Excavation - miscellaneous

The National Monuments Service's description

'Monitoring of ground disturbance associated with the excavation of access roads, services and house sites was undertaken to comply with a planning condition. Archaeological stratigraphy was recorded in the area of the access road and in four of the house sites. The archaeological stratigraphy was subsequently excavated. Three circular structures and part of a fourth circular structure were excavated. The perimeter wall of each structure consisted of a single ring of posts. The diameter of each was c. 5-6m. Structures A, B and C were located in proximity to each other and shared a similar alignment. Only Structure A had a hearth. Structure D was located c. 120m to the east. A shallow pit, 0.57m x 0.73m x 0.14m, located 12m north of Structure B, contained 140 sherds of decorated and undecorated pottery, a flint scraper, flint and chert flakes and small amounts of cremated bone that have not yet been identified as human. The pit was located in proximity to a pit containing a cache of charred plant remains, a sandstone pounder, rubbing stone and a greenstone axe (interpreted as an axe makiers tool kit - (J. Kiely pers. comm). A group of shallow pits was excavated 12m north of Structure C. They were mostly of a common type, exhibiting a gradual break of slope, sloping sides and a flat base. Some contained sherds of pottery or grain, while others had a sterile fill. Two burnt pits were also excavated. A row of seventeen stake-holes formed a windbreak, 5.4m long, for one of the pits and provided a sheltered area of 2.5m between the pit and the windbreak. Over 400 stake-holes were excavated in the southern part of the site. They represent the remains of a number of temporary structures. Two small features described as fulachta fiadh troughs were excavated to the west and east of the structures. Both cut small spreads of white clay. The base of the trough in the east was cut by 26 stake-holes. The spread associated with the trough measured 4.8m x 3.5m. Cremated bone occurred in 24 contexts but the entire amount from the site weighed only 21.04g. The cremated remains are small and not diagnostic as to species identification, although a few fragments have been identified as possibly human.'

Description from ‘The Prehistoric Settlement of the Lee Valley, Tralee, Co. Kerry; A Landscape Perspective’ by Michael Connolly. PhD Thesis UCC 2008

Date of upload: 24 July 2012

References

Kiely, J. and Dunne, L. 2005 Recent Archaeological Excavations in the Tralee area. In M. Connolly (ed.) Past Kingdoms: Recent Archaeological Research, Survey & Excavation in Co. Kerry, 40-64.

Kiely, J. 2002 Cloghers, Co. Kerry. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2000: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 149, No. 446. Bray. Wordwell.