County: Kerry Site name: DROMTEEWAKEEN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: John Sheehan, South-West Kerry Archaeological Survey
Site type: Stone row and Boulder-burial
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 476276m, N 580860m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.966035, -9.800531
In spring 1989 deep-ploughing of cutaway bog at this location resulted in the total destruction of a possible boulder burial and in the disturbance of an associated stone row. A rescue excavation, funded by the O.P.W. and FÁS (Tralee), was undertaken over a four-week period during April/May.
Boulder burial?
Before destruction this appeared as a large boulder (c. 1.6m x 1.4m x 0.6m) which protruded through the surface of the peat about 24m north-east of the stone row. It apparently rested on a number of smaller stones. Prior to the ploughing the boulder was mechanically removed and deeply buried adjacent to its original location. The subsequent ploughing completely scoured off both the peat and the pre-peat horizons, penetrating the stony sub-surface. An area of 18 sq. m, centred on the original location of the possible monument, was excavated. There were no finds and no features survived to identify the nature of the site.
Stone row
The area around this monument was deep-ploughed and one of its three orthostats felled. The remaining two stood in an unploughed area, c.5m x 4m. Three parallel rectangular areas, laid at right angles to the axis of the monument, were excavated (total 31 sq. m). The first of these was centred on the site of the fallen orthostat. It had been badly disturbed but the socket of the orthostat survived. The second area partly incorporated the two remaining orthostats and was the least disturbed of the areas investigated. Here excavation revealed a thin layer of mineral soil overlain by three thin peat horizons with varying charcoal/silt content. These in turn were overlain by brown fibrous peat. The sockets of the two orthostats cut through the mineral soil. Much of the third area had been disturbed by the ploughing, but a portion of the mineral soil survived. In it a small chert scraper was found. A charcoal-enriched layer similar to that noted above also occurred in this area. A series of five stake-holes occurred in it, and it was partly overlain by a low mound of stony upcast.
In conjunction with the excavation, palaeoecological investigations were carried out at the site by Dr M. O'Connell and K. McDonnell, Dept. of Botany, University College Galway.
Caherciveen, Co. Kerry
