County: Wexford Site name: KILMURRY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Mary Cahill and Maeve Sikora, Irish Antiquities Division, National Museum of Ireland
Site type: Cist
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 718045m, N 662001m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.696271, -6.253576
During bulldozing operations on a building site a polygonal cist was exposed in section 0.6m below modern ground level. The cist measured 0.53m by 0.4m internally and would originally have been formed of five main slabs set on edge. These slabs, one of which had been dislodged, were flanked on the outside and above by smaller packing-stones with maximum measurements of 0.23m by 0.15m. The cist was paved with a single polygonal floor slab which measured 0.43m by 0.44m. It is possible that the capstone of the cist was removed by the bulldozer. A vase urn filled with cremated bone had been placed mouth upwards in the cist. No other artefacts were found either in the vessel or in the cist fill. The pit dug to receive the cist was mostly destroyed but measured 0.88m across.
Two charcoal-rich deposits (measuring approximately 0.2m by 0.1m) were also excavated on the east and west sides of the cist, and a second vessel was noticed in the section 0.34m east of the cist, at a higher level. This vessel measured 0.22m across and appeared to have been sliced vertically by the bulldozer. It had been severely damaged and could only be recovered in sherds.
This was a rescue excavation conducted by the National Museum of Ireland under Section 16, National Monuments Amendment Act (1954). The finds have been registered as follows: vase urn 2001:106; cremated bone 2001:107; second vessel 2001:108.
Kildare Street, Dublin 2
