A Saddle Quern from Agher, County MeathAuthor(s): David KeelingSource: The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Vol. 126 (1996), pp. 184-186Published by: Royal Society of Antiquaries of IrelandStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25549815 .

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184 MISCELLANEA

has been broken off the butt and the surface is polished all over except at the break.

There is a little brown iron staining on part of one surface. There is very little mechani

cal damage suggesting use. A petrological examination made on a thin-section cut from

the broken end for microscopic examination

by Dr J. D. Clemens, Department of

Geology, University of Manchester, yields the following information:

The rock is very fine-grained and is rich in sodic plagioclase and epidote with minor actionolite. It is essentially apphyric, although there are a few scarce microphe

nocrysts of what appears to have been

plagioclase, now replaced by microcrys talline material, probably quartz. The rock has a strong igneous flow-texture indicating that the original material was extrusive.

There are cross-cutting veinlets of epidote and quartz. The original igneous texture was

intergranular. Some original augite granules appear to be preserved.

Dr Clemens concludes that it is a metamorphic rock of the upper greenschist facies, the parent having been an andesitic or trachy-andesitic lava.

This description does not fit any of the 34 or more British stone implement petrology groups

(Clough et al 1988), nor does it match the description of any ungrouped axe which I have read.

Unfortunately the rock does not have any distinguishing feature or accessory mineral which could point to its source.

CLOUGH, T. H. McK and CUMMINS, W. A. 1988 Stone axe studies Vol. 2, 1-10, CBA Research Report. JOPE, E. M. 1952 Porcellanite axes from factories in North-East Ireland: Tievebulliagh and Rathlin, Part 1, UJA

15(1952), 31-55.

J. A. McCURDY

S_A [?A

I - ?- j mm

Fig. 36. Polished stone axehead from county Donegal

A SADDLE QUERN FROM AGHER, COUNTY MEATH

This saddle quern was first brought to my attention by Mr Noel Flanagan, Malahide, county Dublin. It was found in July 1972 by his nephew, Mr Charles Robinson, Ryeland, Summerhill,

county Meath, during mechanical dredging of a small stream, a tributary of the River Rye, as

part of land reclamation on the family farm. The quern was recovered lying on its side with the underside partially exposed. The find-spot is in Agher td.; O.S. Six-inch sheet Meath 49, 3.8cm from W and 5.4cm from N; NGR N 834455; OD 91m (300 ft). The predominant modern soils in the locality are heavy-turned gleys with impervious subsoils (Gardiner et al. 1975). The quern is currently in the possession of Mrs Hilda Robinson, Dilsten Lodge, Rathmoylan, county

Meath.

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THE DEFENCE OF THE SOUTHERN PART OF IRELAND 185

I

_

0 30cm r, . r . , ,y ^ ̂ ̂ //,., /,. * . , ///,_/\

Fig. 37. Saddle quern from Agher, county Meath

The quern (Fig. 37) was fashioned from a glacially-derived sandstone boulder and has a convex underside and a smooth slightly concave upper surface. Its maximum dimensions are:

length 43.0cm, breadth 26.0cm, thickness 10.0cm. It is 18kg. in weight. It is trapezoidal in shape with one end tapering gradually to c. 65% of its maximum width and is thicker at its broader end. The narrower end is rounded at the top. The concavity of the grinding area is quite shallow and is deepest (c. 5mm) and most clearly marked nearer to the broader end of the stone. This

grinding area measures approximately 19.0 by 16.0cm. This quern is, of itself, of particular interest due to the presence of a number of distinctive

features. The stone has a perforation approximately midway along one of the long sides which extends through the side of the quern, re-emerging on the underside. This is of hour-glass shape having been bored through from both surfaces, and reduces from 45mm on the side surface to 10mm midway down the perforation, enlarging again on the undersurface to 40mm. Similar per forations are known on five saddle querns, and it has been suggested that they might indicate the re-use of such querns as weights or tethering stones (Connolly 1994, 30).

Six cup-shaped depressions occur on the underside of the quern. These depressions consist of roughly circular areas measuring minimum diameter 6mm to maximum diameter 33mm. The

depths vary from 4mm to 17mm although the sides and bottoms of the depressions are not par ticularly smooth. While such depressions are known on a small number (10 examples) of known saddle querns, the presence of six depressions on this example is at present unparalleled else

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186 MONICA NEVIN

where. While the purpose of such depressions is at present unknown, it is possible that these

mortar-like, albeit shallow, wear patterns are the result of re-use in another grinding capacity and were caused perhaps by the action of small pestles (Connolly 1994, 29). Alternatively, some

non-functional significance could be attached to their presence by their makers and users

(Gosling and Millar 1980, 270; Doody 1987, 15). There are no known examples of decorated saddle querns in Ireland; however, a series of

seven horizontal grooves on the underside of the Agher example could be interpreted as a form of decoration. The grooves are formed by pocking and vary in length, width and depth. The

longest groove is 9.0cm long, 2.0cm in maximum width and 4mm in maximum depth; the short est is about 6.0cm long. The grooves appear to be truncated by a vertical line also formed by

pocking. The presence of these markings may well have been an influencing factor in the choice

of the stone from which to manufacture the quern. In its technique of application and, in part, its decorative scheme, the design resembles that on a stone found in a disturbed position near

the entrance of Site 12 at Knowth Passage Tomb cemetery (Knowth 1984, 164, Fig. 72, Pl. 67). The Agher quern represents a further addition to a notable concentration of about 30 saddle

querns from the midland counties of Westmeath, Offaly, Laois and Meath (Connolly 1994, 30,

Fig. 2). While it cannot be precisely dated, it is likely to belong to a stage between the Neolithic

and the last few centuries BC when, according to Caulfield (1978, 130), the type may have been

replaced by the more efficient rotary quern. The hypothetical possibility of a Neolithic date for

this quern would make it a valuable addition to the limited amount of evidence for agricultur

ally related artefacts from this period in Ireland (Mitchell 1976, 121). If used originally close to

where it was found, it may provide an indication of settlement or at least of the processing of

cereal in this area during the prehistoric period. My thanks are due to the following: Mr Charles Robinson for the provision of details of the

discovery and for permission to publish; Mr Noel Flanagan for recognising the significance of

the quern and bringing it to my attention; Mrs Hilda Robinson and Mrs Dorothy Flanagan for

their assistance in recording the find; Dr Muiris O'Sullivan for directing my attention to the Knowth stone; Ms Niamh O'Broin for the drawing and Mrs Moya McVeigh-Keeling for helpful comments on the text.

CAULFIELD, S. 1978 Quern Replacement and the Origin of Brochs, PSAS 109(1977-78), 129-39.

CONNOLLY, A. 1994 Saddle Querns in Ireland, UJA 57(1994), 26-36.

EOGAN, G. 1984 Excavations at Knowth 1. Royal Irish Academy Monographs in Archaeology 1. Dublin.

GARDINER, M. J. et al. Over one-third of Co. Meath land has a drainage problem, Farm and Food Research 6(1975), 15-17.

GOSLING, P. and MILLAR, P. 1980 A Group of Prehistoric Artefacts from Glaspistol, near Clogher Head, Co. Louth,

CLAJ XIX,4(1980), 265-73.

MITCHELL, G. F. 1976 The Irish Landscape. London: Collins.

David Keeling, Member

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