Excavation - miscellaneous

The National Monuments Service's description

On flat wet pasture 280m E of the River Maigue and the townland boundary with Ballynabanoge. One of a group of five prehistoric sites (LI031-211/213/214/215----) excavated within 500m on the Bord Gáis Éireann's Pipeline to the West in 2002 in Inchinclare and Rosstemple townlands (Grogan et. al. 2007). No trace of the monument was present on historic maps or aerial photographs prior to the discovery of the site during pipeline construction.
A single pit and a small spread of burnt clay was excavated at the site (02E0552, Taylor 2004). The pit was almost perfectly circular (ext. diam. 0.8m; D. 0.28m), with steep sides and a concave base. Excavation revealed that the cut of the pit was carefully executed, with the sides and base smoothly excavated into the natural boulder clay. The fill of the pit was a mid-grey/brown silty clay with a moderate amount of charcoal and occasional fire-cracked stones. An irregular-shaped patch of charcoal was located 6m NE of the pit. This material consisted of oxidised silty clay (L. 1.2m; Wth. 0.5m and D. 0.03m). This appeared to be evidence for in situ burning. No artefacts were recovered; however, a large amount of charcoal obtained from a sieved sample from the pit fill was suitable for species identification and should be sufficient to provide a radiocarbon determination.
Interpretation of these isolated features is difficult. The cut of the pit indicates that a great deal of care went into its preparation, a feature that has been noted in the pits of Bronze Age cremation burials excavated elsewhere in Co. Limerick as part of the pipeline project (e.g. BGE 3/75/2, 3, 02E0498). No cremated bone was recovered from this site. The site is considered likely to be prehistoric in date.

Compiled by: Edmond O’Donovan

Date of upload: 22 October 2020

References

Taylor, K. 2004 Inchinclare (BGE 3/71/2-3). In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2002: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 324, No. 1181. Bray. Wordwell.

Grogan, E., O'Donnell, L. and Johnston, P. 2007 The Bronze Age landscapes of the pipeline to the West. Bray. Wordwell.