The Lake Dwellings of Ireland: Or ancient lacustrine habitations of Erin, commonly called crannogs.Wood-Martin, W. G. (William Gregory)
History
The Lake Dwellings of Ireland: Or ancient lacustrine habitations of Erin, commonly called crannogs.
Wood-Martin, W. G. (William Gregory)
Lake-dwellers and lake-dwellings -- Ireland
The crannog that was situated in the deepest part of the
lake would appear to have sunk, but its subsidence may be attributed to
the perishable nature of its component parts--logs and branches. The
other habitations were constructed upon shoals--in one instance upon
a natural turf-bank artificially strengthened, and then raised to the
required height with layers of sticks, brambles, earth, and stones.
Plate XLIII., Nos. 2, 3, 4, give the ground-plan, section, and general
aspect of the most important crannog of the group; its greatest height
above summer level is ten feet, but it is never entirely submerged;
it measures two hundred and eight feet in circumference. A trench cut
across the island (plate XLIII., No. 3) demonstrated its artificial
strata to be as follows:--The surface consisted of a layer--averaging
a foot in depth--of stones deposited without any appearance of
regularity; these stones rested upon a layer of earth (A) of similar
thickness, from which broken bones and small particles of charcoal
were disinterred. Underneath was a stratum (B) that had been formed of
branches of oak, alder, pine, hazel, &c., roughly thrown together, and
with traces of the bark still distinctly discernible, intermixed also
with remains of brambles, decayed foliage, small stones or gravel, a
little earth and bog mould. Next followed about six feet of a seemingly
undisturbed stratum of peat (C), lying upon a deposit of sand and marl
(D and E), which probably at some very remote period had formed the
original lake bottom. The stockading that originally surrounded the
islet still existed. To the west and north the stakes were four deep,
driven in close together, and forming an almost solid whole; they
were nearly all of oak, roughly hewn, and sharply pointed by a metal
instrument (plate XLIII., No. 5). Half buried in the soil were several
pieces of oak--one a barrel-shaped block (plate XLIII., No. 8), one
foot four inches in length, by one foot ten inches in circumference;
the groove cut in one of its sides is two inches deep, by one and
a-half inches broad. The other block (plate XLIII., No. 6) measures one
foot seven inches, by six inches; another is slightly smaller; and a
fourth (No. 9) has all the appearance of having formed portion of the
bottom of a wooden vessel; it measures twelve inches across.
[Illustration: Plate XLIV.
LOUGH EYES.
Plate 2. W. F. Wakeman 1870.]
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