County: Louth Site name: CRUMLIN (2A)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0430
Author: Patricia Lynch, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 704403m, N 803981m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.974555, -6.408512
This site was identified during monitoring carried out of the digging of interceptor drainage for the construction of the Northern Motorway/Dunleer– Dundalk Bypass. This area had been topsoil-stripped earlier in the construction phase. Only the grass of the sod was removed, and the remainder of the layer was sealed beneath ‘fill’ of the new road. It was during the deeper excavation of trenches for the interceptor drains that this site was identified.
The site, initially identified as a burnt spread, was located on the west side of a gentle sloping hill and was 60m from a small stream. It measured 12m x 8m and lay below c. 0.4m of topsoil. Two cuttings, north and south, were opened. A modern drain that had been cut through the site from east to west divided these. During the initial cleaning, one fragment of glazed ware (late post-medieval) was recovered.
F1, identified in both cuttings, consisted of a large, black and grey spread, 9m x 8m, containing very black, charcoal-enriched soil with dense inclusions of heat-shattered stones, 20–120mm. To the east and west of the burnt spread lay a spread of grey, ash-like deposit, with moderate inclusions of heat-shattered stones, 15–100mm. This was skirted by the basal layer, a spread that consisted of a mix of natural subsoil, ash and small inclusions of heat-shattered stones, <20mm. This mixing of subsoil and ash possibly occurred naturally. Two flint fragments were recovered. One was the proximal end of a translucent, tertiary flint flake, the other a mottled flint flake fragment. The entire context was not exposed, as it was ‘sealed’ under the road to the south and was outside the take of the road to the north.
On removal of F1, three pits were identified in the northern cutting and two in the southern one. These had all been visible in the section of the modern drain. F2, an oval pit c. 1.78m x 0.4m, was truncated on the southern side and contained two layers. The upper layer was 0.32m deep and varied from 1.35m to 1.78m in width. It consisted of a very charcoal-rich soil with heavy inclusions of heat-shattered stones, 0.5–1.2m. The basal layer, a thin layer of grey ash, was 0.08m deep and 0.42m wide. It may have been a hearth. A shallow depression adjoined this feature to the east.
F3 consisted of the remains of a shallow rectangular pit, 2.14m x 1.5m x 0.17m, truncated on the northern side by a modern drain. The fill consisted of a loose, charcoal-enriched soil with moderate inclusions of heat-shattered stones, <0.2m. These lay directly on the natural subsoil and contained no charcoal-enriched soil between them. This was probably the trough.
F4 was a pit, 1m x 0.08m x 0.43m. The fill consisted of a charcoal-rich soil with moderate inclusions of heat-shattered stones, <0.1m. The pit was truncated on the southern side by the modern drain.
F5 was a subrectangular pit, 1.4m x 1.68m x 0.8m, filled with two layers: a very charcoal-enriched soil with heavy inclusions of heat-shattered stones, all <0.15m, over a layer that showed slight evidence of orange discoloration, possibly as a result of burning. This was probably a hearth.
F6, a small ‘pit’, was truncated on the southern side, but the remains measured 0.67m x 0.18m x 0.85m. It is probable that this was a socket of a stone.
Editor’s note: The summary of this excavation, which was carried out during 1999, arrived too late for publication in the bulletin of that year.
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