County: Clare Site name: BALLYCORICK (BGE 3/25/4)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E1014
Author: Graham Hull, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Cremation pit
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 528458m, N 666794m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.747480, -9.059630
This site was examined as part of Bord Gáis Éireann’s Pipeline to the West. It was on a north-west-facing slope above a boggy valley. There were spectacular views from the site to the east and south-east looking across the Fergus estuary.
A single ovoid pit measuring 1.79m (east–west) by 1.12m was excavated. The east and west sides of the pit sloped gradually down to the base, and the north and south sides were nearly vertical. The base of the pit was flattish and was 0.24m deep. Three pit fills were recorded.
The primary fill was a light brown/orange fine silt, 0.15m thick, with occasional small pieces of cremated bone and charcoal. The primary fill was very similar to the natural geology, and it is reasonable to speculate that it accumulated as the result of natural silting. The bone and charcoal could conceivably have been pressed into the primary silt from the stratigraphically later deposits that were very rich in this material. It can be speculated that the pit was cut and left open for a short time before backfilling.
The secondary fill had a maximum thickness of 0.11m and was a brownish-grey/black fine silt with occasional small, angular limestone pieces. It was not present at the eastern end of the pit. Charcoal and abundant cremated bone were relatively evenly distributed throughout the deposit and did not suggest a discrete placement (i.e. cremated remains in a bag). Two artefacts were recovered from the secondary pit fill. These were found within 0.02m of each other, at the extreme western end of the pit at the interface of the primary and secondary fills. They were a small piece of heavily corroded ?iron, which seemed to have a H-shaped cross-section, and a very decayed piece of prehistoric pottery.
The tertiary fill had a diameter of 0.65m and was 0.1m thick and bowl shaped in profile. It was located centrally within the pit and was a fine black silt with a very high charcoal content. Large pieces of cremated bone (thumbnail sized) and occasional small pieces of angular limestone were also present. Some of the stone was heat cracked and fire reddened.
Bulk soil samples were taken from each of the stratified deposits. It is anticipated that these will be sieved for total recovery of cremated bone, charcoal and further small artefacts. Recovered charcoal will be analysed for species identification, and a radiocarbon determination will be attempted on the cremated bone. Absolute dating should refine the pottery sequence.
The pit clearly had a funerary function, and it will be instructive to examine this seemingly isolated burial in relation to the archaeological features excavated in the immediate vicinity. A large fulacht fiadh excavated by Brian Halpin, for example, was 75m to the north-east (see No. 84, Excavations 2002, 02E1186).
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
