House — Neolithic in Loughgur

In rocky pasture on the S-facing slope of the Knockadoonon Peninsula, 50m N of and overlooking Lough Gur. The rectangular Neolithic house site (Site A) was discovered in 1939 during a campaign of archaeological excavations over 18 seasons led by Professor Seán P. Ó Ríordáin at Lough Gur (1954, 229). The site is located within an area of dense archaeological activity dating principally from the Neolithic and Bronze Age up to the present day around the lake (Cleary 2018). Further Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement is located adjacent to the site. Archaeological excavations by Ó Ríordáin at Site C (LI032-022012/013-/014-/015-) are located c. 35m to NE. Archaeological excavations by Ó Ríordáin at Site D (LI032-022012-/013/014-/015-) are located c. 60m to ENE. Many other archaeological sites are located on the peninsula, including Circle K (LI032-022028-) located 120m to N. The Neolithic house site (LI032-022010- Site A) is not depicted on historic OSi maps. The rectangular stone wall footings are visible on OSi orthoimages taken 2005-12 and on Digital Globe orthoimages taken 2011-2013. Rose Cleary (2018, 57-60) described the site as follows: ‘at the foot of the lower SW slope of Back Hill on Knockadoon, a stone footing was visible on the ground prior to excavation. The house was rectangular in plan with a N-S axis; the site slope resulted in the S end being 0.6m lower than the N end. The overall internal dimensions were 6.1m (E-W) by 9.75m (N-S). The stone footing was continuous along the perimeter except on the SW corner, where the entrance was located. The stone foundation was randomly set without a formal wall face. The stones were irregular and in places comprised large stones set directly on boulder clay, while other stones sat on the old ground surface or pre-wall sod level. Some of the footing stones were supported and steadied with smaller stones or sods, and clusters of smaller stones also occurred along the line of the footing. The stone foundation stood to a height of one or two courses and possibly formed a type of damp-proof course at the base of a wall made from organic material. Paired post-holes were set along the external and internal perimeters of the stone footing. The post-hole diameters were recorded as 0.18m, with depths of 0.12-0.25m. These dimensions most likely represented the tips of posts where they were driven into boulder clay levels rather than the actual sizes of the posts. Post-holes on Knockadoon Hill are only easily recognisable at boulder clay level and are not usually detectable in the upper humic soil. These perimeter post-holes at Site A marked the line of upright posts, and intermediary wattle walls between the posts may have formed the shell of the house wall. The cavity between the wattle walls may have been filled with moss, brushwood or rushes (Ó Ríordáin 1954, 302). The excavator considered that the absence of clay around the stone foundation precluded an interpretation of clay/mud or sod walls. This may not have been the case, however, as once the roof collapsed and the mud walls were exposed to the elements they would disintegrate or wash away and leave little trace. The perimeter posts along the walls also supported the roof. A reconstruction drawing of Site A shows a long house with gabled ends and a thatched roof (Cleary, 2018, 50-52). Post-holes within the house were 1.5-1.8m distant from the external walls, c. 2m apart and formed aisle divisions within the house, and were also considered by Ó Ríordáin to be structural and part of the roof supports. The occupation level within the Site A house was recorded under a 0.2-0.3m humic soil layer or the modern soil accumulation. The basal layer described as a ‘clay floor’ was not deliberately laid but was likely to have been the exposed boulder clay. It may have been that the builders stripped the site of sod and soil prior to construction in order to expose the boulder clay, which then provided a hard, firm floor surface. Over time, debris from occupation accumulated on this surface and was recorded particularly S of the central hearth towards the S wall. This section of the floor was subsequently paved to level up the S floor area. Ó Ríordáin (1954, 300) considered that the paving was originally more extensive than the section that survived. A c. 1m-wide break in the wall stones in the SW corner marked the doorway. A central hearth over the ‘clay floor’ was c. 0.7m in diameter. The architectural style and pottery from House Site A suggest a date range of 3750-3600 BC. The pottery was identified as Neolithic Class I ware and flat-based Bronze Age Class II pottery. Class I wares were round-based with angled profiles and undecorated, typical of Neolithic pottery. One sherd described as ‘decorated’ (Ó Ríordáin 1954, 308) was probably later than the primary occupation and may have been from the Beaker period. The Class II wares were thicker ‘coarse wares’ and date from the late Bronze Age (Cleary 1993, 118-19). The Bronze Age pottery was found on the clay floor as well as at higher levels, suggesting some disturbance of the primary Neolithic occupation layers (and re occupation later in the Bronze Age). Most of the pottery came from the NE area of the house around the hearth. The stone artefacts from Site A comprised an almost complete greenstone axehead, four axehead chips which were reused as scrapers and a slate spearhead. The axehead was found under the inner side of the N stone foundation and may have been deliberately placed there or perhaps casually used as a convenient stone. Eighty-six mainly flint artefacts were also recovered, including two leaf-shaped arrowheads, scrapers and blade tools. Quartz was also worked at Site A.’ The surviving rectangular stones that mark the walls of the house are visible on Google Earth orthoimage taken 16/03/2016. To see a 3D model of this house site, visit: https://skfb.ly/os7BW See attached images Compiled by: Edmond O’Donovan Date of upload: 6 November 2020