Cremation pit

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, 130m E of townland boundary with Island Dromagh. Not marked on OSi historic maps. Cremation pits excavated by Eoin Grogan as part of the Bórd Gáis Éireann Curraleigh West-Limerick gas pipeline, the resuls of which weresummarised as follows; ‘Two groups of features were noted on the site. One was a tightly knit group of seven cremation pits. The second, 6m away, appeared after excavation not to be associated with the cremation pit group. The cremation pit group occurred in an area 6m x 5m. Four pits formed the core of the cemetery with three approximately equidistant outliers. The pits had varying diameters ranging from 38-58cm, and were 15-17cm deep. The shallower pits all appeared to have been heavily truncated by agricultural activity. Two of the pits were lined with a deposit of clay and another may have been lined with timber which was subsequently burnt. Three pits yielded small fragments of coarse undecorated pottery which appeared to have been deposited in sherds, at the bottom of the pits. Cremated bone was found in concentrations on top of the pottery or around it. There was no evidence for an enclosing feature. The bone has been identified in seven of twelve samples as human. The other samples consisted of bone deliberately crushed to such an extent that it was not possible to identify it. The second group of features included shallow pits and linear features. No finds were recovered from these but flecks of bone were present in the fill of some’ (Grogan 1987, 27) No surface remains visible.

Compiled by: Fiona Rooney

Date of upload: 15 June 2021

References

Grogan, E. 1987 Mitchelstown North (BGE); BCremation pit cemetery. In C. Cotter (ed.) Excavations 1986: Summary Accounts of Archaeological Excavations in Ireland, 27, No. 53. Wordwell, Dublin.