cutting L East covers the eastern section of the original cutting.
After the completion of the 2008 field season, it was felt that the potential importance of the building, possibly being a hall-house of very early construction if it could be definitively tied to the annalistic reference of a bishop’s cúirt constructed in 1253 AD, warranted further investigation. The 2009 excavation targeted the completion of Cutting J, the last section of the interior of the building to be excavated and the most dense archaeologically, and Cuttings K and L, which targeted the fore-building and the northern and eastern external wall faces of the building. The purpose of Cuttings K and L, was to provide as much evidence as possible to the construction and phasing of the building. One of the primary goals of the 2009 excavation was to obtain concrete dating evidence for the initial construction of the building. To this end, Dr Jason Bolton was contracted to provide an analysis of the mortars and, if possible, extract sufficient organic material to obtain a 14C date. Unfortunately this was not possible, due to the lack of bedding mortar in general and the lack of organic inclusions in particular. Dating of the building will now have to be done indirectly, through the dating of samples from associated features, all of which either pre-or post-date the construction of the building.
The analysis and phasing of the building’s construction is still ongoing, with the 2009 excavation revealing multiple phases of construction and re-building. The fore-building itself exhibits three distinct phases of construction, all of which post-date the main building. A complete architectural analysis of the building will be carried out by Shirley Markley over the course of the post-excavation programme. We still feel the building’s original incarnation was that of the cúirt mentioned in the annals, although it is clear that it underwent several phases of reuse and reconstruction. Our analysis of the building, its fabric and its associated features reveals a complex palimpsest of use. It is clear, however, from all the initial analyses that this building is quite unique and does not fit comfortably into any traditional building categories.
Apart from one feature, F559/F560, which seems to pre-date the building, all of the other features inside the building appear to be associated with later industrial activity or building collapse. The finds associated with the activity, apart from the prehistoric lithics which are prevalent across the entirety of the site, are definitely medieval and include a wide variety of items including segmented and non-segmented blue-glass beads, fragments of bone/antler comb and several pieces of fine/decorated copper-alloy material such as a belt fragment, horse gear and clasps/buttons. None of these items have yet been examined by a specialist but appear to be typical of earlier medieval contexts. While all of these finds have been retrieved from contexts associated with later industrial activity, it is unclear whether their context is primary or secondary. These finds may be associated with the original construction/use of the building as they would be typical of a high-status Gaelic medieval household, or the slightly later industrial activity, or possibly they even come from contexts earlier than the building, with the considerable number of associated lithics indicating a substantial amount of disturbance of earlier deposits and mixing.

The industrial activity inside the building was considered to be associated with the final use of the building after its intentional demolition in AD 1259. It now seems likely that the building was subject to several phases of reconstruction and reuse either prior to, during and/or post the industrial activity. The later erection of the fore-building and its multiple phases of reconstruction indicate several phases of use post-dating the original building. While a detailed analysis of the building’s main walls is still ongoing, it is clear that the hall-house itself was subject to different phases of construction, with evidence of different building materials and techniques employed for the eastern and western gable walls and possible rebuilding at the north-west corner. In the absence of direct dating material for its construction and its later phases, it will be very difficult to unravel the building’s chronology of construction/reconstruction, use and reuse.
Analysis of the building fabric carried out by Jason Bolton has further complicated a simple interpretation of the building. The main walls of the building were clearly built using clay and not lime mortar as the bonding agent. While this is common of later buildings in Ireland, it is not normally found in buildings from the 12th/13th century, although this could be due to the fact that the presence of clay bonding only becomes apparent through detailed analysis or through partial collapse. In fact, recent examination of a 12th-century church in Sligo by Shirley Markley has identified the use of clay bonding at a much earlier date than is thought to be common (unpublished conservation report: Keelogues Church & Graveyard, Ballaghnatrillick, Co. Sligo [SL006:008/01], February 2007). In addition, the lime render revealed on the internal and external faces of the building’s walls have a high proportion of ceramic fragments, much higher than would be expected in a medieval building, and a distinctive lack of organic materials such as charcoal, making direct dating of the mortar impossible. These renders might very well also be part of the later reconstruction and reuse of the building.
All of the above factors combine to make a unique building. While hall-houses are normally considered to be 13th-century buildings, almost all known examples were believed to be built by the Anglo-Normans. While the hall-house at Kilteasheen is interpreted as the cúirt built by the Bishop of Elphin in AD 1253, it has no distinguishing features that allow it to be definitively dated to the 13th century, or any later period for that matter. The building clearly exhibits unique features and characteristics, many of which may be a product of the several phases of building. These unique features may also be the result of a building constructed in the absence of a native tradition of building stone fortified buildings in 13th-century Gaelic Ireland, borrowing building techniques from a wide variety of sources.