House — Neolithic in Clahane

Monitoring of a house construction project by Jacinta Kiely in the townland of Cloghers on the southern side of the River Lee and Tralee town was divided into six phases. Licensed monitoring (98E0238) of Phases V and VI was undertaken in June 1998 and extensive archaeological stratigraphy was recorded during the monitoring of Phase VI. An area of burnt stratigraphy lay on the northern side of a limestone reef, which forms the south- western boundary of the site. An area 12m north-south by 27m was excavated. A Neolithic house was uncovered in the western section of the trench. A series of pits and stake-holes was found in the eastern section of the trench. The archaeology was truncated by a series of cultivation furrows aligned north-south. They were c. 2m apart, 1-1.5m wide and 0.2m deep. There were five pits and a number of stake-holes in the area to the east of the Neolithic house. A small faunal assemblage was recovered from the deepest of the pits. To date, the bones of cow and small perching birds have been identified. The rectangular Neolithic structure measures 7.5m north-south by 12.5m. It is orientated east- west, with a possible entrance to the east. The bedrock in the north-western corner is high, and the line of the structure is incomplete in this area. The remains suggests that the walls of the structure, including the two internal divisions, were constructed with vertical split planks set in bedding trenches, supported by corner posts and intermittent posts located on the line of the walls. Sherds of pottery,fragments of polished mudstone axes, burnt hazelnut shells, mudstone scrapers and flint were recovered from some of the substantial post-holes. The eastern and central room of the structure is 3.5m wide; the western room is 4m wide. No hearth had survived. A fence line lies 0.8m to the south of the southern wall of the structure. It was constructed of small stakes set within a wider bedding trench. An extensive soil sieving programme at the site led to the recovery of cereal grains, with the species so far identified consisting of breadwheat, barley, oats and possibly spelt wheat. Interestingly, the typical Neolithic wheats, emmer and einkorn, have not been identified. Other plant remains included wood charcoal and hazelnut shells. A total of 190 animal bones were also recovered from the site. The occurred in a number of cut features but the majority were recovered from a pit interpreted as a cooking pit. The bones were very fragmentary and exhibited evidence of having been in contact with fire. All the identifiable fragments were from cattle and sheep. Some bone from a probable hare was also recovered, as were three bone fragments from small perching birds. A total of 125 pottery sherds consisting of 9 rim sherds, 2 rim sherd fragments, 3 shoulder sherds, 45 body sherds and 66 fragments, as well as some lumps of baked clay, were found in association with the house. It was estimated that a minimum of 10 vessels were represented. The sherds represent a homogenous assemblage consisting of round bottomed, modestly carinated bowls with simple out-turned rims, typical of 'Western' Neolithic type pottery. Only one sherd was decorated with a simple, lightly incised horizontal line (Helen Roche). The excavator interprets the presence of lumps of baked clay, as evidence of pottery manufacture on site. An assemblage of 350 pieces of worked stone was recovered and examined. Over half of the assemblage consisted of greenstone with flint, quartz (mainly rock crystal), chert and mudstone making up the remainder. The final stages of axe production, as well as the reuse of polished axes is documented at the site, while it appears that several of the larger greenstone blades were probably used as cutting tools. The flint assemblage is based on the exploitation of small beach pebbles, while there are three retouched pieces: a bifacially retouched leaf shaped arrowhead fragment and two distal end scrapers on primary flakes. The quartz rock crystal assemblage suggests the production of a series of small flakes by hard hammer and bipolar reduction. The other materials are represented solely by debitage. Several refits were made in the greenstone and quartz, while extensive sieving recovered small fraction debitage indicating the reduction of all materials on site. The excavator suggests that the evidence for axe production and reuse differentiates the Cloghers assemblage from the assemblages recovered at most Neolithic houses excavated in the south.While it is thought that the Cloghers material finds greatest parallel within the Lough Gur assemblages, sharing a similar pattern of raw material exploitation and the presence of greenstone axes (Jacinta Kiely pers. com.). The radiocarbon dates from the Neolithic house at Cloghers were both taken from hazelnut shells recovered from wall features of the house and both shell groups were found in association with 'Western' Neolithic type pottery. The dates were returned at 5645-5580 & 5715-5590 Cal. BP respectively. Above description is from 'Tralee Area Monument Catalogue' part of a PhD thesis submitted by Michael Connolly to UCC. Compiled by: Matt Kelleher