Dysart, Co. Kilkenny

Ben Murtagh

The project has involved post-excavation work, which has been divided into two parts: Firstly, the compilation of a stratigraphical report, which outlines the findings and features encountered during research excavations that were conducted on the site. Secondly, a study of the remaining human bone assemblage recovered from the excavations. An earlier study had looked at most of the assemblage....Download

The Rossnaree Enclosure, Brú na Bóinne, Co. Meath

Dr Conor Brady

The location of the proposed excavation is at Rossnaree, Co. Meath, within the buffer zone of the Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site. The excavation is designed to assess the archaeological potential of and establish a date for geophysical anomalies and surface features which indicate the presence of a large multi-vallate enclosure measuring c.110m N-S by at least 160m E-W. The site itself is located on the southern side of the river, at a highly significant location within the Brú na Bóinne complex. It marks the point at which the river begins to delineate the ‘bend’ of Brú na Bóinne and is located directly to the SW and across the River Boyne from the Knowth complex. It sits on a low knoll on the first gravel terrace above the river....Download

 

Belderrig

Graeme Warren

Our work this year focused on initial processing of the extensive soil samples gained over the last three seasons following specialist advice about sampling strategies. In 2009 this has led to the employment of two RAs at UCD who have been supplemented by student volunteers at different times. Where we have confidence in the coherence of a deposit, the sediment has been flotation sieved and dried. Sorting of the corresponding materials is ongoing and will continue through the next semester. We have processed very small quantities of deposits that appear to be redeposited or largely sterile, where we have processed these, it is in order to provide control. A range of further lithics, mainly in quartz, are present. Carbonised hazel nut shells, and extensive charcoal are present, and will, in due course, be assessed for specialist analysis....Download

 

 

Excavations in the Law School Settlement of the O’Davoren Brehons Cahermacnaghten, Burren, Co. Clare

Elizabeth FitzPatrick

Cahermacnaghten was one of the core land-holdings of the O’Davoren brehon lawyers in the central and southern region of the Burren uplands during the late medieval and early modern periods, and it was the location of a law school and cashel residence of the family, at least as early as the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. This RIA-funded archaeological field project distinguishes the law school (sgoilteagh) as a large standing building known as ‘Cabhail Tighe Breac’ within a composite settlement that extends across an area of 1600m2, incorporating wall-footings of three additional rectangular buildings, a kiln, several pens and enclosures, a clochán, and small plots and larger fields variously enclosed by slab-walls and single-walls. Two buildings have been excavated within this settlement – Cabhail Tighe Breac, which was the subject of a 6-week excavation in 2008 (08E435), and an out-building broadly contemporary with Cabhail Tighe Breac, which was excavated in 2007 (07E0395).....Download

 

Insular Monasticism at Toureen Peakaun, Co. Tipperary

Tomás Ó Carragáin

The Royal Irish Academy funded a programme of survey and excavation at the early medieval monastery of Toureen Peakaun, Co. Tipperary between 2005 and 2008. This included a detailed geophysical survey, the preparation of a Digital Terrain Model for the whole site and the excavation of seven trenches of varying sizes. Detailed preliminary reports on these excavations have been submitted to the RIA, as well as the DoEHLG and NMI. As these reports show, the excavations have yielded a huge amount of new information about the layout of this important site, and the range of activities that were carried out there in its hey-day (c.650-800). The two most important trenches were Trench F and Trench D. Trench F, which was located inside the Romanesque church, produced some evidence for earlier wooden churches along with eight early medieval burials as well as later medieval and post-medieval burials.....Download

 

The Kilteasheen Archaeological Project

Thomas Finan

The Kilteasheen Archaeological Project, run jointly by Christopher Read of IT Sligo and Dr. Thomas Finan of the University of St. Louis, has just entered its 6th year, its 5th funded by the Royal Irish Academy. After five seasons of excavation, the post-excavation phase of the project has commenced. The excavation has revealed a complex, multi-period site with Neolithic, Bronze Age, Early and Later Medieval components. This ecclesiastical site is mentioned frequently in the annals during the 13th century and is directly associated with the O’Conor kings of Connacht, clearly making it a high status site. The ruins of a small fortified building, a possible early Hall House, have been extensively explored and have been interpreted as the likely remains of the Bishop’s Palace built at the site in 1253 AD. This later use of the site appears to have been based on the site’s already established role as an Early Medieval enclosed settlement/cemetery. Over 120 skeletons have been excavated from a large, well managed cemetery, ranging in date from the 7th to 14th centuries AD. Hundreds of prehistoric lithics have been recovered from all medieval contexts and extensive field walking indicating the intensive use of the site during prehistory....Downlaod

 

The Bective Abbey Project

Geraldine Stout

Bective Abbey is the oldest Cistercian foundation in County Meath and the second oldest Cistercian foundation in Ireland. Its Latin name is Beatitude Dei, meaning the ‘blessedness of God’. It was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin when founded in 1147 with an endowment from Murchad Ua Máel Sechnaill, who ruled over the pre-Norman kingdom of Mide from 1106 to 1153. It was the first daughter house of Mellifont, established only five years after that monastery’s foundation. Bective is located in the townland of the same name in County Meath c.0.7km northeast of the crossroads of Bective and c.6km northwest of Trim. Bective abbey is a National Monument. The high status of the foundation at Bective is indicated by the fact that it was chosen to hold the remains of Hugh De Lacy in 1196, nine years after he was killed.....Download

 

English colonial settlement in the North Atlantic world: the Calvert estates in Ireland and North America in the seventeenth century.

James Lyttleton

The plantations in seventeenth-century Ireland were established in the context of English economic and colonial expansion further afield in North America. Many individuals were contemporaneously involved in colonial projects on both sides of the Atlantic including Sir George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore, who acquired lands in Ireland and Newfoundland during the 1620s. The family established their principal Irish residence at Clohamon Castle, Co. Wexford. This was followed by the establishment of another settlement in Maryland in 1634 after the succession of the 2nd Lord Baltimore, Cecil Calvert.....Download

 

Excavation in Caherconnell townland, Co. Clare

Michelle Comber

The proposed excavation will target a sub-square drystone, cashel-like, enclosure in the townland of Caherconnell, Co. Clare. A circular cashel lies 30–40m to the north (CL09:30-08), and the main cashel of Caherconnell another 50m or so north of that (CL09:30-10).
The sub-square enclosure is located on a narrow, level shelf, with slightly higher ground to the north and lower ground to the south. This site is not marked on the RMP or Ordnance Survey maps. It is a sub-square or slightly D-shaped drystone enclosure or cashel, with visible internal and external features. The walls of the cashel are of limestone, with large blocks or slabs laid horizontally to form faces, with slightly smaller stones between, probably 1.5–2m wide originally....Download