Cremation pit

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture 130m E of a stream that marks the townland boundary with Knockuregare. Enclosure (LI039-120----) lies 100m to NE. Not depicted on OSi historic mapping. Identified as BGE 3/77/8 in 2002 by Ken Wiggins (Licence 02E0119) during topsoil-stripping on the Bord Gáis Éireann Pipeline to the West. Excavated in 2002 by Brian Halpin under licence No. 02E0396 the results of which were summarised as follows; ‘A series of fourteen charcoal-rich features identified as Bronze Age cremation pits was revealed during topsoil-stripping. This site was 12.2m east of BGE 3/77/9 and 9m west of BGE 3/77/7. There were two areas of interest adjacent to each other. The first contained eleven features, and the second, 2.8m to the east, contained three further features of almost identical size and content. The pits ranged in size from 0.24m to 0.56m, and all were circular, steep sided, U-shaped and cut into the yellow/orange boulder-clay subsoil. A charcoal-rich fill, containing inclusions of varying amounts of burnt bone, characterised the content of the cremation pits. Most of the bone had been bleached white during the cremation process and was in minute fragments, with the few larger pieces measuring no more than 0.02m. Worked lithics, most probably votive offerings, were recovered from a number of the pits. Feature 9 contained a chert end scraper; Feature 14 contained a piece of worked chert; Feature 5 contained a chert, barbed and tanged arrowhead and a flint, leaf-shaped arrowhead. Although a number of the features contained offerings, most did not. The site can be described as an area of Bronze Age ritual deposition in a landscape rich in Bronze Age sites (Halpin 2004, 297)’. Monument has been fully excavated and is not visible on aerial images.

Compiled by: Martin Fitzpatrick

Date of upload: 19 May 2021

References

Halpin, B. 2004 Ballingayrour (BGE 3/77/7-9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 19); Various. In I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations 2002: Summary Accounts of Archaeological Excavations in Ireland, 298-9, No. 1087. Wordwell, Bray.