Plate III.
Front, Side Elevation, Ground Plan, &c., of Crannog Hut, discovered at Inver, Co. Donegal.
The depth at which the hut was buried, and the flint and stone implements found in it, seem to prove unquestionably its extreme antiquity; added to which, upon the level of the floor, and extending all around, were the corkers of a forest of hard wood trees that had co-existed with the occupation of this structure. Wood, in large masses, when either thoroughly immersed in water or buried under ground, lasts longer in a semi-decomposed state than is generally supposed, for calcined ends of timber antæ and rafters were dug out from the pseudo site of Troy.[56]
Fig. 4.
Remaining Fragment of Wooden Sword found at Inver.
At the time of Captain Mudge’s discovery, so little was known on the subject of lake dwellings, that many were the conjectures floated in connexion with this Donegal “find.” Now, however, this famous log house is pronounced to be simply a very well preserved example of the ordinary crannog hut of an extremely early period, i.e. of a time when axe-heads of stone were still in use, and when metal, if known at all, was so precious that ordinary weapons were occasionally at least formed out of hard wood. That the structure in question occupied a crannog will be sufficiently obvious to any inquirer who examines the model of it preserved in the Royal Irish Academy. The stakes represented in situ, to the left of the illustration ([plate II.]), are plainly remains of the stockade, one timber of which appears in the foreground; and, in the sides of the drain made to carry off the water from the excavation, Captain Mudge observed a number of ends of large oak logs placed in regular order, portion evidently of the usual crannog foundation.[57]