House - Bronze Age

The National Monuments Service's description

At the W end of a glacial ridge on a flood plain 750m E of the River Shannon. A contemporary trackway (LI005-097----) led to the Bronze Age round house (LI005-095001-). Two fulachta fia (LI005-096001/2-) were also excavated within 20m of the site. The hut site (LI005-095001-) was located 8m NW of another Bronze Age house (LI005-095002-). The sites were all excavated as part of the Southern Limerick Ring Road, Phase II (Bermingham et. al. 2013).
The house was described as ‘Structure 315’ by Kate Taylor under license E2091. The excavation uncovered the ‘partial remains of a small sub-circular hut composed of a gully or foundation trench with two post-holes that may have formed part of the doorway. The gully, of which 6.50 m survived, was 0.25-0.35m wide and 0.15m deep with a concave profile. The entrance post-holes were 0.20-0.25m in diameter and 0.15-0.2m deep with vertical sides and flat bases.’
‘The eastern edge of structure 315 was eroded, but it is likely that the building would have had an internal diameter of between 3.8- 4.2m with a south or south-east facing entrance, possibly including a porch. Immediately to the north of the structure was a small pit (919) that may have been related. The fills of the features were dark brown or black sandy silt with charcoal inclusions.’
‘Ash charcoal from the fill of post-hole 906 (1063) returned a radiocarbon date of 1745-1612 cal. BC (UBA-16412; 3377±27 BP) and the fill of gully 918 (1081) returned a date of 1745-1541 cal. BC (UBA-16413; 3372±28 BP), also from ash charcoal. The radiocarbon determinations place the structure at the end of the Early Bronze Age to the start of the Middle Bronze Age. Finds from the gully and post-holes are lithics (notably an Early Bronze Age type D tanged arrowhead), Middle Bronze Age domestic pottery, small crumbs of prehistoric pottery, vitrified hearth lining and a fragment of a worked stone object. Oak charcoal was found in the gully and post-holes’ (Taylor 2004 and Taylor & Ruttle 2013, 10).

Compiled by: Edmond O’Donovan

Date of upload: 21 July 2020

References

Taylor, K. 2004 Prehistoric features and an early medieval enclosure at Coonagh West, Co. Limerick. In J. O’Sullivan and M. Stanley (eds.) New Routes to the Past, 73-9. Dublin. Wordwell Books.

Bermingham, N., Coyne, F., Hull, G., Reilly, F. and Taylor, K. 2013 River Road: The archaeology of the Limerick Southern Ring Road with contributions by Eoin Grogan, Penny Johnston, Linda Lynch, Stephen Mandal, Charles Mount, Joanna Nolan, Paul O’Keeffe, Helen Roche, Sara Pavía and Angela Wallace, NRA Scheme Monographs 14.

Taylor, K. & Ruttle, E. 2013 Limerick Southern Ring Road, Phase II, E2091, Coonagh West Site 4, Co. Limerick. Final Archaeological Excavation Report for Limerick County Council, TVAS Ireland Ltd.