Barrow - ditch barrow

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated at the bottom of a gentle N-facing slope in a low col with the summits of hills rising c. 570m to the NNW and c. 630m to the E. It was first identified as a possible monument in remote sensing (07R3) for the re-alignment of the R708 Airport road, and confirmed in a test excavation (07E0347) by O. Scully (2007d) when an urn burial was recovered. It was fully excavated by D. J. Lalonde under the same licence.

A circular area (int. diam. 11.25m N-S; 10.5m E-W; ext. diam. 12.5m N-S; 12.5m E-W) defined by a complete round-bottomed fosse (wth of top c. 1-2m; D 0.25-0.6m) surrounded a circle (diam. c. 6m E-W; c. 5m N-S) of pits or post-holes (diam. c. 0.4-0.6m; D 0.15-0.4m) that is open (Wth c. 4m) to the NE like a kerb circle. The pits are arranged in pairs of adjacent inner and outer pits; one contained a cremation, two had inserted cremation burials, and one had a sherd of pottery. Within this circle were numerous stakeholes and soils with oxidised clay and charcoal inclusions.

At the E edge of the barrow three cremation burials were recovered from inverted Urns. Two of the urns were in stone-lined pits, and all three were in the Collared Urn tradition, one being a miniature urn. In addition two other cremation burials were found in pits in the central area, and another was c. 3m outside the ditch to the NW. There were also three shallow pits (diam. 0.75-1.37m; D 0.18-0,3m) outside the ditch at SE. Burnt mound (WA017-139----) is c. 100m to the NW. (Lalonde 2008; 2010a)

Lalonde, D. J. (2008) R708 Airport road realignment scheme Phase 3. Archaeoligical excavation at Monamintra 2, Co. Waterford. Preliminary report. (Unpublished report DEHLG) Daniel Noonan Archaeological Consultancy.
Lalonde, D.J. (2010a) Monamintra. Bronze Age cremation enclosure. in I. Bennett (Ed.) Excavations 2007: summary accounts of excavations in Ireland, 517-8, No. 1832. Wordwell. Dublin
Scully, O. (2007d) R708 Airport road Realignment, Phase 3, Co. Waterford. Report on archaeological test excavations in advance of construction at three location along the route of the Airport Road Realignment. Unpublished report. DEHLG. Author.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 16 February 2011