<< News >> Archaeological treasures found in Roscrea, Ireland
Submitted by coldrum on Wednesday, 12 March 2008 Page Views: 6111
DiscoveriesCountry: Ireland (Republic of) County: Co. LimerickInternal Links:
A 'beautiful' Bronze Age axe and a number of ancient burial grounds have been unearthed near Roscrea during the construction of the new Dublin-Limerick motorway in the area.
The bronze axe was found in Camblin, south of Roscrea. Archaeologists say the find dates to the later Bronze Age and appears to have been hidden in a shallow pit and never recovered by the person who concealed it.
On a second site in Camblin a medieval iron 'bearded' axe was discovered while two Bronze Age enclosed settlements with two ancient houses were found near the N62 Templemore Road.
Three ringforts were also found at Camblin. One of them included a small cemetery dating to the 6th to 7th Century. Archaeologists say the cemetery would have been in use before the Bishops of Roscrea had formalised human burial into consecrated churchyards.
'Burials were all in the Christian manner, although some of the bodies seem to have been more casually interred, such as one where the legs were bent to fit into a small grave The burials included people of all ages and it is likely the site was used for several hundred years,' according to the archaeological report on the motorway route commissioned by the National Roads Authority.
The report said the concentration of ancient sites discovered near the present N62 Templemore Road at Camblin reflected the location of the ancient Roscrea to Cashel routeway.
A total of 23 ancient burnt mounds have been unearthed during the excavation works, the largest at Camblin. These burnt mounds, which were used for cooking food, typically date to the Bronze Age. Hot stones were dropped into water-filled roughs to heat water to boil meat.
The find at the Camblin burnt mound included an ancient wooden crane used for lifting water out of a local well. The crane, known as a Shaduff, is often linked to Ancient Egypt and North African and the Camlin Shaduff has been described as 'an exceptional discovery' and 'the first evidence for such a machine being used in Bronze Age Ireland'.
Another discovery in the area included 'a wonderful example of a spring or well being used by the people of Camlin for over 2,000 years'.
A large rectangular enclosure dating from 1000AD to 1350AD was found in Busherstown, Moneygall. The newly discovered site 'forms a type of moated manor, surrounded by a large defensive ditch.' An annex containing numerous corn-drying kilns was found at the site, suggesting the existence of a mill on a nearby stream.
Also unearthed at Busherstown were several wooden buildings and 'a couple of human burials hastily placed in ditches.'
The archaeological report says that burying people in ditches was not an unusual practice during this period 'when sudden death was often treated with great suspicion'.
Similar ditch-burial was found on the recently excavated rectangular enclosure site at Ballintotty on the N7 Nenagh bypass road widening scheme.
A 'lovely' 13th century coin of Edward 1 was found in one of the Busherstown ditches.
At the Nenagh end of the scheme a group of Bronze Age cremations were found at Derrybane. One burial pit contained an upturned pottery urn.
Source: Nenagh Guardian.
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