Basement in the ring fort of Ballycatteen
The Souterrains in the annular extension of Ballycatteen in Town In Ballycatteen ( Irish Baile Chaitin ), County Cork , Ireland are through the excavation of the triple-walled with two intervening trenches provided Rath developed. The three basements were discovered by the excavators Seán Ó Ríordáin (1905–1957) and Patrick J. Hartnett.
description
All three basements are made of dry stone masonry ( stone-built ). In the case of basements , a distinction is made between “earth-cut”, “rock-cut”, “mixed”, “stone built” and “wooden” (e.g. Coolcran, County Fermanagh ). Almost all construction methods are used in County Cork. The excavators noticed great similarities in the structures of the basement. Only basement A and B had been completed. Basement C might have been left roofless and used as a waste pit. The filling material contained large quantities of mussels and animal bones. Other than that, animal bones were not a significant element on the site and so the garbage pit proposal for this structure came about.
Basement A
Basement A is the largest and has four more or less rectangular chambers. From the entrance they lie alternately along and across the axis. The short, connecting corridors are narrow (especially between chambers 2 and 3). The access leads coaxially directly into chamber 1.
Basement B
Basement B is the second largest and has three more or less rectangular chambers. They lie alternately along and across the axis. The short, connecting corridors are less narrow. The access opens axially directly into chamber 1.
Basement C
Basement C is the smallest and has three more or less rectangular chambers. They lie diagonally and at right angles one behind the other. The short, connecting corridors are narrow. The access opens axially directly into chamber 1.
Ceiling construction
The pattern of the post holes in basement C led to the assumption that there were three successive structures. Since there was otherwise no solid evidence for ceiling supports, it is assumed that the basement A and B originally had wooden roofs. However, the paired arrangement of the post holes in the three chambers of basement C supports this view. The discovery of a large surface of charcoal in the chamber filling and in the corridors of basement A and B indicates wooden ceilings that fell victim to a fire disaster. Ó Ríordáin and Hartnett drew attention to several hundred perforated slates of slate that were discovered during the excavation in the filler material of basement A and B. The excavators believe that their wooden roofs were covered with the slate sheets. The interesting aspect is that the perforated slate cannot be dated other than high medieval . It is therefore logical that no slate comes from basement C, which apparently has remained roofless. Other "late elements" were probably elements to be addressed as wall brackets that were found in the filling material of basement A and in the immediate vicinity of basement C.
Backfilling
The core of the three basements lies in the extremely late backfilling process, which was particularly evident in basement A and C. In basement A, two pieces of pottery were found belonging to the same vessel and were North Devon ware from the 15th or 16th century. While one of the shards came from the ground level, the other was almost on the surface. This means that the basement was completely filled. In basement C an ax head was found near ground level, which was dated to the 11th to 16th centuries.
Time position
There are indications that the three basements were built or filled in in the last half of the 1st or first quarter of the 2nd millennium AD. However, the use of wooden roofs limits the durability of such structures. It can hardly be assumed that the wooden roofs of basement A and B were regularly renewed until the 15th or 16th century. Theoretically, a subsequent medieval activity within the town council could have led to the discovery of the filled basement. Basement A and B could then have been cleared out and reused as a cellar. However, this interpretation does not correspond to the situation found in basement C, where considerable amounts of limpets were found in different layers.
See also
literature
- Mark Clinton: The Souterrains of Ireland. Wordwell, Bray Co. Wicklow 2001, ISBN 1-869857-49-6 . P. 197 ff
- Seán P. Ó Ríordáin, Patrick J. Hartnett: The Excavation of Ballycatteen Fort, Co. Cork , 1943