2018:402 - Ballymakeery 1, Cork

Excavation by Rubicon Heritage Ltd at Ballymakeery 1 was undertaken as part of the N22 Baile Bhuirne–Macroom Road Scheme (Lot 3) Archaeological Consultancy Services Contract. The excavation was carried out on behalf of Cork County Council and funded by Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

The excavation of Ballymakeery 1 revealed good sub-surface preservation of an early medieval ringfort (RMP CO058-045), with later activity taking place after abandonment. The ringfort is visible on the 1st edition OSi map of 1837-1842 but levelled prior to the 2nd edition map of 1888-1913. A small number of features returned radiocarbon dates from the Mesolithic to the Iron age, suggesting the sites had seen use prior to the main early medieval occupation.

Approximately one third of the ringfort was located within the scheme boundary. The remaining two-thirds of the ringfort remain in-situ to the northeast of the excavated area.

The ditch itself varied greatly in width and depth, possibly due to slumping and subsequent cleaning out during occupation. A stone and post built entrance feature was recorded in the southeast, along with remaining in-situ bank material.

Other than the cluster of postholes at the entranceway there were very few archaeological features associated with ringfort occupation, or features that give us any insight into life at this site. The visible edges of cuts in the edge of excavation suggest that internal features do exist to the northeast and structures may be preserved in-situ in the unexcavated portion of the site.

Specialist analysis

The plant and charcoal assemblage from Ballymakeery 1 provide some insights into the use of natural resources at the site from the Iron Age to the post-medieval period. While the sample evidence for the Iron Age and Post-medieval period was low and difficult to fully contextualise, it did reveal shifts in wood use, particularly emphasising a higher oak presence during the Iron Age and Post-Medieval periods. Wood resource use during the early medieval period is interpreted as being strategic, specifically around the use of oak as a construction material for durable builds and hazel for lighter features. The relatively low occurrence of oak in the assemblage from some features is therefore noteworthy and is interpreted as reflecting a low oak supply to the site. Minor taxa, such as holly, pomaceous woods, cherry, birch alder and willow also formed part of the wood supply to the site and their presence is likely inadvertent firing debris that was distributed or dumped into many open features. These taxa also show that the site was close to a mixed woodland, where scrub and hedgerow species were growing and exploited for firewood and food supply.

The plant remains recovered from the site were in very low frequency, where wheat, oat, barley, tuber root, nut, fruit and bedstraw were recorded from the medieval deposits. Poor retrieval may lie in the fact that the remains represent incidental debris from domestic activities or small-scale crop drying events.

The animal bone assemblage consisted of a single burnt bone fragment too small to further analyse.

The assemblage of metalworking waste material represents typical remains of early iron smithing and includes both smithing hearth cakes and a tuyere front. None of the excavated features were related to metalworking so the activity, while likely contemporary with the ringfort, took place elsewhere, perhaps within the unexcavated portion of the ringfort interior or nearby.

A single unutilised quartz flake fragment (E4910:038:001) was retrieved during the excavations. It seems likely that the production, use and ultimate discard of this artefact dates to the prehistoric period rather than the early medieval domestic activity. A single sherd (E004910:001:001) of Middle to Late Bronze Age pottery was found in the topsoil. Twelve sherds of pottery, a single stem fragment from a clay tobacco pipe, two small glass shards and six ferrous objects, all of which date to the early modern or modern periods, were also retrieved.

Five ground stone objects were retrieved during the excavation, including two whetstones, a possible hammerstone, an incomplete saddle quern and the complete upper stone of a disc quern.

Dating

A total of 18 radiocarbon dates were obtained from various charcoals, charred grain and nut shell from a variety of features excavated at Ballymakeery 1. A single sample of charcoal from the bank material returned a Mesolithic date range of 5312-5080 cal BC (2σ) (SUERC-86522). Two features returned Neolithic dates, with a date range of 3348-2973 cal BC, although one of these was a secondary deposition. Two features, posthole (185) and pit (087), returned Iron Age dates, with a combined date range of 762-400 cal BC. The remaining twelve radiocarbon dates for Ballymakeery 1 returned early medieval dates, with a total date range of cal AD 665-1023. This constitutes the main phase of activity at Ballymakeery 1 and is associated with ringfort CO058-045.

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