2016:872 - Lisnageeha or Antigua 2, Mayo

The site at Lisnageeha or Antigua 2 was excavated in advance of the construction of the N5 Westport to Turlough Road Project, at c. 50m Ordnance Datum on the crest of a slight hill that slopes to the south-west and north-west. The site comprised a linear ditch (F01/F07) extending north-west to south-east across the site and into which an L- or comma-shaped cereal-drying kiln had been cut. Six animal bone fragments, four representing bird bones and two from a cattle metatarsal, as well as one bone fragment unidentifiable to species or element, were recovered from the main fill (F11) of the ditch.

The kiln comprised a drying chamber or bowl (F17), the collapsed remains of a stone-lined flue (F21/F22), a stoke-hole (F26), a fire pit (F19 & F29) within a roughly L-shaped stone setting (F20) that may have been the remains of a fire box, eleven stake-holes (F23 a–k) arranged in an arc around the eastern side of the cereal-drying kiln and five post-holes (F24, F25, F27, F28 & F30). A sample from the fill (F18) of the bowl included a  large quantity of hazel charcoal, a small quantity of charred plant macro-remains, including oat, barley, wheat and cereal grains indeterminate to species. The upper (F19) and lower (F29) deposits of the fire pit also contained high quantities of charcoal, dominated by hazel with a small amount of ash, as well as charred plant macro-remains, including a dominance of oat with lesser amounts of barley, wheat and some indeterminate to species, and a single apple endocarp from the lower deposit. Four charred hazelnut shell fragments were also recovered from the area of the stoke-hole (F26).

A single pit (F02) was located 1.64m north-east of the kiln. The base of this pit was partially oxidised, perhaps as a result of material cleaned out from the kiln being dumped into the pit, the fill of which included a high quantity of charcoal, dominated by hazel with lesser amounts of ash, as well as charred cereal grain that was dominated by oat, with lesser amounts of barley, wheat and some indeterminate to species.

A 1g fragment of hazel charcoal from the fill (F18) of the kiln bowl returned a date of 830 ± 30 BP, giving a 2-sigma calibrated date range of AD 1167–1269 (Poz-99293), while a 0.07g fragment of ash charcoal from the upper deposit (F19) of the fire pit returned a date of 815 ± 30 BP, giving a 2-sigma calibrated date range of AD 1175–1275 (Poz-99294), both of which suggest a late medieval date for the cereal-drying kiln. This date is consistent with other L-shaped or comma-shaped kilns, which are a variation on the keyhole-shaped kilns that functioned from the ninth or tenth century into the fourteenth century AD (Monk & Kelleher 2005).

Lisnageeha or Antigua 2 represents a cereal-drying kiln dated to the mid-12th to mid-13th century and placed into an earlier field boundary ditch. Other medieval sites were also discovered in advance of the construction of the N5 Westport to Turlough Road Project, including several associated with metalworking in the form of smithing hearths and charcoal-production pits, such as the two pits at Aghadrinagh 1 (E004679) dated to AD 1027–1166 and located c. 600 m to the south-west of Lisnageeha or Antigua 2, while c. 300 m to the north-east, an isolated hearth at Lisnakirka or Milebush 1 (E004738) was dated to AD 995–1158.

Reference:

Monk, M & Kelleher, E  2005  ‘An assessment of the archaeological evidence for Irish corn-drying kilns in the light of the results of archaeological experiments and archaebotanical studies’, The Journal of Irish Archaeology, Vol. 14, 77–144.

Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth.