Burnt mound

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated in scrubland on the S bank of and close to the source of a small E-W stream, known as the Monroe. Monitoring of topsoil removal (E004785) during the construction phase of the M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy motorway in October 2016 identified two spreads of burnt stone c. 80m apart. The E feature extended outside the road corridor, and excavation was conducted in November/December 2016 under the same licence. This W spread (dims 9m x 6.4m) was completely excavated and it was the full extent of a kidney-shaped mound (dims 7m E-W; 3m N-S; max. D 0.3m). There was no evidence of a trough directly beneath it, but a small spread (dims 1.4m x 1.2m; max. D 0.2m) of heat-affected sand c. 3m to the W may have been a hearth. A small pit (dims 1.2m x 1m; D 0.25m) c. 25m E of the mound is the only possible trough, from which a sample of ash charcoal produced a C14 date of 2296-2060 cal. BC. No artefacts were recovered. (Turrell and Kavanagh 2018)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 23 October 2020

References

Turrell, S. and L. Kavanagh 2018 Final Excavation Report for Roperstown 1, Co. Wexford. M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy PPP Scheme. Licence No.: E004785. Unpublished report, IAC