Flat cemetery

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on a slight SW-facing slope on the S-facing slope of Camlin Hill. Centre-line testing (E4067) in advance of the N25 New Ross by-pass identified a flat cemetery (Doyle et al. 2010, 33-4) in a concentrated area (dims. c. 10m NW-SE; c. 7m NE-SW) that had about 30 pits (diam. 0.28-0.35m), some of the pits lying outside the core. The cemetery was completely excavated (E4101) as Camlin 4, when two major phases of activity were identified. The first consisted of three cremation burials, two post-holes and a stake-hole that pre-dated the second phase when a layer of reddish-brown silty sand (dims c. 14m NE-SW; c. 11m NW-SE) was introduced. The third phase was represented by 35 cremation burials and an inverted urn burial that were inserted into or through the introduced layer. A larger oval pit (dims 1.2m x 0.8m; D 0.22m) from this phase contained flecks of charcoal and cremated bone. Five pits, a post-hole and a small spread with charcoal flecks were outside the deliberately-laid layer and might belong to either phase. The cremation burials were in shallow pits (diam. c . 0.3-0.5m; D 0.1-0.4m) filled with silty clays that had charcoal inclusions but many of the pits had no visible cremated bone and many had only token amounts. (Hackett 2010, 8-13; Hackett 2013)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload; 24 September, 2013

References

Hackett, L. 2010 New Ross bypass road scheme, Cappagh, Co. Kilkenney to Knockroe, Co. Wexford. Archaeological Services Contract, Stage (iii) – excavation, post-excavation assessment report for Camlin 4 in the townland of Camlin, Co. Wexford. Unpublished report, Headland Archaeology.

Hackett, L. 2013 Camlin 4. Unenclosed flat cremation cemetery. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2010: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 230, No. 726. Dublin. Wordwell.

Doyle, L., Hackett, L., Hession, J., Marshall, M. Yates, D. and Bolger, T. 2010 N25 New Ross bypass road scheme, Cappagh, Co. Kilkenny to Knockroe, Co.Wexford. Archaeological services contract, Stage (1) – standard test excavation, wetland test excavation, townland boundary survey and architectural/built heritage survey. Test excavation report, under Ministerial Directions Number A52 (E4067) Unpublished report. Headland Archaeology Ltd.