Cremated remains

The National Monuments Service's description

On gently sloping NE-facing pasture 100m SW of the River Maigue and the townland boundary with Inchinclare. One of a large group of prehistoric archaeological sites (LI031-211/212----) located 500m to SE excavated on the Bord Gáis Éireann's Pipeline to the West in 2002 (Grogan et. al. 2007). No trace of the excavated site was present on historic OSi maps or aerial photographs prior to its discovery during pipeline construction.
A cremation burial (LI031-215001-) and three pits (LI031-215002-) were excavated within a 24m stretch of pipeline corridor straddling the base of a hill on the edge of the river flood-plain (Taylor 2004). Pit 5 was cut into the gravel terrace overlooking the river. The pit was sub-circular (diam. 0.42m; D 0.43m), with steep sides and a concave base. The fill consisted of a very dark brown/black silt with a high proportion of charcoal and cremated bone. Large fragments of bone were observed on the surface of the feature before excavation and it is likely that some cremated remains were truncated during topsoil-stripping. No artefacts were recovered.
The burial is likely to be Bronze Age. The excavator noted that the size of the cremated bone fragments in the burial pit at Ballynabanoge was unusual in contrast with other cremation burials excavated on the pipeline project. The bone fragments were proportionally larger in contrast to other burial sites where the cremated bone had been crushed in antiquity before deposition (Taylor 2004, 305).

Compiled by: Edmond O’Donovan

Date of upload: 29 October 2020

References

Taylor, K. 2004 Ballynabanoge (3/71/5-6); Cremation burial and pits. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2002: Summary Accounts of Archaeological Excavations in Ireland, 305, No. 1111. Wordwell, Bray.

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