County: Limerick Site name: LOUGH GUR
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Rose M. Cleary, Department of Archaeology, University College Cork
Site type: Habitation site
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 564358m, N 640847m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.517831, -8.525148
The site is located on a plateau on the north-west slope of Knockadoon Hill, Lough Gur. The excavation was financed by a grant from the Royal Irish Academy and lasted for a five-week period in the autumn of 1986. The site had been partially excavated in 1985 and some evidence of occupation in the prehistoric period uncovered. This consisted of a number of pits, post and stakeholes, though there was no obvious formal structure. The pottery from the 1985 excavation is Lough Gur Class II ware. The 1986 season extended the excavation. The main features uncovered were:
1) Two inhumed 'burials'. One of these was in a formal cist grave and the skeletal remains consisted solely of skull bones of an infant. The second 'burial' appeared to be a random deposit which lay on a large boulder and consisted of an articulated rib cage of an infant. The bone report shows that these burials were of separate individuals. A third burial of an infant's skull had been recorded in the 1985 season.
2) Stake and posthole complex. This surrounded a pit which contained the infant's skull excavated in the 1985 season.
3) Concentrations of butchered animal bone, Lough Gur Class II pottery and charcoal.
The presence of Lough Gur Class II pottery, an animal bone assemblage of c. 3,500 fragments, stake and post holes and pits is highly indicative of a settlement at this location in the prehistoric period.
