Talk at given at Swanlinbar, Co. Cavan for Breifne Historical Society - Cumann Seanchais Bhreifne, 11th March 2011

1. Robert M Chapple

2. The townland of Gortlaunaght lies
on the western slopes of a foothill of
Slieve Rushen, 2.5km to the south-
east of the village of Swanlinbar,
county Cavan
April 2006 - January 2008
Monitored topsoil stripping carried
out by Northern Archaeological
Consultancy Ltd. for the Quinn
Group Ltd. in advance of quarrying.
Site discovered in the eastern,
central section of the quarry land.
Landscape forms a natural shelf of
relatively level land, rising abruptly
to the se, towards Slieve Rushen.
To nw ground falls the valley of the
Cladagh and Blackwater rivers.

3. Excavations lasted from May to
August 2008
Investigated two main sites:
A: a sub-rectangular structure
B: a sub-circular enclosure
Ext 1-3: small areas of
archaeology
Discovered and test-trenched :
C: upstanding rath/ringfort.

4.  In this relatively small area (c. 500m x 500m),
evidence was discovered for continuous settlement
and activity from the Middle Neolithic (Phase I)
into the Medieval period (Phase VI).
 That’s over 5000 years of (basically) continuous
occupation!
Phasing
I: Middle Neolithic (c 3500-2900 BC)
II: Late Neolithic (c 2900-2350/2200 BC)
III: Bronze Age (c 2350/2200-650 BC)
IV: Iron Age (c 450 BC-400 AD)
V: Early Christian period (c400-1250 AD)
VI: Medieval period (c1250-1611 AD)

5.  .

6. One of the fills produced two rim sherds, 22
body sherds and 11 fragments - represented a
portion of a substantial decorated Middle
Neolithic (c 3500-2900 BC) Globular Bowl with
an original rim diameter of 220mm.

7. Decoration
Upper rim surface: alternating diagonal pairs of
incised lines, forming a chevron pattern.
Edge of spur : with short diagonal incised lines.
Exterior surface: series of closely set incised
lines, which produced a lattice pattern.

8.  The Globular Bowl may be paralleled at such Ulster sites as:
Island MacHugh, Co. Tyrone
Lough Enagh, Co. Derry/Londonderry
Linford Site 4, Co. Antrim
Croft Manor, Ballygalley, Co. Antrim
Cairncastle Road, Ballygalley, Co. Antrim
 Other comparable sites include:
Townleyhall II, Co. Louth
Dalkey Island, Co. Dublin
Kilshane, Co. Dublin .
A radiocarbon date associated with the Kilshane vessel dated to 3645-
3390 cal BC, placing it in the Middle Neolithic.

9.  Deliberate deposition within sinkholes is
known from various sites (Mell II and
Tullyallen I, Co. Louth), it seems unlikely in
this instance as metallic slag was recovered
from the same fill.
 Instead, it seems more probable that the vessel
had been deposited in a feature that was later
subsumed and destroyed by the natural
opening up of the sinkhole. This would explain
the presence of metallic slag, possibly derived
from an adjacent iron working area.

11. Late Neolithic (c 2900-2350/2200
BC) activity is represented by the
group of features external to the
Site B enclosure, near the nw
facing entranceway. They formed
two short arcs with an intervening
pit.

12. Upper fill: various flint & chert pieces
Bottom fill: Late Neolithic
Grooved Ware bowl. Upper fill:
Upper fill: chert pieces, quartzite chert & flint flakes, spalls & cores
hammer stone & part of BA + part of indeterminate BA vessel
Vessel (indeterminate)
Bottom fill: 3 chert flakes & Late Neolithic
C14 date (2877-2577 cal BC). Top fill: irregular
chert end scraper & a portion of an indeterminate
BA vessel
Bronze Age pottery (indeterminate)
Upper fill: chert core
& flakes
Bronze Age Cinerary Urn (portion)

13. Bottom fill: Late Neolithic
Grooved Ware bowl. Upper fill:
chert & flint flakes, spalls & cores
+ part of indeterminate BA vessel

14. Q: How do you excavate a Late Neolithic Grooved
Ware pot?

15. Q: How do you excavate a Late Neolithic Grooved
Ware pot?
A: Very, very carefully!

16. Intact basal portion and various
other sherds of a Grooved Ware
vessel.
Rim: simple rounded form.
Estimated original rim diameter:
200mm.
Decoration: Internal face of rim bore a
slight, decorative, groove. Flat base
displayed two shallow circumferential
incised lines set approximately 5mm
apart. Regularity of these grooves
suggests that they too were decorative,
as opposed to coil joins.

17.  Knowth, Co. Meath, with a single circular
groove on the base.
 Other sites, which produced comparable material,
include:
Ballynahatty, Co. Down
Bettystown, Co. Meath
Ninch – Laytown, Co. Meath
Fourknocks Ridge , Co. Meath.
Dundrum Sandhills (site 1), Co. Down
Cairn L, Lough Crew, Co. Meath
Newgrange, Co. Meath
Longstone, Co. Tipperary
 The Gortlaunaght vessel bears most
resemblance to the Dundrum-Longstone
type.
 This is the most common and easily identified form of
Grooved Ware and is characterised by thin walled
bowls with curved rims and rounded rims where the
ornament is sparsely applied, but rigidly controlled.

18. Bottom fill: 3 chert flakes & Late Neolithic
C14 date (2877-2577 cal BC). Top fill:
irregular chert end scraper & a portion of an
indeterminate BA vessel

20. Upper fill: various flint & chert pieces
Bottom fill: Late Neolithic
Grooved Ware bowl. Upper fill:
*Upper fill: chert pieces, quartzite chert & flint flakes, spalls &
hammer stone & part of BA cores + part of indeterminate
Vessel (indeterminate) BA vessel
Bottom fill: 3 chert flakes & Late Neolithic C14 date
(2877-2577 cal BC). Top fill: irregular chert end
scraper & a portion of an indeterminate BA
vessel
Bronze Age pottery (indeterminate)
Upper fill: chert core
& flakes
Bronze Age Cinerary Urn (portion)

21. Upper fill: 7 chert flakes and a quartzite
hammer-stone
hammer-stone was made from a
large rounded oval quartzite pebble
and exhibited two small areas of
impact damage (pecking) near one
end and two areas on the opposing
end, along with evidence of damage
to both faces

22. It is tempting to see these arcs as a
surviving portion of a Late Neolithic
structure, none of the features
produced any evidence of post pipes (ie
decayed posts).

23. C428 C446
C425
 Problem: The range of surviving depths varies from 0.76m (C425) down to 0.11m (C368
& C436) (mean: 0.29m),.
 The largest of these would have been suitable for holding a post, but the smaller
examples clearly would not.
 Alternative theory: These pits were created solely for the deposition of ceramics and
lithics.
 The inclusion of a hammer stone and flakes, but without any micro débitage, is
evidence against this material being the remains of domestic refuse.
 While Grooved Ware pottery is sometimes found on domestic sites, it is more usually
associated with ritual activities.

24.  Taken together, the evidence indicates that this
group functioned as a ritual area devoted to the
structured deposition of ceramics and lithics.
 Other items that may have been included for
deposition in such a ritual-oriented area may have
included non-surviving organic materials, including
foodstuffs (such as the charred hazelnut shells
from C401), items of leather, wood, basketry, or
fabric or liquids.
 The presence of items of Bronze Age date may be
accepted either as later, intrusive depositions or as
part of a longer cultural continuity.

25. The ring ditch

26. Internal dimensions: 6.53m (east to west), by
5.97m.
Construction technique: subsoil removed but the
bedrock was left untouched
Fill of ditch produced: small irregular chert flake
portion, five sherds of an undecorated Bronze Age
vase urn (Early Bronze Age) & 523g of burnt bone,
including skull fragments and two teeth
Two radiocarbon dates from charcoal from this fill:
Location of urn 1212-911 cal BC and 1112-831 cal BC. Suggest a
Late Bronze Age date.

27.  Parallels for undecorated vase urn:
 Magheraboy, county Derry
 Drumnakeel, county Antrim
 Altanagh, county Tyrone
 Research by Anna Brindley dates the vase urn
form to the period from 2000/1980 to 1740 BC.
 Radiocarbon dates: 1212-813 cal BC … nearly
550 years difference

28.  No need for any discrepancy:
 Ring ditch would have existed over a long period before finally becoming
invisible on the landscape.
 Early Bronze Age : construction of the ring ditch; manufacture of the
pottery vessel
Original form of the site may have included an internal bank and central
mound. As no central pit was found within the ring ditch, it is likely that the
vessel and the cremated remains would have been incorporated directly
into the mound.
Theory: Late Bronze Age - site was modified/destroyed & vessel, bone and
chert flake were roughly reinterred in the ditch.
Why? (Speculative) - changes in ritual /social polity
transformations within the wider cultural/power relationships.
Although ‘slighted’ or remodelled, such a scenario would not necessarily
remove the monument completely from the landscape, which is an
important consideration in relation to the Early Christian settlement here.

29. Bronze Age
cinerary urn

30. Sinkhole
black-brown clayey silt
Redeposited natural
large Bronze Age
vessel of cinerary urn
form: 16 rim sherds;
10 base sherds & 335
body sherds

31. Charred residue noted on the interior surface
Evidence of an overspill of organic liquid material on the exterior
surface
Whatever was being prepared spilled/poured while the ceramic
was over a heat source, or was still hot
Suggests that the vessel was used in the preparation of food -
may equally have been in a ritual as a domestic context

32.  Parallels for the cinerary urn:
Loughbrickland, county Down
Urbalreagh, county Antrim
unprovenanced example in the Ulster Museum
Top two examples were associated with funerary contexts
The charred residues on the interior and spillage marks on the exterior
surface of the Gortlaunaght example - indicative of food preparation.
While it is possible that this related to a domestic utilisation, it may also be
seen in a ritual context, associated with funerary feasting or drinking
Why was it deposited like this?
Neolithic Globular Bowl from sinkhole - interpreted in terms of a natural
redeposition
This vessel (and two chert pieces) may be part of a ritual deposition.
Placed into natural sinkhole (eg Mell 2 & Tullyallen I, Co. Louth)
Or … it may be a wholly functional and non-ritual disposal of a domestic
cooking vessel into a convenient hole in the ground!

33. Burnt mound
trough
Possible burnt
mound trough

34. Burnt Mound trough I
All fills composed of charcoal-rich
deposits of fire-cracked and heat
affected stones.
Lowest fill dated to 2573-2290 cal
BC - transitional period between the
Late Neolithic and the Early Bronze
Age.
Date & form suggest this was a
burnt mound trough (even though
no remains of a mound survived)

35. A second pit
filled with burnt
Burnt Mound trough II
stone (partially
destroyed by
sinkhole that
produced the
Globular Bowl),
not radiocarbon
dated, though it
is likely that this
too was a burnt
mound trough of
similar date

36.  Heated stones dropped into water …
suggestions include:
cooking food [most usually]
saunas/sweat houses or for bathing
dying textiles
curing hides
collection of fats for food preservation
brewing [most recently]

37. Bronze Age vase urn

38. As found: face down in pit
Decorated face as excavated

39. Bronze Age vase urn : 3 rim sherds & 1 body sherd
Brindley dates the vase urn tradition to the period from 2000/1980 to 1740 BC
(contemporary with ring ditch vessel) … specifically to the Stage 2 development of the
vase tradition (c 1900-1800BC)

41. single, annular wall slot
measured up to 1m wide, by
0.48m deep
formed a somewhat trapezoidal
or sub-rectangular shape
15.90m (north to south) by
6.00m at the southern end,
narrowing to 3.5m
enclosed an area of 49.67m2

42. During excavation
Post excavation

43. centre of the eastern wall: large post
pit (1.17m deep) & five ancillary
postholes
date from charcoal in slot trench:
1889-1684 cal BC (Early to Middle
Bronze Age) … but charcoal from a
sealed corner posthole dated to 109
cal BC-129 cal AD (Iron Age)
of the two dates, the IA one comes
from a more secure context
flint finds not diagnostic to any one
period
morphology unlike other BA
structures (usually circular) … not
that many IA houses either!
flint dual-
platformed core
of red-brown
flint

44. Morphological problems
structure is unusual and difficult to visualise
1:3 ratio of pit-depth to post height above ground suggests that the large post
pit in the eastern wall slot could have held a timber of 4.68m, 3.51m of which
would have been above ground.
As no corresponding post pit was found in the west wall, this would have
produced a roofed structure with a distinctly lop-sided appearance.

45. Morphological problems
fills of the wall slot produced no evidence for any form of plank walling, with
the exception of the sw & se corners, which each produced evidence of small
postholes.
must have been an unusual looking structure!

46. Morphological problems
alternative theory: this area represents an unroofed ritual enclosure delimited by
a post fence within the wall slot and focused on a large post in the eastern wall.
post may have been brightly coloured or carved (Native American totem poles).

47. carvings of this date are rare – eg the finely
crafted stag from Fellbach-Schmiden, Germany
Alternatively, it may have been decorated with
additional pieces of organic material, including
wood, bone, antler or fabric
ancillary postholes cut into the sides of the
main post pit: repeated acts of
replacement/timbers were added to give
strength and support to the main post?
post pit extends to the
east (away from the
enclosed area): little
desire to disturb the
internal area?

48. Site B enclosure
measured 65m
(north-west to
south-east), by 50m
(c 2683m2), with an
entranceway (5.10m
wide) to the north-
west

49. defined on n, w & s sides as a
shallow ditch (C189) that cut the
subsoil, but left the underlying
bedrock untouched

50. On e side ditch was largely destroyed by later field ditches - original
enclosing bank was preserved beneath the surviving field-bank

51. 24 pieces of red deer antler
50 fragments of animal
bone (incl. sheep shoulder
blade) – some with
butchery marks
fragments of a heavily
degraded cow tooth
metallic slag (possibly
including part of a furnace
bottom.
Two radiocarbon dates were returned from the ditch: 654-772 cal
AD & 553-658 cal AD (Early Christian period)
These suggest that this enclosure, though slightly unusual in the
corpus of excavated raths, was occupied from the sixth to eight
centuries AD.

52. Linear gully (fence
line) dated to 669-
889 cal AD: implies
that settlement
continued into the
late ninth century.

54. Within the Site B enclosure, there were a number of groups of features that
may be rationalised as the remains of structures. In the absence of closely
dated finds or radiocarbon determinations, they are considered to be of Early
Christian date, chiefly on morphological grounds
Fence line
Small house/hut
gully formed all, or portions of,
four sides of a sub-square
structure 3.04m (nw-se) x
2.54m (6.89m2)

55. More houses/huts/workshops?
Fence lines/huts?
3.33m (nw-se) x 2.02m (5.65m2)
3.33m (nw-se) x 2.02m (5.65m2)

57. Possible iron working area
Pit with iron slag
Hearth with iron slag
Fence/wattle wall (with iron slag)

58. Possible iron working area
Pit with iron slag
Hearth with iron slag
Fence/wattle wall (with iron slag)
Or is something else
happening here?
20 pieces of burnt
animal bone & 5
charred seeds
Hearth with stakeholes and
(possible) cremated human
bone

59. Pit with broken quern stone

62. Curves parallel to outer ditch …
suggests that two are
contemporary

63. Inner ditch: 64 pieces of animal bone, seven pieces
of which were identifiable as cow, including two
portions of teeth

64. Possible second
inner ditch portion

65.  Problems:
feature appeared to cut through upstanding bank:
implying relatively modern date for construction.
 But:
likely that this was a later recutting of the feature
to make it part of the local field-drainage system.
Unfortunately, this junction between the inner and
outer ditches and the surviving bank was
particularly difficult to interpret, due to the
amount of later activity, which complicated and
distorted the picture.

66.  Usual rath diameter: c30m vs. +60m
 Usual rath ditch: 3m wide & 2m deep +
frequently rock-cut vs. 1m wide & 0.60m deep
+ left bedrock uncut
 Usual rath bank: 3m wide & 2m high vs. 1m
wide & 0.60m high
 [surviving bank suggests no truncation of site]

67. Main enclosure ditch: bedrock uncut

68.  Was it unfinished?
Bedrock left for later?
Unfinished inner ditch portions
Small bank & ditch would have been ineffective defence
 But …
there is plenty of evidence for Early Christian habitation
I suggest:
While the enclosing bank and ditch were small – they were
considered to be sufficiently large to demarcate the area of the site.
Although ineffective as a defense against attack, they would have
been sufficient to prevent the entry/exit of roaming cattle.

69.  How visible was it during the Early Christian
period?
 If still visible (possibly with cultural relevance)
choice of site may have been extremely
significant - reaffirming the cultural connection
to the landscape and tribal power relationships
 If not visible – site choice may be fortuitous -
influenced by the natural shelving on this slope
of Slieve Rushen

70.  Only a suggestion:
The fact that the Early Christian activities
(although numerous in this portion of the
enclosure) do not appear to interfere with the
older ring ditch in any way suggests that it was
visible and respected enough not to be
disturbed

71. Activity predating rath construction is well attested at
many sites, but evidence for the deliberate selection of
older monuments is more equivocal.
For example, it has been argued that the building of raths
at Mooghaun hill fort, in Co. Clare, was intended to
strengthen one group’s claims to the earlier
monuments and the social power that they
represented.
Early Christian reuse of burial sites includes Carrowkeel,
Co. Mayo, where a ditched enclosure associated with
cremation deposits predated rath occupation.
At Carrigaline Middle, Co. Cork, a ditched enclosure
associated with early burials was succeeded by a rath.

72. Inside the enclosure all
dated/suspected Early Christian
activity is to the south & south-
south-west of the line
Approximately half the
enclosure was vacant! … why?
Division of space: domestic or
industrial activity confined one
half of the enclosure and the
remainder was utilised in a
different way … possibly as a
compound for the corralling of
cattle.

73. A previously unrecognised, upstanding rath (Site C) was identified in
the north-eastern portion of the current development by the R M
Chapple and Stephen Gilmore, during preliminary field work

74. Unfortunately, NAC Ltd. did not get to excavate the Site C rath, but we did
put some test trenches through the central area and the banks.
Recovered finds included metallic slag & furnace bottoms – more evidence
for metal working!
And one sherd of Everted Rim Ware – 13th -14th centuries

75. Vessel may be paralleled at:
Tullymongan Lower, county Cavan
Abbeylands, near Duleek, county Meath
Tullykane, county Meath
Stamullin, county Meath

76. Gortlaunaght is outstanding for a number of reasons:
the rare level of continuity from the Middle Neolithic up to the Medieval
period.
Evidence for almost every aspect of life in ancient Ireland, including
domestic, funerary, ritual, manufacturing and animal husbandry.
While all the individual elements of these sites may be paralleled in one
way or another, few if any excavated sites demonstrate the lengthy
continuum and variety of activity at a single location.
Until recent times, there has been a relatively low level of economic and
structural development within rural county Cavan, which has resulted in
few large-scale excavation projects; a situation has only recently begun to
change. In this context, the excavations at Gortlaunaght represent a
significant advance in our collective understanding of the prehistory and
early history of this county and western Ulster as a whole.

77.  Thanks to Breifne Historical Society
- Cumann Seanchais Bhreifne for inviting me &
organising the event
 To my employers NAC Ltd
 To the Quinn Group – especially
the managers of the Swanlinbar
Quarry - for financing the excavations

78. www.academia.edu