Friday, May 2, 2014

Latest datasets uploaded

This past few weeks (my progress is slowing down) I have uploaded material from Gortore 1b, Ballinglanna North 3, Ballynacarriga 2 and Ballinglanna North 1.

As mentioned in my last post I am trying out different licence types. I am also trying out a variety of repositories. Datasets linked to below are stored in both Zenodo and Figshare, using CC-BY and CC-0 licences.

Gortore 1b was a multi-period site that included Mesolithic pits, an Early Neolithic house, early medieval features, as well as samples from undated contexts. 

Mesolithic plant remains were associated with pits near the banks of the Funshion river. The remains appeared to be predominantly collected food waste, and they included hazelnut shell fragments and some berry pips and fruit stones.

A small quantity of Early Neolithic plant remains were recovered from a truncated rectangular house. They included just a small amount of hazelnut shell fragments, some indeterminate cereal grains and possible tuber fragments.

Samples from early medieval contexts (approximately seventh to eighth centuries AD) were amongst the richest from the site, particularly in terms of cereal remains. However, preservation quality was poor. Of the identifiable remains, roughly equal quantities of wheat and barley were recovered. A small quantity of the wheat remains were identified as the primitive glume wheat, emmer (this is very unusual in contexts from the historic period). It was not possible to identify any of the barley grains to type. One immature oat grain was also recovered from these samples and this is unusual as oat is often recovered in abundance in samples from sites of early medieval date.

Most of the samples from this site were not in features from dateable contexts. Hazelnut shell fragments were found scattered throughout the deposits and their widespread distribution suggests that the nuts were probably utilised through all phases of activity at the site.

For purposes of cross referencing, the blog post where I mention Gortore 1b grey literature report is here.

The site at Ballinglanna North 3 comprised one well-preserved Early Neolithic rectangular house, a second, disturbed, possible house site, pits and post-holes suggesting extensive activity, and two Bronze Age burnt mounds.

The majority of samples with plant remains contained charred hazelnut shell fragments, with over 500 fragments counted. The cereals from this site were identified as emmer wheat and barley, with emmer being the most common cereal type from deposits associated with the Early Neolithic structures.

Ballinglanna North 3 grey literature report is also mentioned here.

An early medieval enclosure and souterrain was excavated at Ballynacarriga 2 in Co. Cork. Plant remains were widely distributed in the samples from this site, although they were generally only recovered in small quantities. Cereal types found included oats, wheat, barley and a small quantity of rye.

Ballynacarriga 2 grey literature report is also mentioned here.

Ballinglanna North 1 (Ballinglanna North 1 dataset, archaeobotany reportarchaeology report)
The site at Ballinglanna North 1 comprised a post-medieval structure, a habitation area, a drainage system, a ditch a metal-working area, two large pits and a burnt mound/fulacht fiadh. There was extensive disturbance of the archaeological deposits in some areas on the site.

Deposits from the area around the burnt mound and associated features were relatively rich in plant remains, including cereals such as barley, rye and wheat. It appears likely that these were re-deposited, as rye is very rare in Irish charred plant remains assemblages before the late medieval period.

A pit associated with small quantities of metalworking waste also contained plant remains, primarily oat grains. While another metalworking area contained seeds that were predominantly barley grains. It is speculated that some of the grains found in these deposits may be the burnt residues of excess/glut or damaged crops that were used for fuel instead of for human and/or animal consumption. 

Ballinglanna North 1 grey literature report is mentioned here.



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