News from Ireland

In April 2006, a team of archaeologists began a five month’s works period at the site of Edercloon, Co. Longford, Ireland. These works were part of a road scheme (improvement of the N4 – Dublin to Sligo). The first Archaeology uncovered in Edercloon was identified earlier that year, in February, by CRDS Ltd during tests along the established route. The first evidences revealed consisted of worked wood, preserved in the bog, just beside the existing route of the N4. During the excavation works, forty eight structures were revealed and of these twenty five were excavated. The most common structure was trackways or toghers, some of them with 25m in length. These were composed by different sized timbers, ranging from brushwood to roundwoods. Throughout the works, fifty one artefacts (mainly made of wood) were discovered and these included wooden vessels, wheel fragments, spear shafts, tool handles and some others which function is, for now, unknown. The structures date from the Neolithic to the Medieval period, chronologies given by radiocarbon dating.
These finds at Edercloon are causing a major impact within the Irish scientific community. Very few sites similar to this one were uncovered, either in Ireland or Europe. Subsequent research will help to understand the environment, economic strategies, settlement patterns and social structure of the builders of these structures (this research is being undertaken by CRDS Ldt). The final report on the Edercloon project is very much awaited and will confirm that this site is one of the most important sites uncovered in Ireland in the last years (or, shall we dare to say, ever).

Source:
http://www.nra.ie/Archaeology/ArchaeologySeminar2007/
PDFseminarabstracts2007/file,10010,en.pdf

Thanks to Carla Ferreira!