Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on the S bank of a small ENE-WSW stream which is a tributary of the Monroe at the bottom of a gentle NW facing slope. Monitoring of topsoil removal (E004646) during the establishment of a storage area for the construction phase of the M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy motorway in November 2016 identified archaeological features which were fully excavated (E004821) subsequently as Riverview 2. Two small spreads of burnt mound material (dims 2.3m x 1.5m: 1.6m x 1.14m) and a possible hearth in a layer of reddish brown silty clay (dims 0.9m x 0.8m) c. 6m to the W were covered in two layers of silt. About 5m SW of the larger burnt mound spread is an oval trough (dims 1.6m x 0.83m; D 0.6m) with a flat base that was sealed with clay and had traces of a wood lining in a piece of alder that returned a C14 date of 1195-978 cal. BC. The trough had a thin deposit of burnt mound material (T 0.13m) at the base covered by a layer of slump material from the sides and a closing layer of silted burnt mound material (T 0.3m). Charcoal from the closing layer indicates that ash was the dominant wood used, followed by oak and alder. After an interval the trough was re-cut (dims 1.5m x 1.1m; D 0.5m) and it was backfilled with dark grey burnt mound material. A fragment of ash charcoal from this produced a C14 date of 797-543 cal. BC. Only five pieces of flint were recovered and only one of these was worked. (Whitty and Kavanagh 2018)

See the attached plan from Turrell & Kavanagh (2018, fig. 4)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 5 November 2020

References

Whitty, Y. and Kavanagh, L. 2018 Final Excavation Report for Riverview 2, Co. Wexford. M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy PPP Scheme. Licence: E004821 Unpublished report, IAC Archaeology