House - Bronze Age, Camlin, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Settlement Sites
At Camlin in County Tipperary, archaeologists working on a Bronze Age site found themselves looking at buildings that do not quite fit a single template.
Two circular structures were under excavation, each constructed using a hybrid technique: a slot trench, that is, a continuous channel cut into the ground to hold upright timbers, running along the northern, upslope side, while the southern face was defined by individual postholes. Whether that southern side was ever formally enclosed, with planking or wattle filling the gaps between the posts, remained unclear at the time of excavation.
The two structures differ noticeably in scale. One measures roughly 7.5 metres in diameter and the other around 5 metres, a difference that may reflect distinct functions or simply the needs of different households or working groups. Inside one of the buildings, excavators uncovered a substantial internal hearth, its scorched area spreading so extensively that it approached the line of postholes on the southern face, suggesting a fire that was regularly and heavily used. Beyond the two principal buildings, the site appears to be more complex still. At least one further circular slot-trench building was visible, and two more structures seem to have been built entirely of posts arranged around a central hearth, without the combination technique seen elsewhere. There is also the matter of the palisade enclosure nearby, a defensive or boundary fence of upright timbers, whose internal "C" shaped rings may themselves represent additional buildings, extending the settlement further than initially apparent. Taken together, the evidence suggests not a single isolated dwelling but a cluster of structures, varied in size and method, occupied at some point during the Bronze Age.



