A team of archaeologists are excavating the Caherconnell Cashel site in Ireland. Unearthed artefacts testify to a long Medieval period occupation at the site, lasting from 10th to 15th or 16th century AD. The cashel is a drystone (no mortar) enclosure: a 4m-high limestone wall enclosing a circular area that contained dwellings, the enclosure having an east-facing entrance.

The excavations in the interior of the structure have already revealed evidence for a series of occupation and building phases that indicate a long period of use. The artefact include clothes-fastening pins of bone, iron and bronze; iron shears; knives and other tools; whetstones and quernstones; glass and amber beads; a silver finger ring; iron and bronze buckles; a bronze tuning peg from a harp; iron arrowheads; intricately carved bone hair combs, and plenty of animal remains.

The finds are helping to reveal the lifestyle of these people, who lived in a time when the Anglo-Normans invaded Ireland in the 12th century AD. The archaeologists hope that the results of the excavation will help unfold a new chapter in the ongoing search for the unwritten history of the Gaelic people who inhabited Ireland.

(after Popular Archaeology)