Pottery
Roughan Hill, County Clare
A kidney shaped stone enclosure surrounds the remains of several structures at Roughan Hill today. The site was discovered in 1994 during the course of an intensive survey, aimed at finding settlements contemporary with the many surrounding wedge shaped tombs.
The central structure of settlement 1 was excavated in 1995, and the Beaker pottery found then confirmed that this site was contemporary with the wedge tombs.
In the Final Neolithic\Early Bronze Age there was a busy farming community on Roughan Hill consisting of several settlements. Finds date from c2400-2000 BC.
Almost all the sherds are Beaker Pottery. This pottery was a widespread type across western and central Europe at the end of the Neolithic and into the Early Bronze Age. It has been decorated with a variety of techniques: incised lines, comb impressions, bird bone impressions, dots and cockleshell impressions. One Early Bronze Age Food Vessel Sherd was also recovered from Settlement 1, Roughan Hill.
Ref: 95E61:7-12, 15, 169, 174, 178-9, 183, 190, 192
Ceramics
and Enamel Collection
Early Bronze
Age Collection
National Museum
of Ireland, Irish Antiquities Division Collection
Roughan Hill Collection
Photograph appears courtesy of the National Museum of Ireland
