Analysis of plant remains from Gortore 1, Co. Cork (E2119)

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1 Technical report Analysis of plant remains from Gortore, Co. Cork (E29) By Penny Johnston 2009 Cite as: Johnston, P. (2009). Charred plant remains from Gortore, Co. Cork. Technical report. Further information: O'Donoghoe, J. (200). Archaeological Excavation Rport E29 Gortore, Co. Cork Neolithic house. Eachtra Journal, 6. Retrieved from This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit

2 Charred plant remains from Gortore, Co. Cork (A04/003) By Penny Johnston Introduction This report details the analysis of charred seeds and plant remains from samples taken during excavation of a settlement site at Gortore, Co. Cork. The site was excavated as two areas, in Area the remains of a Bronze Age pit were excavated, while in Area 2 the foundation trenches of a Neolithic house were found. The plant remains from the site included wheat (in particular emmer wheat), barley and crab apple. Methodology The samples were collected on site as bulk soil and were processed using a simple flotation method. Each sample was saturated in water to allow carbonised plant material to float; this flot (the floating material) was then poured into a stack of geological sieves and trapped in the sieve meshes (the smallest measured 250μm). When all the carbonised material was collected the flot was then air-dried in paper-lined drying trays prior to storage in airtight plastic bags. Sorting and identification of the flots was carried out using a low-powered binocular microscope (magnification x0 to x40) and identified seeds were separated and stored in sealed glass phials. Nomenclature and taxonomic order follows Stace (997), although in order to facilitate easy reading of this text the scientific names are included only in the table of identified seeds presented at the end of this report (Table ). Results Sixteen samples contained the remains of charred plant remains, including the samples from the Early Neolithic house foundations, from the Bronze Age pit and from miscellaneous features which potentially date to a much later period, such as a ditch. Three samples were taken from the Bronze Age pit that was excavated in Area. These were C5 (SS), C5 (SS8) and C9 (SS4) and the plant remains in these deposits included hazel nut shell fragments, barley grains, emmer wheat grains, indeterminate wheat grains, some cereal grains that could not be identified to type, apple/pear pips, possible flax bolls and weed seeds. Eight samples were taken from the foundation trenches of an Early Neolithic house in Area 2: from C06 (SS23), C07 (SS2), C2 (SS46), C5 (SS25), C2 (SS27), C25 (SS3), C52 (SS4) and C64(SS34) The charred cereals included hazel nut shell fragments, emmer wheat grains, indeterminate wheat grains, cereals that could not be classified, weed seeds, apple/pear pips and the charred endocarp (core and flesh) of an apple.

3 Two samples were taken from burnt spreads C4 (SS37) and C42 (SS38) and they contained hazel nut shell fragments and sloe stones and one indeterminate cereal grain. Most of the sloe stones had rodent gnaw holes, indicating that they could be from a small store accumulated by a mouse or a larger rodent. There is no evidence to suggest why they became carbonised. Two samples were taken from miscellaneous contexts; C6 (SS5) and C26 (SS2). C6 (SS5) was taken from the upper layer of a ditch that crossed the excavation and was possibly of modern origin. The sample was very different from all the others taken at the site, with just the charred remains of three drubes from blackberries or raspberries recovered. These probably grew around or in the ditch and may have been charred during field clearance. In C26 (SS2) hazel nut shell fragments were the only plant remains found; the sample was taken from a swallow hole that was found underneath the house foundation trenches; as such the plant remains probably represent occuppational material that fell into the feature from above. Discussion The pit in Area produced a plant remains assemblage that included grains of both wheat and barley, but wheat was predominant. The only identifiable type of wheat present was emmer. The established consensus is that barley became a more common crop than wheat during the Bronze Age (e.g. Monk 985/6) and deposits from the Early and Middle Bronze Age are more likely to produce greater quantities of wheat than Late Bronze Age samples. Deposits from the foundation walls of the Neolithic house suggested that wheat was the predominant crop type during this period. Only one barley grain was recovered and it may have been from a small wild grass variety that was accidentally incorporated into the wheat crop (along with a small amount of other weed seeds) rather than from a cultivar. Many of the wheat grains were in poor condition and could not be classified beyond genus level, but the small quantity of emmer grains recovered suggests that most of the wheat was probably from this species. Comparative cereal assemblages from six early Neolithic houses at Corbally, Co. Kildare also indicate that the crop economy was almost exclusively dependent on emmer wheat, as there was only one possible grain of barley found (Purcell 2002). Tankardstown South, Co. Limerick also produced emmer grains, the largest cache known from an Irish early Neolithic site (Gowen 988, 4). The Gortore cereal assemblage has close parallels to the material from these two sites, suggesting some homogeneity in the crop types that were exploited in the Irish Neolithic. However, crop assemblages

4 from some other Irish Neolithic houses indicate more diverse crop husbandry practices; although wheat was also predominant at Ballygalley, Co. Antrim, much of this was identified as einkorn rather than emmer (Simpson 993), an unusual find. Material from Monanny, Co. Monaghan, where three Neolithic houses were found, included oats, emmer wheat, naked barley and barley (information from NRA archaeological discoveries leaflet for N2 Carrickmacross Bypass) and at Cloghers I (Early-Middle Neolithic date), the crop assemblage consisted of bread wheat, barley, oats and possibly spelt wheat; no signs of emmer were found (Kiely and Dunne 2005). The most unusual feature of the plant remains assemblage from the site was the discovery of charred apple pips and endocarp fragments from the area around the house wall. Charred apple pips are known from a Late Neolithic/Bronze Age site at Kiladreenan, Co. Wicklow (Johnston 2005), and there were possible apple pips from a Neolithic house partially excavated at Pepperhill, Co. Limerick (Monk 988, 88). However, while the recovery of charred apple is relatively unusual, finding the charred flesh of apple is very rare; the only recorded Irish parallel is at Tankardstown South, Co. Limerick, where Neolithic house deposits contained carbonised apple endocarps. Their discovery may be explained by a practice of hanging apples to dry along the walls in houses, which has ethnographic parallels (Monk 988, 86 and Ellison et al. 978.). The material from Gortore provides a direct parallel to the Tankardstown finds, although the quantities found at Tankardstown were much larger. While the crab apple is a wild food, Monk (2000) indicates that the recovery of wild foods in these contexts does not suggest that the settlement was transitory; people continue to collect wild fruits to this day. A comparison between the crop assemblages from the Neolithic contexts and those from the Bronze Age deposits suggests that there was no great difference in the crop types grown in this area during both periods, although this conclusion is drawn on the basis of very small assemblages from both periods and may therefore be distorted. Non-Technical Summary This report examined the plant remains taken from a Bronze Age pit and an Early Neolithic house. There was little or no discernible difference between the assemblages from both periods; both were sparse and wheat was recovered more frequently than barley. Where wheat could be identified to species it was classified as emmer. The results of cereal identifications have several parallels in other plant remains assemblages from Early Neolithic houses, in particular from Tankardstown South, Co. Limerick and Corbally, Co. Kildare. The recovery of apple endocarp fragments only has a parallel at

5 Tankardstwon South, but it suggests Neolithic use of the surrounding countryside to gather and save plant remains, despite the ability to sow and harvest crops. References Ellison, R., Renfrew, J.,Brothwell, D. and Seeley, N. 978 Some food offerings from Ur, excavated by Sir Leonard Wolley and previously unpublished Journal of Archaeological Science 5, Gowen, M. 988 Three Irish Gas Pipelines: New Archaeological Evidence from Munster Dublin, Wordwell. Johnston, P Charred plant remains from Kiladreenan, Co. Wicklow Unpublished Technical Report for Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd. Kiely, J. and Dunne, L Recent Archaeological Excavations in the Tralee Area in M. Connolly (ed.) Past Kingdoms: Recent Archaeological Research, Survey and Excavation in County Kerry Castleisland, Kerry County Council and The Heritage Council. Monk, M Seeds and soils of discontent pp in A. Desmond, G. Johnson, M. McCarthy, J. Sheehan and E. Shee Twohig (eds.) New agendas in Irish prehistory Bray, Wordwell. Monk, M. A. 988 Appendix 3: Archaeobotanical samples from pipeline sites in M. Gowen Three Irish Gas Pipelines: New Archaeological Evidence from Munster Dublin, Wordwell. NRA Archaeological Discoveries leaflet for the N2 Carrickmacross Bypass Purcell, Avril 2002 Excavation of three Neolithic houses at Corbally, Kilcullen, County Kildare Journal of Irish Archaeology XI 3-75 Simpson 993 The Neolithic Settlement Site at Ballygalley, Co. Antrim in E. Grogan and C. Mount (eds.) Annus Archaeology: Proceedings of the Organisation of Irish Archaeologists Conference 993, Stace, C. A. 997 New Flora of the British Isles (2 nd edition) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

6 Table : Charred Plant Remains from Gortore, Co. Cork (A04/003) Context Sample Hazel nut shell fragments (Corylus avellana) Indeterminate nut shell fragment Fat hen (Chenopodium album) Indeterminate seeds from the Goosefoot Family (Chenopodiaceae) Pale Persicaria (Persicaria lapathifolia) Black bindweed (Fallopia convolvulus) Probable Sheep's sorrel (Rumex cf acetosella) Indeterminate seeds from the Knotgrass/Dock Family (Polygonaceae) Blackberry/Raspberry drubes (Rubus fructicosus/idaeus) 3 Sloe stones (Prunus spinosa) 4 Fragments from sloe/cherry stones (Prunus species) Fruit stones/nut shell fragments 3 Pear/Apple pips (Pyrus/Malus) probably crab apple (Malus sylvestris) 9 8 Burnt endocarps of pear/apple, probably crab apple (Pyrus/Malus) probably crab apple (Malus sylvestris) * ***** Possible Linseed grain (cf Linum species)

7 Table : Charred Plant Remains from Gortore, Co. Cork (A04/003) Context Sample Possible flax bolls (cf Linum species) Distorted seeds; possible Pear/Apple/Linseed (Pyrus/Malus/Linum) 7 Cleavers (Galium aparine) Indeterminate weed seeds Hulled Barley grains (Hordeum vulgare) Grains of indeterminate barley type (Hordeum species) Barley/Wheat grains (Hordeum/Triticum) Barley/Wheat embryo ends (Hordeum/Triticum) Emmer wheat grains (Triticum dicoccum) Probable Emmer wheat grains (Triticum dicoccum) Emmer/Spelt wheat glume bases (Triticum dicoccum/spelta) Wheat grains of indeterminate type (Triticum species) Apical end from wheat grains of indeterminate type (Triticum species) Possible wheat grain (cf Triticum species) Indeterminate cereal grains (Ceralia)

8 Table : Charred Plant Remains from Gortore, Co. Cork (A04/003) Context Sample Fragments of indeterminate cereal grains (Ceralia) 2 5 Indeterminate Grass seeds (Poaceae)