2001:543 - BALLYDRIBEEN, Kerry

In the course of monitoring of topsoil-stripping associated with the construction of a housing estate at Ballydribbeen, Killarney, Co. Kerry, four areas of potential archaeology were set aside for investigation. Preliminary excavation showed that Areas 1 and 3 contained natural geological features, and they were subsequently disregarded. Area 2 contained a modern field boundary, which was sectioned and planned. Area 4 contained a penannular ditch with an associated cremation that has been interpreted as a late Bronze Age ring-ditch. The ring-ditch was on a raised plateau in the south-west corner of the development site. A 12m by 12m grid was established and cleaned down by hand. A number of modern features were found within the grid, some of which truncated the archaeology. These consisted of vehicle tracks backfilled with topsoil, modern furrows and a modern pit.

The ring-ditch had an internal diameter of 6.5m, was penannular in shape and broken by an entrance at the south-east. The cut of the ring-ditch generally varied in width between 0.4m and 0.6m and from 0.01m to 0.16m in depth. However, the width of the cut of the ditch on each side of the entrance displayed a pronounced exaggeration to 0.85m. It was filled primarily with C.18, a purplish-brown sterile sandy clay containing little or no charcoal and no finds. This overlay C.26, an orange brown fill very similar to the natural, which was also sterile.

At the southern end of the ring-ditch, near the entrance and cutting C.18, was a small shallow pit containing cremated human remains. The primary fill comprised a brown sandy silt containing charcoal and 887g of cremated bone, including two deliberately carved fragments that may be the tops of bone pins. The cremation has been identified as that of an adult male. No pathological features were noted and all major parts of the human anatomy were present.

Shallow burnt spreads at the northern end of the ring-ditch overlay both C.18 and C.26 and contained small quantities of cremated bone (3.9g), which may represent token burials.

Five stone artefacts were recovered, two of which were surface finds (a sharpening stone and an amorphous worked stone). A flint flake was recovered from C.7, a disturbed possibly modern spread. A whetstone was deliberately deposited in C.26 near the northern entrance of the ditch. A single sherd of decorated Bronze Age pottery was recovered during surface cleaning in the central area of the ring-ditch. Two very small bone objects were recovered from the cremation and may be the broken remains of carved bone pins. A fragment of modern pottery and a clay pipe fragment were also recovered.

Ring-ditches are ritual burial sites of the later Bronze Age period. They are related in both function and form to the more common ring-barrow but are distinguished principally by the absence of both mound and bank. They tend also to be smaller in diameter. The RMP files list 24 ring-barrows and related features in County Kerry. Two of these are listed as henge monuments and may therefore be earlier in date. The majority (22) occur in the middle and northern half of the county. Prior to this excavation, only two were listed in the southern half, some 40km to the south-west of this site. This excavation may therefore yield the first conclusive evidence for late Bronze Age activity in the Killarney area.

3 Canal Place, Tralee, Co. Kerry