County: Wexford Site name: COURTOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0952
Author: Martin E. Byrne,
Site type: Burnt pit
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 719076m, N 658212m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.662004, -6.239689
Limited monitoring of groundworks associated with the Courtown–Riverchapel Main Drainage Scheme commenced in early November 2000. Topsoil-stripping at the wastewater treatment plant site revealed a number of discrete areas of burning, all of which were excavated in December. All but one of the features were quite small and shallow. The remaining feature was a pit, cut into the natural, sandy subsoil. It had two distinct fills, the uppermost of which contained a high percentage of charred wood and fragments of burnt bone. A single sherd of prehistoric pottery was recovered from this layer, and it is possible that the feature represents a disturbed cremation pit. All the features were sampled for the purposes of environmental and dating analysis.
31 Millford, Athgarvan, Co. Kildare
