Cremation pit

The National Monuments Service's description

Excavated (Licence no. E3917) in advance of the construction of the Tyrrelstown to N2 Link Road, this monument consisted of a cluster of three cremation pits.
Pit 1 (0.47m x 0.40m) contained a mix of cremated human bone, charcoal and fragments of burnt clay. While the weight of cremated bone recovered was a fraction of a cremated individual analysis revealed the burial to be an older adolescent or perhaps an adult (O’Hara R. 2008, 2).
Pit 2 (0.27m x 0.25m) contained a mix of cremated human bone, charcoal and fragments of burnt clay. While the weight of cremated bone recovered was a fraction of a cremated individual analysis revealed the burial to be an older adolescent or, perhaps, an adult. A charred false oat-grass tuber was identified and may have been used as kindling for the funeral pyre (O’Hara R. 2008, 2).
Pit 3 (0.5m x 0.4m) was located immediately adjacent to Pit 2 and contained cremation deposit placed within a coarse pottery vessel. The burial was radiocarbon dated to the Late Bronze Age (1010-840 cal. BC). The vessel which survived to a height of 12cm is a Late Bronze age vessel similar to domestic vessels of the same date (O’Hara R. 2008, 3).

Compiled by: Christine Baker

Date of upload: 6 February 2015

References

O'Hara, R. 2008 Archaeological excavation, Tyrrelstown to N2 (Cherryhound Exchange) Link Road, Bay 1 (Licence no. E3917). Unpublished report. National Monuments Service, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.