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 annexed plan of one of the islands conveys a good idea of the
general arrangement of this class of structure. The outer line of
stakes enclosed a circle sixty feet in diameter, and within the
enclosure there were groups of stakes--in some parts two or three
deep--driven into the ground, seemingly for purposes connected with
some internal arrangement. A, the central oblong portion, consists
of a platform of round logs cut in lengths of from four to six feet,
possibly the floor of the hut; B, a collection of stones with marks
of fire on them; C, a heap of stiff clay; D, the root of a large tree
nearly buried in the peat, the surface of the wood bevelled off, so as
to form a sort of table, under which was found a considerable quantity
of bones, apparently those of deer and swine.
[Illustration: Fig. 235.--Section of second Crannog in Drumaleague
Lake.]
Fig. 235 is a section of the second crannog, which was surrounded by
a tolerably regular circular enclosure formed of a single row of oak
stakes F, F; it was seventy-two feet in diameter. The upper stratum
B, consisted of horizontal logs of alder, reposing upon a black
peaty surface; the logs were from three to eight inches in diameter,
completely water soaked and rotten: this stratum of timber was three
feet six inches deep. A, a heap of stones with marks of fire on them.
Other hearths were found in different parts of the island. C, the
lower stratum of decayed and blackened sticks and branches of all
descriptions lying in every direction: this layer extended as far as
it was pierced in the examination, viz., about four feet, but was
evidently of greater depth. D, D, two heaps of stones found in the
lower stratum. E, the kitchen midden, in which was a large quantity of
bones of deer, swine, oxen, &c., that lay four feet below the surface.
There was here found also the thin topstone of a quern, formed of
micaceous quartzite, smooth upon the grinding surface, but otherwise
rude and unfinished: the hole for the handle passes quite through; the
grain-hole, two and a-half inches in diameter, is not directly in the
centre.[260]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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