KNOCKS 1

Site Name/ Townland Description Basic Interpretation Provisional dating
Knocks 1 Burnt mound Burnt mound Bronze Age

 

Preliminary Results of Excavation

Archaeological excavation at Knocks 1 was undertaken by ACS Ltd from November 2005 to January 2006. Post-excavation analysis is ongoing.

Excavation revealed a burnt stone spread enclosed by a ditch. The burnt stone spread was removed to reveal a number of shallow pits or troughs and an alignment of post and stake holes. The enclosing ditch although curvilinear did not appear to have been formally laid out although an entrance was revealed at the northeast side. The ditch appears to have originally been segmented and at a later date “dug through†to join the segments together. At least eleven former terminals were identified. The provisional interpretation is a Neolithic segmented ditch with later Bronze Age activity. Finds included animal bone from the ditch and a number of flint artifacts including a hollow based and a possible transverse arrowhead.

While the segmented nature of the Knocks ditch is a feature that has not been widely recognised at other Irish enclosure sites, some British evidence indicates that this was at least an occasional aspect of Bronze Age site construction. Indeed, segmentation is a feature of the construction of several large-scale domestic enclosures as well as on late Bronze Age hillfort ramparts, and might reflect the participation of several groups in the creation of individual monuments.

Radiocarbon dates (920-800 BC and 970-820 BC) date the ditch to the late Bronze Age.

Fig 1. Note entrance on right of the image

 Elevated view of enclosing ditch and pits at Knocks.

Artefacts

 

Fig. 2 Fragment of butchered animal bone. Note butchery marks in the surface of the bone

 

Fig. 2 Fragment of butchered animal bone.

 

Fig. 3 Hollow based flint arrow head

 

Fig. 3 Hollow based flint arrow head

 

Fig. 4 Heavily worked Flint knife blade

 

Fig. 4 Heavily worked Flint knife blade

 

Fig. 5 Worked flint thumb scraper

 

Fig. 5 Worked flint thumb scraper

 

Fig. 6 Hammer stone

 

Fig. 6 Hammer stone

 

Return to Section 1.

 

 

Final Report

Please click on the link to access the final archaeological report for Knocks 1

Final Report of Knocks 1 2.42MB