County: Cork Site name: Ballyveerane 1
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E004966
Author: John O'Connor, Rubicon Heritage Services Ltd
Site type: Prehistoric burnt mound
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 534190m, N 574132m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.915437, -8.956616
Excavation by Rubicon Heritage Ltd at Ballyveerane 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 area of excavation measured 1070 m², and revealed a burnt mound, trough, stone built hearth, and 36 stake-holes dating to the Middle Bronze Age, and an early modern stone-lined trackway.
The burnt mound at Ballyveerane 1 measured 14.4 m (NE-SW) by 16.47 m (NW-SE). Five distinct layers of heat affected stone were identified in the mound material.
Excavation revealed the trough was stone lined, with the stones held in place with clay. A well-built U-shaped stone platform was located at the eastern end of the trough, with a sloped stone to facilitate rolling hot rocks into the trough water, and a curved windbreak was located around the eastern end of the hearth. A spring in the lower corner of the trough appears to have been a convenient source of water. Stakeholes along the north of the trough would indicate that some timber structures were built close to the trough; whether these were drying racks, a wind-break or had some other function is difficult to say. A layer of redeposited subsoil to the east of the trough likely represents the material displaced on its excavation.
A kerb-lined trackway ran across the excavation area, running northwest-southeast. The trackway consisted of ten deposits, including construction and post-use deposits on either side. The distance between the two rows of kerb stones was between 0.75 and 1.25m. A probable unused sandstone disc quern, an artefact type in use in Ireland from the early medieval period until the early 20th century, formed part of this kerb. The surface of the trackway was a grey silty clay with moderate sub-angular stone inclusions, with layers above this representing natural accumulation of material following the end of the trackways use. This appeared to line up with a field boundary on the 6” 1st edition and 25” 2nd edition mapping and may represent a localised trackway to traverse this particularly wet area of the field.
Specialist analysis
Analysis of 407 charcoal fragments from the burnt mound and related features, including the stone setting, clay lining and fills of a stone trough, revealed a mixed assemblage of wood types, dominated by oak, holly and hazel. Ring curvature analysis indicates a fuel resource strategy of felling whole trees coupled with the selective removal of branches from smaller trees. Comparison of the identified taxa to the nearby semi-natural Gearagh and Prohus ancient oak woodlands reveals that both of these woodland types could have been resourced for burnt mound fuel, with these woodlands likely to have been more extensive during the Bronze Age.
Charred plant remains analysis also revealed a small assemblage of charred cereal remains including grains of hulled barley (likely 6-row hulled barley), naked barley, emmer wheat and probable bread/club wheat. The recovery of emmer wheat spikelets from the stone setting of trough (89) indicates the processing of cereals and it is possible that the waste from this activity was used as tinder to light the wood fuel in the burnt mound related activity.
Organic Residue Analysis of burnt stone from trough (039)) provided a clear lipid profile dominated by the C16 and C18 fatty acids, typically indicative of degraded animal product processing. This demonstrates that processing of animal carcasses, mainly ruminant, cattle, sheep or goat, possibly with the occasional pig, may have occurred in the trough. This indicates a possible use for cooking or leather working, though the trough may have had other functions’
Three finds were retrieved from the site. A sherd of early modern Pearlware was recovered from a disturbed upper deposit (012) of the burnt mound. A probable disc quern rough out was found to have been used as part of the stone-lined kerb (003) of the trackway. A loop of copper alloy wire, which has been fastened by twisting the ends, was recovered from deposit (010) relating to the trackway and is most likely post-medieval/ early modern period in origin.
Dating
A total of four radiocarbon dates were obtained from charred emmer wheat, maloideae, cherry type, and wild cherry charcoal for the troughs, the mound, the trackway and the stone-built hearth excavated at Ballyveerane 1. The radiocarbon dating results show that the burnt mound activity at the site took place within the Middle Bronze Age, sometime between 1511-1426 cal BC (SUERC-87483) and 1408-1262 cal BC (SUERC-87482).
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