County: Limerick Site name: RATHBANE SOUTH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0630
Author: Frank Coyne, Aegis Archaeology Ltd.
Site type: Barrow - mound barrow
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 558959m, N 654544m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.640555, -8.606385
This site was first noted during fieldwork for an archaeological impact assessment for the Limerick Southern Ring Road and identified as a possible barrow. It was subsequently test-trenched and found to be of archaeological merit and was then excavated from December 1999 to February 2000.
This site was almost perfectly circular, measuring 14.5m north–south by 14m, and survived to a maximum height of 0.75m. It was already known from local information that this mound was substantially denuded in recent years in an attempt to level the land. However, a sufficient amount of the site survived to indicate two distinct phases of activity. It appears that this site originally took the form of a low mound, created from a layer of stone cobbles and capped with a layer of redeposited clay. This clay was removed in recent years in the course of land improvements, but the cobbled layer survived. A small quantity of cremated bone and a quantity of charcoal were recovered from this surface. Removal of this layer of cobbles exposed a substantial amount of pre-mound activity in the form of several irregular cut features in the naturally occurring boulder clay. The largest of these measured 3.18m north–south by 4.54m, having a depth of almost 2m. A substantial amount of charcoal was recovered from this cut, as was a quantity of animal bone, a piece of flint and portion of a human femur.
A nearby pond, which curved around the site from west to north, measuring 25m in length, may have been the source for the original clay capping of the site. Several post-holes were excavated around the perimeter of the site but did not form any discernible pattern.
A 50m area was stripped of topsoil on either side of this site, but no additional features were uncovered. No enclosing element was uncovered. The available evidence seems to point to this site being the remains of a funerary monument in the barrow tradition.
16 Avondale Court, Corbally, Limerick
