Burial

The National Monuments Service's description

Bronze Age burial excavated on a multiperiod site (WM032-122-----) in 2002 by Angela Wallace, on behalf of Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, under licence No. 02E0479. The results of this excavation were summarised as follows; 'This site was exposed during construction of the Bord Gáis Éireann Pipeline to the West project, c. 11km east-north-east of Moate. It was detected by archaeologists monitoring topsoil removal; fragments of burnt and unburnt human and animal bone were noted extending across a wide area. The site is in a low-lying landscape of undulating hills, on the plateau of a low hill rising to the 100ft contour; there was a laneway to the east curving around the site. A ringfort [WM032-068----] is clearly visible 150m to the north. The site extended for a length of c. 70m east–west and across the entire width of the pipeline corridor (15–18m north–south); the remainder extended beyond the pipeline corridor and was not excavated. Most of the thin peaty topsoil had been removed before excavation; it overlay a rocky subsoil and boulder clay with boulder drift left by fluvio-glacial deposition. Several phases of activity were identified. The earliest was represented by the remains of a badly disturbed crouched inhumation associated with sherds of a decorated vase. This vessel was identified by A.L. Brindley as being of the Early Bronze Age vase tradition, between c. 2100 and c. 1900 cal. BC.' (www.excavations.ie 2002:1864).

See attached images courtesy of Angela Wallace, on behalf of Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 28 March 2023