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 lies about one hundred and eighty yards from the eastern
shore, and the diameter of the area covered with stones is eighty-five
feet, but the wooden substructure extends to a considerable distance
under water. The beams, protruding from under the superincumbent
stones, appeared--as is usual--to radiate from a common centre, but two
beams on the west shore, and one that was raised from a depth of one
foot under the present water surface on the south shore, seemed to lie
at a tangent to the circle of the crannog. In fig. 238 the mortises
_a_, _b_ secured the heads of piles, and _c_, _d_ (of larger size) may
have held some of the radial beams. The highest point of the crannog
now stands about five feet above the level of the lake, which has been
reduced three feet in height, as the result of drainage operations
carried out by the proprietor, Colonel Cooper. Some of the encircling
piles remain in position; three were noticed on the north, and one on
the south-east shore. To the west and south the water is shallow, and
this shoal would seem to have been the “kitchen midden,” or refuse
heap, for numerous teeth of the _Bos longifrons_ were here dredged up,
and close to the encircling piles lay a quantity of fractured hazel
nuts and some pieces of charcoal. On the east and west there were, in
the fine sand on the crannog beach, small portions of calcined bones,
resembling those found in the cromlech interments at Carrowmore. A. W.
Foot, M.D., to whom they were submitted, states that these fragments
were “undoubtedly bone, several of them unmistakably calcined (from
carbonaceous residue). Some of the fragments are entirely composed of
carbonate of lime, others are a mixture of carbonate and phosphate of
lime. It could not be determined whether they are animal or human; this
should be conjectured from surrounding or collateral circumstances.”
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