Post row — peatland in Clowanstown (skreen By., Skreen Ed.)

Located in a fairly level landscape at the W edge of what was probably a small lake (dims c. 1.5km NW-SE; c. 0.75m NE-SW) which is described as the ‘Logh and bog of Shrereene’ on the Down Survey (1656-8) barony map and as a ‘Marl Bed’ (max. dims c. 0.5km E-W; c 0.4km N-S) on the 1836 edition of the OS 6-inch map. The original lake was probably coterminous with Commons (Skreen by.) townland. Archaeological testing (04E0418) by J. Dempsey of Testing Area 4, Contract 2, prior to the construction of the M3 motorway identified four upstanding mounds of organic material and marl. Mound A (dims 10.05m N-S; 4.8m E-W; max. H 0.58m) was 2m ENE of Mound B (dims 6.7m x 4.7m; max. H 0.12m). Mound C (dims 4.5m x 4.1m; max. H 0.2m) was 5.6m SE of A while D (dims 1.3m x 1.05m; H 0.15m) was just 2m N of A (Dempsey 2004, 12-13). The area was fully excavated (E003064) by M. Mossop (Mossop M. and Mossop E. 2009) as Clowanstown 1 (excavations.ie 2006:1533) between September and December 2006 when it proved to be a complex area with a Mesolithic post-row structure and stone platform that had four associated fish-traps, together with four Neolithic mounds and excavated features. A universal marl layer underlying all features marked the base of human activity. Immediately above it were a silt (T 0.11m) and a layer of peat (T 0.7m) signalling the development of fen peat but the peat contained artefacts including a chert point and debitage, worked timbers, two conical fish-traps, fire-hardened stakes, and a carved wooden object that was oval in form (dims 0.36m x 0.075m; H 0.045m) with a raised prow and stern, which is interpreted as a toy boat that was either lost or deposited as a votive offering. It is made of a fruitwood and produced a C14 date of 5300-5050 cal. BC (BETA 233920). A layer of dark peat above this produced two more fish-traps. The fish-traps returned C14 dates varying from 5300-5000 cal. BC to 4990-4720 cal. BC (BETA 231947-231958). The earliest structure is a line (L 13m) of five stakes (diam. c. 0.07m), of hazel, alder or elm driven deeply into the marl on the W or landward side of a natural hollow (dims 10m N-S; 7.6m E-W; max. D 0.95m) that has a channel at E extending towards the lake. The hollow may have been altered and it could have served as a small harbour, while the stakes may have functioned as mooring posts for canoes as well as providing stands for items like fish that might have been drying. Some of the stakes (reconstructed L 0.8-3m) had been roughly pointed and others were charred, while all except one had been truncated close to the ground. An alder stake returned a C14 date of 5210-4970 cal. BC (BETA 246997), while a second alder stake, no longer considered a part of the post-row, yielded a date of 3960-3710 cal. BC (BETA 246998). After the abandonment of the fish-traps there was a further build-up of peat into natural mounds of sphagnum moss, particularly S of the hollow, with woodchips, some charred ends of roundwoods or occasional chert points. A spread of hazelnuts (dims 1m x 0.6m; T 0.05m) occurred at one point. (Mossop and Mossop 2009, 5-10) See the attached plans from Mossop and Mossop (2009, figs 9, 10) _1 Plan of the basal hollows; _2 The toy boat Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 19 April, 2022