House — indeterminate date in Cush

In rough pasture, in S quadrant of archaeological complex (LI048-034006/042-) located on the 'Supposed Site of Temaír Erann', which was the ancient cemetery of the Ernai tribe on Slievereagh (Sliabh Riabhach) (Westropp 1919, 9; Westropp 1917-19, 179; Westropp 1918, 111). House site 'a' in NE corner of rectangular enclosure (LI048-034042-) excavated by Ó Ríordáin (1940, 115-18) who described his results as follows; 'The area which we have termed the Enclosure [LI048-034042-) is that part of the Southern Group which has on three sides of it a bank and fosse, and on the fourth side the group of conjoined ring-forts (LI048-034027/028-/016-). The northern and western sides of the Enclosure are defended by a slight outer bank in addition to the fosse and inner bank. In the investigation of the interior we stripped several comparatively large areas and made trial cuttings elsewhere, as, of course, it was not feasible to attempt the investigation of the whole of such a large area. 'House a' - This house, the first one discovered, was found on the western side of Ring-Fort 1 [LI048-034025-], just inside, and partly covered by, the bank of the enclosure. There were no surface indications of the house having existed at this spot and its discovery was due to the fact that a section across the fosse and bank of the Enclosure happened to strike the house. The site is marked (a) on the general plan and for convenience we shall refer to the house as House a. Though the house was partly under the bank of the Enclosure, one could not say if it was earlier than the latter or was merely covered by some of the material of the bank because of the spreading out of this material subsequent to the collapse of the bank. The latter seems the more likely alternative. The distinctive feature of the house was its having a compact floor of clay and gravel so packed or beaten down as to give in the main an excellent surface. Such a floor is similar to that which is to be found in many of the present-day less pretentious farm-house living rooms. This hard floor was in two portions, one, the larger, being about 1 foot [0.3m] higher than the other; the boulder clay sloped down abruptly from the higher to the lower portion of the floor. The larger, northern, portion of the floor was about 18 feet [5.5m] in length by 11 feet [3.3m] in breadth, the dimensions of the lower portion being 7 [2.1m] and 4½ feet [1.4m] respectively. The construction of the floor was much better and showed a harder surface over the larger portion than over the smaller; it was particularly bad on the eastern part of the latter. No attempt had been made by the makers of the house to secure a horizontal floor, and it therefore sloped in the same direction as the surface of the hill-side, there being a fall of about 10 inches [0.25m] from the eastern to the western end. A total of thirteen post-holes was discovered in connection with the house. The depths varied from 20 inches [0.5m] in the case of A to 5 inches [0.12m] in the case of G. Some stones placed in an upright position were found at the northern edge of the larger floor area and parallel to the southern edge of the smaller area and about 2 feet [0.6m]in from it. These were obviously the remains of the walls; the lower parts of which must have been constructed of stone while the upper portions were of wood. The two portions of the floor suggest that the house consisted of two parts, a comparatively large room marked by the post-holes (A), (B), (D), (E) with the shallow post-hole (C), which evidently supported a buttress to the long north side, and a smaller area marked by the post-holes (I), (J), (K), (L), which are so arranged that they may have supported an over-hanging roof or veranda type of structure. The post-hole (M) must be the result of some repair or change in the building because it occurred at a place where a hearth had afterwards been situate, there being much charcoal here and the large stone was burnt on the inside surface. The post-holes (F), (G), (H) which lie along a line parallel to that of (E), (I), (J) and are shallow (average depth 6 inches [0.15m]) compared with the depth of the other post-holes, can best be explained as indicating a lean-to structure or addition to the eastern side of the house. One hearth over post-hole (M) has already been mentioned. There was another, a setting of stones grouped together and having much charcoal around them, on the floor near the north-west of the house'. See attached plans and photographs of excavated house taken from Ó Ríordáin 1940. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 29 December 2021